Specific characteristics

Regardless of the disability being explored, the characteristics can be categorized as critical or secondary.

Critical characteristics are conditions that cause problems for adults in their daily living. They have an impact on employment opportunities, family, and social relationships. Academic skills remain difficult and impact reading, writing, math, and/or spelling. Difficulties result because "psychological processes bear on the areas of challenge. These include awareness, perception, language, attention, motoric abilities and social skills."²¹ For example, adults' attention is challenged when they have difficulty understanding what is heard due to the surrounding noise in a classroom. Similarly, their auditory processing is challenged when their writing is plagued with spelling errors.

Secondary characteristics are viewed as the "next layer". Secondary features refer to the emotional coping of adults with learning disabilities. It is difficult to say with certainty that learning disabilities have a direct impact on the secondary characteristics, since adults' life experiences and different upbringings can also impact this area. The emotional coping characteristics are displayed either in positive or negative ways. "Examples of negative reactions are low self-esteem, shortfalls in social skills and/or demoralization. On the flip side, the frequent challenges people face can cause them to be resilient. Each hurdle they overcome builds their determination. Often adults have developed strong coping skills to accommodate their learning disabilities."²²

Adults with learning disabilities can be successful when their disabilities are recognized and understood. When agencies understand the characteristics of learning disabilities, they can use this as an opportunity to change opinions and actions to contribute to learners' successes.²³ Although practitioners cannot claim their learners have learning disabilities, they can help explain why learners are having challenges. Practitioners need to work together with learners to develop strategies to address weaknesses and highlight strengths.