case study about learning disability

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LEARNING DISABILITY : A CASE STUDY

The present investigation was carried out on a girl name Harshita who has been identified with learning disability. She is presently studying at ‘Udaan’ a school for the special children in Shimla. The girl was brought to this special school from the normal school where she was studying earlier when the teachers and parents found it difficult to teach the child with other normal children. The learning disability the child faces is in executive functioning i.e. she forgets what she has memorized. When I met her I was taken away by her sweet and innocent ways. She is attentive and responsible but the only problem is that she forgets within minutes of having learnt something. Key words : learning disability, executive functioning, remedial teaching

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The present article deals with the important factors related to learning disability such as the academic characteristics of learning disability, how learning disability can be identified in an early stage and remedial measures for learning disability. It tries to give an insight into various aspects of learning disability in children that will be of help in designing the tools and administering them properly.

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This article explains how learning disability affect on one's ability to know or use spoken affects on one's ability to know or use spoken or communication, do mathematical calculations, coordinate movements or direct attention learning disabilities are ignored, unnoticed and unanswered such children's needs are not met in regular classes. They needed special attention in classrooms. Learning disability is a big challenge for student in learning environment. The teacher's role is very important for identifying the learning disability. Some common causes and symptoms are there for children with learning disability. The classroom and teacher leads to main important role in identification and to overcome their disabilities.

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Case Studies for using strengths and interests

Case Study One:

Grace has a diagnosis of dyslexia. She has trouble with visual scanning, processing, and working memory. She also has difficulties with spelling and sequencing for problem solving. She has strong verbal skills and is artistic abilities. She learns well with color and when her hands are occupied.

Grace struggled with note taking because of her difficulties with spelling and visual scanning (looking from the board to her paper). Furthermore, she could not keep up and got "lost" in the lecture (particularly for subjects that were already difficult for her). Grace’s teachers thought that she was not putting forth the effort, because they often saw her daydreaming in class. When the therapist asked Grace about this, she admitted that sometimes she would daydream because she did not know where they were in the lecture. She also desperately wanted to blend in with her peers, so she looked to them to see what she was supposed to be doing. However, when she was permitted to follow along with a book that she could highlight in and make her own doodles and notes in the margins during the lecture, she was able to focus her energy on the teacher and have notes that she could refer back to later with all of the main points highlighted. Using Grace's kinesthetic learning style and preference for color, she was able to participate with her peers, decrease her anxiety in class, and develop a skill that will help her to learn better across the curriculum.

Due to her difficulties with sequencing, working memory, and reading, Grace struggled with numerical operations and story problems in math. Her problem solving skills were good when she could leverage her strengths: connecting abstract ideas and thinking at the macro level. Hence, when she could connect a concept to a real life problem, she could inevitably come up with a creative solution and grasp the concept; however, her poor numerical operations skills were still holding her back. The therapist remembered Grace's interest in color and tactile learning style and introduced her to a number of "hands-on" ways of solving the problem: calculating probability with colored marbles, using her fingers for multiplication, and solving equations with objects to represent the variables. In this manner, Grace not only grasped the concept that was presented at the macro-level, but using her love of color and keeping her hands moving she could reliably solve for the answer. Employing colored pencils for numbering steps or placing hash marks in multi-step directions helped Grace stay on point and not skip steps in complex problems. These strategies were incorporated into her 504 Plan and were communicated to her math teacher.

Case Study Two:

Amy has a diagnosis of dyslexia. She enjoys creative writing, fashion, and art. She is extremely bright and has a strong memory. She benefits from rule-based instruction. If you tell her a rule once, she will be able to recite it to you the next time you see her. She delights in being able to be the teacher and teach the rules herself or correct others’ errors.

Amy’s stories often jumped around without any cohesion or plot. The clinician suggested that Amy work on her stories on a daily basis. Amy drafted her stories about glamorous people and enjoyed illustrating their wardrobes. Her clinician helped her to expand and revise her story using a multi-sensory tool to teach her the parts of story grammar. She was able to revise her own story, by adding the components of a good plot (characters, setting, initiating event, internal response, plan, and resolution). With several revisions, she produced a well-developed story and colorful illustration that was framed and displayed. The combination of using Amy’s interests, learning style, and a powerful reinforcement (framing and displaying the finished product) lead Amy to become proficient in telling stories and in revising her own work.

Case Study Three:

Ryan has a diagnosis of PDD-NOS that affects his language, social, and literacy skills. He also struggles with anxiety. He has a number of interests including: pirates and treasure, cooking, watching his favorite TV shows, and drama. Ryan has a strong memory and conveys a great deal of social knowledge when he is acting or drawing.

Due to Ryan’s anxiety associated with reading and writing, he often protested and completely shut down when presented with something to read or write. Ryan watched a number of shows that taught lessons about friendship or had a “moral to the story.” He was able to take some of those themes and stories and modify them, inserting kids from his school as the characters, and adding himself as a character and narrator. Given his interest in drawing, he illustrated his story, and made it into a short book.

The clinician wanted to incorporate his interest in writing and illustrating stories to improve his social skills. The therapist suggested that Ryan make his story into a play, and that he could be the director. Through a series of role-plays, Ryan was able to overcome his social anxiety and invite a peer to act in his play. Numerous social skills were targeted: greetings, turn-taking, active listening, problem solving, and flexibility for handling unforeseen circumstances. Ryan has now directed four plays, and has written countless others. To date, five of his peers have come and acted in his plays. (It has become a “cool” thing to do in Ryan’s social circle). He has gained a great deal of confidence in relating to his peers and in his strength of writing and directing plays.

In addition to social skills, Ryan has struggled with reading and following directions, asking for clarification, and comprehending and using abstract vocabulary. These areas were addressed using his interests in cooking and treasure hunts. Ryan participated in a number of baking projects that required him to locate the directions on the package, sequence and follow each step in a sequence, and determine the meaning of new vocabulary. Since this was in a context that he enjoyed, his attention was high and his anxiety was non-existent. Furthermore, Ryan had the opportunity to learn a new recipe and build on his strength for baking. Since his learning was in context, he was able to remember the meanings of abstract vocabulary. Ryan’s social skills were targeted when he went to the various offices in the building and offered his baked treats. He inevitably received positive social feedback.

Another motivating context for boosting Ryan’s reading for directions and vocabulary skills was participating in scavenger hunts around the building. He enjoyed the challenge of complex directions because there was an element of surprise and adventure. There was a notable consequence if he incorrectly followed the directions. This created the opportunity for Ryan to ask for directions or seek clarification. Since his learning was in context (i.e., he was looking at a fire extinguisher when he was reading the word for the first time), it was memorable. Many conjunctions (but, therefore, so, if) and sequence words (when, at the same time, before, after, next) were targeted multiple times, which led to mastery. This multi-sensory activity was enjoyable for both Ryan and the clinician. For Ryan, it resulted in greater participation, gains, and retention than traditional teaching approaches.

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Peer-reviewed

Research Article

A comparative case study of the accommodation of students with disabilities in online and in-person degree programs

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Center for Education Through Exploration, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America

Roles Data curation, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Student Accessibility and Inclusive Learning Services, Educational Outreach and Student Services, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America

Roles Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations Center for Education Through Exploration, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America, School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America

Affiliation School of Social and Family Dynamics, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America

Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review & editing

Affiliations School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America, Research for Inclusive STEM Education Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America

Chris Mead,
Chad Price,
Logan E. Gin,
Ariel D. Anbar,
James P. Collins,
Paul LePore,
Sara E. Brownell

Published: October 12, 2023
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748
Peer Review
Reader Comments

Fully online degree programs are an increasingly important part of the higher education ecosystem. Among the many challenges raised by the growth of fully online courses and degree programs is the question: Are institutions providing online students with disabilities accommodations that are comparable to those provided to students in traditional in-person degree programs? To explore this question, we compared students in a fully online biology degree program to students in the equivalent in-person degree program at a large research university. For each group, we assessed the frequency with which students register with the disability resource center, the range of specific accommodations provided, and course grades. Results show that students in the in-person program were nearly 30% more likely to be enrolled with the disability resource center, and that students in the online program were offered a narrower range of accommodations. However, in relative terms (i.e., compared to students without disabilities in their degree program), online students with disabilities perform better than in-person students with disabilities.

Citation: Mead C, Price C, Gin LE, Anbar AD, Collins JP, LePore P, et al. (2023) A comparative case study of the accommodation of students with disabilities in online and in-person degree programs. PLoS ONE 18(10): e0288748. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748

Editor: Jolanta Maj, Wrocław University of Science and Technology, POLAND

Received: April 6, 2023; Accepted: June 23, 2023; Published: October 12, 2023

Copyright: © 2023 Mead et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: The data analyzed in this study describe students' individual disability statuses. They also include enough demographic information to make re-identification of individuals possible. For these reasons, it is not possible to publicly release the raw data. Qualified researchers may request access through https://uoia.asu.edu/contact .

Funding: This work was supported by grant #GT11046 from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute ( www.hhmi.org ), awarded to JPC, SEB, PL, and ADA and grant #2012998 and #1644236 from the National Science Foundation ( www.nsf.gov ), awarded to SEB. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

1. Introduction

Legal requirements institutionalized the provision of learning accommodations for students with disabilities in American colleges and universities [ 1 – 3 ]. Within this context, a disability is defined as “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment” [ 1 , 3 ]. Accommodations are an adjustment to a course or degree requirements made to allow a student with a disability to have equal access to that course or degree and, by definition, are intended to ensure that students with disabilities have educational experiences as equivalent as possible to students without disabilities. However, as Gin et al. [ 4 ] discuss, contemporary higher education has changed dramatically since these statutes were enacted. Notably, because university structures that provide disability accommodations predate the availability and growth of both online courses and fully online degree programs, common accommodations provided are specific to the obstacles to learning that students might face when attending in-person courses. Therefore, in-person accommodations may not be as well suited to addressing the needs of online students with disabilities.

