PART 1  2

   Over the past decade a plethora of information about left and right brain hemispheric functioning has made its way into the mainstream. This article describes information about the basic processing functions of the right hemisphere of the brain because a nonverbal learning disability is a function of impaired right brain functioning.

    The right brain is critical in identifying and understanding the expression of our emotions and the processing of various kinds of visual-spatial input. An impairment of the right hemisphere has significant implications for social functioning. These two aspects of brain functioning (understanding social cues and emotions) have to work together in order for a person to process not only visual information but to interpret its meaning related to emotions.

    An example of this is that a child may be able to see a person’s facial features and recognize them as eyes, nose, mouth etc., but is not able to interpret the emotional implications of what they see as anger, joy or sadness. The emotional interpretation is a different kind of understanding than just the seeing features of the face and one that is vital to being able to function socially.

    Because the majority of us do not have to cognitively think about what a person is conveying in their facial expression, we take this ability for granted. This ability for interpretation goes even further when one has to see a frown and determine whether it is a signal for confusion or for disapproval. Knowing what that frown means becomes a crucial piece of the communication chain and triggers a need for us to ask for clarification or to ignore it and see what happens and then deal with it.

    The ability for us, as human beings, to live together in harmony relies on our being able to read complex social information such as the meaning of a frown effectively and making a functional choice as to how we are going to respond or react to the nonverbal message being sent. When this ability is impaired, there are serious consequences for communication and relationships.

    Facial expressions are not the only nonverbal mechanism for relaying nonverbal information. Body gestures and the tone of voice (sometimes called prosody) used with the verbal information also carries a powerful amount of information which may in fact be totally contrary to the words used in the communication. Research, when comparing left and right brain functioning, typically finds that the right brain actually specializes in these types of interpretations.   More >>

	Dysgraphia
	Dyslexia
	Dyscalculia