Learning Disabilities in Adults

There are many factors that go into determining if an individual has a specific learning disability. The definition of what makes a learning disability has changed somewhat over the years, but the fundamental principle has remained the same. An individual has a learning disability when they have average to above average intellectual ability, but are struggling in one or more academic areas. Adults who have experienced lifelong struggles have often developed coping strategies but those strategies will not mask an undiagnosed learning disability during the assessment.

For anyone to exhibit a specific learning disability, one of two things must happen:

  • The person must exhibit an academic deficit that can be linked to a processing deficit in one of the areas assessed.
    For example low reading comprehension skills can be linked to weak verbal abilities.

    or

  • The person must exhibit a significant discrepancy between their overall ability level and one or more academic areas.
    This means that there is something (learning disability) that is keeping them from working to their potential in that particular area.

When we look at learning disabilities today, we start by determining how an individual processes and learns. We look at the following processing skills:

  1. Verbal Abilities

  2. Reasoning Abilities

  3. Long-Term Memory

  4. Short-Term Memory

  5. Auditory Processing

  6. Visual Processing

  7. Processing Speed

Each of these skills play a vital role in a person’s ability to learn, retain, and apply new information.

We then assess the following academic areas:

  • Basic Reading Skills

  • Reading Comprehension (both timed and untimed)

  • Reading Fluency

  • Phonological Processing

  • Math Calculations (both timed and untimed)

  • Math Reasoning

  • Written Expression

  • Oral Expression

  • Listening Comprehension

  • Spelling

Throughout the evaluation process, as discrepancies or significant weaknesses emerge, we may dig deeper into those areas by administering additional assessments. In addition, we will use the assessment information to make relevant recommendations for both work and home.

Diagnostic Learning Services has been assessing children and adults since 2004.