Online education offers some inherent accommodations relative to in-person settings, particularly when viewed through the historical lens of disability accommodation [e.g., 5]. For example, students do not need to physically move across campus to get to class, rendering some accommodations related to mobility moot. Similarly, pre-recorded lectures or video conference-based instruction easily allow for pausing, repeated viewing, or playback at different speeds. These can be seen as “built in” accommodations for students with certain conditions such as ADHD. Asynchronous instruction gives students greater time flexibility for completing their work, which can be helpful for students with chronic health conditions who may have frequent doctor appointments or flare ups.

At the same time, the modality of teaching online may present novel challenges and, thus, the need to consider how to adapt common accommodations or create new accommodations to best support fully online students. For example, test-taking accommodations, such as reduced distraction environments in a room on campus, cannot be provided for students who are physically situated across the world. Depending on students’ living situations, a quiet testing environment may not be available. The issue of video-monitored exam proctoring has been increasingly debated during the COVID-19 pandemic [e.g., 6 – 8 ], with some work suggesting that it may exacerbate student mental health struggles [ 9 – 11 ].

Thus, it is an open question whether the inherent accommodations of the online modality allow students with disabilities to learn and succeed academically or if the range of accommodations offered to online students is, indeed, narrower and if this in turn hinders the performance of online students with disabilities. Please note that we chose to use “person-first language” (e.g., students with disabilities) in this article, although we do recognize that this choice is not universally preferred [ 9 ].

1.1. Access to disability accommodations for online students

A pair of recent studies gives some insight into the challenges faced by online students with disabilities. Gin et al. [ 9 ] interviewed students with disabilities in courses that were rapidly shifted to an online format in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gin et al. [ 4 ] conducted a follow-up survey a year later to test if students with disabilities were being provided adequate accommodations online after instructors had more time to be comfortable teaching online. In both studies the authors found that students with disabilities faced obstacles to receiving the disability accommodations to which they were legally entitled. Early on in the pandemic, students with disabilities were often completely forgotten about and their standard accommodations were often not enacted. A year later, students with disabilities were receiving their accommodations, but often these accommodations were not meeting their needs, both in the new modes of instruction and because of the changing needs of students due to the pandemic. Collectively, these studies highlight that students with disabilities currently are not being adequately supported in many online environments.

These studies brought important issues to light and, through the interviews and open-ended survey questions, allowed students with disabilities to reveal barriers associated with online learning in their own words. However, both studies are limited in that they only capture the experiences of those students who chose to participate in the studies. By examining administrative data, the present study will build on Gin et al. [ 4 , 9 ] and explore the experiences of all registered students with the Disability Resource Center at a single institution.

1.2. Academic performance of students with disabilities

To our knowledge, there are no prior studies that examine the academic performance of postsecondary students with disabilities in fully-online degree programs. In research exploring traditional in-person postsecondary settings, Kimball et al. [ 12 ] studied both persistence and academic achievement of students with disabilities. Although many results point to lower persistence, Kimball et al. argue that the evidence is not conclusive, owing generally to the use of correlational data. Similarly, Fichten et al.’s [ 13 ] review of existing evidence finds mixed conclusions, with studies finding equivalent persistence [ 14 ], albeit with longer time to graduation [ 15 , 16 ], or less persistence [ 17 , 18 ]. Looking at academic achievement, studies often examine the success of students with specific types of disabilities. For example, Dong & Lucas [ 19 ] examined academic performance of students across majors with a range of disabilities and, importantly, studied the performance of students who did and did not register for campus disability services. These authors found the students with disabilities—whether psychological, cognitive, or physical disabilities—were less likely to persist than students who reported no disability. They also found that students with psychological or cognitive disabilities who requested accommodations were more likely to be in good academic standing, although this relationship was not found for students with physical disabilities. Interestingly, Lee [ 20 ] found that STEM majors with disabilities received significantly fewer accommodations than non-STEM majors.

Although research has shown many specific disability accommodations to have a positive impact on student success, these results are not universal. A recent randomized controlled study examined the value of accommodations for students with ADHD or learning disabilities in which students were allowed to complete tests in a separate, reduced-distraction environment [ 21 ]. Their results show that not only did the separate testing room not improve test performance, but that students with ADHD or learning disabilities performed worse in the separate testing room compared to students in the classroom. Using the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06) data set, Mamiseishvili & Koch [ 22 ] studied factors that predicted first- to second-year persistence among students with disabilities, including specific accommodations. Analyzed in isolation, they found that classroom note-taking accommodation was significantly related to increased persistence and that alternative exam formats and additional time were not significant. However, these did not rise to the level of inclusion in the authors’ final regression model. In a single-university study modeling cumulative GPA, Kim & Lee [ 23 ] found that including specific disability accommodations added only a small amount of explanatory power to their regression model. Newman et al. [ 24 ] looked more broadly and examined the effect on the persistence of students with disabilities of the use of resources that are available to all students regardless of disability status, such as tutoring and writing or study centers. Their results show that accessing only these universally available resources led to significantly higher persistence, whereas accessing only disability-related support had no effect on persistence. Notably, Newman et al. relied on data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2, a nationally representative study, and, thus, included students with disabilities who choose not to disclose this information to their college or university [ 25 ].

1.3. The present study

We examine administrative data from students in both an in-person and a fully online biology degree program at a large, public research university. Our focus on a science degree program follows from the substantial body of work, particularly in recent years, showing failures in achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion in the sciences and engineering [e.g., 26 – 28 ] and our own prior work examining course grade equity for women, racial and ethnic minorities, low-income, and first generation to college students in online biology [ 29 , 30 ]. Thus, against this backdrop, we consider whether students with disabilities in an online biology degree program are afforded an equitable experience both relative to their online peers without disabilities and relative to in-person degree students. In this study we pose the following research questions:

RQ1: Do in-person and fully online students differ in either the frequency of reported disabilities or the frequencies of receiving specific accommodations?

RQ2: Do students with disabilities compared to students without disabilities differ in academic performance between in-person and fully online degree programs?

2.1. Description of population and data sources

We collected three types of student data:

Academic data: individual course grades, overall grade point average,
Demographic data: student gender, race/ethnicity, college generation status, and Pell Grant eligibility (an indicator of socioeconomic status), and
Disability data: categorical disability type and specific accommodations requested by course.

All students were enrolled in the Biological Sciences degree program. This degree is offered both in-person and in a fully online mode, but both modes are housed in the same academic unit and were designed to be identical in their curriculum structure. We included course enrollments from Fall 2014–Fall 2019 for the in-person program and Fall 2017–2019 for the online program (Note that the online degree program began in Fall 2017, but grew rapidly in enrollment, eventually surpassing in-person enrollment). The end point was chosen to avoid the confounding effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which necessitated a shift to remote instruction for all students beginning midway through the Spring 2020 semester. We do wish to acknowledge the effects the pandemic has had on students with disabilities; please see Gin et al. [ 4 , 9 ] for examinations of those effects. In order to make our findings more general and to avoid undue influence from unique circumstances that can emerge in smaller courses, we limited our analysis to the large, required courses that are the focus of the first two years of the degree program. These include the two-course introductory biology sequence, genetics, evolution, a two-semester introductory chemistry series, two organic chemistry courses, and introductory physics. Most of these courses include a laboratory component. These are also the same set of courses analyzed in a previous study, the focus of which was course grade equity in online courses with respect to gender, race/ethnicity, household income, and college generation status [ 29 ].

Data regarding student disability status and the specific accommodation requests are stored separately from ordinary academic and demographic data. For this reason and to ensure there was no possibility that personally identifying information related to disability status was revealed, we took steps to ensure that the identifiable disability data were handled only by staff members within the Disability Resource Center (DRC). Note that we will use the DRC abbreviation as a generic term, but such organizations may also be called a Disability Services Office, Student Accessibility Center, among other names. The lead author compiled the academic and demographic data based on the selection criteria described above. These data were then sent to the office in charge of approving and coordinating disability accommodations who performed a match to their internal database, de-identified the data, and returned the new dataset to the lead author for analysis. Details of this process were reviewed and approved by the Arizona State University institutional review board (IRB, protocol #9105). Consent was not obtained because the data were analyzed anonymously.

Prior research on the subject of disability accommodations has argued for the importance of including and prioritizing the perspectives of students with disabilities themselves [ 31 ]. The present study relies on de-identified administrative data. It would not be possible to conduct such a broad survey of the types of accommodations sought and the course grades earned by students with disabilities in these degree programs. Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge that the administrative data do not capture the full depth and range of the academic experiences of these students and that since we are only analyzing students who are registered with the DRC, we are only examining the experiences of students who have the resources and support to have achieved a diagnosis.

2.2. Description of analyses

We calculated descriptive statistics for the student demographic variables, students’ disability status, disability type, and the frequencies of disability accommodations that were received. The categories used for disability type are the same used in Gin et al. [ 4 , 9 , 31 ]. Following the procedure of our prior studies [ 29 , 30 ], we used a linear mixed effects regression to estimate the effect of student disability status on course grades, adjusting for the effects of prior academic performance (GPA in other courses, abbreviated as GPAO, [ 27 ]), whether the student earned fewer than 30 credit hours, gender, race/ethnicity, age, college generation status, and socioeconomic status (fixed effects) and including random effects for each student and class section. GPAO was a continuous variable on a 0–4.33 (A+) scale. Age was treated as a categorical variable (18–25 and over 25 years of age). These categories distinguish the more “traditional” aged (18–25 years old) students from older students and are also of roughly equal sizes among the online program students. The remaining fixed effects were analyzed as binary variables: fewer than 30 credit hours or not, binary gender (female, male), race/ethnicity (BLNP [Black, Latine, Native American, or Pacific Islander], White or Asian), college generation status (first-generation, continuing-generation), socioeconomic status (Pell eligible, non-Pell eligible). We also used logistic regression to estimate the effects on DRC registration of degree program modality (online or in-person) and possible interaction effects between modality and gender, race/ethnicity, college generation status, and socioeconomic status. For model selections, we employed both forward selection (starting with a minimal model and adding predictors stepwise) and backwards elimination (starting with a full model that consisted of all of the above predictors and removing predictors stepwise) [ 32 ].

