Learning Disabilities: Attributes for a Successful Life

In this episode, we’ll learn how a group of  successful adults with learning disabilities became successful.  

There are identifiable, teachable attributes they have in common that  are instrumental in their ability to lead successful lives.

I use a study conducted by the Frostig Center, a well-known and highly regarded school and research institute serving students with learning disabilities.

It followed the lives of students from the time they entered the school to 20 years after leaving.  

The study identified six attributes that significantly contributed to the success of the former students who participated (see transcript for more details).

And taking the data generated, guidelines and suggested activities were written for parents to help them teach their children.

The study also has an implicit message for special education programs in the public school system; teaching children with learning disabilities critical life skills is at least as important to their futures as academic proficiency.

 Note:

The last section of the program that looks at what to teach children, and suggestions on how, may be better used in conjunction with the transcript.

I found it a bit hard to follow myself without using the written version.  It does contain really excellent information, however, and I didn’t want you to miss the import of it.

Here are related links:

LD Online (https://www.ldonline.org/ld-topics/working-families/life-success-students-learning-disabilities-parents-guide) features the study on their website.

Or here: https://frostigschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Teaching-Life-Success-2002-Raskind-et-al.pdf

Thanks to  soundimage.org for the free access to the AI generated music used in this podcast (https://soundimage.org/) 

Transcript

Today I’d like to read an abridged, or Reader’s Digest, version of an article I read recently titled, Life Success for Students with Learning Disabilities, a Parent’s Guide.  A link is in the episode notes.

It is a summary of a study that the Frostig Center, a school and research institute for students with learning disabilities in Pasadena, California conducted to find what happened to a sampling of their former pupils.

The Frostig Center  has been a pioneer in the field for decades and they are widely respected for their work with, and the successes of, their graduates.

The parts of the article I used have been lightly edited for clarity.

Here we go with the article: 

Over forty students were studied over their lifetime; when they entered the Frostig Center, when they left, ten years after graduation, and twenty years after graduation. Researchers rated the student’s lives objectively through interviews and studying public records. They surveyed outcomes such as years of school completed and employment results. They listened carefully to what the students said during face-to-face interviews. All of this data was analyzed to determine what it actually takes for people with learning disabilities to succeed.

“I never thought I would get very far in life. But look at me now. I didn’t do too bad, did I?

This comment was made by Vanessa, a 35-year-old family therapist with a learning disability. As an adult, Vanessa has a satisfying career, enjoys a network of caring friends, and is proud of her accomplishments. One might say that Vanessa is “successful.” 

However, it wasn’t always that way. As a result of her learning disability, the road to adulthood was paved with years of academic difficulties, problems with social relations, and low self-esteem.

Vanessa’s parents also struggled with her learning disability ever since she was first diagnosed in the second grade. They were devastated to discover that their daughter might encounter considerable difficulties learning to read and write and might develop the social and emotional problems often associated with learning disabilities in childhood and adolescence. 

They navigated through the pain of Vanessa’s school failure, the search for the right professionals to conduct assessments and provide instructional and psychological support, endless school meetings to clarify services, and the most difficult task of all — helping Vanessa grow up with a positive self-image in spite of her learning disability. 

In this process, like the millions of other parents raising these children, Vanessa’s parents became acutely aware that her learning disability would not go away but was a life-long condition that would continue to affect many spheres of her life.

Even as an adult, Vanessa faces challenges in reading and writing, maintaining friendships, and, at times, feeling good about herself. Yet despite these struggles, she has managed to achieve outward success and lives a personally satisfying and rewarding life. How did this happen? Why do some people with learning disabilities succeed like Vanessa, while others find little reward personally, socially, or financially? Why do some individuals find success, while it eludes others?

My comment: I concentrated on the positive aspects of the process as I felt the commentary about the negative or unsuccessful traits were predictable from the positives, basically they were the opposite of the positive.

What is success?

Although views of success may differ, there appear to be a number of things that most people include when they think of success. These include good friends, positive family relations, being loved, self-approval, job satisfaction, mental health, financial comfort, spiritual contentment, and an overall sense of meaning in one’s life.

How do children with learning disabilities become successful adults?

Children with learning disabilities grow up to be adults with learning disabilities. That is, many of the difficulties experienced in childhood continue into and through adulthood.

By tracing the lives of individuals with learning disabilities throughout the lifespan, these studies have revealed a number of “success attributes” that guide an individual to either positive or negative adult outcomes.

What are the success attributes?

They include: self-awareness, proactivity, perseverance, goal setting, the presence and use of effective support systems, and emotional coping strategies. 

