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College Students
with Learning Disabilities
A Student's Perspective
by Carol
Wren and Laura Segal
Part I
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What is it
like to be a college student with a learning disability?
This booklet tries to answer
that
question, and is organized around the personal story of a
college student, Laura
Segal,
class of '85. Laura's story appears on the left side of each
two-page section of this
booklet.
General information related to her experience follows on the
right side.
Through
her own description of what learning was like for her in
high school and college,
we begin
to understand what it means to have a learning disability.
It means that incoming
or
outgoing information often becomes fuzzy or scrambled as it
is processed by the brain,
making
learning difficult. Of course, all of us have difficulties
now and then processing
information. For example, there are days when concentrating
and attending seem nearly
impossible. Or we may have occasional difficulty retrieving
a specific word, even though
it is "on
the tip of our tongue." In learning disabled individuals,
however, these and other
processing
problems are so pronounced that they become a disabling
handicap, one which significantly interferes with academic
or social development.
It is
only recently that people have begun to understand the
frustrating and persistent nature of learning disabilities
in college students. Previously, highly intelligent students
with learning disabilities who enrolled in college tended to
drop out because of a lack of
understanding and assistance. This booklet has been written
to help both faculty and staff
involved
in such programs as well as parents and students better
understand the nature of learning disabilities at the
college level. A list of additional resources is available
at the end of the booklet.
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"Looking back on my high school years, I can see
that my
behavior and characteristics were a direct result of a still
undiagnosed specific learning disability. My family and friends
occasionally questioned why I valued my school
work so highly that doing homework
always took priority
over relaxing and enjoying a balanced social life. I
claimed that I wanted to suck out each possible droplet of
knowledge because learning was fulfilling unto itself; but I
became a serious student very early because, due to my
unidentified impairment, learning was demanding,
requiring
intense concentration and hard work on my
part.
"Although at the time I was unaware of the fact, many of
my study techniques were
very unusual. For example, I made tapes in order to memorize
French vocabulary
words. Now I understand that I was unconsciously compensating
for my weaker visual mode by using my strong
auditory
memory.
"Many unanswered questions bobbed up and down in
my head daily. Why was I a slow reader and weak writer yet
extremely competent at math and science? Although I tried to
rationalize that we all have strengths and
weaknesses, I still felt frustrated constantly over these
discrepancies. Why was I different from my
bibliophile friends? I hated
reading books and never read the
newspaper.
"Finally, I was an overachiever, caught in a
workaholic
cycle due to low self-esteem. Operating under great stress
and anxiety, I felt I had to earn good grades to prove my
self-worth. At last, I realized that my nervous
system was
alerting me to a specific problem causing my difficulties;
my palms sweat and I anxiously bit my nails as I forced
myself to read my book.
"Although I did well in high school, college was
considerably
different, since the demands on reading and writing
were so much greater."
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COMMON PROBLEMS OF LEARNING DISABLED
COLLEGE STUDENTS
As Laura's story illustrates, many times
students do not recognize that they have learning
disabilities. They may have been called lazy, or been afraid
that they were just "dumb." Or
they may have lived with considerable frustration and
anxiety through grade school and
high school, not understanding why some
things were so very difficult, when others were
so easy.
Students with learning disabilities usually
have areas of difficulty that are in marked contrast
to other areas where they excel. Some may learn well through
lectures, but have extreme difficulty reading. Others may
express themselves very well orally, but spell or write very
poorly. Each person possesses a unique combination of
strengths and
weaknesses. The deficits all have a negative impact on
learning and can interfere in a variety of ways. For
example, a visual perceptual deficit may interfere directly
with reading, and
indirectly with the development of other skills such as
writing. LD students, although
they have average or above average intelligence, may
experience problems in one or more of the following
areas: reading, spelling, written expression, math, oral
language, study skills, or social skills. Often, learning
disabilities are inconsistent, causing problems
one day,
but not the next. They may cause problems in only one
specific area, or they may surface in many areas.
The causes of learning disabilities are still
not clearly understood, but they are presumed
to be the result of
neurophysiological dysfunction. Nevertheless, it is
important to note
that once
students begin receiving appropriate services, they then
begin learning strategies to compensate for or overcome
many of these difficulties.
It is also important to understand what
learning disabilities are not. They are not forms of
mental retardation or
emotional disorder, and they are not the result of cultural
or ethnic differences. Students who are underprepared, or
come from a different language background,
may have some of the same problems with spoken or written
language, but these problems are not the result of a
processing deficit and thus such students are not learning
disabled.