Note that, in contrast to Mead et al. [ 29 ], we did not fully exclude students with missing demographic data or students who received “withdraw” grades in a course. Because the focus of the present study goes beyond just grades analysis, there was no need reduce our analytical power by excluding these data when analyzing DRC enrollment or the types of accommodations given. However, for regressions involving grades or demographics, we excluded any course enrollments where the student received a “withdraw” grade and we excluded students with missing demographics data.

2.3. Positionality statement

Our research team consists of both women and men as well as first generation college graduates and individuals who received Pell grants as students. Some of us are members of the LGBTQ+ community and some of us identify as having depression. Most of us have served as instructors of courses who have worked directly with the DRC to provide students with disabilities with accommodations. One of us has received accommodations for a disability through the DRC as an undergraduate and graduate student.

3.1. Population demographics

The total population included 5586 students, 2908 from the in-person degree program and 2678 from the online degree program ( Table 1 ). Women were a majority in both groups, although substantially more so in the online program (74% vs. 59%). About a third of students in both programs were BLNP. Just under half of the in-person students were Pell eligible, while somewhat more than half were Pell eligible among the online program students. Similarly, the percentage of first-generation students was also higher online (43% vs. 33%). In summary, although the two populations are similar, the online program has slightly more representation of each of the four historically marginalized groups (consistent with our own prior work, [ 29 ]). Another important demographic consideration is student age, which also differs substantially between the in-person and online populations. The median age for in-person students in our dataset is 19 as compared to 25 in the online population.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.t001

Table 2 shows the percentage of students in each program who are registered with the DRC. With 8% of in-person students and 4.7% of online students registered for a disability accommodation, this is well below published estimates for the overall proportion of students with a disability (19.4%; [ 33 ]). However, previous research also finds that only about a third of students with disabilities disclose this information to their school [ 25 ], which would put the two populations in our study near to the prior estimates. Full demographic details for the students with any disability accommodation may be found in S1 Table . Table 2 also shows the percentages of students whose listed “primary” disability falls within either learning disability (including ADD/ADHD; see [ 9 ] for a discussion of this categorization) or mental health/psychological disability. These are the most common disability types in our data set, which is consistent with prior analysis [ 34 ]. Students in both groups were registered with other disabilities types, including, Acquired Brain Injury, Chronic health condition, Hearing loss, Neurological, Physical disability, and Visual loss, but each of these categories had fewer than 20 individual students and our research protocol prohibits us from presenting results for subgroups smaller than this size. It is also important to note that the personal experiences of individuals, even with the same type of disability, are unique [ 35 , 36 ]. Thus, we caution against making generalizations concerning all individuals who share a disability type or specific disability.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.t002

Finding 1: DRC enrollment is significantly lower among online program students

There are two important dimensions to this research question: differential access to (or use of) disability support services and a differential range of services provided. To examine the first dimension of this, we used logistic regression to determine whether students in the online or in-person modalities were equally likely to be registered with the university DRC. To test for possible differences within these populations, we performed additional regressions that included student demographics and interactions between the degree program type and each of gender, race/ethnicity, Pell grant eligibility, college generation status, age, and whether the student has fewer than 30 credit hours.

Overall, we find significant differences in DRC enrollment associated with degree program mode (in-person or fully online). Specifically, in-person program students are nearly 30% more likely to be enrolled with the DRC ( Table 3 ). Regarding demographics, we will first consider a main effects model to examine how the demographic effects differ by degree program mode. We will then add a series of interaction terms to see whether these demographic effects vary in their impact for in-person and online students. In the main effects model ( S2 Table ), we find that women are much more likely to be registered with the DRC as are students older than traditional college age. Pell eligible students are slightly more likely to be registered while first-generation students are somewhat less likely to be registered. No significant differences exist in the main effects model with respect to race/ethnicity or credit hours earned.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.t003

Considering the full model with degree program modality interaction effects ( Table 4 ), we see that women are more likely to be registered in both programs, but that this effect is stronger for in-person students. In contrast to the main effects model, we see that BLNP is significant when the program interaction effects are considered. BLNP students in the online program are more likely than white or Asian students to be registered with the DRC, but in the in-person program BLNP students are slightly less likely to be registered. There are also similar, but smaller differences with respect to college generation status, with first generation students in the in-person program being significantly less likely to be registered than first generation students in the online program. For online students, having fewer than 30 credit hours is a negative predictor of DRC registration; this is not the case in-person. No significant interactions with program modality were found for student age or Pell eligibility.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.t004

Finding 2: Online degree program students with disabilities are given access to a narrower range of accommodations

Table 5 presents an overall summary, for common accommodation categories, of the frequency at which they are received by students in both the in-person and online program courses. A complete list of accommodation types is provided in S3 Table . There are several accommodation “types” that are much less common for online students than in-person students. These include:

“Reduced Distraction” environment for testing
Flexible attendance
Peer notetaking services
Audio recording

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.t005

The impact of these varies in severity. Depending on the nature of the online course, “audio recording” and “flexible attendance” may be irrelevant in the majority of cases. However, both “reduced distraction environment” and “peer notetaking services” are accommodations that can reasonably be seen as addressing needs that are common to both in-person and online learning. A previous nationwide study found notetaking to be the third most common accommodation with 26% of students surveyed reporting receiving this kind of support [ 18 ]. It is important to state that the notetaking accommodation here refers to a peer notetaker, i.e., a fellow classmate who is compensated to share their own notes with the student receiving the accommodation. Thus, while dictation software or other technology solutions have some overlap with the intended benefits of the peer notetaking services accommodation, those tools are not entirely equivalent.

Conversely, we see that some accommodations are somewhat more common in the online group. These include Assistive Technology and PDF with Recognized Text (i.e., ensuring that PDF documents are compatible with screen readers). These accommodations are understandably important in the computer-based learning environment of the online program. We found that extra time on exams is the most common accommodation in both modalities and flexible assignment deadlines is the second and fourth most common for online and in-person, respectively, but in both cases, the percentages of students receiving these accommodations are higher in the online modality.

Finding 3: The relative performance of students with disabilities in the online program exceeds that of the in-person program

Our regression model finds a significant interaction effect between disability status (i.e., a student requesting a disability accommodation for a particular course) and learning modality. Specifically, in-person students with disabilities earn grades 0.19 grade units lower than their peers as compared to students in the online degree program ( Fig 1 , Table 6 ). The overall grade effect associated with disability accommodation was positive, but non-significant. This model also finds significant effects associated with demographics categories and online program status. Similar demographic findings from a closely related student population were described in [ 29 ]. Recognizing Finding 1—significant demographic and program modality differences in DRC enrollment—we explored the addition of interactions between these factors and the disability status term, but none of these interactions were statistically significant.

Whereas having a disability was not associated with an overall grade difference, the results do show a significant interaction effect between disability status and modality.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.g001

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.t006

We explored possible interaction effects involving specific types of disabilities using the same categories as in Table 6 . The learning disability and mental health/psychological disability categories represent a large majority of students in this population (see Table 2 ). Our modeling showed students in each of these categories to have similar patterns of course performance to our initial regression model (i.e., to have a negative grade effect associated with the in-person degree program). See S4 Table for details. The small number of students with other types of disabilities limited our ability to detect possible interaction effects associated with any of those disability types.

4. Discussion

Regarding our first research question, our results show that systematic differences exist between the two modalities of degree programs studied, with students in the online program being less likely to enroll with the DRC or request disability accommodations. There are also notable differences in the demographic effects by modality, such as online BLNP students being more likely to have a disability accommodation and online students with fewer than 30 credit hours being less likely to have any accommodation. The online students are also offered a narrower range of disability accommodations. With respect to our second question, we find that the relative academic performance of students with disabilities to students without disabilities differs between the online and in-person degree programs. In relative terms (i.e., compared to students without disabilities in their degree program), online students with disabilities perform better than in-person students with disabilities.

The differences in the types of accommodations provided online as compared to in-person reflect a combination of accommodations that are impractical/impossible to provide to a distributed and remote population of students and accommodations that are inherently unnecessary online. This is very much the pattern we anticipated, and it highlights the inherent advantages and disadvantages of online learning for students with disabilities. However, the differential rates of registration and requests for accommodations with the university DRC across both modality and student demographics raise questions about whether all students are being made aware of and given access to these resources. Our findings are consistent with the issues raised in Gin et al. [ 4 ] and Terras et al. [ 37 ], both in the specific lack of access to distraction-free testing and peer notetaking services for online students and in the overall lower rates of DRC registration among the online students studied.

Our findings with respect to the demographic predictors of DRC enrollment contribute to a somewhat varied set of previous findings. The largest demographic effect we observed was that of gender, in which women were much more likely to be registered for an accommodation. This sits in contrast to Henderson [ 38 ], Wagner et al. [ 39 ], and Newman et al. [ 25 ] which present evidence of the opposite trend. However, the U.S. Department of Education reported gender parity with respect to disability status among undergraduates and found that women were more likely to report a disability among postbaccalaureate students [ 33 ]. It is important to note that our study population has a high population of women, owing in part to the discipline of the program studied (biology) and in part to the fact that the online program enrolls proportionately more women [ 29 ]. As additional studies are performed involving online programs, it will be interesting to see how these demographic effects compare to results from in-person programs.

It goes beyond our data to make claims about whether the underlying rate of disabilities differs systematically between the in-person and online degree programs. However, if we assume that this rate of disability is constant, then our data point to systematic differences between these two degree programs across one or more of a number of factors related to how students with disabilities approach these programs. This may include students’ awareness of these university services or of their personal eligibility for receiving them. It may include students’ perceived value of the available accommodations or their willingness to request accommodations. Lastly, the differences in usage may stem from perceived and real differences in the need for accommodation in the in-person versus online programs, even for students with very similar personal circumstances. We expand upon each of these possibilities in the following paragraphs.

4.1. Awareness

It is possible that the online program students are less well-informed about the availability of support through the DRC [e.g., 9 , 40 ]. This could follow from a lack of informal sharing of information that is more likely to occur in in-person learning environments. Supporting this explanation is the fact that for online students, having fewer than 30 credit hours was predictive of less DRC enrollment, whereas this was not the case among in-person students. This suggests that, despite the university’s many lines of communication to its online program students, including traditional academic advisors and “success coaches” who provide support to online students for things like time management and career exploration, many students early in their college journey may not receive the support that they may require and be entitled to.

