Brown University’s
Guide for Students with Learning Disabilities

Learning Disabilities and Alternate Learning Styles:
A Student Perspective

Note: This guide was prepared by students at Brown University and has been reproduced with the permission of Robert Shaw, Associate Dean of the College.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Definitions
Myths
Classic Symptoms
Faculty Involvement
The Brown Curriculum
Study For Success
Administrative Policies
Final Words
Bibliography
Credits
Dedication

Introduction

This booklet was written by students at Brown University in order to make the Brown community — especially incoming freshmen — aware of learning disabilities, their symptoms, and some study strategies for coping with them. The booklet also lists some of the resources which Brown offers its student body. In addition to writing this booklet, the students have formed a self-help group called Students with Alternate Learning Styles (SALS). It was the first campus branch of the Orton Dyslexia Society. Its goals are to help students with learning disabilities get through college successfully, and to reach out to other campuses to encourage the formation of similar groups.

Among the ways the group tries to help its members is by educating them about learning disabilities and ways for compensating for their effects, and advising them of the special ways the university helps them overcome their difficulties. Also, the group is trying to make the faculty and administration more aware of the variation in learning styles of all students and to encourage the use of teaching methods to accommodate them. The University and SALS want students with learning disabilities to leave Brown with the tools they need to succeed in their adult lives.

Definitions

Many conditions affect a student’s style of learning. Some of these have been grouped together under the general heading of “learning disabilities,” including dyslexia, a language-based learning disability, and other learning disabilities. Another condition, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), also affects a student’s performance in school. All of these conditions interfere with learning in traditional settings, and there is strong evidence that they have a physiological basis. That is, the brains of students with a learning disability and/or ADD are structured differently and function differently than students without these conditions.

• Dyslexia: A student with dyslexia has an alternate method for processing language. Although this method is as valid as others, a learning disabled person often faces problems in a traditional education system. As a result, a learning disabled student may have to develop strategies to cope with an organizational and language disability which manifests itself most noticeably in reading and writing, but which affects one’s life from the most mundane task to the most crucial. About 5-10% of the population is dyslexic. Most dyslexics have developmental dyslexia, which means that they have had it since birth. However, it is also possible to acquire dyslexia through traumatic injury.
  
  
• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD): A student with ADD has a difficult time concentrating on tasks for a sustained period of time, due to a difficulty of screening out unwanted stimuli, such as the buzzing of classroom lights or of people talking during a lecture. People with ADD also may experience difficulty in organizing information, following a schedule, or any other task that requires organizational skills. Hyperactivity is sometimes a symptom of ADD, particularly in children.

Medication is one treatment option for people who have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. The goal of medications is to increase the attention span, while decreasing distractibility and impulsivity.

If you decide to explore medication as a treatment option, have realistic expectations. Medication does not work for everyone and even when it does work it is not a magical cure-all. In order to ensure maximum effectiveness, medication should be combined with other elements of treatment such as education about ADD, tutoring, individual and/or family therapy, and behavior modification.

Other people with learning disabilities are neither dyslexic nor ADD but have learning disabilities affecting abilities such as memory, spatial skills, or sequencing. Whatever the label, each person’s experiences are different, and as a result, the approach that will need to be taken also needs to be suited to the individual.

Myths

Traits which people often incorrectly attribute to learning disabled people are that they are lazy or stupid, that they are daydreamers or underachievers. Another common belief is that dyslexics see backwards. These are just a few of the misconceptions which a student who is learning disabled might have faced. However, students should not become disheartened, as the spread of information about learning disabilities has begun within educational spheres.

Although people with learning disabilities cannot change the way they process information, they can learn to compensate for their disability and make use of specific techniques that will strengthen their reading and writing skills. They need not have lower expectations. Here at Brown, a strong and active community of learning disabled students takes the same courses and earns the same degrees as other students in a variety of disciplines, including such heavy-reading concentrations as History and English. Just to have gotten this far in their education demonstrates that they are intelligent, highly motivated, and persistent. This means they can do what they are willing to try hard enough to do.

Still, students with learning disabilities, no matter what the academic task, constantly face an insidious shortage of time. Everything takes longer for them, and this results in fatigue and frustration. Though people are becoming more aware of learning disabilities, a learning disabled person usually is taught under a traditional education system which may test to their disabilities rather than their talents and strengths. It is important for those students to realize this and come to terms with it.

