5) Persistence

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the successful adults with learning disabilities was an unusually high level of persistence. The individuals in the study discovered that they would have to work longer and harder than others simply to keep pace. The unanticipated benefits came as they realized that the ability to work hard is not necessarily developed by most people. The idea of working hard and long was not something to be applied occasionally but was simply a way of life. Additionally, persistence was emblematic of a powerful resiliency, the ability to deal with failure by not giving up and trying again. One subject offered a theory of why persistence leads to success: "I want to work hard because most people in the world do not want to work at all."

6) Goodness of Fit

In order to be successful, the subjects chose work environments that allowed them to maximize their strengths and to compensate for their weaknesses. This match, or goodness of fit, between individual characteristics and job demands plays a significant role for any individual; it is absolutely essential for a person who deals with learning problems that have the potential to undermine routine activities. People with learning disabilities need a highly developed sense of adaptability--their own and that of the workplace--in order to determine a true goodness of fit. In addition, goodness of fit relies on a subjective yet crucial quality, the enjoyment or enthusiasm found in the particular job or endeavor. For many subjects, strengths that became useful in particular endeavors had been previously labelled as weaknesses. The transformation occurred because of careful and fortuitous planning and decision-making. Without such forethought, disaster could have struck. In other interviews (Gerber & Reiff, 1991), adults who had experienced little vocational success demonstrated less concern with goodness of fit.

7) Learned Creativity

Successful adults with learning disabilities have learned and devised various strategies, techniques, and compensatory methods to enhance their ability to perform well. Learned creativity involves divergent approaches to problem solving. Because many individuals with learning disabilities have great difficulty meeting demands through "normal" methods, they invent new approaches that capitalize on their strengths and are not jeopardized by their weaknesses. Learned creativity takes on numerous manifestations. Some adults learned to manipulate events in order not to expose learning difficulties; others were forthright about having learning disabilities and learned to utilize devices and technological adaptations that allowed them to meet task demands. Many subjects found unique ways to study and prepare for demands at school. If the person was a poor reader, learned creativity did not negate the reading difficulty, but it did offer a way for the person to accomplish the same task as an able reader (e.g., taking courses with less reading demands; using books on tape; devising personalized "SQ3R" approaches; forming discussion groups with more able readers). Variations of learned creativity are boundless. The unifying concept of learned creativity assumes that persons with learning disabilities can learn specialized and individual methods for coping and succeeding with the very circumstances previously deemed overtaxing.