It is important to emphasize that not every successful individual possesses each of these attributes, and some attributes may be present to a greater or lesser degree. Similarly, persons who might be considered “unsuccessful” may nevertheless possess some of the success attributes, again, to a lesser or greater degree. 

What it does mean is that successful persons with learning disabilities are much more likely to have these characteristics than unsuccessful individuals.

It is interesting to note that our research indicates that these characteristics may have a greater influence on success than even such factors as academic achievement, gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity, and even intelligence quotient (IQ). 

Self-awareness

Successful people with learning disabilities are aware of the types of problems they have, including academic problems like reading and math, attentional or organizational difficulties, and non-academic difficulties such as motor deficits or emotional/behavioral problems. 

However, these individuals have the ability to compartmentalize their disability. That is, they are able to see their learning difficulties as only one aspect of themselves. Although they are well aware of their learning limitations, they are not overly defined by them. As one successful individual states:

“You know, everybody comes with a package. And yeah, there are things that I am good at and things that I am not so good at. Some of my limitations are reading and writing. But boy, when it comes to putting things together, reading plans, and chasing down problems, those are some talents, some skills that I was born with…I carved a different path and my whole life has been that way.”

Successful individuals with learning disabilities recognize their talents along with accepting their limitations.

In addition to recognizing their strengths, weaknesses, and special talents, successful adults with learning disabilities are also able to find jobs that provide the best fit or “match” with their abilities. For example, an individual with severe reading problems, but exceptional skills in woodworking might find a successful career in cabinet making  

Proactivity

Successful adults with learning disabilities are generally actively engaged in the world around them —politically, economically, and socially.

Not surprisingly, therefore, successful persons with learning disabilities also believe that they have the power to control their own destiny and affect the outcome of their lives. In talking about how he took charge of his college experience, one successful adult remarks:

“I actually didn’t take classes as much as I took professors. The way I got through college was I looked at the classes I was interested in, and I went over at the professors’ office during their office times telling them I’m going to need extra time; give me the ability to take the written exam orally. There are a bunch of exceptions, and I just listed them out for these people.”

Successful persons with learning disabilities also show the ability to make decisions and act upon those decisions. Additionally, they assume responsibility for their actions and resulting outcomes. In talking about how his shyness interfered with trying to meet a girl, one successful adult shared:

“I looked at that lesson and said, ‘OK, you blew it that time. What are you going to do? How are you going to overcome that situation?’ So I systematically started working on getting over my shyness…And last spring…”

Commenting on his career, the same individual expresses commitment to action, “Anything I’m going to do, I’m going to give it my all. Otherwise I’m not going to touch it.”

They also appear to be flexible in considering and weighing options. For instance, when faced with a career-ending knee surgery, one successful athlete was able to smoothly shift her career focus to a pottery business. Another individual whose learning disability prevented him from passing required college courses, researched and transferred to a university that did not require those courses for graduation.

Perseverance

They often describe themselves in such terms as “I am not a quitter,” and “I never give up.” However, successful individuals demonstrate an additional important ability — knowing when to quit. Although they rarely give up on a general goal, depending on the situation, they may change the way they go about achieving it, thereby improving their chances for success.

Often they try several strategies until they find one that works. One successful adult states, “Once I have a failure, I can’t just dwell on that failure and restrict myself for the rest of my life. I’ll do something else.”

Successful persons with learning disabilities appear to learn from their hardships making statements such as “I have failed many times, but I am not a failure. I have learned to succeed from my failures.” In addition, successful people seem to agree that difficult situations are necessary for learning. 

Goal setting

Successful individuals set goals that are specific, yet flexible so that they can be changed to adjust to specific circumstances and situations. 

In addition, the goals of successful persons with learning disabilities include a strategy to reach their goals.

“I always look at every move, like this particular move doing the video, as a steppingstone for the next project. That’s how I’m looking at it. As I said, the area I really want to move into is, I want to direct.”

Successful people also appear to have goals that are realistic and attainable.

“I’ll tell you something. I’m very realistic in terms of what I know I can do, what I possibly can do, and what I cannot do. That’s why I knew right off the bat that I was not going to be a doctor.”

Many successful people with learning disabilities set at least tentative goals in adolescence, which provide direction and meaning to their lives. A successful adult trained as a social worker says:

“When I was in late high school, I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. I was given the opportunity to babysit and in the twelfth grade I worked at a day camp. I just discovered that I was interested in children and that this may turn out to be a profession. So there was kind of a break and something to shoot for; some sort of self-direction.”