4.2. Eligibility

Complicating this subject is the question of which students are considered eligible to receive accommodations. In addition to the structural issues addressed in the Gin et al. studies, prior research has highlighted the “documentation disconnect”, in which a student was deemed eligible for a disability accommodation at the K–12 level, but, due to more stringent requirements for documentation of disability, was not found to be eligible for the same accommodation at the college level [ 41 , 42 ]. Sparks & Lovett [ 43 ] also conclude that the breadth of methods for diagnosing a learning-disabled student has led to a situation in which there is substantial overlap in the academic performance of “learning disabled” and “non-learning disabled” students. The literature calls attention to ways that a student may have an expectation of receiving a disability accommodation, but not be eligible in practice. Some of these factors may be exacerbated in the case of fully online degree programs. For example, the documentation disconnect described previously occurs in part because different laws mandate disability accommodation in K–12 than in higher education and in part because standards for K–12 disability status vary by state. Given that online undergraduate programs are often marketed toward out-of-state students, the fraction of these ineligible students may be greater in an online program as compared to the traditional in-person degree programs at the same university. In addition, given that our prior work showed that the online program attracted relatively more students from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds [ 29 ], it is possible that online students with disabilities are, on average, less able than the in-person degree students to obtain the medical diagnoses necessary to demonstrate their eligibility.

Assuming that online students with disabilities are aware of their support options and, bearing in mind our results showing the limited range of accommodations that are commonly received ( Table 5 ), it is possible that some students are making an informed choice to not ask for accommodations. That is to say that these students may believe that the accommodations that are made available to them do not effectively address their needs. We have no evidence that speaks directly to this possibility. However, in considering more indirect evidence, Gin et al. [ 4 , 9 ] found that some students with disabilities struggled to be granted the kind of support they felt was justified during the emergency shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also the question of a perceived stigma associated with requesting accommodations, so students must see these accommodations as having a value that exceeds the effort required to obtain them and any negative consequences (e.g., judgement or bias against them) they may associate with them.

4.4. Willingness to request

Numerous previous studies highlight the important possibility of students who choose not to address or report their disabilities [ 5 , 12 , 25 , 44 ]. This may be even more true in online courses and programs where students will have fewer and more limited interactions with their peers or with faculty members. The limited nature of these interactions makes it easier, and perhaps more appealing, to keep one’s disability status private. It also removes opportunities for students to learn about the types of accommodations available or the potential value of those resources. Similarly, it may be more difficult for online instructors (or student peers) to recognize instances where a student may benefit from disability services. Therefore, the mediated nature of an online degree program expands the concept of a “hidden disability”, providing many students with disabilities the choice whether or not to disclose their disability status to others. In an in-person setting, a hidden disability might be a mental health condition, but in an asynchronous online setting, this category could include deafness, physical disabilities, or chronic health conditions, many of which would be readily apparent in-person. Thus, students not registering with the DRC could be a conscious decision not to reveal their disability to others, and the nature of online learning gives students in those degree programs more autonomy regarding this decision.

Looking at results from both Tables 5 and 6 , a final possibility is that the differences in the frequencies of requested accommodations follow from the inherent accommodations provided by the online learning modality. Put simply, perhaps students online need fewer accommodations because of the asynchronous flexible nature of the learning environment. Consider peer notetaking services, for example, which our results show to be a relatively common accommodation in-person, but not available to online students. It may be the case that some students who would have requested this kind of accommodation for a synchronous, in-person class do not see it as necessary for an asynchronous, online delivery where they can freely pause, rewind, or rewatch lectures at their convenience. Alternatively, perhaps our results are driven by a self-selection effect in which students with disabilities preferentially enroll in the online degree program knowing that they will not need to request disability accommodations. This kind of strategic enrollment would imply a high level of effective self-determination, something that prior work has shown to be associated with academic success [ 45 ]. Therefore, if such behavior is widespread, then our observed grade differences reflect a combination of the inherent affordances of the online modality and the presence of students with the skills of self-determination that help them to be successful.

Prior research is mixed on whether online courses are seen as preferable by students with disabilities, with much of the difference coming from how attentive a given institution or instructor has been to accessibility [ 12 , 46 , 47 ]. The present study does not examine instructional practices or technology use at the level of individual courses, but strategies for effective and accessible online learning have been reviewed elsewhere [e.g., 48 ] and could be the basis for future research expanding on our work.

This study relied on administrative data because these data provide a complete summary of the university’s available DRC services and students’ use of these services. However, our work cannot speak directly to the students’ perspective in requesting, declining to request, or receiving DRC services, nor can it speak to factors related to the self-determination of these students. The latter is one of the more widely studied constructs for both predicting success of students with disabilities and for designing support programs to promote success [e.g., 49 – 52 ]. Future work is needed to explore whether our findings reflect an underlying difference in the level of self-determination between students in in-person and online degree programs or, perhaps, that the skills associated with self-determination (self-advocacy, goal setting, etc.) must be applied differently in online settings.

We conclude this section by reiterating that our regression results with respect to course grades suggest that students with disabilities who are registered with the DRC in the online degree program have an equal or better opportunity to succeed as their in-person counterparts. Therefore, we tentatively conclude that online students with disabilities can be well-supported in that modality. However, we do underscore that our interpretation of the grade results is complicated by the fact that we can only analyze students who were officially eligible for and proactively chose to request support from the campus DRC, thus it may be the case that our finding with respect to grades is biased by a selection for the most well-informed students with disabilities. Or, relatedly, that online students with disabilities that are registered with the DRC are the more privileged group of students with disabilities, so the grade advantage that we see online is simply because the more privileged group of students with disabilities are represented in the dataset.

4.6. Limitations

Although we believe this work is an important first step in closing a gap in the existing understanding of disability accommodations in online learning environments, we also wish to highlight some limitations. First, there are reasons to predict that some students with disabilities might be more likely to prefer an online degree program. This could lead the population of students with disabilities online to be systematically stronger academically and more motivated to succeed. Testing this possibility would require an indicator of prior academic performance, such as high school GPA or standardized test scores, but these data are not uniformly collected at admission to the online degree program that we studied, thus we are unable to rule it out. Second, the overall percentage of students with disabilities is smaller in the online program than the in-person one. If there exist substantial numbers of online students who could benefit from disability accommodation, but who are not registered to receive them, this could have biased our comparison of online to in-person grades by disability accommodation status.

Although we explored the possible differential effects among students with different types of disabilities and found no such differences, it bears repeating that our primary results aggregate all students with any disability. It goes without saying that the nature of the barriers to academic achievement experienced by a student with reduced mobility and those experienced by a student with a learning disability are very different. The same is true within these broad categories of disability. Critically, we also cannot assume that an in-person student and an online student with the same type of disability will have the same barriers to academic success. It is also important to note that the personal experiences of individuals, even with the same type of disability, are unique [ 35 , 36 ]. Thus, we caution against making generalizations concerning all individuals who share a disability type or specific disability and acknowledge that our aggregated analyses may conceal important variability.

The other notable limitation is the use of administrative data. Although these data did allow us to examine research questions that are troublesome for survey and interview research-based approaches, the administrative data do not capture a complete picture of any one student’s experience. This is particularly true when studying students with disabilities, each of whom must be categorized within an existing category for disability type (and other demographic characteristics).

5. Conclusion

The use of online learning will certainly continue to grow among institutions of higher education. It is, therefore, essential that these institutions examine and continuously monitor how their existing disability accommodations align with the needs of students in online courses and fully online degree programs. Previous survey- and interview-based research has found that students with disabilities in online courses feel less well supported and encounter more obstacles to receiving accommodations [ 4 , 9 , 37 ]. In our study, administrative data from a fully online degree program suggests that this kind of unequal accommodation persists. While our analysis of course grades indicates that the affordances of online learning for students with disabilities may outweigh any disadvantages caused by the gaps in accommodation, there remains an obligation for administrators and faculty to ensure that students are equitably supported across both in-person and online programs. In particular, if the types of accommodations offered predate the online program, there may be gaps either due to the appropriateness of those accommodations for fully online courses or due to the practical realities of providing those accommodations to remote students. Although the details of disability accommodations will vary, we hope that the present study will offer a starting point for self-study at any institution with new or existing online degree programs and that our results will inspire these institutions to look for ways to better support their online students with disabilities.

Supporting information

S1 table. student with disability’s demographics by modality..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.s001

S2 Table. Difference in DRC enrollment by student demographics.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.s002

S3 Table. Complete list of accommodations in dataset.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.s003

S4 Table. Regression results for disability type.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288748.s004

Acknowledgments

We thank ASU’s Student Accessibility and Inclusive Learning Services for their support in providing access to the anonymous data analyzed in this study.

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What Are Learning Disabilities?

Types, Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

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What are learning disabilities?

Learning disabilities are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders that can significantly hamper a person’s ability to learn new things. As a result, the person may have trouble with tasks such as speaking, reading, writing, paying attention, understanding information, remembering things, performing mathematical calculations, or coordinating movements.

This article explores the types, causes, symptoms, and treatment of learning disabilities.

People with learning disabilities generally have average to superior intelligence and are often gifted in science, math, fine arts, and other creative mediums. However, there can be gaps between their potential and the skills expected from a person of their age .

Nevertheless, some of history's most accomplished, influential people had learning disabilities, including Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, and Winston Churchill.

