Improving Adult Literacy Instruction Options for Practice and Research (2012) / Chapter Skim
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7 Learning, Reading, and Writing Disabilities
7 Learning, Reading, and Writing Disabilities
Pages 179-205
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We next discuss research on writing and the component skills and processes of writing that challenge those with writing disabilities. Part two presents neurocognitive research on the development of brain structures and functions associated with some of the cognitive and linguistic processes that underlie reading disabilities.
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Yet it is important to recognize that learning disabilities also are a condition defined by legal criteria in the United States, criteria to which secondary and postsecondary institutions must adhere in providing services for students with learning disabilities. The college students identified with learning disabilities who have participated in research have met this legal criterion.
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Although better information is needed about the number of adults in literacy programs with learning disabilities, over one-quarter of adults who attend adult education programs report having a learning disability (Tamassia et al., 2007)
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Adults with reading disabilities experience lower
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Decoding The importance of phonological, orthographic, and morphemic awareness to decoding and accurate word identification has been well documented.2 The majority of research on decoding in college students with learning disabilities pertains to specific reading disabilities (dyslexia)
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. Some college students with reading disabilities (dyslexia)
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Reading Comprehension Research with college students with learning disabilities points to several sources of difficulty with reading comprehension. These sources of difficulty include verbal working memory, language disorders, executive function, long-term memory, and metacognition (particularly self-regulation and comprehension monitoring)
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From page 186... ...
Therefore, simply providing such an individual extra time on a reading task might not be very effective unless the reader is also taught specific cognitive strategies to enhance comprehension monitoring. Individuals with learning disabilities show particular difficulty with acquiring self-regulatory strategies and applying them efficiently (Swanson, Hoskyn, and Lee, 1999; Zimmerman, 2000a, 2000b)
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is necessary to effective assessment, intervention, and accommodation of adolescents and adults with learning disabilities. Handwriting and Spelling There is a small body of evidence that difficulties with basic writing skills, such as handwriting and spelling, constrain writing development.
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unrelated to cognitive and language abilities. Even among college students with learning disabilities with similar levels of reading proficiency, some may be unexpectedly poor spellers (Frith, 1980; Holmes and Castles, 2001)
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note in relation to college students with learning disabilities, "unexpectedly poor spellers are seen to misspell many words, not because of deficient phonological processing, but because their lexical entries contain inadequately specified word-specific information" (p.
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The writing of the college students with learning disabilities (dyslexia) contained significantly fewer of these features, therefore decreasing the linguistic complexity of their writing samples.
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. Little empirical evidence examining the written composition of the college population with learning disabilities is available, however.
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. DEVELOPING BRAIN SYSTEMS IN STRUGGLING READERS There is a growing body of research on neurodevelopmental changes in brain organization and how these changes relate to individual differences in language and reading competencies.
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. As described in Chapter 2, these findings show how the brain organizes with reading experience from childhood to late adolescence for typically developing readers and readers with reading disabilities.
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This pattern of reduced posterior activation and connectivity in the left hemisphere associated with reading disability has been observed in a large number of studies with both children and adults with reading disabilities (Pugh et al., 2010)
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More also needs to be understood about the brain bases of basic computational processes involved in reading. For example, reading depends on such cognitive processes as memory and attention; reading disabilities have been associated with deficits that include limited memory capacity, limited processing speed, and specific problems with learning and memory consolidation.
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Interdisciplinary research aimed at building genebrain-behavior models of typical and atypical reading development and understanding how these factors interact with environmental forces has the potential to enhance understanding of the unique challenges in developing reading and writing skills faced by adult learners. Brain Plasticity As noted earlier, a growing body of evidence is showing how functional neurocircuits change with reading experience from childhood to late adolescence in typically developing youth and how this development differs in populations with reading disabilities (Booth et al., 2001; Church et al., 2008; Shaywitz et al., 2002; Turkeltaub et al., 2003)
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New research on remediation suggests that a good deal of plasticity from childhood into adulthood may still be expected for those with reading disabilities. Several recent treatment studies indicate that, at least for younger readers, gains in reading skill with systematic and intense reading intervention are associated with a more normalized brain organization for reading.
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reported significant behavioral and neurobiological changes with intensive phonological remediation in adult readers with reading disabilities; they report a pattern of increase in LH posterior activation in adults similar to that observed in studies of children with dyslexia. The fact that both structural and functional reorganization of LH brain circuitry for reading can occur after effective remediation for both children and adults with reading disabilities is potentially very important.
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In the area of reading, alternative media and the software to access these formats are essential accommodations for college students with learning disabilities. Alt media is a broad term that refers to a variety of formats into which printed text is converted (e.g., audiotaped text, enlarged print, electronic text, Braille)
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Reading comprehension problems are more difficult to accommodate than decoding and reading fluency problems. Current technology advancements, however, are providing professionals with more tools than ever before to help college students with functional limitations in reading comprehension.
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As with handwriting disorders, extra time is an appropriate accommodation for college students with significant spelling deficits, since they require more time to recall the motor and orthographic patterns necessary to spell words. Word processing also appears to enhance the fluency and spelling of young adult writers with learning disabilities
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. For writers struggling to produce written sentences, extra time and word processing are appropriate accommodations.
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The adult population with learning disabilities represents a very heterogeneous group of individuals in relation to severity of learning disabilities, reading and writing abilities, and background. Reading disabilities are the most prevalent and best studied class of learning disabilities.
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The available research shows that adults experience difficulties with specific cognitive and linguistic processes involved in decoding, fluent reading of words and sentences, and reading comprehension. Students with writing disabilities experience difficulties with handwriting, spelling, syntax, composition, sense of audience, and writing fluency.
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For both reading and writing, extra time, various technological supports, and the teaching of cognitive strategies are accommodations that enhance competencies, although many aspects of reading and writing remain to be addressed in research, such as syntax and reading comprehension. Likewise, most published research on brain differences between typically developing and reading disabled learners focuses on phonological processing, decoding, or word reading, and a better understanding of neurobiological processes involved in disorders of syntax, comprehension, spelling, and writing is needed.
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