As successful individuals move into adulthood, they attempt to reduce their dependence on others. In fact, in many instances they are able to switch roles with people who had provided them with support in the past, finding themselves assisting and encouraging those who once helped them.

The people who have provided support to successful individuals with learning disabilities generally held clear and realistic expectations regarding life goals and outcomes, guiding them to identify and achieve realistic goals without being harsh or critical.

They were consistent and steadfast in their functioning as sounding boards for reality testing. A successful adult with learning disabilities describes the support from a workplace mentor:

“I guess you could say he rescued me. I was working at this place and going nowhere. Probably getting canned and I only had a couple of more months of work, and he was able to take me out of the division I was in and put me back working on minicomputers. That made me very happy. He taught me a new programming language to work in and really helped me out. He’s one of the reasons I own this place.”

Emotional coping strategies

All people with learning disabilities experience stress in their lives as a result of living with learning problems.

the stress can be so significant that it leads to psychological difficulties such as anxiety and depression.

However, although all persons with learning disabilities may experience disability-related stress, successful individuals appear to have developed effective means of reducing and coping with stress, frustration, and the emotional aspects of their learning disabilities. In particular, there appear to be three components of successful emotional coping:

Awareness of the situations that trigger stress;

Recognition of developing stress;

Availability/access to the use of coping strategies.

Successful individuals have developed strategies for reducing stress and avoiding resulting psychological difficulties. Such strategies include seeking counseling, asking others to do unmanageable tasks on the job, changing activities periodically so stress does not build up, expressing feelings, asserting oneself, utilizing peer support and encouragement,

How can a child develop success attributes?

To date no research tells us exactly how to teach these attributes. Yet, research does suggest a number of key components and areas that need to be considered in fostering success attributes in children with learning disabilities. The following section discusses these components and areas, and offers recommendations for how to develop success attributes. In reading the following pages, please keep in mind that the specific approach to developing success attributes is dependent upon the age, abilities, experience, interests, and living environment of a given child.

Self-awareness

In order to develop self-awareness, persons with learning disabilities need to:

Understand what self-awareness is and its importance;

Develop awareness of personal strengths, weaknesses, and talents in various settings (not only school);

Gain awareness of their feelings, opinions, and personal values and how they relate to those of others;

Develop their own definition of success;

Develop “niche-picking skills” (matching their abilities to specific settings).

Activities for fostering self-awareness:

Work with your child to develop and discuss lists of their individual strengths, weaknesses, and special talents or interests. Consider all areas, not just school related.

Use the words “strength,” “weakness,” “limitations,” and “special talents” to describe the behavior of all members of your family.

Arrange for your child to talk to adults with learning disabilities about their experiences — both struggles and triumphs. If you have a learning disability yourself, share your own feelings experiences, and thoughts.

Help your child choose potential jobs and careers that best match their abilities and discuss relevant choices.

Proactivity

There is life beyond school for children with learning disabilities. While learning to be proactive in educational pursuits is important, persons with learning disabilities also need to develop the attribute of proactivity for social, employment, interpersonal, familial, and recreational settings. 

With regard to each of these settings, children with learning disabilities need to learn to:

Understand proactivity, its importance, and benefits;

Make decisions, act upon those decisions, and evaluate their decisions;

Understand the advantages and disadvantages of making certain decisions and take responsibility for their actions;

Act as self-advocates and be assertive while engaging in the world;

Develop the self-confidence to take risks and be flexible.

Activities for fostering proactivity:

Introduce problem-solving vocabulary into your family discussions. Share your personal challenges and dilemmas and what strategies you have employed. Present your child with examples of people facing problems, and have your child discuss or role-play action-oriented strategies for resolving these difficulties.

Have your child write down or discuss important decisions he or she has made, the strategies used to make the decisions, the results of those decisions, and whether or not the correct decision was made.

Present your child with examples of people’s behavior and the specific outcomes resulting from the behavior. Then discuss the extent to which the individual had control over their behaviors.

Present your child with a number of “risky” scenarios and discuss the possible consequences of specific actions.

Perseverance

Understand the meaning of perseverance;

Understand the benefits of persevering and the consequences of not;

Develop strategies for dealing with obstacles, setbacks, and adjusting to change;

Recognize that passion and desire keep one moving in the face of adversity.

General activities for fostering perseverance:

Share inspirational stories (tell, read, watch movies) of people who have persevered in the face of adversity.

Have your child share their own stories (tell, write, draw) about times when he or she did not persevere and the resulting Have your child keep journals focusing on experiences requiring perseverance.

