Students with Learning Disabilities

Implications of Learning Disabilities in the
Postsecondary Education Setting

Learning disabilities result from neurological differences that may alter an individual's ability to store, process, retrieve, or produce information. Some people with learning disabilities may have difficulty in only one of these areas; others may have difficulty in more than one. These difficulties may impact the following tasks:

• Reading
• Auditory processing
• Visual processing
• Writing
• Speaking
• Retrieving information from short-term memory
• Performing mathematical calculations

Students with learning disabilities by definition have average or better than average intelligence. These students often accommodate their disability by determining the ways they process and/or express information best and focusing on those. A person with dyslexia—a type of learning disability that affects reading—for example, may prefer to get books and lectures on tape as an accommodation.