Inclusive and Supportive Education Congress International Special Education Conference Inclusion: Celebrating Diversity? 1st - 4th August 2005. Glasgow, Scotland

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LEARNING SUPPORT TO COMPLEMENT INCLUSION: THE ROLES OF A LEARNING
CENTRE IN MANAGING THE NEEDS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WITH SPECIFIC
LEARNING DISABILITIES

Dr Emmanuel Manalo
The University of Auckland, New Zealand
e.manalo@auckland.ac.nz

The purpose of this paper is to describe how a learning centre can, in collaboration with disability services and other sections of a university, effectively provide for the multi-faceted needs of students with specific learning disabilities (SLD). It will explain how the current processes for supporting students with SLD have evolved, and how these processes are executed and managed on a day-to-day basis. The range of requirements of students with SLD will be outlined, as well as the range of strategies that are employed to meet those requirements. In addition, contentious issues (such as what special exam conditions to allow students with hearing impairment), the ongoing challenges (such as many students with SLD being poorly motivated to address the basic literacy and/or numeracy problems they are experiencing – being interested only in obtaining special exam conditions), and the ways that these are being dealt with, will be discussed. Case examples of the academic progress made by some students with SLD, and some of the methods the Student Learning Centre at the University of Auckland uses for monitoring the usefulness of the instruction and support it provides, will be described.

Introduction

Individuals with SLD perform inadequately in areas of academic achievement despite seemingly adequate intellectual skills and educational opportunity. Areas of academic achievement that could be affected include reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics. Most estimates of the prevalence of SLD in school-aged children put the figure at around 5–6% (e.g., Chapman, St. George, & van Kraayenoord, 1984; National Research Centre on Learning Disabilities, 2004; Walsh, 1979). Because the areas affected are usually considered as essential to satisfactory performance in school, many with SLD do not progress onto tertiary education. It is difficult to estimate the actual numbers of students with SLD at the tertiary level as they may not want to disclose their disability for fear of it having a negative impact on how their capabilities might be perceived. However, a survey undertaken by Chapman, Tunmer, and Allen (2003) of the general adult population in New Zealand found that 7.7% reported a learning disability. The same survey found that only 11.6% of those who believed they had a learning disability attained post-secondary school qualifications, compared to 26% of those who reported no learning disability.

The diverse needs of students with SLD do not readily fit into the traditional services provided in most tertiary institutions, like health, counselling, and careers advisory services. Unlike individuals with severe forms of learning disabilities for whom particular courses and training programmes are usually developed (see, for example, Logan, 2002), students with SLD are essentially the same as other students (except for their specific learning disability). However, while tertiary students would normally be expected at some stage to get physically ill, to encounter stress and emotional challenges, and to need advice about their future career directions, they would not normally be expected to need instruction and support in relation to basic literacy and numeracy. It is generally assumed that they would have mastered such skills by the time they enter tertiary studies. This is where the important difference lies: students with SLD, who might otherwise be capable of succeeding in tertiary courses of study, do experience serious difficulties in basic – and usually assumed – literacy and/or numeracy skills, and would be unfairly disadvantaged without the necessary support mechanisms being made available to them.

The situation at the University of Auckland

At the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the Student Learning Centre (SLC) works in collaboration with Disability Services (DS) to ensure that the assessment, instruction, and support needs of students with SLD are effectively met. The SLC is an academic centre that reports to the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), while DS reports to the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Equal Opportunities). The SLC’s main purpose is to provide learning instruction and support to students, and to assist those who encounter problems in their studies. DS, on the other hand, provides assistance and support to students who have any form of disability, whether permanent or temporary.

While the provision of support, assistance and reasonable accommodation to students with physical, sensory, and psychological disabilities has been reasonably well defined and handled by DS (in consultation with University Health when necessary), the provision where students with SLD are concerned had not always been very clear. For example, in the past, students with known or suspected SLD could be referred to the doctors at University Health, the Counselling Service, the Applied Psychology Unit (now no longer in existence), DS, or the SLC. Sometimes recommendations are made to the Examination Office for special examination conditions based solely on assessment reports the student had obtained from an outside agency or service provider.

The problem with this arrangement was that there was considerable variance about the provision of advice, support, and special examination conditions to students with SLD. There was also a lack of clarity about what exactly constituted a SLD that (for the sake of fairness) required reasonable accommodation in examination conditions.