Classic Symptoms

The following represents groups of characteristics found among students with learning disabilities at Brown University. Many students experience some difficulty in a number of these categories. However, students with learning disabilities — for the most part — have trouble in most of these areas, though the exact degree varies from student to student. The most commonly recognized problem is a reading disability. In a student with a learning disability, this spectrum of problems is symptomatic of a constitutionally determined difficulty in processing certain kinds of information. In a “normal” person who has some of these difficulties, the problems do not reflect a larger disability.

If a student recognizes a good number of the symptoms listed below, he or she should consult Dean Shaw, who may then refer the student for diagnostic testing.

1. Reading

• slow reader
• trouble distinguishing between main thesis and supporting evidence
• can’t remember what you just read
• reading literally: problems with tone, metaphors and words with more than one meaning (e.g., “there is a fork in the road”)
• reading out of sequence and omitting words: (“the student went to see the professor”= “the student to the see professor”)
• decoding problems: trouble associating letters and their sounds
• often mistaking one word for another (“for” and “from,” “to” and “of”)
• tracking difficulty: skipping over words or lines when reading
• commonly omitting titles, chapter headings and subheadings
• inevitably experiencing headaches or falling asleep when reading

2. Writing Difficulties

• freezing up when trying to write
• difficulty organizing thoughts and papers
• difficulty visualizing a paper’s overall topic and formulating a thesis statement
• tendency to focus on specific parts of the paper instead of the overall picture and how each part relates to the whole
• beautiful sentences in your head vanishing before they can be set down
• “perfect draft” syndrome
• you generally don’t catch all your own errors when proofreading
• professors comment that your ideas are great but your mechanics and structure are weak
• difficulty using cursive script, so you usually print (and even that may not be legible), and whether it’s cursive or print, you write slowly

3. Spelling

• reversals: “friend”=“freind,” “probably”=“propadly,” “0137”=“0317”
• habitually dropping or adding letters and parts of words when writing: “know”=“now”
• unable to spell common, everyday words as well as more difficult words
• letters and words often come out of sequence

4. Speaking

• difficulty pronouncing words
• difficulty getting a point across on first try
• difficulty reading aloud
• stuttering, hesitancy in speech
• difficulty understanding spoken language

5. Oral and Written Word Association

• difficulty translating oral speech into written words
• problems with simultaneously taking notes and attending to what’s going on in class
• orally a word means one thing, but written that same word seems to mean something else or nothing at all
• words are heard yet not comprehended

6. Coordination / Orientation

• difficulty distinguishing left from right
• difficulty with local geography and directions
• feeling lost in a familiar setting
• becoming familyused when going down stairs or passing people
• you may even miss steps or stumble despite being a good athlete
• difficulty doing simple mechanical tasks
• never can seem to organize things
• uncoordinated
• hyperactive in order to compensate

7. Memory

• difficulty with retention of  “common knowledge” items, such as friends’ names, names of places, your current age and even what day it is
• difficulty recalling names of things in conversation: frequent use of “this”or “that” or “whatchamacallit” rather than more precise words
• difficulty memorizing a string of numbers or letters in order
• constantly misplacing, losing and forgetting things
• always behind
• you seem to live in a time warp

8. Concentrating

• marked difficulty concentrating with noise or people talking in the background
• easily distracted
• difficulty focusing attention
• get tired or overloaded quickly
• unable to do two activities at once (e.g., reading while eating)

9. Testing

• unable to complete an exam in the allotted time although material was well understood and well studied
• blanking out on exams
• difficulty narrowing down a multiple-choice question to one correct response
• perpetually interpreting questions or directions differently from the way the professor intended them

10. Mathematics

• difficulty understanding the wording of a problem
• difficulty doing basic calculations
• reversing numbers

11. Foreign Language Learning

• difficulty learning vocabulary
• very slow in oral performance
• no amount of hard work seems to help

