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As a teacher and consultant
for learning disabled students and their parents for fifteen years, I feel the
need for this population to continue to hear success stories about others who
have struggled and who have succeeded. The more awareness there is, the
less struggle it will be for them to have success. I am committed to doing just
that-tell their stories so that others can be better prepared to know and ask
for what they need. This study was an attempt to put in print the profiles of
six individuals who continue to
struggle and continue to have success.
Six participants volunteered to participate in this study. Five of the six
students were registered at a post-secondary institution. One student, not now
attending but planning to return the following semester, had been away for two
semesters. All six students were diagnosed with learning disabilities
during
their public school years. The first student is a twenty-one year old male completing
his third year towards an Earth Science degree. Because he
was aware of his
learning disability from an early age, his sense of awareness enabled him to talk
about his strengths and weaknesses in some
detail. He believed that his parents
played a major role in helping him become aware of his learning disability. S1
referred to his learning disability as dyslexia, difficulty reading and writing;
and as dyscalculia,
difficulty in math. He also exhibited characteristics
of a visual perceptual weakness. He wore special colored glasses to help him in
this area. He considered his strengths to be his personality and good memory.
He was quite involved at the posty-secondary level. He felt comfortable asking
others for support. The necessary supports had been available to him. He felt
personally in control at the post-secondary level and is making plans to further
his education when he completes his science degree.
S2 is a 25 year old
male with one year of coursework completed. He waited for four years following
graduation from high school to attend post-secondary because he did not have a
high enough average finishing high school. He worked full-time until be began
university as a mature students, but had recently quit university to return to
his job. He is registering for correspondence courses next term. Having been diagnosed
with dyslexia at an
early age, he seemed keenly aware of his strengths and
weaknesses. He did well in university partly because of the supports he received.
He could
express knowledge verbally, but could nor read it or write
it well. He felt that, if he had received oral testing in high school, he would
have obtained better marks and would have attended post-secondary immediately
following graduation.
S3 is a 20-year-old female, completing her third
year of an arts degree at the post-secondary level. Although she has dysgraphia,
a writing disability, she is experiencing success at the post-secondary level.
S3 is conscious of her strengths and weaknesses and is comfortable asking for
supports she needs. She credits much of her success to the support she receives
from both her parents and the university. S3 feels she is a good advocate. She
also expresses a desire to work at the government level as an advocate for other
people with disabilities.
S4,a 20-year-old male and second year student,
wishes to enter a business degree program following completion of his second year.
Initially he had intended to do the more demanding commerce degree, which includes
work terms, but felt he was unable to complete the requirement of six courses
in his first term. S4 is struggling with the written assignments, especially in
English Language courses; he broke down during the interview. He has difficulty
approaching professors and explaining his disability. He does not appear to have
a good awareness of his disability. He feels his being placed in special education
prevented him from being prepared for post-secondary studies. He believes that
the lack of supports at the high school level caused him to struggle. He seems
determined to persevere. His learning disability was diagnosed during his last
year of high school. He scored high on an intelligence test but showed weaknesses
in written language. He
has to do the required courses in English Language
in order to continue on with the other courses in his degree program. As a result
he experiences
great anxiety. The time he needs to complete the written assignments
prevents him from doing better with his other courses. He feels he did not
receive much support from his parents while he was going through the public school
system. He is receiving supports at the post-secondary level but does not feel
that they are sufficient for his needs. He is not involved in any extra curricular
activities and often wishes he could talk to other post-secondary students with
learning disabilities. In this respect, he
relies mostly on his girlfriend
for support.
S5 is completing his fifth year toward a Philosophy major
and religious education studies minor and is experiencing reasonable success at
this level. He finds the university setting to be a big improvement over the public
school system where he felt ostracized socially. He does not need a lot of support
as long as he is not required to complete exams. If supports are needed, he knows
how to get them. He was identified as having a learning disability from an early
age and has received supports from his family throughout his public schooling.
He believes that he is in reasonable control at the university and is highly involved
in extra curricula activities. He is able to take control by knowing which course
to avoid. This has included
avoiding math courses for the past four years.
