Videos

Learning differences go to college

Stuart N. Robinson, Ph.D. - Licensed Psychologist - Live More Simply, Inc, - Dallas, TX -- Watch a video of what it's like to be someone who learns differently, or see excerpts from a panel discussion held at SMU in spring 2007.

About 45 million Americans - 15 percent of the population - have some form of learning disability. Most likely you know such a person, are related to one or are one yourself.

Most learning and attention disorders are diagnosed while students are in grade school, where they receive special attention to help them along. But when students reach college, their learning differences become amplified because of tougher curricula, increased workloads and the absence of supportive family members.

On this Web page, you’ll find suggestions on how students with learning differences, their professors and their parents can work together as a team to ensure a successful college experience.

In this panel discussion, for example, Alexa Taylor, SMU learning disabilities specialist, promotes faculty understanding, while recent graduate Matt Tunnell (’07) shares his coping strategies and junior Jayme Clemente describes the pros and cons of taking medication.

The panel was sponsored by SMU’s Students for New Learning, an organization in its fourth year that meets monthly to provide support, share strategies and raise awareness of learning disabilities and ADHD on campus.

Parents can learn more about their role in helping their college students face new challenges in the question-and-answer with SMU experts and students, while SMU Psychology Lecturer Stuart Robinson offers teaching strategies for faculty. 

“At the college level,” says Rebecca Marin, coordinator of services for students with disabilities at SMU, “students who seek special services must advocate for themselves. This takes a considerable amount of organizational skill, time management and responsibility.”

Clemente, an art history major and the president of Students for New Learning (SNL), credits her parents’ lifelong involvement and SMU’s resources, such as the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center, for her success. She adds that SNL has grown into a supportive network for its members.

“Our goal is to educate people who aren’t familiar with different learning styles to understand the shoes we have to walk in,” she says. “We also try to instill confidence in each other – in who we are and how we learn. We just do things differently.”

This week (Oct. 31–Nov. 3, 2007) in Dallas at the International Dyslexia Association annual conference, two SMU faculty members will share their experiences reaching students with learning differences. Patricia G. Mathes, director of the Institute for Reading Research at SMU, will speak at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31, on effective practices and research findings for English language learners with reading difficulties, and Karen Vickery, director of the Learning Therapy Program at SMU¹s School of Education and Human Development, will speak Thursday, Nov. 1, at 10:30 a.m. on "Teaching the Teachers: Effective Models for Colleges and Universities."

Some of the national statistics compiled by Bridges to Practice, a project of the Florida Department of Education, include:

• Of the 6% of all undergraduate students who reported having a disability, 29% reported having a learning disability. (Source: National Center for Education Statistics)
   
• 40% of full-time college freshmen with disabilities attending 4-year colleges reported having a learning disability. (Source: Heath Resource Center, 2001)
   
• 29.3% of students with reported learning disabilities who received bachelor's degrees applied to graduate school compared to approximately 40% in the overall population. (Source: National Center for Education Statistics)
   
• Approximately 85% of all individuals with learning disabilities have difficulties in the area of reading. (Source: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)

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