The current arrangement where students with SLD are concerned is that they are referred to the SLC for assessment. Depending on the assessment results and what the student requires, the student can then be provided with instruction and support by SLC tutors and/or referred to DS for other forms of support and services (e.g., notetakers; provision of text on audio tape). If the SLD constitutes a significant performance deficit (see explanation below), a recommendation for special examination conditions is made to Examinations Office.

There are two staff members of the SLC with the necessary experience and qualifications to undertake psychometric assessment of students with learning disabilities: the Director, who undertook his PhD research in an area of SLD, and a part-time Senior Tutor with a postgraduate diploma in applied psychology.

Defining SLD for special exam conditions

For the purposes of providing special examination conditions, a student with SLD is defined as someone who has reading and writing/spelling performance that is significantly below the adult level. Other forms of disabilities that could impact on exam performance (e.g., attentional deficits) are dealt with on a case by case basis – but significant deficit must always be established, and it must be possible to demonstrate that without special exam conditions the student would be unfairly disadvantaged.

The following are not included as constituting SLD that require special exam conditions. However, appropriate instruction and support can be provided for these students as required.

• Other characteristics of “dyslexia” (such as confusion with left and right, difficulties with direction) but without the significant deficits in reading and writing;
• Deficits in reading and writing that are commensurate with the student’s general ability (additional assessment procedures are undertaken when such a case is suspected);
• Deficits in reading and writing that stem from the student’s lack of mastery of the English language;
• Discrepancies in the students’ areas of learning strengths (e.g., they may be above average on visual processing ability but only average on verbal ability) but without the demonstrated significant deficits in reading and writing;
• Discrepancies in the students’ learning styles (e.g., they may be high on tactile learning measures but low on visual learning measures) but without the demonstrated significant deficits in reading and writing.

Special examination conditions

Special examination conditions are handled centrally by the Examinations Office. The SLC (the Director, Acting Director, or the Senior Tutor noted earlier) makes recommendations to the Examinations Office where the needs of students with SLD are concerned.

Extra time is the most common recommendation made where significant deficits in reading and writing are detected. The student could get either 10 minutes or 20 minutes extra per hour of examination (these amounts are standards set by the Examinations Office). The decision on the 10 or 20 minutes extra time is made by the tutor who assessed the student based on the severity of the reading and writing problems detected.

In exceptionally rare cases, and where the reading and writing deficits detected are severe, a recommendation could also be made for a reader/writer to be provided to the student in his or her exams. A reader/writer is usually reserved for students with sensory and/or physical disabilities that make it impossible for them to read and/or write. However, this special exam condition has now been accepted as an option for students with severe SLD who otherwise would not be able to satisfactorily read their examinations scripts/instructions, or write their answers within the time allowed in the exams and in a manner that would be understandable for their markers.

The arrangement between the SLC and DS

Excellent communication lines have been established between the SLC and DS. DS refers students with SLD or suspected SLD to the SLC for assessment and/or instruction and support. In turn, with the students’ verbal agreement, the SLC copies SLD assessment reports to DS for their records. When appropriate the SLC also refers students with SLD back to DS for other services that the office provides.

Both the SLC and DS are represented in an Examination Debrief Group, a group set up within the University which meets once a semester to discuss and deal with issues that arose from the previous semester’s exams (including special exam conditions and its effective administration).

DS also receives funding from the government for the work it does in supporting students with disabilities. In recent years, an arrangement has been made between DS and the SLC so that DS funds (on an hourly basis) the work the SLC does in assessing and providing instruction and support to students with SLD (as well as other forms of disabilities).

Assessment, advising, and teaching of students with LD

There are many students with SLD – particularly those who have previously been diagnosed and given special exam conditions at school or other tertiary institutions – who only wish to be assessed and, when/if their SLD is confirmed, get a recommendation for special exam conditions. It is as if they have no motivation to address the source of the difficulties they experience in reading and writing/spelling. These students may be happy enough to seek advice about particular assignments they are working on but are unlikely to want regular times to work on their reading and writing/spelling skills.

There are a number of possible reasons these students do not wish to spend time working on their reading and writing skills. They may simply feel that they have already “been there, done that” in school. They may feel that they do not have time to spend on these sessions because of the workload associated with their university courses. Or they may feel that there is little more they can do to improve their reading and writing skills, and that spending more time on tuition would prove of little or no value to them. They may additionally feel that any effort they put into improving their reading and writing skills would have little or no direct influence on the grades they get for their courses.

