TLC+-+NDFL

[|__Faces of Learning__]

Neurodevelopmental Framework for Learning (NDFL)

What is the Neurodevelopmental Framework for Learning (NDFL)? The term NDFL refers to a conceptual framework and vocabulary for organizing the cognitive functions involved in learning into eight constructs or systems. Within the framework, academic skills are broken down into their component sub-skills, through a process of task analysis. Within the NDFL, each of these sub-skills can be mapped onto one of the following 8 neurodevelopmental constructs or systems:


 * higher order cognition
 * attention control systems (mental energy, processing, and production)
 * language (receptive and expressive)
 * memory (short-term, active working, and long-term)
 * spatial ordering
 * temporal-sequential
 * social cognition
 * neuromotor functions

For example reading includes reading decoding and reading comprehension. Reading decoding can be broken down further to its component sub-skills, (e.g., breaking words into sounds and linking sounds and letters). The process of breaking words into sounds can be mapped onto a specific part of receptive language, phonological processing; while linking sounds and letters requires paired associate memory, an aspect of long-term memory.

__Differential Diagnosis__ Traditionally learning challenges are “diagnosed” in nonspecific terms based on the academic domain that is problematic (e.g., reading disorder) and intervention decisions generally based on preference, experience, or availability at the school. The decision process regarding diagnosis and treatment of learning problems does not routinely involve a formal process for considering all of the possible underlying causes and identifying the most likely cause before making decisions about interventions, accommodations, and strategies.

If medical problems were approached the way learning problems are, you might go to your physicians complaining of a cough, and be told that you have “cough disorder” and be given a cough suppressant. However, we know that the treatment of cough varies depending on the cause; did you a swallow a chicken bone or do you have a bad cold. In other words, you expect your physician to look beyond your symptoms and identify and address its underlying cause. This is because physicians are trained to consider all of the possible causes of a symptom, systematically consider all of the possibilities, until they arrive at the most likely cause before making treatment decisions. This process is referred to as “differential diagnosis”.

Now that it is known that academic skills like reading involve multiple sub-skills and that dysfunctions in any of them can lead to reading problems, it is difficult to justify continued reliance on nonspecific diagnostic labels. The NDFL provides educators with tools to move beyond nonspecific labels, pinpoint specific breakdowns responsible for academic difficulties, and implement strategies targeting or bypassing the specific area of breakdown. In other words, the NDFL allows educators to pinpoint the root cause of academic difficulties and identify specific solutions.

How does the NDFL contribute to the TCM? The NDFL is a critical component of both culture and practice within the TCM because it forms the basis of student-centered learning, proficiency-based student progress, personalization through negotiated learning plans, and learner support based on learning profiles. This approach builds on the emerging neuroscience linking cognitive development with academic performance. Increasingly it has become evident that there is a wide range of variation in normal development. Within any classroom there are diverse learners with different needs. The NDFL provides a shared conceptual framework and vocabulary for understanding each students learning needs in terms of a unique profile of neurodevelopmental strengths and challenges.

Using the NDFL students emerge with a clear understanding of their strengths and their challenges and support in developing individualized plans to meet their needs as lifelong learners. Within the NDFL framework, learning plans typically include strategies to bypass challenges, strengthen strengths and affinities, and ameliorate areas of weakness. Quite often, students do not realize that they have any strengths until they unusual to learn that some cases, the profile may be the first time they have been presented with data that explains that they have strengths. Explicitly identifying strengths not only provides a boost to self-esteem but it represents a genuine alternative to traditional deficit-based instructional models. Rather than pulling students away from the things that they love or do well to focus on “fixing the deficit”, emphasis is placed on strengthening areas of strength, engaging areas of interest in the learning process, and leverages strengths to bypass challenges.

Students, teachers, and parents come to understand that “no one has a perfect brain”. Rather, we all have our own unique mix of strengths and challenges. The process of elucidating each student’s profile is empowering and actionable because:


 * Even students with significant challenges learn that they also have many strengths. In fact, most often, they have many more strengths than challenges..
 * They also learn that the source of their difficulties can be localized to a few specific challenges
 * They then can access and implement strategies based on their profile, to include:
 * Opportunities to strengthen their strengths
 * Strategies that leverage their strengths and enable them to bypass their challenges
 * Specific interventions to address weak functions and gaps in skill

Further, the work of Carol Dweck has highlighted the importance of embedding a “growth mindset” in optimizing emotional well-being and long-term success. By engaging each student in the process of deeply understanding his or her emerging learning profile, it is possible to build metacognition, support the development of a growth mindset, destigmatize and normalize cognitive diversity, and empower students to make choices to support their own development. As students gain a clear understanding of their strengths and their shortcomings, and will be taught to develop an individualized plan to support their needs as life-long learners that will include strategies to bypass areas of weakness, engage strengths and affinities, and ameliorate areas of weakness.

The [|__Faces of Learning__] includes an array of resources that support the NDFL. The [|__Learner Sketch Tool__] can be used to support the NDFL. Students can explore their own profile of strengths and challenges with the framework; the profile can be used to anchor conversations between teachers and students and build a shared understanding of a student’s strengths and challenges.







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