12. Psychological Barriers

• it’s hard to begin writing a paper because it takes so long to get focused and get thoughts organized
• feeling lazy, stupid or ashamed because of difficulty doing tasks which come so easily to others (low self-esteem)
• feeling constantly behind no matter how hard you try or how much you learn
• feeling that your own work is infantile or crude or otherwise not as good as that of others, and that it’s definitely not on the same level as your thinking
• frustrated by unsuccessful attempts to read, write, spell and speak correctly
• feeling as if you are “faking” your education: people say you are smart, but you don’t genuinely feel this is true even though you may be getting good grades
• anxious about deadlines
• fear of filling out forms and applications and using the telephone
• isolation: fear of not being understood
• intensified self-consciousness and stress because of your other problems

Some students have found that as they begin to talk with other students with learning differences, the psychological symptoms begin to diminish. When frustration and fatigue decrease, academic symptoms become less pronounced. For a first-hand, published account of the struggle which people with learning disabilities must persistently wage, we recommend reading either Reversals by Eileen Simpson or Susan’s Story by Susan Hampshire.

Faculty Involvement

In addition to being able to identify the symptoms just noted, there are other ways faculty members can help. You may notice differences in a student’s ability to interpret visual aids and complex diagrams, or to understand the style of teaching, especially if humor, metaphors, intuitive leaps or free-wheeling discussions are hallmarks of your classes. Conversations with a student may reveal that he/she is having trouble grasping the organization of lectures. This problem may be reduced or alleviated by keeping lectures well-structured and by noting (on the blackboard, perhaps) at the beginning of a lecture just what the objectives and structure of the lesson are for that day. The explicit presentation of underlying structure and objectives will also aid students in organizing note taking, studying for exams and preparing assignments and papers.

Reviewing the main points brought up in classroom discussions can help integrate them into the overall organization you intended for the lesson. Also very helpful are a willingness for personal contact, suggestions for specific study skills relevant to your discipline, and cooperation with a certain amount of a student’s experimentation in trying to find a personal learning style for the particular course material. (These practices and attitudes will help not only students with learning disabilities, but all students.)

The Brown Curriculum

While in college, students are grappling with fresh ideas, different perspectives and new insights. Particularly at Brown, they are able to challenge themselves through self-directed learning and discover effective, personalized modes of learning. The Brown Curriculum offers multiple options to the motivated college student, many of which are especially helpful to students with learning disabilities. For example, the University leaves up to you the decision of what group of courses best serves your academic purposes. You may opt to take as many courses as you wish S/NC: Satisfactory/No Credit. Thus, you can adjust the pace of your undergraduate work and take courses which otherwise you might avoid. You can also enroll in an ambitious five courses one semester and a slower paced three in another. If you wish it, you may request the CAS (Committee on Academic Standing) to put you on a reduced load of two or three courses per semester and pro-rate tuition costs. You can design an independent concentration or participate in a Group Independent Studies Project (GISP) with some of your peers, focusing on a specific area of knowledge not covered by current course offerings. Brown also encourages students to take a leave of absence or study abroad for a semester or more. This is a good way to help you figure out how to use the rest of your time at the university most effectively. The openness and flexibility of Brown are part of what makes our school unique, so we urge you as fellow students to explore all the possibilities.

Study For Success

o be successful, students with learning differences do not need carte blanche extensions on papers and untimed exams: they need discipline — a lot of discipline. Not every student — learning disabled or not — learns to develop the quality of study habits that it takes to be successful in college. However, for students with learning disabilities, a lack of discipline can prove fatal. The following is a compilation of suggestions from successful students at Brown on coping with college-level work and developing various academic skills. If you find yourself feeling guilty about requiring extra time on an examination or paper, remember that school is not a race. It is okay to take extra time if it means that you get more out of your education and your entire Brown experience.

One Student’s Story:

Although fully aware of my dyslexia upon entrance to Brown, I steadfastly refused to seek any of the accommodations offered. In high school, academic success came with relative ease and a minimal expenditure of effort. Thinking that this trend would continue on the university level, I felt that any special accommodations accepted would indicate my incompetence as a student. Well, my first semester’s performance was less than stellar and came as quite a shock. Tests were longer and more challenging, and the amount of reading assigned in one semester surpassed the total amount of reading undertaken during my four years in high school. Despite the initial disappointment of my first semester’ academic achievements, I became determined to correct this problem. My first step was to contact Dean Shaw who provided me with additional time on tests. However, my recent academic success can be attributed primarily to the development of suitable study habits. I have found that I can be most productive studying in my room alone with music playing in the background. I usually study for 30-45 minutes and then take a short break. It is crucial to remember that although this method is effective for me, each person is an individual with unique needs. Experimentation and desire allow one to develop the necessary study skills to thrive on the university level. Academic success on the college level can have multiple influences upon one’s life; however, for a dyslexic student it can become unparalleled in the development of self-esteem and familyidence.