At the SLC, tutors who assess students with SLD mainly use reading and spelling tests like the Boder Test of Reading and Spelling Patterns, and the Dyslexia Adult Screening Test (DAST). When necessary they use other tests (e.g., subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) to pinpoint associated areas of difficulty. The tutors also discuss extensively with the student the areas where they experience difficulties, looking at their written work and observing their reading and writing performance as may be necessary.

The tutors also advise the students with SLD about instruction, support and resources that are available, as well as special exam conditions that could be recommended (when appropriate). The student’s wishes, as far as dealing with the SLD is concerned, are carefully discussed with them.

The majority of students ask for a recommendation of special exam conditions (usually extra time) when these are appropriate. Some also make appointments to see the SLD tutors or other tutors at the SLC for assistance with or advice in assignments they work on during their studies. As noted, however, a lower than ideal proportion of students seek regular remedial instruction for reading and writing.

When students with SLD do seek remedial instruction in improving their reading and writing skills, the tutors usually work on improving these skills using the text material from their current subject courses. Hence, for example, the tutor might use the current chapter the student is reading in his or her psychology text book to identify words that the student finds difficult to read. The tutor can then explain to the student ways of approaching the reading of each of the words identified, as well as how to remember their correct reading. In a similar fashion, the tutor might go through notes the student has taken to identify words that he or she misspells. This approach of primarily using the student’s current reading materials and notes is used partly because there are not many teaching materials in reading and spelling available for university level adults. There are quite a few for children, but often their subject matter and vocabulary are not appropriate for adult students.

Recent developments

Because of the current lack of reading and spelling instructional materials suitable for adults at the tertiary level, the SLC has recently entered into another collaborative project with DS – this time to develop such materials. At the time of writing this paper, the project is in its second year of operation.

The first year of the project in 2004 saw the development and provision of two one-hour workshops: one dealing with spelling, and the other with handwriting. A total of 23 students attended these workshops (each were offered twice during the year). In addition, the materials developed for these workshops were able to be utilized in one-to-one work with a number of students who needed to improve their spelling and handwriting skills.

Work is also currently being undertaken on producing resources that would be made available on the web. The resources will include not only useful information about SLD and skills development, but also links to other resources available on the web that may be helpful to individuals (and more specifically, adults) with SLD, and people who work with and/or provide support for them. This work began in 2004 and is continuing with an aim of having the first version completed and up on the web sometime during the latter half of 2005.

Academic progress of students with SLD

The majority of the students with SLD who use the services provided by the SLC and DS do continue with their studies and complete the courses they enrol in. For example, 35 of the 51 students (68.6%) with various forms of SLD who used the SLC in 2004 have returned to continue their studies in 2005 or, as in the case of one of the students, has not returned because he already successfully completed the degree he was enrolled in. The present author is also aware that at least several of the remaining 16 students have every intention of returning but, for personal and other reasons, they just have not managed to do so in 2005. For example, one of the students who obtained an excellent mark in the course she took in Semester 1 of 2004, withdrew from her studies in Semester 2 of the same year because she was finding it extremely difficult to find time to devote to her studies and provide home schooling for her son who also has learning disabilities. She was providing home schooling for her son because he was not responding well to instruction provided in the regular classroom, and the arrangement for private tuition he was getting (with a small group of other children who had learning disabilities) discontinued. This student can now only return to her university studies once she has established satisfactory school/tuition arrangements for her son.

As noted earlier, the students with SLD who enter university studies are often very capable and as competent as their peers – with the exception of the area in which they have the specific learning disability. Some in fact excel. One student who has SLD in reading and spelling and who started to use the SLC in 2000 when she was an undergraduate science student is now undertaking her PhD studies. In fact, she worked as a part-time tutor at the SLC in 2004, teaching workshops and providing individual assistance/advice to students in her subject area. She would have continued in this role in 2005 had her scholarship conditions not limited the number of hours she could spend on paid work.

Other important issues

One contentious issue that came up a few years ago was whether students with hearing impairment require special conditions (extra time) in their exams. The argument against providing extra time was that these students’ reading and writing skills are not affected – only their hearing, hence they are not unfairly disadvantaged in a written examination setting.