S6 successfully completed an honors degree in geophysics. He has a writing
and reading disability. His strengths are in the areas of math and
science.
He attributes his success to his determination and hard work. He does not feel
that he has much awareness of his learning disability. He
appears to lack
the words needed to adequately describe his dyslexia. However, he is acutely aware
of his strengths and weaknesses. He considers
himself a hard worker with an
excellent memory and great personality. Support from his parents at an early age
helped him to experience success. A supportive girlfriend helped him all the way
through university. S6 received a job as a geophysicist shortly after graduation.
Method
This study is a phenomenological study investigating students’
views about managing their learning disabilities at the post-secondary level. The
author’s preferred approach also focuses on the meaning of individuals’ experiences,
placing them central in this research. The research task is to
understand
how the learning-disabled students at the post-secondary level interpret their
success. The author chose the qualitative paradigm because
it affords the
opportunity to do in-depth interviews. In this study, an interpretation was drawn
from the perspective of the participants, who were
asked to elucidate their
lived experiences with learning disabilities. In the present study, guiding interview
questions were used to direct the sessions. As anticipated, participants were
willing to discuss personal experiences in detail.
Author's recommendations
It is not surprising to discover that the profiles of post-secondary students
with learning disabilities are rather varied. The insights and understandings
that emerge as a result of this study have tremendous potential for use at a personal,
professional, and societal level.
The author recommends:
(a)
that learning-disabled students be made aware of their strengths and weaknesses
if they are to experience success at the post- secondary level;
(b)
that diagnosis of a learning disability should take place at an early age;
(c) that, following diagnosis of a learning disability, students
be given a full description of their disability, providing them with the proper
language to describe their disability, their strengths, and their weaknesses;
(d) that, following diagnosis, learning-disabled students receive
sessions of awareness concerning their learning disability;
(e)
that sessions of awareness be provided by a professional knowledgeable in the
area of learning disabilities;
(f) that self-advocacy training
be offered to learning-disabled students at the secondary level and post-secondary
levels;
(g) that awareness sessions about learning disabilities
be a required curriculum outcome at the secondary level;
(h)
that, as a prerequisite for teaching at the post-secondary level, professors at
the post-secondary level be required to complete sessions of awareness on learning
disabilities;
(i) that program developers evaluate the secondary
curriculum content for learning-disabled students at the secondary level, at the
provincial department of education, at the local school boards, and within the
local schools; and
(j) that a course in learning disabilities
be required for all teachers during their teacher training program.
Students’
Recommendations
During the interviews the researcher asked the learning-disabled
students if they had recommendations for educators who work with learning disabilities.
All students stated that having to do one required course at the post-secondary
level where their weaknesses would be emphasized was not relevant or did not contribute
to their present or future educational plans.
The students were outspoken
about many of their high school teachers who lacked awareness in the area of learning
disabilities; this deficiency contributed negatively to students’ feelings regarding
self-esteem and hope for the future. Learning-disabled students also concluded
that the skills required for success were not being taught in the public schools.
There were no programs that had prepared them for the obstacles that they encountered
at the post-secondary level. The level of awareness and knowledge the students
had about their learning disabilities was certainly not a result of
any helpers
within the school system. Instead, the students saw their parents or significant
others as being the main supporters. The students
rated the professionals
who were supposed to be qualified to diagnose their learning disabilities as incompetent
in that, following diagnosis, they
failed to explain their learning disability
to them. Therefore, the students did not learn from the professionals the proper
language to explain their
learning disabilities. Below is a consensus of the
recommendations made by these six learning-disabled post-secondary students.
Students recommended:
1. Every school should
have a pamphlet to hand out to every teacher, every year. In this way the teachers
would be made more aware of learning disabilities and would recognize their presence
in their students.
2. Students with writing disabilities
should not be required to complete language courses at the post-secondary level.
Those students with writing disabilities tended to enroll in programs that involved
courses with factual information. The language courses slowed them down, caused
anxiety, and
brought down their overall average.
3.
