I'VE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH A LEARNING DISABILITY OR ATTENTION-DEFICIT/
HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER.
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Understanding Your Disability.
Making Decisions about Education
Healing Psychological Wounds and Relationship Dysfunctions.
Learning Compensatory Skills: Academic, Vocational, and Interpersonal.
When you are diagnosed, the diagnosing professional will probably give you an oral or written explanation of your disability.Be sure to ask questions if you do not understand. Later you may want to practice explaining your disability to a family member or trusted friend. Can you simply and clearly define ADHD, LD, or whatever other disorder you may have? Can you summarize ways the disorder has affected you in the past, and make specific suggestions about what you will need in order to do your best? If not, you may want to schedule an additional session or two with the diagnosing professional.
Elementary or High School. As an elementary or high school student with a learning disability, ADHD, or another disorder affecting learning, you've been working at a considerable disadvantage: running the academic race uphill while other students run on a level plain. After diagnosis you can request academic accommodations (for example, extra time for tests and a quiet, distraction-free test-site) that will permit you to show what you can do. These academic accommodations will not give you an unfair advantage, any more than audiotaped textbooks will give a blind student an unfair advantage. Return to Top of Page
College. Before being diagnosed with a learning disability, ADHD, or another disorder affecting learning, you might have doubted your ability to succeed in college. After diagnosis you'll probably come to realize that you are quite capable of succeeding. As a college student you may have to work harder and longer than your non-disabled peers, but with appropriate accommodations and support services it's quite likely that you'll do better than you've ever done before.
Don't forget to apply for accommodations on standardized pre-college tests like the ACT and the SAT. When you are applying to take these tests, read the section on how to request disability accommodations. Note that the deadline for requesting accommodations may be earlier than the deadline for applying to take the examination.
Some colleges will give you special consideration for admission because of your disability; others won't, but will give you accommodations and services once you are admitted.
In your admissions essay, you may want to briefly discuss your learning disorder and how it has affected your academically. The people who read your essay may realize (as you yourself now realize) that you are an intelligent student who has done well in school and probably would have done even better if you hadn't had to contend with a disability.Return to Top of Page
Graduate or Pre-Professional School. If you've been diagnosed with a disorder affecting your learning, you are entitled to academic accommodations in graduate or pre-professional school. You can also request accommodations for standardized exams like the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), and the Medical School Admissions Test (MCAT). Be sure that your "certification of disability" is up-to-date; usually within 3-5 years of the time you request accommodations--unless you were an adult when you were originally assessed.Note that the deadline for submitting a request for accommodations on standardized tests may precede the deadline for submitting an application to take the test. Return to Top of Page
Making Decisions about Work
Your disability may be giving you problems at work. If so,
some good vocational counseling or career advising may help you
decide which of the following goals you want to pursue.
Modifying your work so your
disability doesn't interfere with your effectiveness. If you
are basically capable of performing the duties of your job, you
can request accommodations that will minimize the effects of your
disability. For example, a nurse who cannot "chart"
without making spelling errors might dictate her chart notations
to another employee.
Moving to another area within
the same organization: for example, a salesman with memory
problems that prevent him from recalling the names and product
numbers of all items marketed by the company might consider moving
from a sales to a management position.
Choosing another career altogether:
one that uses your strong skills and avoids your weak ones.
For example, if your disability makes it hard for you to keep
track of innumerable details, you may want to reconsider a career
as a conference planner.
Disabilities affecting learning can produce psychological wounds that date from a child's earliest years. At home and school the child may try hard but perform poorly. The child may be misunderstood or blamed for mistakes she can't help making, or "misbehavior" that is difficult for her to control. These mistakes and misunderstandings may continue in adulthood--in college, on the job, or in relationships--creating low self-esteem, depression, anxiety.
Individual psychotherapy can help heal psychological wounds, permitting people with learning disabilities or ADHD to see themselves as intelligent, competent, and successful despite the obstacles that their disabilities have put in their paths.
Couple or family therapy can improve the relationship dysfunctions that are sometimes created or worsened by learning disability or ADHD. With couples, the psychotherapist helps both people understand how disability affects their relationship; together they can make plans for dealing with the disability in a way that permits each partner--and the relationship--to grow. Parents often need information and support as they deal with their ADHD children; and of course all children in a family, disabled or non-disabled, also need information and support.Return to Top of Page
A good professional (learning specialist, vocational specialist, or psychotherapist) can help people with learning disorders acquire skills that will help them get over, under, or around the obstacles that their disabilities have put in their paths.
Students may profit from learning skills instruction in such areas as the following: focused reading (reading for the answers to specific questions instead of "just reading"); prewriting, writing, and rewriting techniques to improve essays and other writing assignments; note-taking methods; exam strategies; and ways of enhancing memory.
A careful analysis of a worker's on-the-job duties and the way he performs them can help a vocational specialist devise creative ways of maximizing strengths and minimizing weaknesses.
A psychotherapist can suggest techniques that will decrease blaming, fault-finding, and scapegoating, and improve communication in couple and family relationships.