General Study Habits. For students with attention deficit disorder, it is essential to find a quiet place to study (the library, a deserted classroom, etc.). It is also important to get enough sleep, eat well, exercise and take reasonable breaks when studying.

Scheduling. Having a large calendar on which to write all due dates for the semester is vital. Many people make up weekly and daily work schedules, setting realistic goals and making sure that they accomplish these objectives. In order to make useful schedules, it is important to be able to assess accurately how long it will take you to do a given task. For instance, one student knows that she generally reads about 1-5 pages an hour (depending on the density of the material), writes one page in a half hour — actually, it takes her 20 minutes to write a page, with 10 minutes added for procrastination — and types three and a half pages in an hour, pacing herself accordingly. Other scheduling skills that students with learning disabilities must develop include limiting activities (you can’t do everything that interests you), balancing courses (don’t take four heavy reading courses in one semester), and most important of all, not fooling yourself by believing that you can finish that paper in the same amount of time as your non-LD friends.

Taking Notes. If you have problems taking notes (i.e., you don’t think your notes adequately reflect the lectures), here are a few tips: Sit up front in the classroom. You can see better and it forces you to pay attention, and if you’re going to bother going to classes, you might as well know what’s going on. What goes along with this is leaving your previous location early enough to get a seat up front — five minutes makes a difference. Develop a critical frame of mind. Don’t write down everything the professor says — be discriminating. Many students develop a personal shorthand of symbols, “code words,” or abbreviations to speed up note taking, especially for technical terms or often repeated ones. If you blank out on something, leave a space and go on. You can come back to it later when you think of it. This goes for exams as well. Go over your notes right after class to make sure they make sense and add anything significant that you recall but didn’t have time to write down. Right after the lecture, borrow the notebooks of one or two of your classmates and compare their notes with yours. While the lecture is still fresh in your mind, go over the notebooks — just to make sure that you managed to get all of the important points. If absolutely necessary, tape-record the lectures but then you have to budget time to listen to the tapes. Use the counter on your tape recorder: write down the number when you miss a part of the lecture and then listen only to those parts of the tape.

Reading Books. Before beginning an assignment, examine the book’s title, the chapter and subchapter headings, and the table of contents in order to get an overview of the major ideas of the book. Always read the introduction. It usually summarizes the book’s thesis. (With technical articles, scan the abstract and summary for an overview of purpose and the significant findings.) Read actively: take notes, write in the book’s margin, and selectively underline and highlight (in different colored markers) while reading. There are effective techniques for improving reading and writing skills — we don’t mean speed reading, but basic reading skills. This is something you might want to work on with a trained reading therapist or tutor throughout the school year or intensively during a summer. Recordings for the Blind has been useful for many students. Information on registering for this service is available through Dean Shaw’s office.

Studying for Exams. There are, of course, many ways to study for an exam. The value of memorizing your class notes from cover to cover is debatable, but many students find that reviewing notes alleviates tension and facilitates the recall of examples and details. Flash cards and study guides serve well both as organizing and studying tools. Outlining and summarizing your notes in colored markers are great ways to study. Going over past exams can also be useful. Many people find it helpful to get together with their classmates several days before the exam (long before anyone has seriously started studying) and talk about the exam and the topics that the course has covered in order to devise some kind of framework to aid later studying. Teaching assistants can also help you to orient yourself for exams, especially if you seek their help well before exam time.

Writing A Paper. The hardest thing about writing a paper is getting started. Here is a little friendly advice (the easy to-say, hard-to-do kind of advice): Don’t fall into the trap of trying to make your rough draft perfect. If you’re having problems getting started, just write anything, no matter how bad you think it is. You can edit it later. Don’t procrastinate: you’re not going to be inspired. Eventually, you’re going to have to sit down, think it out and write it. Many people also find it helpful to talk to someone else or themselves out loud about the paper. It can be useful just to talk into a tape recorder in order to define what you want to say and to make sure that you really know what your paper is to cover.