The Center for Students with Disabilities should adopt a broader view in the provision
of support that will meet each student’s needs more specifically. Students expect
to have a more individualized evaluation of their needs. This evaluation could
take place with the staff at the center speaking directly with the students. Meetings
would determine the type of
supports students needed.
4.
The teaching of self-advocacy skills should be a part of the support program
provided by the Center for Students with Disabilities.
5.
There should be a student support program provided by the Center for Students
with Disabilities. This program would give students with learning disabilities
the opportunity to meet other students with learning disabilities. As a result,
there would be a greater awareness of the extent of learning disabilities on campus.
This should promote greater openness
rather than the isolation which has a
tendency to disguise the disability.
6. After a learning
disability has been diagnosed, an outside program should be made available all
the way through school. Such a program would foster awareness of a disability.
Students who had participated in such a program found it helpful for both student
and parent.
7. More emphasis be placed on a student’s strengths
of the student completing the school curriculum. Students would then be able to
obtain
supports for areas of weakness rather than trying to correct these
weaknesses.
8. Students who benefit from the use of computers
and tape recorders should be allowed to use these tools in class in order to get
all the information
being presented by the professors.
9.
More general information on the area of learning disabilities should be made available
to students diagnosed with a learning disability. In
particular, students
believe that the need to hear stories of success would give them hope and better
prepare them for the future.
10. Parents should be provided
with more support while their children are in school. Five of the six students
who received parental support realized
that, without such support they would
not have been so successful.
11. Students should be given
opportunities at the post-secondary level to receive supports from other learning-disabled
students.
12. Individual differences should determine the
kind of accommodations to be
made. For example, to be able to complete orally
the material for a course evaluation would be a suitable accommodation for a student
with a writing
disability.
Recommendations for Further Studies
1. Further research could be conducted to determine the
population of learning-disabled students registering for post-secondary studies.
A follow-up study could then be carried out to determine the percentage of
these students who graduate from their respective post-secondary programs.
2. Further research could be conducted with parents of learning-disabled
students to understand how parental influence and guidance has contributed
to children’s success. This would provide valuable information for other parents
who are seeking support in this area.
3. Further research
could be conducted with teachers at the secondary level to ascertain their level
of awareness in the area of learning disabilities.
Results of this study would
determine whether or not there is a need to evaluate the teacher training programs
at the post-secondary level.
4. Further research could be
conducted with professors at the post-secondary level to determine how much awareness
they have or still need concerning learning disabilities.
Conclusions
The author has been privileged to enter the world of six complex individuals.
They all believed that the telling of their experiences might be able to help
others with learning disabilities. All of them have suffered mainly because they
felt guilty about having to approach learning in different ways from the supposedly
uniform way the rest of us learn. The adult students with learning disabilities
in this study offer convincing
evidence that learning disabilities do not
prevent learning from taking place, that learning disabilities are with a person
for life, and that there are many different types of learning disabilities.
The obstacles to
success presented by learning disabilities would deter many of us. Instead, these
students have found ways to accentuate their abilities
and compensate for
their weaknesses. Over the past fifteen years, the author has been privileged
to work with more than one hundred individuals with
learning disabilities.
The author’s desire to leave this population of individuals with hope and knowledge
that they, and others like them, can be successful academically, has motivated
this research.
There is still a significant gap between what is known about
the challenges facing this population of learning-disabled students and what needs
to be known. An important step often not considered is to determine students’
views regarding their own learning disabilities; the students can often tell what
they need in order to acquire success. This study has allowed students to speak
for themselves.
March
2002
Gladys Burke
gladysburke@hotmail.com
For the past fifteen years Gladys Burke has worked as an advocate for students
with learning disabilities. Completing two undergraduate degrees has helped her
to work as a learning disabilities consultant and teacher.
She wanted her
research to dwell on the positive so that this population of individuals could
look forward to having success at the post-secondary level. This article is a
summary of her thesis, and she has graduated with her M.Ed. (Psychology). She
continues to work with students and parents. She enjoys travelling to different
places to speak about the success these students can experience, if taught the
right strategies.
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