Types of Learning Disabilities

“Learning disability” is an umbrella term that encompasses many types of specific learning disorders, including:

Dyslexia: Dyslexia is the most common learning disability, accounting for 80% of all learning disability cases. It is a language processing disorder characterized by difficulty with speaking, reading, writing, or understanding words. This can cause the person's vocabulary to develop at a slower pace and lead to issues with grammar, reading comprehension, and other language skills.
Dysgraphia: People with dysgraphia may have difficulty putting their thoughts into writing due to issues with vocabulary, spelling, grammar, memory, and critical thinking. This condition is characterized by poor handwriting, as the person may struggle with letter spacing, spatial awareness, and motor planning. Dysgraphia can make it hard for the person to think and write simultaneously.
Dyscalculia: Sometimes known as “math dyslexia,” this condition includes learning disorders related to mathematics, such as difficulty with numbers, concepts, and reasoning. People with dyscalculia may struggle to count money, read clocks and tell time, perform mental math calculations, identify number patterns, and apply mathematical formulae.
Auditory processing disorder (APD): People with APD may have difficulty processing sounds because their brain misinterprets auditory information received by the ear. As a result, they may confuse the order of sounds in certain words, or they may not be able to distinguish between sounds such as the teacher’s voice and the background noise in the classroom.
Language processing disorder (LPD): This is a subset of APD, characterized by difficulties with processing spoken language . The person may have difficulty attaching meaning to sound groups representing words, sentences, and stories.
Nonverbal learning disabilities (NVLD): NVLD is characterized by difficulty interpreting nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and other nonverbal signals.
Visual perceptual/visual motor deficit: People with this condition may have difficulty with hand-eye coordination and motor activities. They may frequently lose their spot while reading, demonstrate unusual eye movements while reading or writing, confuse similar-looking letters, have difficulty navigating their environment, and struggle to manage items like pens, pencils, crayons, glue, and scissors.

Symptoms of Learning Disabilities

These are some of the symptoms of learning disabilities:

Poor memory
Difficulty focusing
Short attention span
Difficulty with reading or writing
Inability to distinguish between sounds, letters, or numbers
Difficulty sounding out words
Tendency to put numbers or letters in the wrong sequence
Difficulty telling time
Confusion between right and left
Tendency to reverse letters
Difficulty grasping certain words and concepts
Disconnect between words and meaning (i.e.. saying one thing but meaning another)
Difficulty expressing thoughts and emotions
Poor hand-eye coordination
Delayed speech development
Disorganization
Trouble with listening and following instructions
Inappropriate responses
Restlessness and impulsiveness
Tendency to act out
Difficulty with discipline
Resistance to change
Inconsistent performance on a daily or weekly basis

While all children struggle with some of these things from time to time during their school years, people with learning disabilities tend to have a cluster of these symptoms that persist even as they get older.

According to the National Institute for Learning Development (NILD), frustration is a hallmark of this condition, since people with learning disabilities often excel at some things but do very poorly in other areas, and are often acutely aware of the gaps between what they can and cannot do.

The NILD notes that people with learning disabilities often find themselves failing in certain academic or professional areas due to reasons beyond their control, or having to put in tremendous amounts of effort in order to succeed. This experience can be difficult, confusing, and demotivating, often causing the person to feel sad and disappointed.

Causes of Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities are caused by differences in the neurological functioning of the person’s brain. These differences can occur before the person is born, during their birth, or in early childhood, and may be caused by factors such as:

Maternal illness during pregnancy
Birth complications that block the flow of oxygen to the baby’s brain
Certain genes that can make the person more genetically predisposed to developing a learning disability
Injury or illness, such as meningitis, in early childhood
Health conditions such as cerebral palsy and Down’s syndrome often involve some extent of learning disability

However, it’s important to note that learning disabilities should not be mistaken for learning problems that arise due to other factors such as:

Visual, hearing, verbal, or motor handicaps
Intellectual disability
Emotional disturbances
Economic , cultural, or environmental disadvantages

Diagnosing Learning Disabilities

A healthcare professional can diagnose learning disabilities. The diagnostic process might involve:

Academic testing: The healthcare provider may administer a standardized achievement test that checks the person’s reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, as well as an intelligence quotient (IQ) test . If the person performs well on the IQ test but has a lower score on the achievement test, it could indicate that they have a learning disability.
Performance review: The healthcare provider may review and evaluate the person’s academic, professional, social, and developmental performance.
Medical history: The healthcare provider will likely ask questions about the person’s personal and family medical history.
Physical and neurological exam: The healthcare provider may conduct a physical and neurological exam to check for other health conditions such as brain diseases, mental health conditions, and developmental and intellectual disabilities .

Every learning disability has different symptoms, and everyone’s experience of the condition is unique. The signs, frequency, and intensity of symptoms can vary considerably. Some people may have a single, isolated learning difficulty that doesn't cause issues in day-to-day life; others have overlapping learning disabilities that make it difficult for them to function without support.

Learning disabilities typically develop at a young age and are often diagnosed during the person’s school years, since the primary focus at school is learning. An estimated 8% to 10% of American children younger than 18 have learning disabilities. However, some people are not diagnosed with learning disabilities until they attend college or get a job; others never receive an official diagnosis, so they go through life without knowing why they have trouble with academics, work, relationships, or day-to-day tasks.

Treating Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities are lifelong conditions that cannot be fixed or cured; however, with timely diagnosis, treatment, and support, people with learning disabilities can be successful at school, work, and among their community.

Treatment for learning disabilities may involve:

Special education: Children with learning disabilities may benefit from education by specially trained teachers who perform a comprehensive evaluation of the child’s abilities and then help the child build on their strengths while compensating for their disabilities.
Medication: Some people may need to take medication to improve their ability to focus and concentrate.
Therapy: Psychotherapy can help people with learning disabilities deal with emotional issues and develop coping skills.
Other interventions: People with learning disabilities may also benefit from other interventions such as speech and language therapy.
Support groups: People with learning disabilities as well as parents of children with learning disabilities may benefit from support group meetings that help them connect with others who have similar experiences. Learning difficulties can often lead to tension, misunderstandings, and conflicts among the family, particularly among families where the condition is hereditary.

Every human being is equipped with a unique set of strengths and weaknesses that enable them to do some things effortlessly but struggle in other areas. Although people with learning disabilities have some challenges with learning, they are not in any way inferior to anyone else . Special education, treatment, support, kindness, and patience can help them achieve success.

Vidyadharan V, Tharayil HM. Learning disorder or learning disability: Time to rethink . Indian J Psychol Med . 2019;41(3):276-278. doi:10.4103/IJPSYM.IJPSYM_371_18

National Institute for Learning Development. What is a learning disability?

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Learning disabilities .

Learning Difficulties Association of America. Types of learning disabilities .

Walden University. 7 learning disabilities every psychology professional should study .

Kohli A, Sharma S, Padhy SK. Specific learning disabilities: Issues that remain unanswered . Indian J Psychol Med . 2018;40(5):399-405. doi:10.4103/IJPSYM.IJPSYM_86_18

Learning Difficulties Association of America. Symptoms of learning disabilities .

American Academy of Pediatricians. Diagnosing a learning disability .

National Health Service. Learning disabilities .

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. How are learning disabilities diagnosed?

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. What are some signs of learning disabilities?

By Sanjana Gupta Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

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Psychological Aspects of Students With Learning Disabilities in E-Environments: A Mini Review and Future Research Directions

What are the main learning difficulties or advantages encountered by students with learning disabilities (LDs) within e-environments? As a result of the Covid-19 emergency, e-learning is being increasingly used to support students’ learning processes. A number of countries closed their schools altogether, so face-to-face lessons were and have been replaced by distance lessons. A search of current literature via Scopus, Eric and Google Scholar electronic databases was conducted according to Prisma Guidelines. Other sources of literature were also considered, starting from the references in the full text of the articles consulted. We used the following search keywords: “LDs” combined with the “AND/OR” Boolean operator and “e-learning platforms,” “well-being,” “psychological factors,” “emotional distress,” and “self-regulation.” One body of literature highlights the lack of inclusive accessibility standards and a lack of attention to specific tools for addressing LDs, which causes students to develop high levels of stress/anxiety and emotional distress, in addition to low levels of well-being, self-esteem and self-efficacy. Another area of literature looks at how students can develop high levels of self-regulation and emotional awareness, as well as high levels of inclusion. Results are discussed in terms of the promotion of e-learning that focuses on the psychological well-being of students and teachers use of technological tools.

Introduction

The forced interruption of face-to-face teaching due to the worldwide outbreak of Covid-19, has significantly reactivated the debate on the concrete effectiveness and functionality of e-learning courses. Specifically, our goal was to better understand the psychological effects and efficacy of the current massive use of the e-environments on students with learning disabilities (LDs) ( Viner et al., 2020 ). Literature shows a variety of ways to define e-learning. For example, Cidral et al. (2018) define e-learning as a web-based learning system for the dissemination of information, communication, and knowledge for education and training. Until 2002, Eletti had affirmed that e-learning is a new type of training, a new teaching system that allows you to follow and above all personalize learning. The services and tools used allow for continuous contact with the “student”. In addition, a platform and an interface built ad hoc , adapting the contents, allows to model the teaching on the user’s needs ( Eletti, 2002 ). Thus, in light of the massive use of e-environments, there is a definite need to question how effective these tools are for students with LDs. According to international diagnostic criteria, LDs are an overarching group of neurodevelopmental disorders comprising different learning disorders that affect primary and/or secondary academic abilities and a child’s overall capabilities ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013 ; Schulte-Korne, 2014 ). Children with specific LDs are a rather heterogeneous group, both with regard to specific academic abilities such as listening, thinking, reading, speaking, writing, calculating, and spelling ( Sorrenti et al., 2019 ), as well as to their neuropsychological and functional profiles. For example, they may have impairments affecting different cognitive and neuropsychological abilities (working memory), long-term memory (implicit and explicit memory), attention (selective and sustained), and linguistic, praxis, visuospatial, problem solving, and/or executive abilities ( Petretto and Masala, 2017 ; Visser et al., 2020 ), etc. Moreover, there is general agreement on the association between LDs and other neurodevelopmental disorders (ADHD and specific language disorders); LDs typically occur in individuals of normal intelligence ( Sorrenti et al., 2019 ). A body of studies indicates a relationship between children’s LD and poor social relations in school ( Walker and Nabuzoka, 2007 ), this aspect is confirmed also in the University context ( Filippello et al., 2019 ). Literature shows a relationship between LDs and internalizing (depressive and anxiety disorders) and externalizing disorders (conduct disorders) ( Frith, 2013 ; Bonifacci et al., 2016 ; Panicker and Chelliah, 2016 ; Visser et al., 2020 ). If LDs are not adequately treated, they can evolve over time, potentially resulting in forms of psycho-social maladjustment ( Sorrenti et al., 2019 ). Regarding the use of e-learning, only a small number of studies have addressed these psychological factors and consequences, and there are few studies which have directly examined the quality of life of students with LDs, or the quality of interpersonal relationships (parents, teachers, and peers). In this mini-review and according to previous research in the field, we analyze these aspects and focus our attention to the following questions:

(1) What are the effects of the use of e-learning on psychological well-being?
(2) What are the effects of accessibility standards in promoting inclusion and in reducing stress, anxiety and emotional distress among students with LDs?

