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Not so long ago, it was widely believed that learning disabilities
– such as dyslexia, dysgraphia or dyscalcula – emerged
when a child first tackled academic subjects in 1st grade, at age
6 or 7, and disappeared when a student left academic pursuits behind
as an adult. We know now, however, that learning disabilities are
lifelong in nature. Assessments of the pre-reading skills of very
young children at 3 or 4 are accurate predictors of reading difficulties
to come, and while many adults who’ve benefited from quality
education targeted to meet their needs do learn to compensate and
to a degree overcome their learning disabilities, they never actually
go away.
To further complicate matters for adults with learning disabilities,
the information age has ushered in a corollary phenomenon, that
of lifelong learning. In a world in which the typical individual
can expect to undertake not only multiple jobs throughout the life
span but indeed 2, 3 or more careers, the academic pressure to read,
learn and remember new material never ceases.
The prevalence of learning disabilities has spiraled ever higher
among students in American schools over recent years. There are
many explanations for this: diagnostics are better able to detect
learning disabilities; environmental hazards such as mercury in
fish, agricultural pesticides, air pollutants, etc., pose increasing
levels of risk during fetal development and to young children; poor
instructional methods have left disadvantaged children behind and
struggling with reading and learning difficulties that could be
misdiagnosed as learning disabilities. Whatever the set of factors
causing the rise in students with learning disabilities, one fact
is clear: there were many, many children a decade or a generation
ago who had learning disabilities that were never diagnosed and
who never received appropriate treatment or instructional assistance.
What became of those people with learning disabilities who are
now adults? Many of them dropped out of high school, frustrated
by school failures. If they were girls, statistics indicate that
a very high proportion of them became pregnant almost immediately
upon leaving school, seeking life fulfillment outside of the academic
experience that proved to be so unrewarding. If they were men and
lucky, they found jobs – for the most part entry level and
dead end jobs – and got on with life as best they could with
low literacy skills. (One individual of note sold beer in the KingDome
in Seattle for 17 years before being diagnosed with learning disabilities:
he went to college, attained a master’s degree and is now
a prominent advocate working for the U.S. Department of Education
in Washington, D.C.)
Those not so fortunate turned to crime or became victims of crime,
seeking medicinal treatment for their neurological disorders in
bottles and vials not found in better pharmacies. Although the Department
of Justice, Bureau of Statistics has not been tracking disabilities
among our nation’s prison populations, educated estimates
range from 40% to 65% or even higher for inmates and parolees who
have learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, and psychiatric
or addictive disorders, or some combination thereof. As many as
65% of the children incarcerated in juvenile correctional facilities
prove to be eligible for special education services.
Assessments were run on all enrollees of the Kansas welfare system
shortly after the reform measures instituting the Temporary Assistance
to Needy Families (TANF) program were passed. 36% of the women tested
as having learning disabilities or mild mental retardation. Several
years later, after TANF moved the easier-to-place recipients into
employment, the hard core unemployed who remained on the rolls represented
an even higher proportion of people with disabilities. Over half
of the TANF caseload today can be assumed to have learning disabilities,
mental retardation, psychiatric or addictive disorders, or a combination
thereof.
There is a brighter side to the picture for adults with learning
disabilities, of course. Any number of more affluent children attended
excellent and very specialized private schools or benefited from
top-drawer public special education systems, usually in affluent
communities. Successful students with learning disabilities have
gone on to attain graduate degrees at distinguished universities,
and some have authored books to encourage their peers and proteges.
Yet even among the highest achievers, life with learning disabilities
is not always rosy. There is the bright young woman who managed
to obtain a master’s degree but cannot pass the Pennsylvania
MCATS to enter med school; there is the certified special education
teacher who cannot now pass the new high stakes teacher exams in
Virginia; there is the priest with a master’s degree unable
to enroll in the doctoral program of his choice due to entrance
exams of a design he’ll never pass.
Add to the mix the fact that 50% of learning disabilities appear
to be inherited genetically, and one realizes that all adults with
learning disabilities are at high risk of having offspring facing
the same kind of challenges and heartaches in school and in life
that they themselves have had to face.
Who is there to help adults with learning disabilities? There are
six nationally recognized learning disabilities organizations in
the United States (who jointly belong to the Coordinated Campaign
for Learning Disabilities and the somewhat more broadly defined
National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities). All of them
focus on children and educational issues exclusively – all
of them except the Learning Disabilities Association of America.
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