previous chapter | next chapter | table of contents
Reasonable Accommodations: A Faculty Guide to Teaching College Students With Disabilities
Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder
Auditory processing
Reading
Memory
Note taking
Participation
Specialized limitations
The science laboratory
Behavior
Evaluation
A learning disability (LD) is any of a diverse group of conditions of presumed neurological origin, that cause significant difficulties in perception, either auditory, visual and/or spatial. Included are disorders that impair such functions as reading (dyslexia), writing (dysgraphia), and mathematical calculation (dyscalculia). Each category exhibits a wide variation of behavioral patterns.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a medical term that is not synonymous with learning disabilities. Students with ADHD may or may not have specific accompanying learning disabilities. The effects of ADHD include trouble with attention, organization, and impulse control.
While these manifestations can be problematic for the individual, both in and out of school, they do not necessarily interfere with academic success. On the other hand, ADHD may be a major aspect of some students' learning disabilities.
A learning disability may exist in the presence of average to superior intelligence and adequate sensory and motor systems, as evidenced by the extraordinary achievements of people with LD. But the condition has only recently been identified and it still often goes undiagnosed. For this reason LD is often misapprehended by those with the condition as well as others. This is definitely a misconception.
In fact, the marked discrepancy between intellectual capacity and achievement is what characterizes a learning disability. At the colleges, the LD diagnosis will emerge from a battery of aptitude and academic achievement tests. This documentation is required not only to establish the need for special services but to determine the kind that are required. Students who are believed to have a learning disability and have not been previously or reliably identified should be referred to the Coordinator/ Director.
While a learning disability cannot be "cured," it can be circumvented through instructional intervention and compensatory strategies. In general, a variety of instructional modes enhances learning for LD students, as for others, by allowing them to master material that may be inaccessible in one particular form.
In teaching students with LD, it is important to identify the nature of the disability in order to determine the kind of strategies that might accommodate a particular student. Drawing upon the student's own experience offers invaluable clues to the types of adaptation that work.
Once the nature of the disability is identified for students with LD, these strategies may help: [Top]
Auditory processing: Some students may experience difficulty integrating information presented orally, hindering their ability to follow the sequence and organization of a lecture.
- Provide students with a course syllabus at the start of the semester.
- Outline class presentations and write new terms and key points on the chalkboard.
- Repeat and summarize segments of each presentation and review it in its entirety.
- In dealing with abstract concepts, paraphrase them in specific terms, and illustrate them with concrete examples, personal experiences, hands on models, and such visual structures as charts and graphs. [Top]
Reading may be slow and deliberate and comprehension may be difficult for students with LD, particularly when dealing with large quantities of material. For such students, comprehension and speed are expedited dramatically with the addition of auditory input.
- Make required book lists available prior to the first day of class to allow students to begin their reading early or to have texts put on tape.
- Provide students with chapter outlines or study guides that cue them to key points in their readings
- Read aloud material that is written on the chalkboard or that is given in handouts or transparencies. [Top]
Memory or sequencing difficulties may impede the students' execution of complicated directions.
- Keep oral instructions concise and reinforce them with brief cue words.
- Repeat or re word complicated directions. [Top]
Note taking: Some students with LD need alternative ways to take notes because they have difficulty writing and assimilating, remembering, and organizing the material while listening to lectures.
- Allow note takers to accompany the student to class.
- Permit tape recording or make your notes available for material not found in texts or other accessible sources.
- Assist students, if necessary, in arranging to borrow classmates' notes. [Top]
Participation: It is helpful to determine the students' abilities to participate in classroom activities. While many students with LD are highly articulate, some have severe difficulty in talking, responding or reading in front of groups. [Top]
Specialized limitations: Some students with LD may have poor coordination or trouble judging distance or differentiating between left and right. Devices such as demonstrations from students' right left frame of reference and the use of color codes or supplementary symbols may overcome the perceptual problem. [Top]
The science laboratory can be especially overwhelming for students with LD. New equipment, exact measurement, and multi step procedures may demand precisely those skills that are hardest for them to acquire.
- An individual orientation to the laboratory and equipment can minimize students' anxiety.
- The labeling of equipment, tools, and materials is helpful.
- The students' use of cue cards or labels designating the steps of a procedure may expedite the mastering of a sequence.
- Specialized adaptive equipment may help with exact measurements. [Top]
Behavior: Because of perceptual deficiencies, some students with LD are slow to grasp social cues and respond appropriately. They may lack social skills, or they may have difficulty sustaining focused attention. If such a problem results in classroom interruptions or other disruptions, it is advisable to discuss the matter privately with the student or with the Coordinator/Director. [Top]
Evaluation: A learning disability may affect the way students should be evaluated. If so, special arrangements may be necessary.
- Allow students to take examinations in a separate, quiet room with a proctor. Students with LD are especially sensitive to distractions.
- Grant time extensions on exams and written assignments when there are significant demands on reading and writing skills.
- Avoid overly complicated language in exam questions, and clearly separate them in their spacing on the exam sheet. For students with LD perceptual deficits who have difficulty in transferring answers, avoid using answer sheets, especially computer forms.
- Try not to test on material just presented, since more time is generally required to assimilate new knowledge.
- Permit the use of a dictionary, computer spell checks, a proofreader or, in mathematics and science, a calculator. In mathematics, students may understand the concept, but may make errors by misaligning numbers or confusing arithmetical facts.
- When necessary, allow students to use a reader, scribe, word processor, tape recorder or typewriter.
- Consider alternative test designs. Some students with LD may find essay formats difficult, and may have trouble with matching tests.
- Consider alternative or supplementary assignments that may serve evaluation purposes, like taped interviews, slide presentations, photographic essays, or hand made models. [Top]