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Karen Golembeski: I’ve often heard you advise those with learning disabilities to become successful and comfortable with talking about their learning disabilities and what they need from others to be successful. Why is it so important to let people know about your learning disability?
Sheldon Horowitz: It’s a very good question. If you were to look around the room and just try to pick out someone who you thought had learning disabilities, what would you be looking for? Would it be someone who was left-handed, someone wearing glasses, someone who you knew avoided doing math or someone who wasn’t a particularly avid reader? The truth is that there isn’t a sure-fire list of characteristics that typify everybody with learning disabilities, and LD manifests itself differently in different people. It’s not necessarily something that you notice unless the person with the learning disability is doing something like reading or spelling or math or those kinds of tasks that would demonstrate the kinds of trouble that they have that model their particular areas of weakness. People wouldn’t know about the presence of a learning disability necessarily unless it was made mention of and it could easily be mistaken for a reluctance to read, or a poor math learning ability, or spelling errors, or note-taking problems that were reflective not of the LD, but that were translated improperly as laziness or even a lack of effort.
During school years, the school is responsible for seeking out students with LD and making sure that they have the instruction and the support they need to succeed. However once a student has graduated from high school and moved on to college or to the workplace, the responsibility to disclose the presence of a learning disability and ask for help lies completely with the individual. This is a very important distinction, and for more information about when to share the presence of a learning disability, to whom you might share, how it’s best done, visit the LD.org website.
Karen Golembeski: Over the years I’m sure you’ve gathered some tips for keeping students with learning disabilities as well as their parents and teachers motivated and positive as they progress through school. Will you share some of these top tips with us?
Sheldon Horowitz: Motivation and perseverance is really, really important. Some of the very most interesting research that we have about learning disabilities — helping us understand what seems to make the most difference over time — comes from some work that was done in the area called success attributes. More than income level, more than parenting style, even more than overall intelligence, researchers have identified certain characteristics and behaviors. And, do you know what the Number One item is? The Number One item in that success attribute literature is self-awareness: a person’s understanding of the nature of their specific challenges and what he or she needs to be successful.
Successful individuals with LD don’t give up. They anticipate the help that they need and they find ways to get it in school, on the job, at home, and in the community. And they learn to be confident and outspoken self-advocates, first when they’re in school attending those decision-making meetings, those IEP meetings, even as early as middle school. As they get older, they love the mantra “no decisions made about me without me.” They’re part of the process. They develop a vocabulary. They know how to contribute to meaningful discussions about what they need to be successful. And clearly it takes a strong and well-informed group of adults, specifically parents and educators, working in close partnership with each other, to make all of this happen, but research tells us that it’s well worth the effort.
