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Those with learning disabilities may appear to be very much like their peers. And in fact, they are much more like their fellow students than they are unlike them. But when it comes to mentally processing visual and auditory messages, students with LD may be at a big disadvantage.
To remember what is being taught, students first have to be able to focus on the relevant parts of your message or the text they are reading. Then they need to relate what they are being taught to previously learned material and store new learning so it ca be easily accessed for an exam.
Mental processing can break down at any point for those with LD. And if the student has problems focusing on what’s important, the critical material may never be taken in. Other students with learning disabilities may pick out important details and relate them to previously learned knowledge, but have a hard time organizing and storing them efficiently for quick recall.
Added to processing problems, students with LD often feel anxious during exams because they have experienced learning problems throughout school. Anxieties add to the difficulties they have retrieving material that they understood and stored.
The various teaching strategies below focus on a specific area of a typical college class and provide suggestions that should benefit not only students with LD, but all of the students in the class.
Lecture Strategies 1
Since students with learning disabilities often have problems organizing and storing their thoughts, carefully structured presentations help immensely.
Before you begin, think about ways of focusing students’ attention. Consider using a Power Point presentation along with simple diagrams or outlines of the lecture to detail the main points you will cover.
Remember to emphasize the important points by modulating your voice, repeating the items or pausing after you state them to give students verbal cues.
Consider also the following suggestions to help all students more clearly grasp what you want them to learn:
- When you begin a lecture, explain the purpose of the lesson, including your goals and objectives. Explain why the material is relevant to students.
- Review previously learned skills and concepts.
- Introduce the content step by step, if possible (Not all lessons can be broken down this way)
- Check for comprehension by requiring students to actively respond to questions while you are presenting the material.
- Give prompt, specific feedback to students.
- Summarize the lesson at the end.
- Give independent activities based on the lesson.
Test Adaptation Strategies 1
Students with documented disabilities sometimes qualify for test accommodations. Does this mean that they are being given an unfair advantage on exams?
No. It just means that steps must be taken to ensure that the students’ knowledge and skills are being tested – not their disabilities. For example, if a student’s learning disability causes him to be distracted by visually cluttered pages, tests with little white space and a disorganized appearance will be a problem.
In fact, the student is likely to miss more items on the visually confusing tests than if the same items were presented on tests that are visually clean. Fortunately, many testing accommodations that are necessities for students with visual and reading disabilities are good practices for all students. For example:
- Use generous spacing between test items.
- Keep wide margins.
- For multiple choice questions, align responses vertically rather than horizontally and be sure all choices fall on the same page as the questions.
- When different types of test questions are asked, provide additional spacing and a sample item to illustrate the different format.
- When you ask essay or short answer questions, leave enough space on the page for students to answer, rather than requiring them to complete their answers on another page.
- For matching items, keep the lists of items no longer than five or six.
- Allow students to write in the matching items, rather than draw lines from one to the other.
- Allow students to write in the matching items, rather than draw lines from one to the other.
- Bold key words such as, “not,” “contrast and compare,” “three ways,” ect., so that students will not miss the point of the questions. The idea is to see what they know, not test their reading comprehension.
Reading Related Strategies 1
The following are suggestions for helping those with reading problems as well as the rest of your students, adapted from information collected by Roxanne Ruzic, a Harvard University doctoral student, who recently completed research regarding students with reading related learning disabilities.
- Spend the first ten minutes of class in informal discussions with students
All students benefit from a personal touch. Demonstrate that you care about their concerns and opinions. - Carefully analyze your curriculum to determine course goals
Don’t give assignments that aren’t critical to meeting the goals. Student with learning disabilities will focus on assignments rather than readings, since readings are so effortful for them. If your assignments are not key, they are spending their time inappropriately. - If you lecture, provide an outline, notes or slides
All students should be given these to preview before or review after class. Slides can be put online for students to download. Clearly indicate key topics. - Do not “dumb down” the curriculum
The object is not for those with disabilities to pass, Ruzic says. Rather it is for all students to have learned they key content. Hold all students to the same standards, but allow a variety of ways to take in and demonstrate knowledge of the curriculum. Share resources with other professors or use technology to make this possible. - Do not assume that a particular strategy will help someone learning disabled
“When we know someone with a disability, we tend to over generalize and assume others have the same problems,” Ruzic says. Two students with reading problems may need completely different strategies to succeed. - Listen carefully when students speak in class
Those with disabilities in Ruzic’s study who felt listened to by their professor put forth more effort in their classes. - Provide course information, including a syllabus, to the campus tutoring center
When students with learning disabilities go for help, “they may not know what they need to know,” Ruzic says.
The information will ensure that tutors cover the critical concepts. - Convey a willing to help attitude
Ruzic observed that some of those with learning disabilities were “put down” by professors when they asked questions in class. “Assume if a student is asking a question, he doesn’t understand, not that he wasn’t listening,” she says. - Vary delivery options during lectures
Use visual aids and technologies when possible instead of depending on student being able to attend to your voice. - Be available by e-mail
If you don’t have office hours, be sure to allow students to contact you by e-mail, Ruzic says.
Even students with reading and writing problems will use electronic communications to feel connected.
Resources
1 Faculty Training Tips: Guidance for Teaching Students with Disabilities. Horsham, PA: LRP Publications (2005).