Learning disabilities and the college student: identification and diagnosis

The identification and diagnosis of a learning disability in the college student are complex tasks. They constitute important tasks when we realize that 720,000 college students (6 percent, if we assume that there are 12 million in college today) may be learning disabled ( Astin 1983). It is evident that children with learning disabilities are at risk for psychological and social problems in adolescence and young adulthood ( Bellak 1979; Crabtree 1981; Cruikshank et al. 1980; Horowitz 1981). There is a risk that the learning disability will not be identified, and, hence, the problem will be treated as only a psychogenic one. Unfortunately, this will tend to contribute not only to the student's feelings of guilt, stupidity, and inability to change but also to the clinician's sense of frustration. The description of the learning disabled college student and the two-step identification process in this chapter provides guidelines to aid understanding of these issues. Most colleges have not yet come to grips with what it means to have learning disabled students in terms of teaching, academic evaluation, diagnosis, and college counseling. To do so is important not only because of recent laws that guarantee equal educational opportunity for these students but also because a learning disability, whether overt or covert, can profoundly affect a person's educational and psychosocial development. It has often been said that the capacity to love and work is the foundation for the healthy adult. It is easy to see how academic learning is the work of the college student and educational success or failure is linked integrally to self-esteem and self-love.