Methodology

A search of current literature using Scopus, Eric and Google Scholar electronic databases was conducted according to Prisma Guidelines ( Moher et al., 2015 ). Other sources of literature were also considered, starting from the references in the full texts of the articles examined. We used the following search keywords: “LDs” combined with the “AND/OR” Boolean operator and “e-learning platforms,” “well-being,” “psychological factors,” “emotional distress,” and “self-regulation”. Applying a systematic procedure, literature was then selected and results were charted and analyzed. The following inclusion criteria were established: papers on the use of e-learning with LD; on the relationship between e-learning platforms and related psychological aspects (self-esteem, emotional distress, and self-regulation); written in English and published from 2015 to 2020. The following exclusion criteria were applied: systematic reviews; papers on the use of e-learning without LD. On the basis of the research questions and the literature considered, we chose a minireview. For this reason the data will be presented as a narrative review.

Results and Discussion

In the first part of the search, two independent assessors found 53 articles. Applying our inclusion and exclusion criteria, after reading the abstract, 27 articles were considered. After reading the full texts, 4 further articles were excluded, thus a final group of 23 articles were considered ( Table 1 ). As expected, in literature, regarding the definition of “e-learning”, we found different systems and tools (platforms, devices, web materials/sites, Learning Content Management Systems, ICT, etc.). According to Bjekic et al. (2014) we categorized the different definitions in two groups. The first group refers to the use of Assistive Technology (AT) (hardware or software, used to increase, improve or maintain capabilities of persons with LDs aimed to support and/or increase learning). The second group of e-learning refers to a system of procedures, processes and instructional materials that supports learning. Moreover, we considered a difference between e-platforms and ICT tools ( Salehi et al., 2015 ; Table 2 ).

Characteristics of papers which met the inclusion criteria.

Author(s), Year	Topic of paper	Country/Countries	Point of view	Accessibility	Methodology	Definition e-learning platforms, instruments and/or devices used	Total no. of subjects (Total no. of subjects with LD)	Type of school/university	Kind of LD	Age range	Assessed Variables
	This study investigates whether, and if so how, ICT could be used to support school communities involving students with learning difficulties, and whether it could help these students with their learning in two special School settings	Australia	T/P	No	-Case studies -Interviews with the School Principal, Teachers and Parents	ICT in teaching -ICT was used predominantly to reinforce language and numeracy skills -Classrooms are equipped with an electronic whiteboard and each student has access to a notebook computer and iPad. ICT offered opportunities for students to use technology that would improve their literacy output, access and exposure to technology as well as increasing engagement and provides evidence that scaffolding with a direct teaching approach enhances the learning outcomes of LD students.	-180 students in the first school -About 400 students in the second school (n.s.)	S	n.s.	n.s.	-Attainment in skills and academic knowledge -use of ICT enhances LD students’ independence and equips them with adequate skills which should allow them to continue with further study through various pathways and to move into a normal work environment
	This study investigates which factors associated with learners with disabilities impact student outcomes in an online learning -Environment Successes and struggles in an online setting -Nature of interaction between students with disabilities and instructors	USA-midwest	S	No	Electronic survey of 20 questions	For online courses, the interaction can take place through the use of both synchronous tools (videoconferencing, audio stream, online chat sessions) and asynchronous tools (e-mail, discussion boards).	40 (4LD, 10 ADHD)	U	LD and ADHD	18–58	-Social presence, -interpersonal relationships -Achievement -Satisfaction -different types of interactions in online learning: learner–interface interaction, learner–content interaction, and learner–learner interaction.
	The study uses a four-phase iterative process to develop and analyze a prototype eLearning system: understanding the problem, designing the system, developing the system, and gathering user feedback	Indonesia	T/S	No	Interviewed observation during the use of ICT	Computer connected to the Internet, virtual classrooms	17 teachers (n.s.)	S	n.s.	n.s.	Communication Attendance Reasonable accommodations Knowledge and competencies of teachers
	This study investigates the potential benefits offered by the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to support dyslexic students by considering their preferred learning styles. Based on the results of the analysis of learning styles differences, the authors introduced an adaptive mobile learning to support and promote learning for dyslexic students.	Morocco	S	No	Questionnaires	ICT (digital technologies Multimedia applications) adaptive mobile learning	28 (8)	PS	dyslexia	8–10	Learning styles (description of the attitudes and behaviors, which determine an individual’s preferred way of learning VAK learning style model is based on three main sensory receivers: visual (V), auditory (A), and kinesthetic (K). - ‘cycle of learning’, four-stage cycle of learning: abstract conceptualization (AC), concrete experience (CE), active experimentation (AE), and reflective observation (RO).
	This study investigates the effect of an attributive-metacognitive training on attributional style of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN), proposed by a elearning platform	Italy	S	Yes	Questionnaires	ICT (e-mail, Skype network conversations, videoconferencing, e-learning platforms, such as Moodle, Edmodo, and others)	30 students with special educational needs (30)	SS	24 dyslexia 6 ADHD	11–15	Metacognition Self esteem Self efficacy Locus of control
	This study aims to explore the learning experience of learners with dyslexia when reading passages using different online reading affordances to derive some guidelines for dyslexia-friendly online text.	Malaysia	S	Yes Web site accessibility guidelines and role of engagement	Qualitative multiple-case study	Web sites The use of online learning is appropriate for learners with dyslexia as this delivery mode allows self-paced learning and affords multimodal technologies that have the potential to settle dominant deficit models of dyslexia	12 (12)	SS	Dyslexia	14–18	Online reading affordances Perceived learning behavioral engagement (BE), cognitive engagement (CE) as well as affective engagement (AE) web accessibility guidelines for users with dyslexia
	This study investigates how students perceived access to higher education -Role of barriers	Spanish	S	Yes	Focus group and interviews Discourse analysis	Personal Learning Environments PLE WEB	16 (3)	U	Dyslexia	20–29	Web or computer barriers, Learning barriers, burocratic barriers, architectural barriers, social barriers
	This study investigates both the attitudes of students with disability towards disclosure of their disabilities and their experiences ofstudying online and accessibility of online learning materials	Australia	S	Yes Accessibility on web materials Need for a more interest toward Universal Design	Online survey	E-learning in open university	2000 students with disability (16,3% with LD)	U		Mean age 36	Accomodations and disclosure of disabilities and the difficulties for students to disclosure their disabilities, even if this makes difficult to personalized accomodations.
	This study investigates the effects of learning challenges on online learning environments on the quality of life of students with learning disabilities	Australia	S	Yes	Semi-structured interview	Online learning environments	8 (8)	U	Dyslexia	21–43	Stress, quality of life, anxiety, self esteem
	This study investigated how students and instructors perceived the instruction in adapted courses in post secondary school students	Israel	S/T	No	Semi-structuredinterviews	Adapted courses	1000 (5)	U	LD and ADHD	20	Perception of teaching Locus of control emotional support
	This study investigates an integrated educational methods of training matching the features of disabled students. The technology includes both traditional and innovative methods of training	Russia	S	Yes	n.s.	Adapted courses with online web content. Information technologies Web content has to be available for a wide range of users with health limitations.	6 (n.s.)	U	n.s.	n.s.	Educational Motivation Interpersonal Relationship
	This study investigates effects of digital teaching on metacognitive skills	Spain	S	No	Questionnaire	Digital teaching platform called Smile and Learn,	130 (n.s.)	PS	n.s.	8	Metacognitive skills
	This study explored the benefits of ICT use to identify the ways in which emotions are involved during the learning process in Virtual Learning Environments (VLE)	Morocco	S	Yes		ICT Virtual learning environment Artificial intelligence Educational games	42 (14)	PS	LD	7–11	Affective state Emotions Facial expression recognition
	This study investigates how practicing teachers provided self-regulation strategies to students with disabilities in a fully online learning environment. In this context, the teachers intended to offer self-regulation strategies to students, but they were largely unable to do so.	Kansas	T	Yes		E-learning environment	Teachers (n.s.)	S	n.s.	n.s.	Emotional demands Selfregulation In students with disability
	This investigation studied attainment in students with dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties who were taking modules by distance learning with the Open University in 2012. Students with dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties who had no additional disabilities were just as likely as nondisabled students to complete their modules, but they were less likely to pass the modules that they had completed and less likely to obtain good grades on the modules that they had passed.	UK	S	Yes		Distance learning in open university computer-based support, particularly CD-ROMs, dedicated websites and computer-mediated conferencing	4961 (n.s.)	U	Dyslexia	21–60	attainment
	This study examined the experiences of students taking the same courses in the humanities by distance learning when tutorial support was provided conventionally (using limited face-to-face sessions with some contact by telephone and email) or online (using a combination of computer-mediated conferencing and email).	UK	S	yes		In distance learning, the curriculum was traditionally provided through correspondence materials. Nevertheless, most distance-learning institutions use various kinds of personal support in trying to narrow what Moore (1980) called the “transactional distance” with their students, most commonly through regular albeit limited tutorials. In recent years, there has been an increasing use of information technology in distance education, with a move from paper-based to electronic materials accompanied by a move from face-to-face to online tutorial support	292 (24)	U	Dyslexia	n.s.	The results showed that, given a choice between face-to-face and online tutorial support, students with and without disabilities were equally likely to choose online support rather than face-to-face support
	This study investigates personal resources, loneliness, and academic self-efficacy among college students with and without LD in smartphone and internet use	Israel	S	No	Questionnaire	Smart phones Internet	178 (59)	Transition to college	n.s.	24 mean age	Coping, Self-efficacy Predictors of loneliness Hope, optimism Sense of coherence
	This study investigates how adapting the online course by using information and communication technology following formative assessment will improve students’ self-learning ability as well as broaden their science knowledge, their lab performance and teaching skills. The study was focused on preparing K-2 pre-service teachers	n.s.	S	No	Questionnaires and interviews	Online learning as a teaching tool, the challenge of adapting a course for three groups of students: students with learning disabilities, excellent students, and average students	121 (25)	U	n.s.	n.s.	The online course was based on the Highlearn platform which enabled ICT learning synchronously through InterWise. The course included peer teaching: students conducted group discussion and peer feedback; individual monitored learning. All students were instructed by the lecturer in developing
	This study investigated parent perceptions and experiences regarding fully online learning for their children with disabilities	Kansas	P	Yes	Interviews	Online learning in online schools	18 (Parents of children) (7)	S	Learning disabilities	n.s.	Parental role on online learning Communication
	This study investigates online writing instruction for students with learning disabilities (LDs) using synchronous online collaborative writing software to investigate effects of self-regulated strategy development for strategy instruction in persuasive writing.	USA Florida	S	No	n.s.	Writing Instruction Online	4 (4)	S	n.s.	adolescent	Self-regulated strategies development
	This study investigated how online learning may afford students with disabilities enhanced opportunities for academic success. In this study, the authors interviewed 11 graduate students to determine their experiences with disability accommodations in online courses and their perceptions of the relationship between those accommodations and their academic success.	North Dakota	S	Yes	n.s.	Accommodation in online courses Since students with disabilities may have difficulty concentrating, staying on task, and adhering to a schedule, online settings (particularly those that are asynchronous) allow students to access courses anywhere, anytime, and any place and provide “the personalized time they need to think, process, and respond”.	11 (4 LD 2 ADHD)	U	Learning disabilities ADHD	22–55	Disability accommodations in online courses students responsibility instructor responsibility University responsibility
	This study investigates the case of a digital game called Words Matter. The game was designed for children with dyslexia and was informed by principles from casual games and evidence-based practice from special education. Focusing on the game play of two groups of children, we employ a systematic thematic analytic approach on videos of children’s verbal and non-verbal interaction triangulated with their game logs, concentrating on the nature of student-student as well as student-tutor social interactions.	UK	S	No	Case studies	Drill and practice digital games-based learning Games-based pedagogies for students with special education needs	8 (8)	S	Dyslexia	11–12	Motivation Engagement on learning Social engagement Self-esteem Personal identity Peer tutoring
	This study investigates the impact of e-Learning on the development of academic and social interaction skills among students with learning disabilities in Jordan from the perspective of their teachers	Jordan	T	No	n.s.	Multimedia and information technologies; as well as the use of the internet as a new technique of teaching, The internet has become one of the most important ways to make available resources and to share and acquire information. No common definition of the term e-learning.	100 teachers (n.s.)	S	n.s.	n.s.	Role of e-learning on the development of academic skills among students with learning disabilities Social interaction Social behaviour