The above argument against special exam conditions for students with hearing impairment appears initially convincing. However, an investigation into research in this area revealed that students who are born profoundly deaf do have significant language use difficulties (as for them the whole concept of words is quite different as they have never heard them), with the consequent disadvantage in reading and writing tasks (see, for example, Kelly, Albertini, & Shannon, 2001; Walker, Adams, Coverdale, McCracken, & Murfitt, 1996). Hence, while not all with a hearing impairment will require special exam conditions – in the same way that not all with SLD will require those special conditions – some will (particularly those who are profoundly deaf), otherwise they would be unfairly disadvantaged. Thus, assessment (where possible) of their language impairment (reading and writing, including use of words) is necessary to determine the need for special examination conditions.

Another issue that in recent years has also had some attention is that it is often not adequate to simply provide students who have temporary physical disabilities (e.g., a broken writing hand or arm) with a writer and extra time in exams – they would also need to be given appropriate advice about how they might effectively modify the way they approach their revision as well as exam taking strategies. More students with these kinds of temporary disabilities are now being referred to the SLC for advice during the weeks leading up to final exams. The SLC and DS now also collaborate in offering students using a writer in their exams for the first time with practice sessions ahead of their exams – so that the students can feel more comfortable with, and work out how they can be most effective using, the exam dictation process.

Some conclusions and future directions

The closer working relationship between the SLC and DS at the University of Auckland has resulted in a more systematic and consistent approach to the provision of assessment, advice, instruction and support to students with SLD. It has also brought to the forefront a number of issues that need to be addressed to effectively reduce unfair disadvantage to students with SLD (as well as other forms of disabilities), and equip these students with the skills necessary to overcome and/or manage better their disabilities. This work in seeking enhanced ways for providing instruction and support to students with SLD (as well as other forms of disabilities) is important if tertiary institutions are to take seriously their role and aspirations in being inclusive and facilitating success in individuals with the potential to succeed in higher education. The vast majority of students with SLD have the potential to succeed in tertiary studies, and this potential is enhanced when they are provided fair accommodations, and the necessary instruction and support to reduce the negative impact of their learning disabilities on their academic performance.

Some of the areas that require further work have already been noted in this paper – including the continuing development of suitable reading and spelling instructional materials for tertiary level adults with SLD. It is also important to carefully monitor the academic progress that assisted students with LD make, as a way of properly evaluating the effectiveness of instruction and support they are provided. Favourable retention figures from the 2004 cohort of students with SLD who used the SLC and DS have been reported here. Other appropriate forms of evaluating the effectiveness of such instruction and support (e.g., obtaining feedback from the students themselves; examining the progress they make in reading and spelling skills acquisition) also need to be investigated. Because work with students who have SLD can be very time consuming, it is important that appropriate evaluation mechanisms are put in place, and that judgements about the usefulness of support programmes are based on sound evidence rather than just hunches.

References

Chapman, J. W., St. George, R., & van Kraayenoord, C. E. (1984). Identification of “learning disabled” pupils in a New Zealand Form 1 sample. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 10, 141-149.

Chapman, J. W., Tunmer, W. E., & Allen, R. (2003). Findings from the International Adult Literacy Survey on the incidence and correlates of learning disabilities in New Zealand: Is something rotten in the state of New Zealand? Dyslexia, 9, 75–98.

Kelly, R. R., Albertini, J. A., & Shannon, N. B. (2001). Deaf students’ reading comprehension and strategy use. American Annals of the Deaf, 146 (5), 385–400.

Logan, E. (2002). Springfield: Education for adults with learning disabilities. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 30, 43–46.

National Research Center on Learning Disabilities. (2004). NRCLD information digest # 3: Researcher Consensus Statement. Retrieved March 31, 2005, from http://nrcld.org/html/information/articles/digests/digest3.html

Walker, L. M., Adams, L., Coverdale, R., McCracken, M., & Murfitt, K. (1996). Assessment issues in higher educational settings for deaf students. Report for the Cooperative Projects for Higher Education for Students with Disability, Department of Education, Employment Training and Youth Affairs, Victoria, Australia.

Walsh, D. F. (1979). Project CHISRLD: A report on the incidence of specific learning difficulties in Form 1 pupils in New Zealand Primary and intermediate schools. Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

The author is grateful to Disability Services of the University of Auckland for part funding the presentation of this paper at the Inclusive and Supportive Education Congress, Glasgow, Scotland, August 1–4, 2005.

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