Have your child keep a record of when they are, or not persevering.

Praise your child for persevering behavior and attitude when playing games, learning new sports, and doing unpopular chores.

Goal setting

Research suggests that it is necessary to develop goal-setting skills related (in all areas of life). Specific focus should be placed on assisting children to:

Define a goal;

Understand the benefits of goal setting and the consequences of not setting goals; 

Develop strategies for prioritizing goals, evaluating whether a goal is realistic, and the action steps needed to reach a goal;

Develop strategies to predict and overcome obstacles, and to reevaluate and adjust goals as needed;

Understand the need to work with others to reach goals.

Activities for developing goal setting

Have your child write down a real, short-term academic goal and discuss the step-by-step process for reaching it (for example, oral report on an early explorer, project on life in the American colonies, term paper on Shakespeare).

Develop a realistic timeline for completion of a future school project, including typical “obstacles” such as a sports practice, birthday party, favorite TV show, and other distractions.

Have your child set a long-term career goal and discuss the step-by-step process for reaching it. Arrange opportunities for your child to interview someone in that career, emphasizing goal-setting behavior.

Discuss successful individuals and determine the experiences, backgrounds, opportunities, and critical events that led these individuals to their success.

Present fictional examples of people with specific goals and, based on their strengths, weaknesses, and special talents, discuss whether their goals appear realistic.

Presence & use of effective support systems

It is critical that individuals with learning disabilities are aware of, and know how to access and utilize, support services (in all areas of) their lives. Particular attention should be directed at helping children with learning disabilities:

Understand the benefits of using support systems;

Develop strategies for finding, accessing, utilizing, and maintaining support systems;

Recognize “triggers” indicating that help is needed;

Learn to accept help, give help, and develop trust in others;

Understand laws that mandate support/assistance for persons with disabilities;

Gain awareness of learning disabilities organizations and advocacy groups;

Learn to use technological help.

Activities for developing and using support systems

Model how to ask for help in daily family interactions.

Share stories about individuals who needed help from others, how they got it, and the benefits of receiving it.

Seize opportunities to analyze examples of individuals in need of help. Discuss possible sources and means of accessing support as well as possible outcomes with and without support (for example, news stories, TV sitcom crises, reports of friends in need of help).

Obtain information on federal laws related to individuals with disabilities and discuss it with your child.

Have your child try out technology that might be helpful in compensating for their difficulties, such as spell checkers, tape recorders, and word processors.

Emotional coping strategies

Successful individuals with learning disabilities develop an awareness of their emotional states and specific coping strategies for dealing with stress, frustration, and adversity. In an effort to assist children with learning disabilities to develop coping strategies, we suggest that efforts be aimed at helping them:

Understand the various factors that affect psychological health;

Become aware of their various emotional reactions and how these reactions impact their behavior;

Learn to recognize stress triggers;

Develop strategies for avoiding or reducing stress;

Develop a repertoire of coping strategies;

Learn to recognize when their need outside support/help.

Activities for developing emotional coping strategies

Use words in discussions with your child that identify feelings (for example, angry, disappointed, defeated, frustrated, proud, impatient).

Ask your child to discuss the circumstances that create the greatest stress in life in relation to their learning disability (reading aloud in class, correcting a classmate’s paper, picking up social cues at parties, etc.).

Have your child write down how their body feels at the onset of stress. Discuss with your child the warning signs of stress and how to employ coping strategies.

Have your child identify strategies that help reduce stress (for example, relaxation techniques, weightlifting, a game of basketball, listening to music, the movies).

Guide your child to know when learning disability-related emotional needs reach a critical point requiring outside help and how to

access the right help.

Help your child develop and nurture good peer relationships.

In conclusion the authors write:

Noting the importance of these attributes in promoting positive life outcomes, it is reasonable to direct greater efforts toward fostering the development of these success attributes, at least to the same degree that we strive to improve academic skills.

This shift in focus is by no means intended to undermine the importance of developing academic skills in children with learning disabilities. Rather, our intention is to emphasize the importance of developing success attributes in addition to, or alongside academic skills. 

Fostering the success attributes is one of the ways that parents can help their children with learning disabilities grow up to be more successful throughout their lives. These (skills) require practice, just like any other skill children learn. 

LD Online (https://www.ldonline.org/ld-topics/working-families/life-success-students-learning-disabilities-parents-guide) features the study on their website.

Or here: https://frostigschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Teaching-Life-Success-2002-Raskind-et-al.pdf