Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

Learning Disabilities

In any thorough discussion of literacy assessment and adult learners, there must be some attention given to the issue of learning disabilities and their impact on (and our understanding of) assessment results. Research tells us that in adult literacy programs, between 30 and 60% of participants have some kind of learning disability. Literacy practitioners must have some understanding of learning disabilities, of how they affect learning and how students can best demonstrate what they know and can do.

At some point in the assessment process, you may suspect that a learner has a learning disability. As literacy practitioners, we cannot diagnose learning disabilities – that must be done by a psychiatrist, certified psychologist or other licensed specialist. However, given the large percentage of students who do have these difficulties, we do need to understand their impact on our students and on our programs.

Discussing learning disabilities in detail is beyond the scope of this module. If a learning disability has been diagnosed, or if you suspect one, you can work with the learner to incorporate strategies that may lead to greater success. For more information, however, be sure to visit the websites of both the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario (http://www.ldao.ca) and the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada (http://www.ldac-taac.ca). Both organizations have a wealth of resources and provide many links to valuable tools and information that you can use in your program.

You can find out more about strategies, and about screening for learning disabilities, thanks to two excellent resources produced by Literacy Link South Central (http://www.llsc.on.ca). The first one is Learning Disabilities Training: A New Approach and the second one is Learning Disabilities Training: Phase 2. Both resources are available in their entirety in PDF format just by clicking on them.

Another excellent source of information can be found at the CESBA (http://www.cesba.com) (Ontario Association of Adult and Continuing Education School Board Administrators) website: http://www.LBSpractitionertraining.com. Refer to Module #3: Working with LBS Adults with Learning Disabilities.

Not only do these, and other resources, include excellent information about learning disabilities, but they also contain samples of screening tools and links to other tools and resources available on the Internet. All of these resources are available to LBS programs, and the print resources are also available to borrow from AlphaPlus Centre (http://alphaplus.ca).

There are also many other informative resources about learning disabilities available on the internet. Simply go to Google (http://www.google.ca) or your favourite search engine, type in “learning disabilities and adult literacy”, and you will find a wealth of resources at your fingertips.

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