1. Briefing and Cases on Math Disabilities and NLD
Dr. Mazher
Andre Aina

2. Briefing and Cases on Math Disabilities
The many students in our school systems have what is called mathematic disability also known
as MD which is a particular type of LD a learning disability. The three main kinds of MD: procedural,
semantic, and visuospatial.
In the procedural, students with MD have a difficulty in counting with their fingers they tend to
over count or under count. Researchers believe that the problem lies in problems with their working
memory directly causing miscounting. This means that verbal information is poorly represented in the long
term memory bank hindering a person's ability to keep track of numbers. For the semantic memory
subtype, students with MD tend to have difficulty in making the switch from fingers to mental
computations. Researchers believe that these students have limitations in the long term memory
involving the storage of verbal information, numbers being a type of information. This is due to the poor
support the students get from the long short term memory storage.
The third type of MD is called visual spatial which include student who have a difficulty in math
subjects that require advanced visual skills such as estimating, solving geometry problems, and solving
complex word problems. In relation to complex word problems, intentional and planning resources tend to
be out of order, causing dysfunction in the executive functions (a sign and main cause of ADHD). In
addition, many students with MD also have reading disabilities.
At least one-third of all students with LD have ADHD. Current work and research in this area
concludes that both impulsiveness and attention are associated with a superstructure called executive
functions. Executive functions are made up of two distinct domains one regulates cognitive functions such
as attending to a lesson, incomprehension during reading, and organized note taking used to write a
organized material such as a research paper. A person would normally use his or her working memory to
coordinate and relate incoming information with those stored in his long term memory.
Another sub domain is associated with emotional self-regulation this domain influences behaviors
such as dealing with a personal crisis such as a divorce, the death of a loved one, or a child saying no to

3. peer pressure. An example of self-regulation in an academic situation is assisting someone in a particular
crisis in relation to academics would be a child persisting with a difficult assignment to complete it.
There other implications deficits in the executive functioning such as students with ADHD show
slowing of motoric reactions, which can manifest in slow handwriting speed. These students also have
difficulty in organizing information which tends to result in challenges for to teach these students. It is
normally better to teach with clusters of information into super insubordinate categories. This is because
students with LD and ADHD may not be as aware as others about how to sort their learned information.
And without the ability to spontaneously organize information into meaningful categories, many students
with ADHD may feel overwhelmed just trying to learn. ADHD is important in understanding LD because at
least one third of all students with LD also are identified with having ADHD so they must deal with many
of the same deficits associated with both disabilities.
Disabilities are categorized in nonverbal learning disabilities also known as NLD there are cases
that display the signs of typical NLD syndrome. The first student to be discussed is a young girl named
Mary who was afflicted with seizure disorder.
She was referred to assessment because of academic difficulty, particularly producing on tests
where speed and adaptability of response were required. She also displayed social emotional deviations.
Her first battery of tests was at the age of 9, which exhibited several issues regarding her performance in
many situations. Her tactile perception was lacking in four levels of performance were moderately to
severely impaired with both hands. She had trouble selecting particular fingers and distinguishing fingers
on her hands. She received low scores on her visual spatial organizational abilities; she exhibited
considerable difficulty with cursive script and her drawing of a complex “key” which lacked visual spatial
detail for her age. She also had difficulty dealing with cause and effect relationships.
It was very evident that she had difficulties dealing with humor and other forms of non-direct
communication. She was unable to adapt to new, complex situations and heavily relied on previously
learned rote behavior. Mary exhibited clear evidence of her difficulties in applying problem solving
strategies to in an adaptive fashion. Another major issue for her was social judgment, social interaction
and social emotional functioning. Mary definitely displayed a deficiency in social relations with people

4. outside of her immediate family she seems to be anxious, withdraw socially, depressed, and display
inappropriate interpersonal behavior.
Two years later Mary engaged in another battery of tests testing the same categories there was
no evidence of advancement on arithmetic subtest over the two year span. Her finger agnosia seemed to
worsen and was unable to make any progress in her tactile performance test. A particular test was given
called the V abs which was a test for domains such as communication daily living socialization and motor
skills including the adaptive behavior composite. In totality NLD syndrome fits Mary's psychological
abilities and deficits fits very well. Although she could not perform many of the academic staff at her age
or grade level, she had well-developed automatic verbal skills; to be specific her PPVT mental age of 10
years at her first testing rose 15 years and 3 months in the second testing even though she was 9 years
old in the first test and 11 & 1/2 years old in the second test. But, this is also very typical for students with
NLD they present very advanced sometimes above age level verbal skills because that's how they
particularly learn, thru verbal interaction.
Another case example is of a student 13 years old by the name of Kathy she was admitted to the
hospital following a severe head injury that she sustained while riding a motorcycle she to develop
symptoms of an NLD syndrome. She exhibited many behaviors during her first initial observation that
commonly manifest in NLD syndrome. From time to time Kathy she is disoriented and confused but, the
examiners were usually able to redirect her attention. It was frequently necessary to repeat instructions
and she seemed to interpret verbal statements as very concrete or literal. She was also extremely
talkative and exhibited somewhat off topic, rambling conversation.
Kathy was brought in for a second test, 6 months after the first test to monitor if there had been
any changes in Kathy's adaptive ability. In her second assessment she was considerably more agitated
than she was in the first assessment and seemed extremely distractible and very impulsive. On many
occasions she became easily frustrated when unable to complete a task properly.
Many of her neuropsychological test results relate directly to the features of NLD syndrome.
Simple tactile perceptual deficiencies were very evident and very predictable due to the cerebral lesions
from her accident. Kathy was also unable to perform at anything approaching normal levels with her left
hand on any of the motor and psychomotor test. It was very evident that Kathy experienced very

5. significant issues with nonverbal concepts such as strategy generation and hypothesis testing as
exemplified by her impaired level of performance on this particular category test.
It was abundantly clear by the time of the second examination that she had developed very
serious levels of social emotional disturbances. This was obvious in her “daily life test” she previously was
very popular with her age mates and classmates but by the time of the second testing she has been
shunned by almost all of them. This may not be a surprising due to her frequent displays of inappropriate
behavior, repetitive, virtually content-free utterances, and her failure to communicate effectively order to
appreciate communication from others.
The previous two cases illustrate the features of NLD syndrome and students with well
documented brain diseases. The next case discussed was a young girl named Jane which is an example
of a developmental presentation of NLD syndrome. She was said to have been experiencing problems
and communicating through writing, and her mechanical arithmetic skills were weak. She also struggled
with fine and gross motor abilities as they were poorly developed for her age. At the time of her initial
assessment she was 9 years old and enrolled in a regular great for classroom.
There are many behavioral observations done during the examination which place her particular
developmental disability. She often required guidance and ample encouragement to exert their best
efforts. She required direct instruction, assistance, and practice in order to complete my work and visual
spatial task as required. She was rather talkative however her conversations were rather inappropriate
and off-topic. During her second examination at the age of 11 there was some evidence of slight
distractibility carelessness and on some occasions he seemed to give up on tasks that she was perceived
as too difficult another notable feature of her behavior in the second examination was a rather sing-song
quality to her voice. It was quite clear that Jane also exhibits major psychological academic and social
emotional features of NLD syndrome.