It is helpful to know if the student was previously diagnosed with some type of learning disability and if the school system made any accommodations for it. It is also helpful to know if the adult has developed any strategies to deal with difficulties in his learning. Does the adult feel that the problems have kept him from doing well in school, or in the workplace?

When considering difficulties the student had in school, you must differentiate between those caused by low intellectual ability and those caused by a learning disability. Generally, an adult with low ability will report a wide variety of problems in terms of schooling. On the other hand, an adult with learning disabilities will usually report strengths AND areas of need in his learning and levels of achievement. You will see the evidence of this in uneven student performance and school marks.


Indicators of a POSSIBLE Learning Disability:
  • If the student received special assistance in school, especially in reading, writing, spelling and/or math, this may indicate a learning disability OR low intellectual abilities.
  • If the student's academic history shows grade and/or course failure(s), this may indicate either a learning disability OR low intellectual ability.
  • If the student reports that at one time he worked hard but was not achieving, this may indicate either low ability OR a learning disability. The same is true if the student left school because of frustration and low achievement.
  • The student's likes and dislikes of certain subjects may be an indication of a learning disability. For example, is the student's success in language-based subjects, such as history, geography and English? Does the student avoid or have low marks in these subjects because of the reading/writing emphasis but is successful in mechanical and/or activity-based subjects such as shops, physical education and art?
  • The student may have been previously diagnosed as having a learning disability. It may have been termed dyslexia, a perceptual handicap, minimal brain dysfunction, language disabilities or attention-deficit disorder but is likely an indication of some kind of learning disability.
  • Sometimes, adults with learning disabilities have been wrongly designated as "slow learners" and "delayed learners". If this is the case with your student, you should ignore the label and continue to check for evidence of a learning disability.
  • Conversely, some adults may have been designated as having a learning disability when, in fact, the actual problem may have more to do with generalized low intellectual functioning.