Assessment

The question of assessment is always one that arises for adults with learning disabilities. As many practitioners know, there are many pros and cons to assessment. First and foremost is whether or not the learner can deal with the results of the assessment if the results do not come out the way they expect. For some individuals, the results may not indicate that they have a learning disability and may point to an intellectual disability or some other limit to their cognitive ability. There are some learners who do not want to find this out and this information may significantly impact their self-worth.

The more pertinent questions that should be asked before a learner considers assessment are:

• Is the assessment even necessary?
• Why does the person want the piece of documentation that details the results of the assessment?

For some learners, an assessment might be necessary in order for them to seek further education and accommodations like tutors or adaptive technology through the special needs departments at post-secondary institutions. For other learners, it might be for reasons of employment equity. For example, to help them do their jobs better they could be provided with accommodations at work. Whatever the reason, it is important to consider both of these questions before an assessment is pursued to avoid disappointing news.

Skill Characteristics - Learning Disabilities

When we work with individuals who have learning disabilities, it is easy to focus on what they can't do as opposed to what they can do. For many years, educators have been interested in helping to remediate learners. It would be more beneficial for learners if we stopped focussing on remediation and started focussing on a learner's strengths. As Dr. Richard Lavoie points out: "it is important to emphasize and celebrate an individual's "islands of competence.""²⁵ This means pushing aside the weaknesses and focusing on the strengths.

Dr. Paul Gerber used an excellent analogy of this "islands of competence" idea at a recent conference on learning disabilities. He talked about students with learning disabilities as never becoming the class valedictorian because they do not do well academically across the board. However, he pointed out that many students with learning disabilities have "islands of competence" in certain subject areas. For example, a very well known person by the name of Albert Einstein had a learning disability. He might not have been his class valedictorian but his strength was in science and he was able to focus on this "island of competence" to change the world in very meaningful ways.