Papers which met the inclusion criteria in the school setting analyzed according to Bjekic et al. (2014) .

School	E-learning (N Studies)		Limitations	Strenghts
	ICT	E-platforms
	4(3*)	8*(6)	− Lack of interest:	− Promotion of:
			• technology in the development of	• skills and academic knowledge
			student curriculum	educational outcome
			design framework for digital materials	students’independence and self-regulation
			personalized paths parent’s training in supporting children’s e-learning experience	pathway for the transition from school to further study learning styles
				communication among children, teachers and parents
				metacognitive experience
				emotional well-being
				tutor/teacher scaffolding
				parents support
	1*	1*	− Lack of:	− Promotion of:
			• design interface	• tutor/teacher scaffolding
			appropriate online instruction strategies	social support
				stress and anxiety reduction
		12 (3*)	− Lack of:	− Promotion of:
			• longitudinal studies	• scaffolding (instructor-learner interaction)
			self-regulation and emotional well-being	social support
				metacognitive interventions
				academic retention

The papers showed a certain amount of heterogeneity in their definition of LDs. Some authors proposed a specific definition ( Chen et al., 2015 ; Richardson, 2015 ; Shonfeld and Ronen, 2015 ; Straub and Vasquez, 2015 ; Benmarrakchi et al., 2017 ; Sharabi et al., 2016 ; Adam and Tatnall, 2017 ; Vasalou et al., 2017 ; Lambert and Dryer, 2018 ; Lipka et al., 2019 ; Ziadat, 2019 ), while others proposed a general reference to Special Educational Needs or used the World Health Organization definition of Disability ( World Health Organization, 2001 ; Berizzi et al., 2017 ; Naumova et al., 2017 ; García-González et al., 2020 ). Some papers reported the definition of LD based on international diagnostic criteria, others described specific national law/s or references ( Sharabi et al., 2016 ). Moreover, with regard to sample recruitment, some authors chose samples consisting of different groups of students with other kinds of disabilities and then specified the number of students with LDs ( Richardson, 2015 , 2016 ; Shonfeld and Ronen, 2015 ; Terras et al., 2015 ; Benmarrakchi et al., 2017 ; Sharabi et al., 2016 ; Alamri and Tyler-Wood, 2017 ; Berizzi et al., 2017 ; Kent et al., 2018 ; Lipka et al., 2019 ; Ouherrou et al., 2019 ; García-González et al., 2020 ); while in other papers, the sample is made up only of students with LDs ( Chen et al., 2015 ; Straub and Vasquez, 2015 ; Vasalou et al., 2017 ; Lambert and Dryer, 2018 ). Regarding the level of schooling, about 1/2 of the studies focused on University environments ( Richardson, 2015 , 2016 ; Terras et al., 2015 ; Alamri and Tyler-Wood, 2017 ; Naumova et al., 2017 ; Kent et al., 2018 ; García-González et al., 2020 ) and the other 1/2 examined primary and secondary schools ( Chen et al., 2015 ; Straub and Vasquez, 2015 ; Benmarrakchi et al., 2017 ; Rice and Carter, 2016 ; Smith et al., 2016 ; Adam and Tatnall, 2017 ; Berizzi et al., 2017 ; Vasalou et al., 2017 ; Baharuddin and Dalle, 2019 ; Lipka et al., 2019 ; Ouherrou et al., 2019 ; Ziadat, 2019 ; Nieto-Márquez et al., 2020 ). One paper focused on the transition from school to university ( Sharabi et al., 2016 ). As expected, we also found a considerable heterogeneity in school settings, ranging from mainstream school/classrooms to special needs schools/classrooms, according to specific national and theoretical approaches and policies regarding the field of inclusion (see Table 2 ). Given that the countries in our sample ranged across Europe, United States, as well as Arab and Slavic countries, there was some diversity in the idea of inclusive policies for students with LDs. This is due to national differences regarding the issues of policies for students with LDs and, in general, for students with SEN. In some countries, there is an inclusion-based approach where students with LDs are placed in mainstream schools; in other countries there are special schools and special classrooms for them. In some countries, transition to complete inclusion is still ongoing ( Lindsay, 2016 ; Norwich, 2016 ; Petretto et al., 2019 ; Pilia, 2019 ). While one of the papers described a specific experience in two special needs classes ( Adam and Tatnall, 2017 ), other research papers concentrated on the use of specific e-learning approaches to designated groups of children with LDs or to all the children in the classroom in mainstream schools ( Straub and Vasquez, 2015 ; Vasalou et al., 2017 ).

The approaches employed range from the use of specific devices and/or platforms, to the use of specific “reasonable accommodations” (such as font quality and sizes in the learning materials on the web or the use of specific support technologies) ( Chen et al., 2015 ; Benmarrakchi et al., 2017 ; Rice and Carter, 2016 ; Alamri and Tyler-Wood, 2017 ; Berizzi et al., 2017 ; Ouherrou et al., 2019 ; García-González et al., 2020 ); or the use of software/games aimed to increase specific abilities in students with LDs ( Straub and Vasquez, 2015 ; Vasalou et al., 2017 ). For university settings, some articles describe the experiences of so-called “Open universities” that have been based on distance learning methods since they started. With the development of ICTs, in the past few decades these universities have started to use e-learning platforms to contact students and to promote learning and social connections ( Richardson, 2015 , 2016 ; Kent et al., 2018 ). Their ongoing experiences focus mainly on the attainment of students with LDs as well as on the need to increase access to information and learning. Other studies focus on the need for dedicated online courses to specific categories of students, aiming at reducing barriers and distances and providing specific accommodations ( Terras et al., 2015 ).

The age range in these university samples is very wide. From a positive perspective it can represent a sign of the wider opportunity for older people to access university courses. However, according to some studies, it could be also the sign of a lower and slower attainment of students with LDs in University ( Richardson, 2015 , 2016 ; Shonfeld and Ronen, 2015 ). The topics of attainment and achievement are interesting because even though some papers have discussed the risk of low achievement for students with LDs, other studies have demonstrated the positive effect of accommodations and have showed examples of unexpected achievement by LD students ( Shonfeld and Ronen, 2015 ). Another aspect is the fear of disclosure of their diagnosis by some students with LDs and the effects on their tendency to hide diagnoses rather than to communicate it, even when they should do so in order to define specific “reasonable accommodations” ( Richardson, 2015 , 2016 ; Terras et al., 2015 ). Although there may be increased student awareness of the need to disclose their diagnosis and the functional profiles that help to define a personalized approach that facilitates their access to learning and materials, some authors have highlighted the importance of further discussing the role of communication between teachers/instructors and students with LDs in the development of more comfortable learning environments and in the pursuit of shared learning and achievement aims ( Terras et al., 2015 ).

