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Statistics

According to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics, 11.4% of postsecondary students reported a learning disability or attentional disorder in 1999-2000. As Susan A. Vogel suggests, these numbers are on the increase and are not reflective of the generak U.S. adult population, where the numbers may actually be higher.

Facts

According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, "A learning disability (LD) is a neurological disorder that affects the brain's ability to receive, process, store and respond to information. The term learning disability is used to describe the seeming unexplained difficulty a person of at least average intelligence has in acquiring basic academic skills. These skills are essential for success at school and work, and for coping with life in general. LD is not a single disorder. It is a term that refers to a group of disorders" ("LD at a Glance" Fact Sheet).

The following are some facts about learning disabilities.

• Difficulties with basic reading and language skills are the most common learning disabilities. As many as 80% of students with learning disabilities have reading problems.
• Learning disabilities often run in families.
• Learning disabilities should not be confused with other disabilities such as mental retardation, autism, deafness, blindness, and behavioral disorders.
• Attention disorders, such as Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and learning disabilities often occur at the same time, but the two disorders are not the same.

Students with learning disabilities have normal or better intelligence, but they also have severe "information-processing deficits" that make them perform significantly worse in one or more academic areas (reading, writing, math) than might be expected, given their intelligence and performance in other academic areas. Though all learning disabilities are different, students with learning disabilities report some common problems, including slow and inefficient reading; slow essay-writing, with problems in organization and the mechanics of writing; and frequent errors in math calculation.

Learning disabilities can take a variety of specific forms, including the following.

• Auditory and Visual Processing Disabilities are sensory disabilities in which a person has difficulty understanding language, such as remembering words or sounds, despite normal hearing and vision.
• Dyslexia is a language-based disability in which a person has trouble understanding words, sentences, or paragraphs.
• Dysgraphia is a writing disability in which a person finds it hard to form letters or write within a defined space.
• Dyscalculia is a mathematical disability in which a person has a difficult time solving arithmetic problems and grasping math concepts.

Common classroom behaviors

A student with a learning disability may exhibit several or many of the following behaviors in your classroom:

• Spells incorrectly, frequently spells the same word differently in a single piece of writing
• Demonstrates marked difficulty in reading and writing, especially in contrast to how the student orally presents himself
• Has trouble listening to a lecture and taking notes at the same time
• Has trouble understanding or following directions; may need to have information repeated
• Has difficulty with open-ended questions on tests
• Demonstrates weak memory skills
• Does not adapt skills easily from one setting to another
• Shows poor grasp of abstract concepts
• Pays too little attention to details or focuses on them too heavily
• Misreads information
• Omits or adds words, particularly when reading aloud
• Confuses similar letters such as b and d or p and q; confuses the order of letters in words
• Confuses similar numbers such as 3 and 8, or 6 and 9, or changes the sequence of numbers such as 14 and 41
• Has problems retaining math facts and keeping procedures in the proper order
• Has difficulty with the language used in word problems
• Demonstrates difficulty with math computation
• Misinterprets the subtleties in language, tone of voice, or social situations
• Shows delayed processing speed

Teaching guidelines

The following suggestions may be helpful in working with students who have learning disabilities, and also those who have other cognitive disorders.

1. All students, not just those with learning disabilities and attentional disorders, benefit when course materials are presented according to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. These principles acknowlege different learning styles and attempt to present information clearly, concisely and in as many different ways as possible.

2. Students with learning disabilities and attentional disorders are often eligible for extended time on exams, which can be administered by the faculty member or DSS. Students may also take longer to complete assignments and thus should be given as much advance notice as possible regarding assignments ans due dates.

3. Students may be eligible for notetaking services, in which case DSS requests the assistance of the faculty member in helping students secure a fellow classmate to serve as a notetaker.

4. Some students with learning disabilities and attentional disorders are eligible for Books on Tape and/or electronic texts. The securing and/or preparing of such materials by DSS takes time. Making the titles and publishing information of your required and recommended texts available to students as soon as possible willhelp facilitate this process.

5. Some students with learning disabilities and attentional disorders may reflect their knowledge of course contents better through some testing formats than others. For example, a student's performance on written exams seem far inferior to his or her spoken expression in class discussion. If you suspect this to be the case, the student might benefit from discussing alternative forms of evaluation with the student and/or DSS.

6. Encourage students to seek clarification and additional assistance whenever necessary or appropriate.

 

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