College Planning for Students with Learning Disabilities (continued)

Potential Areas of Interpersonal Problems

Students with learning disabilities often have serious interpersonal problems in the dormitories and negative interactions with professors as they seek help or ask for accommodations. In the college setting, where students are expected to be independent and function as self-advocates, these problems soon become apparent.

Many students with learning disabilities are unable to perceive intuitively the verbal and nonverbal cues that identify appropriate behavior in various social situations. Families and teachers of these students often shelter them from potentially stressful or threatening social situations and thereby prevent them from developing the social skills they need to function successfully in the outside world. The frequent inability of these students to maintain healthy and cordial relations with their friends and with adults reflects their poor social skills development.

Characteristics of the Postsecondary Institution

High school counselors are skilled at helping typical students select colleges. However, a student with learning disabilities needs more diverse and detailed information from high school personnel than do typical students. Such a student needs to investigate admissions procedures carefully. How he or she compares to the typical entering student in terms of preparation and performance is critical in preventing a frustrating and possibly short-lived college experience.

A number of academic considerations are also critical for a student with learning disabilities. The availability of precollege courses, developmental and remedial courses, and course waiver provisions is essential information. The size of the institution itself, as well as the size of classes (particularly the number of large lecture classes) may be especially important to a student who has any of the social or interpersonal problems noted earlier.

The Learning Disabilities Program

Once a student's personal strengths and weaknesses have been evaluated and the elements of appropriate postsecondary institutions have been considered, it is time to examine specific support services. A student with specific disabilities in mathematics might not require support services if the postsecondary institutions of choice do not require coursework in this field. On the other hand, a student who has achieved in modified high school classes without support services might require extensive assistance in a competitive academic university program. The same student might continue to manage independently in an open-enrollment, 2-year college with a vocational-technical focus. Secondary personnel must help each student analyze his or her specific needs and match them with the availability and quality of support services available.

Making the Final Selection

Once the general characteristics of appropriate settings have been determined, the list of serious choices should narrow to five or so good candidates. The schools must then be contacted, interviews arranged, and family visits planned. Campus tours and the opportunity to sit in on classes must be given particular attention, since it is extremely important for a student who has a learning disability to personally judge the level of difficulty of the instruction, observe the interaction of the students, and gain for himself or herself a sense of the relationship between the students and the faculty.