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The Counseling Corner
When college students need extra help
By the American Counseling Association
What effect might a learning disability have on a student’s ability to succeed in college? It’s a question that’s often ignored in the excitement of heading off to college, but it’s one that should seriously be considered by many students and their parents.
Fortunately, it’s a question that most colleges have begun to address in recent years. However, while the majority of colleges today offer, at no cost, special programs, tutoring and counseling to assist students with learning disabilities and special needs, it’s still the student’s responsibility to seek out needed help.
Far too often students, and their parents, are reluctant to acknowledge the problem, feeling that admitting a learning disability will have them labeled as “ slow, ” not college ready, and less intelligent than their peers.
The reality, however, is that learning disabilities most commonly coexist with average to superior intelligence. Learning disabilities appear to result from some neurological impairment that affects how someone receives, perceives, processes, retains and expresses information, not from lack of intelligence. Students with learning disabilities can learn, they just don’t learn like other students.
Someone with a learning disability may take longer to decode words when reading, or may have a limited attention span that makes it harder to stick to a task, and may require re-reading material several times in order to comprehend it.
In high school, such problems are easier to hide or miss. Students compensate by putting in extra study time and getting help from parents and friends. Rather than seeing a learning disability, the student’s academic struggles may be attributed to being bored or not applying himself.
College, however, is a much more demanding environment.
For a college student with a known, or suspected learning disability, it’s essential to talk to a counselor at the college to help diagnose the extent of the problem and to identify available help. From tutoring help to selecting professors willing to help students needing extra assistance, most schools have a variety of free programs to help their students succeed.
Being unwilling to admit to a learning disability isn’t a sign of strength, but rather just a bad decision that will make college work much more difficult and frustrating, and that can lead to failure.
There have always been college students with learning disabilities. Those who identify their problems and take advantage of free available help are the ones who succeed and get the most out of their college experience.
“ The Counseling Corner ” is provided as a public service by the American Counseling Association, the nation’s largest organization of counseling professionals. Learn more at the ACA web site, www.counseling.org.
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