When reviewing the signs to look for in the areas of communication, practitioners may find that a lot of their learners show some of the characteristics and question - "does this mean that every one of my learners has a potential learning disability?" To help distinguish between learners who need to work on their literacy skills because of limited exposure to learning versus learners who struggle with their literacy due to potential learning disabilities, practitioners need to look at:

• Patterns of errors
• Large differences between strengths and weaknesses
• Information about the adults' earlier educational experiences gathered through the screening process

Overall, adults with learning disabilities show little progress in one or more particular areas and that seems out of place given their overall intellectual capability. Practitioners' suspicions of learning disabilities will be confirmed through ongoing assessment with the learners as they both notice consistent patterns of errors and definite strengths and weaknesses in key areas.

Product and process

Assessment, whether it is initial or ongoing, should look at:

• How learners input and output information
• The rate and amount of information they can produce or handle
• How the information they provide is organized and presented

When practitioners gain an understanding of these areas, strategies such as the way to instruct, the time needed for completion of a task and the amount of information learners can handle, can all be adjusted based on the adults' strengths and limitations.³³

Any form of evaluation and monitoring of progress should examine two key areas:

• Product - the knowledge and skills the learner can demonstrate or has gained (i.e. a book report)
• Process - how the learners produce the outcome (i.e. the steps they followed to develop the book report)