Imagery deficits in nonverbal learning disabilities

This study reports the observations gathered from 11 children referred to c onsulting services because of learning difficulties at school and diagnosed with nonverbal learning disabilities (NVLD). These children had an average verbal Ia but a WISC-R performance IQ lower than the verbal IQ by at least 15 points and experienced difficulties especially in mathematics and drawi ng. The children completed a battery of four tasks requiring visuospatial w orking memory and visual imagery: a memory task composed of pictures and th eir positions (Pictures task), a task that required them to memorize the po sitions filled in a matrix (Passive Matrix task), a task that required them to imagine a pathway along a matrix (Active Matrix task) and a task that r equired them to learn groups made up of three words, using a visual interac tive imagery strategy (TV task). In comparison to a control group of 49 chi ldren, children with NVLD scored lower in all the tasks, showing deficits i n the use of visuospatial working memory and visual imagery. By contrasting subgroups of children of different ages in the control group, ii was possi ble to show that some tasks did not show a clear developmental trend. Thus the deficits shown by the children with NVLD cannot simply be attributed to a developmental delay of these children, but seem to reflect a more severe disability.