Developing a technique for writing and structuring a paper is a personal thing. There is, however, at least one feature that successful students with learning disabilities have in common when facing the task of writing a paper: they all have some sort of plan. These vary from being nothing more than a list or flowchart of ideas to strictly detailed outlines. The key is to consciously develop a planning format that works for you.

Finally, deal with spelling errors. Try to identify the words that you consistently misspell and pay special attention to them when writing. Keeping a list or file of words you constantly misspell will give you an easy reference for checking yourself. Learn to double check your spelling with a dictionary, which you keep nearby. Get a list of spelling and punctuation rules and learn them. Have friends proofread your paper for you or use a computer with a spelling checker.

If a professor or teaching assistant becomes concerned about your writing, he/she may refer you to the Writing Center. Such a referral is not meant as a put-down, but rather, it is designed to ensure that a student has an optimal chance to develop his/her skills in written communication. The Writing Center, located in Room 206 in the Rockefeller Library, is staffed by students who are familiar with the diverse writing needs of students. The center has a useful collection of books and articles on rhetoric, grammar, organization and learning disabilities. Many students have found that bringing rough drafts of a paper into the Writing Center helps them to organize that paper and helps them to organize future papers as well. The Writing Fellows are a talented group of students from various concentrations who have undergone an intensive writing seminar. A list of courses in which Writing Fellows assist students is available each semester. If your writing skills are weak, you may wish to enroll in at least one of these courses each semester. Some Writing Fellows have had special training and experience in helping students with learning disabilities. Ask Dean Shaw for a referral to one of these Fellows.

Computer Word Processing. Most students with learning disabilities have found a word processor to be an essential tool to help them master the process of writing. Learn the word processing program well enough that the computer is helping you as much as it can.

Self-Advocacy. Self-advocacy is a two-step process. The first step is to accept and learn about your own disability. Once you’ve been tested and declared as a person with learning disabilities, you must acknowledge and accept your disability.

You can’t advocate for yourself until you admit your learning disability is real, and understand that having a disability is not a negative. Part of being learning disabled means you need accommodations so you can perform at your best. Every individual has different needs; as a student, you should investigate your own disability, learning style, and the accommodations which may be necessary. Read your diagnosis and study it until your understand it. Gaining this self- knowledge will help in the advocating process.

Once you accept your own learning disability without prejudice, you are ready for the second step: advocating for your needs. As a learning disabled student, you have the right to accommodations, and a responsibility to ensure those accommodations are made. It is unrealistic to assume all of your professors will be informed about learning disabilities. Therefore, it is the job of the student to help educate professors and others about the impact of learning disabilities on the learning process. In order to effectively advocate for yourself, you should approach your professors at the beginning of the semester and identify yourself, as well as your needs for accommodations. The majority of professors will cooperate; however, if you are met with resistance, you should contact Dean Shaw for assistance in helping that professor to understand that accommodations are vital in order to receive a fair, equitable education.

Counseling Resources. For many students with learning disabilities, the emotional problems, the feelings of stupidity and self-doubt, are often worse than the learning disability itself. Here is a brief description of some of the counseling services which Brown offers its student population.

• Resident Counselors, upperclassmen who live in freshmen units (and have been briefed on learning disabilities), are available to help freshmen deal with any problems or questions, whether social or academic.
  
  
• Student-to-Student is a peer counseling group you can call if you need to talk to someone other than your RC.
  
  
• Psychological Services, located on the second floor of Rhode Island Hall, helps students cope with the stresses of academic life. They have a special interest in helping students with learning disabilities do well at the University. You might also want to check out the Resource Center, located on the first floor of Rhode Island Hall. Here you can find out about leave-taking, GISPS, internships, community involvement projects, independent concentrations and other curricular options.
  
  
• Career Planning Services, located in Pembroke Hall on Meeting Street, has a fine career library and career counselors to help you find out where you might be headed. It may be helpful to tell the career counselor that you have a learning disability so that he or she can better advise you.
  