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"In
registering for classes each quarter, I dodged courses with an
extensive reading load because I knew that I would drown in
them. Since I read at a snail's pace and printed matter was too
scrambled and confusing to me, I became caught in a cycle of
psyching myself out; I developed a negative attitude, believing
that I could never understand all my assigned reading before the
course ended.
"As I read, each point seemed as important as every other
one since I was unfamiliar with the concept of a main idea in a
paragraph or chapter. As a result, I became bogged down in
details. Textbook reading overwhelmed me since my mind couldn't
possibly retain information if I tried to absorb it all at once
placing equal weight on each sentence.
"When I went to my professors for help because I felt I
couldn't write a paper, they just told me to relax and not to
worry because I had good ideas judging from class discussions in
which I participated. They had faith in me and urged me to 'just
write down' my ideas. To me, however, this was an insurmountable
task. Feeling threatened and lacking weapons for battle, I
developed a defeatist attitude and my goal became simply turning
in something, anything, on the due date.
"Math, one of my strengths, came easily to me. I was also
very coordinated at folk dancing. To learn a new dance, I needed
only to feel the music flow through my body. It seemed to send
instructions to my feet and arms in a subconscious code. The
free and seemingly automatic manner in which I learned in some
areas, such as math and dancing, contrasted with the tremendous,
conscious effort and amount of time that it took me to succeed
in other subjects.
"Because of my visual perceptual problems, my notes were
extraordinarily messy and incomplete. I had trouble studying
effectively from them. At the end of a day of classes, a zillion
loose notes poured out of my folders and knapsack. When I sat
down to study, feeling out of control and disorganized, in a
panicked, confused state, I spent a great deal of energy just
trying to prepare to study. I gathered my sloppily written notes
and flipped through them, trying to decode my own writing."
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CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING DISABLED
COLLEGE STUDENTS
Typical characteristics of LD students are
listed below. Of course no student has all of these
problems.
Reading
Confusion of similar words, difficulty using
phonics, problems reading multisyllable words.
Slow reading rate and/or difficulty adjusting
speed to the nature of the reading task.
Difficulty with comprehension and retention
of material that is read, but not with
material presented orally.
Writing
Difficulty with sentence structure, poor
grammar, omitted words.
Frequent spelling errors, inconsistent
spelling, letter reversals.
Difficulty copying from board or overhead.
Poorly formed letters, difficulty with
spacing, capitals, and punctuation.
Oral Language
Difficulty attending to spoken language,
inconsistent concentration.
Difficulty expressing ideas orally which the
student seems to understand.
Problems describing events or stories in
proper sequence.
Residual problems with grammar, difficulty
with inflectional or derivational endings.
Math
Difficulty memorizing basic facts.
Confusion or reversal of numbers, number
sequence, or operational symbols.
Difficulty copying problems, aligning
columns.
Difficulty reading or comprehending word
problems.
Problems with reasoning and abstract
concepts.
Study Skills
Poor organization and time management.
Difficulty following directions.
Poor organization of notes and other written
materials.
Need more time to complete assignments.
Social Skills
Difficulty
"reading" facial expressions, body language.
Problems
interpreting subtle messages such as sarcasm.
Confusion in spatial orientation,
getting lost easily, difficulty following directions.
Disorientation in time, difficulty telling time.
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"About the time my
frustration had become intolerable, someone suggested getting a
diagnostic evaluation. I decided to give it a try. Usually
academic tests failed to reflect my true intelligence, so I
tended to dread taking them. Somehow, I felt differently about
the diagnostic tests. I felt that some of them would let me
shine in the areas where I have unusual ability. On the other
hand, others would set off a red alert signal identifying my
difficulty so I could better compensate for it; I felt I would
know more about the way my brain functions.
"What was taking
the tests like? Initially, a lot of the perceptual tests were
fun; I enjoyed solving the myriad of nonverbal puzzles. But
once, while taking a visual-motor test which required copying
geometric designs, I recalled having seen it on a TV commercial
for public awareness of learning disabilities. In disbelief, I
asked myself, 'Am I actually taking these types of tests?'
Another time, because of the assumptions behind a test on study
habits and teacher attitudes, I felt degraded. At the time I
took it, I felt it was a complete waste of time, although in the
long run, the results I received during the evaluation have
proved to be very beneficial to me.
"On another occasion, I refused to take the impromptu
essay exam, claiming I couldn't write. My attitude toward this
test certainly identified an area needing attention.
"After many long hours, answering question after question
became draining, and finishing the many testing sessions was a
temporary relief. Even though I was anxious to obtain my scores,
I was scared to discover in what intelligence range I fell. To
be defined objectively by some standard measures would leave
little room for me to fantasize about my IQ."
Next (Part II) >>
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