Parent Strategies
Help with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities

Strategies to Help a Child with NLD Succeed
By Marcia Rubinstien, MA, CEP
Educational Consultant
Founder, NLDA (Nonverbal Learning Disorders Assoc.)

• Help train educators and school staff to recognize the academic and social behaviors related to NLD: these are children who ask a lot of questions, have difficulty with transitions, get lost in the hallway, or fail to recognize the face of someone they see every day.

• Keep a set of schoolbooks at home.

• Shorten homework assignments — it’s critical to give enough homework, focusing on mastery of concepts, to reinforce learning without causing overload.

• Prepare and preload by giving new material to an NLD student at least one week in advance.

• Pair each child with a classroom homework buddy.

• Respect children when they say, “I can’t.” Children with NLD rarely lie. If they tell a teacher they cannot do something, they are usually not being oppositional.

For more of Marcia Rubinstien’s “14 Ways to Help a Child with NLD Succeed” and other articles on NLD, join Join Smart Kids! and read the SKLD New Member Information Kit