  
• BAND (Brown Alumni Network for Disabilities) is organized by Career Planning Services, and they have a list of Brown alumni willing to help students with questions about careers, graduate schools, and other issues.
  
  
• The Center for the Advancement of College Teaching, founded by Dean Sheridan, provides a forum for faculty and graduate teaching assistants to discuss pedagogical issues in higher education, with a special focus on being aware of individual learning styles.
  
  
• Deans. The Deans at Brown are available to help you clarify your goals, career aspirations, academic situation and personal struggles. Dean Shaw (Room 313, x2315) coordinates services for students with learning disabilities and advises LD students on academic and related issues.

Administrative Policies

Brown University was the first selective university in the country to formally acknowledge and try to deal with the needs of students with learning disabilities. These students are expected to meet the same standards as all other students, though they may require certain adjustments in the procedures they use in meeting those standards. If an identifiable group of students requires a particular resource to succeed at Brown, the University attempts to provide it. Our services for students with learning disabilities are consistent with this policy. As this booklet illustrates, many services designed for all Brown students are particularly helpful for students with learning disabilities. In addition, certain administrative procedures have been established specifically for students with learning disabilities.

• Brown refers students to specialists in learning disorders to diagnose students and to provide professional tutoring for individual students.
  
  
• At the student’s request, a note is sent to some or all of the student’s professors, requesting accommodations such as additional time and/or a quiet room for examinations, the tape recording of lectures, or other modifications in the course procedures.
  
  
• A student with a serious learning disability may petition to take less than a normal load each semester, completing requirements for the degree in more than four years. In such cases, the student pays a pro-rated tuition charge each semester.

Final Words

Students with learning disabilities are frequently at a disadvantage in a competitive college. This does not mean that a learning disability should act as a barrier to securing a liberal arts education. On the contrary, if you are identified as having a learning disability and can learn to accept and deal with it, you can achieve academic success. Indeed, students with learning disabilities often see things in a new light, which can be a definite advantage in a college that values creative thinking.

Bibliography

Barkley, R. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Handbook for Diagnosis and Treatment. NY: Guilford Press, 1990.

Brinckerfhoff, Loring; Shaw, Stand; & McGuire, Joan. Promoting Postsecondary Education for Students with Learning Disabilities. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed, 1993.

Clarke, Louise. Can’t Read, Can’t Write, Can’t Talk Too Good Either: How to Recognize and Overcome Dyslexia in Your Child. New York: Penguin, 1975.

Hampshire, Susan. Susan’s Story: An Autobiographical Account of My Struggle with Dyslexia. NY: St. Martin’s, 1982.

Scheiber, Barbara & Talpers, Jeanne. Unlocking Potential: College and Other Choices for Learning Disabled People: A Step-By-Step Guide. Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1986.

Simpson, Eileen. Reversals: A Personal Account of Victory Over Dyslexia. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.

Velluntino, Frank R. Dyslexia. Scientific American, Vol. 256, No. 3, March, 1987, pp. 34-41.

Vogel, Susan A. & Adelman, Pamela. Success for College Students with Learning Disabilities. NY: Springer-Verlag, 1993.

Wender, Paul H. The Hyperactive Child, Adolescent, and Adult: Attention Deficit Disorder Throughout the Lifespan. NY: Oxford University Press, 1987.

West, Thomas. In the Mind’s Eye. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1991.

Credits

This booklet was first published in 1984 as Dyslexics at Brown. This edition, the fifth, was published in July, 1993.

Single copies of this booklet are available for $1.00. Send a check, made out to “Brown University,” and a stamped, self-addressed envelope (with two first-class stamps) to:

Box 1875
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912

Multiple copies are available for $1.00 each by sending a check for the appropriate amount to the same address.

This booklet may be reproduced without charge by other institutions if it is reproduced in full and appropriate credit is given to Brown University.

Dedication

This booklet is dedicated to Harriet W. Sheridan, former Professor of English and Dean of the College at Brown University. Dean Sheridan created an awareness about students with learning disabilities at Brown and initiated a support program for these students. As a board member of the Orton Dyslexia Society and the American Association of Higher Education, she made both organizations aware of the strengths and the needs of students with learning disabilities in higher education. Dean Sheridan died in 1992, but her work lives on in many schools and colleges in this country.