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Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities

A Learning Disability is:

A permanent disorder, which affects the manner in which individuals with average or above average intelligence, take in, retain and/or express information. Incoming or outgoing visual, auditory or tactile information may be scrambled as it travels to and from the brain.

A Learning Disability is not:

A form of a Developmental Disability or an emotional disorder.

Use Good Communication Techniques:

  • Keep an open mind. No two students with learning disabilities are alike. What works for one student may or may not work for another. It is imperative to keep communication open.
  • In general students with learning disabilities will obtain and retain new information when more channels are used in the teaching/learning process. Incorporating oral, visual, and tactile/kinesthetic processes will benefit these students.

Provide Classroom Services:

  • Allow the student to receive and transmit information in a form that works best for them, unless it significantly alters or interferes with the class content or other students.
  • There are such a wide variety of effects from a learning disability; it is difficult to blanket the classroom with adaptations. Student need is individual. Confidentially communicate with the student, it is vital to their success.
  • Write key ideas, terms, and assignments on the board
  • Supply a detailed course syllabus with due dates
  • Use the board or handouts to present new or technical vocabulary
  • Explain assignments in both oral and written form
  • Support the students’ decision by allowing them to tape lectures
  • If the student has selected a seat please respect their choice and be sure it is kept available
  • Mention in class and write on the board which chapters or pages from the text the lecture or related information can be found.

Some areas commonly affected by learning disabilities:

Reading Skills

  • Slow reading rate
  • Problems in comprehension and retention
  • Difficulty identifying important points and themes
  • Confusion of similar words, difficulty integrating new vocabulary
  • Difficulties with analysis and recognition of words
  • Difficulty reading material that is in small print with little “white space” between sentences or lines.

Written Language Skills

  • Difficulty with sentence structure and organization of ideas
  • Frequent spelling errors
  • Inability to copy correctly from a book or the blackboard
  • Prefers reading and writing print over cursive
  • Poor or illegible penmanship
  • Inability to write quickly
  • Transposes letters

Auditory processing/Oral Language Skills

  • Inability to concentrate on and/or comprehend oral language
  • Difficulty in expressing ideas orally
  • Weak vocabulary base
  • Difficulty remembering oral instruction
  • Difficulty taking notes and listening at the same time
  • Difficulties speaking grammatically correct English

Mathematical Skills

  • Incomplete mastery of basic operations
  • Confuses operational symbols (i.e. ¸ and +, or ´ and +)
  • Copies problems incorrectly from one line to another
  • Inability to understand and retain abstract concepts.
  • Difficulty keeping columns
  • Reasoning deficits
  • Transposes numbers

Organizational and Study Skills

  • Time management difficulties
  • Slow to start and complete tasks, especially open-ended or unstructured assignments
  • Repeated inability, on a day-to-day basis, to recall what has been taught
  • Difficulty filtering relevant from irrelevant details
  • Lack of overall concentration in written notes and compositions
  • Difficulty organizing time and materials to prepare for tests or class
  • May experience additional anxiety, depression or anger due to difficulty in coping with social or school situation

*Possible accommodations (a student may require one or more of the following, depending on class and instructor):

  • Advance notice of class schedule changes
  • Extended time to complete in-class and out of class assignments to correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar
  • Note taker
  • Scribes
  • Allow for extra “white space” on papers between concepts, lines or paragraphs
  • Tape record lectures and discussions
  • Copies of transparencies used in class
  • Books on tape
  • Reading guides (papers or blank cards used to assist in following written text) (Some may have a colored film to add contrast)
  • Seating arrangements that enhance the learning experience of the student
  • Private testing
  • Extended test time
  • Altered exam format (m/c, t/f, short answer)
  • Oral rather than written exams
  • Written rather than oral exams
  • Taped tests
  • Exams taken on computer to allow for spell check and to access assistive technology
  • Reader for tests and/or assignments
  • Use of assistive technology
  • Use of lap top computer for in-class assignments
  • Voice Recognition Software
  • Screen readers
  • Voice recognition software
  • Inspiration software
  • Reading machines (Galileo)
  • Assistive Listening Devices

* List not exhausted