SYNDROME OF NONVERBAL LEARNING-DISABILITIES - PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ASSETSAND DEFICITS

It is usually observed that, following an initial delay in speech acqu isition, children with the syndrome of nonverbal learning disabilities (NLD) go on to exhibit well-developed speech and language skills. The re is, however, comparatively little appreciation of the full extent o f their deficits in linguistic skills. The NLD syndrome is so named be cause all of its clinical presentations are thought to arise from defi cits that are primarily nonverbal in nature. The psycholinguistic dime nsions of NLD that constitute integral features of its developmental p icture are thought to arise because of the primary, secondary, and ter tiary assets and deficits outlined in a developmental model that we ha ve developed (Rourke, 1989, 1995a). It is clear that a superficial con sideration of the speech and language of children with NLD would be mi sleading; there is a great deal to be understood through close examina tion of the qualitative aspects of their linguistic skills. Our discus sion of the psycholinguistic dimensions of NLD is presented within the context of a framework developed by Bloom (1988) who has described la nguage as consisting of the three basic dimensions of form, content, a nd use.