Abstract

`Imagine getting lost in your own home, forgetting where the bathroom is at work, or being unable to operate a simple door knob. These are just some of the myriad challenges faced by individuals with a Nonverbal Learning Disability, or NLD…In Helping Children With Non-Verbal Learning Disabilities to Flourish, Marilyn Martin gives an overview of NLD and strategies for teaching individuals with this disability. Using examples of her struggles to help her daughter, who has NLD, as well as current research, she has written a book helpful for both parents and professionals. In addition to her experiences with her daughter, Martin is a Learning Specialist with more than fifteen years of experience working with students who have dyslexia, NLD, and other learning disorders… This book is a good introduction to NLD and interventions for treating it… As it gains recognition as a distinct learning disorder, interventions and informative books, like this one, will open doors, literally and figuratively, for families and individuals touched by NLD.'

- Foreword, Autumn 2007

`Author Marilyn Martin's daughter Sara was diagnosed with Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD). Marilyn offers a comprehensive developmental profile of children with NLD and explores the controversies surrounding the condition so parents and professionals can identify learners with NLD and ensure they receive early intervention. Offering practical advice on NLD at home and at school, the book describes step by step interventions for improving a range of skills from penmanship to social acumen.'

-Autism Us, 2007

`Marilyn Martin's book Helping Children with Nonverbal Learning Disorder to Flourish is an exciting and essential new addition to the literature. … Martin shines in her ability to match interventions to a broad range of problems and examples abound in every chapter. Clear, concise, and detailed explanations are given so that the interventions can be applied skillfully. … Each intervention is presented in a terrifically useful and usable format that includes the problem, strengths available, proposed solution, how the solution can be generalized, the goal of the intervention, and a very up-to-date and helpful listing of relevant resources.'

- from the Foreword by Michele Berg, Director, Center for Learning Disorders, Family Service and Guidance

When you continuously cannot find the bathroom in your best friend's house, or you cannot print the letter `t' when all your friends are writing volumes, you notice, and you ask questions. So it was for Marilyn Martin's daughter, Sara, who was diagnosed with Nonverbal Learning Disability (NLD).

This book skilfully combines a comprehensive guide to NLD with the inspiring story of how Sara transformed herself from that young girl whose existence seemed darkened by learning difficulties into the capable young woman she is today.

In Helping Children with Nonverbal Learning Disabilities to Flourish, Marilyn Martin presents a comprehensive developmental profile of children with NLD. She explores the controversies surrounding the disorder so parents and professionals can identify learners with NLD and insure they receive early intervention. Offering practical advice on NLD at home and at school, she describes step-by-step interventions for improving a range of skills from penmanship to social acumen.

This book is essential reading for parents and professionals working with children with NLD.

I like the book and it is packed with relevant and useful understandings that can be taken into an educational psychologist's practice when working with schools.
Debate

This is also a positive, practical and essentially hopeful book. I found the chapter on practical approaches to supporting learning to be useful. Each learning challenge is described in terms of 'problem, strengths,solutions,generalisation, goal and resources'. I imagine that many parents will find the chapter on 'the importance of the family' a real tonic. It is realistic about the challenges families face, but also provides some heartening, straightforward advice.

I felt quite inspired and emotional while reading this book. It is hopeful and deep. It is hopeful and deep. It remined me of the lasting effects of schooling, and particularly how a teacher's or therapist's sensiitivity and openess to new ideas can be valuable as in-depth knowledge. Parents or professionals living or working with a child with coordination difficulties will benifit from reading and re-reading this inspirational bppk. It will also be valuable for physiotherapist, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists. This will be a good read for student teachers, and may influence their attitudes, as well as providing practical advice that will benefit many children with learning challenges. A very good book.

Special Children
Marilyn Martin has been a Learning Specialist in private practice since 1991 and has developed and applied successful interventions for students of all ages with dyslexia, language processing disorders, NLD and other learning difficulties. She also lectures on learning disorders and interventions to both educators and parents. Marilyn lives with her husband in Maplewood, New Jersey.