Focus on Psychological Well-Being

Few studies have directly examined the psychological aspects of students with LDs in e-environments. Some papers have focused on psychological consequences of the intensified use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs); other papers instead focused especially on adults, addressing some psychological effects of e-learning procedures adapted to students with LDs. In their study, Ouherrou et al. (2019) highlighted the fact that the integration of ICTs in special needs education may have a positive impact on the emotional states of children with LDs, because they may experience fewer negative emotions than findings of current literature would suggest with regard to the presence of higher levels of negative emotions in the classroom. Vasalou et al. (2017) argued that a socially constructed view of digital games-based learning provides new opportunities for the support of children with dyslexia. Children spontaneously engage in “game talk” regarding game performance, content, actions and they strategically use their individual game experiences to express their personality and interact with their peers. Also, such experiences can help improve the intra-individual function by enhancing a child’s self-esteem. The findings of Sharabi et al. (2016) supported earlier studies that assessed children and adolescents with LDs ( Sharabi and Margalit, 2014 ), showing that college students with LDs possess lower levels of personal resources (sense of coherence, hope and academic self-efficacy) and suffer higher levels of social distress and loneliness than their peers. The loneliness factor was predicted by measuring online avoidance coping, their amount of smartphone use and by examining their personal resources, the use of ICTs may provide additional environmental conditions to enable youngsters to meet their emotional needs. At the same time, these opportunities may also be misused as avoidance coping and thus may contribute to increased loneliness and lower academic self-efficacy. Coherently with previous studies, Lambert and Dryer (2018) highlighted that in high education the e-environment had a negative influence on the quality of life of students with increased stress and anxiety, the perception of feelings of inadequacy, a decrease in time available for other activities and personal relationships. The same authors also highlighted that for many students, the academic and emotional support provided by family and friends was a key factor in study success. Studies on the perception of the impact of e-learning on the development of academic skills and social interaction from the perspective of students and/or teachers showed that the quality of teacher-student relationships contribute to producing improvements in learning achievement ( Alamri and Tyler-Wood, 2017 ; Lipka et al., 2019 ; Ziadat, 2019 ). Only a small number of studies have considered the role of parents. Smith et al. (2016) investigated parents’ perceptions and experiences regarding exclusive online learning for their children with disabilities. The results showed that this experience altered parents’ previous roles and that many parents were not equipped to take a teaching role due to lack of training, time, and other constraints. A parent-as-teacher role can negatively affect parent–child dynamics, leading to frustration for parent and child but full online learning requires increased parent–teacher communication. This increased level of interaction and the positive outcomes associated with the shared information enhanced a collaborative parent–teacher relationship. The use of ICT and e-learning can improve the learning of students with LDs only where a supportive context is present. The support provided by family, teachers and peers can create a protective factor which improves the well-being of students with LDs.

Focus on the Accessibility Standards and Emotional Distress

Many of the difficulties in designing e-learning courses are due to accessibility issues that can affect successful engagement ( Draffan, 2012 ; Seale, 2013 ). The heterogeneity of the LD population entails great challenges to all parties involved in creating, managing and using e-learning content, tools and platforms with accessibility features ( Guenaga et al., 2004 ; Baharuddin and Dalle, 2019 ). Some papers described the risks of a design approach based on a general and average idea of students without LDs ( Kent et al., 2018 ). For Beacham and Alty (2006) the e-learning materials commonly employed were developed with the needs and capabilities of non-dyslexic learners in mind; clearly, resources do not generally take into consideration the individual learning approaches that these students manifest ( Alsobhi and Abeysinghe, 2013 ; Chen et al., 2015 ; Luongo, 2018 ). Chen et al. (2015) also underline this point, observing that empirically derived guidelines for designing accessible online learning environments for learners with dyslexia are still scarce. The problem of accessibility is fundamental in e-learning design, as it is strictly linked to certain psychological factors that will affect students, like willingness to focus on learning, management of emotions and behavior, learning motivation, interest and self-regulation ( Chen et al., 2015 ; Berizzi et al., 2017 ; Luongo, 2018 ). Existing literature provides clear evidence that text-based synchronous activities commonly used in education, like chat programs and videoconference, can create psychological and learning difficulties. However, only a small number of papers take into account the problems of students with LDs in collaborative environments ( Luongo, 2018 ). Some papers focus on the positive aspects of the use of e-learning platforms in increasing accessibility to information and learning materials ( Richardson, 2016 ), above all because participation in remote activities, like on-line forum discussions, improves the autonomy and self-regulation of students ( Berizzi et al., 2017 ). These aspects are reinforced by continuous support of tutors and peers, and reflection on what has been done, the goals to be achieved, and ultimately the strategies to be adopted. Other articles described the possible role of a “universal design for learning approach” in the design of websites, web materials and e-learning platforms ( Chen et al., 2015 ; Shonfeld and Ronen, 2015 ; Alamri and Tyler-Wood, 2017 ; Kent et al., 2018 ; Nieto-Márquez et al., 2020 ) in order to create environments that can be useful also for students with LDs.

This mini-review has attempted to analyze both the quality of life of students with LDs and their interpersonal relationships and the features of e-learning that can have positive and negative effects on them. The considerable heterogeneity of the articles we selected led us to the following reflections: we are aware that the heterogeneity could represent a limit but also an expected consequence of the chosen way of to explore a complex topic. Bearing in mind this issue, in a following article we will discuss the picture of the state of art that we derived from this minireview. In the near future, we will explore specific and more focused aspects, also with an attention on intervention aims. Two issues are emerged.

The first is how important online-support is to consolidate teacher-learner relationships, as it can affect a student’s well-being and learning achievement. We know that e-learning is a psychological process supported by e-technology, and learning is a social activity. Understanding that it is socially constructed should ensure that e-learning is organized to promote participation, allowing all students to take part in all activities, thus enhancing cooperative-learning.

The second consideration regards the fundamental role of accessibility and “reasonable accommodations”, which should lead to a reduction of emotional distress and promote positive psychological factors through full engagement with e-learning. In order to be effective, e-learning must go beyond simply digitizing books and ought to be designed carefully and appropriately for learners ( Penna and Stara, 2007 , 2010 ). What about the current and ongoing experience of the massive use of e-learning due to the COVID-19 outbreak? We agree with Al Lily et al. (2020) , who coined the term “Crisis Distance learning,” that the current ongoing experience is different from previous ones, and that caution is needed before making any kind of generalizations from previous experiences. Nevertheless, some general considerations can be drawn for future research. It is necessary to encourage and maintain cooperative approaches in all spheres, including in the use of e-learning in school and universities, with particular attention on the quality of the relationships between all the people involved (students-teachers-parents-peers) and with an even more specific focus on the psychological needs of students with LDs. The improvement of e-learning systems designed with attention to the care and quality of relationships can promote well-being among all parties involved in the learning process.

Author Contributions

All authors equally contributed to the design of the study. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Funding. This work was supported by ATS Sardinia: title project “ Profilo Neuro-Psicologico e Problematiche Emotive nei DSA: Una Proposta di Ricerca-Intervento” - – “Neuro-Psychological Profile and Emotional Problems in LDs: A Research-Intervention Proposal ” (November, 2019; June 2021).

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Case studies

We know that the transforming care programme is making a difference to people’s lives.

Our projects are:

helping people live in homes and not hospitals
building more services in the community
improving people’s health, quality of care and quality of life.

Our case studies tell you how services are changing to make this happen and how real people are having their lives and care transformed. To find out more about our work you can follow us on Twitter via the account @NHSAbility or the hashtag #CareTransformed .

If you have an example of where something is working really well in learning disability services that you would like us to share, please contact the team at: [email protected] or [email protected] .

Annual health checks

Thurrock: health checks for people with a learning disability goes up by almost a third in one year
Training GPs about health checks in Oxford

Care and treatment reviews

Social enterprise is helping to make care and treatment reviews better
Mark leaves hospital and moves back home, thanks to new online tool
New ways of supporting children and young people to stay at home
“Being an expert by experience has made me feel differently about my own learning disability”
The Opportunity Café

Transforming care

Improving health – Andrew’s story

Moving out of hospital

Martin’s story – Martin shows us his new home in Lincolnshire
Closing the inpatient unit – working together in Lincolnshire
Kevin’s story: The sky’s the limit’

Reasonable adjustments

Learning Disability week – Nursing case studies
Creating the right environment for people with a learning disability to have their COVID vaccine

Stopping over-medication of people (STOMP)

Stopping over-medication: Ricky and Andy’s story
Helping people get the right medicines in Bury
Helping Andrew to stop taking the wrong medicines in Hertfordshire
Helping Andrew to stop taking the wrong medicines in Hertfordshire (in easy read)

Services for children and young people

Early intervention service is supporting families when and where they need it
Christina uses a personal health budget to get the best care
Personal health budget is helping James live at home
Extra support to keep children and young people out of hospital

Personalisation and choice

Katy and Jackie’s story
Thomas and David’s story

Support in the community

A place to go for people in crisis: Durham

Case studies from other organisations

Affinity Trust: Meet Ruth
Arden Transforming Care Partnership and HOLD (Home ownership for people with long-term disabilities) in the Midlands
Clare’s story: Turning Point
Johnathan’s story
Pete and Michelle’s story
A message to employers
Sharing lives, improving lives
Benefits of working for NHS England – Alana’s story
Changing Care in Cumbria and the North East
Peter’s story: Future directions
Case studies from Building the Right Support: one year on, 8 November 2016
Empowerment films by the Local Government Association
NHS 111: an inclusive service
Personal health budgets for people with a learning disability
Digital stories by Patient Voices

Nursing Studies (Learning Disability)

As a registered nurse, you can enjoy finding solutions and working with people. Study nursing at degree level with a specific focus on learning disabilities, improving lifestyle and health.

Clearing is now open. Call 0800 027 9171

Learning Disability nursing involves working in partnership with individuals and families to improve autonomy, promote health and support inclusion. This includes making a real contribution towards enhancing behaviours and lifestyles that help achieve the best health outcomes.

This course focuses on meeting the holistic needs of people with learning disabilities. You will explore key themes within contemporary learning disability practice including meeting health needs, community engagement, person-centred planning, inclusion and integration, addressing health inequalities, legislation, forensic practice, care planning and assessment, evidence-based practice, research methods and appraisal.

You will undertake a variety of practice learning experiences within a variety of health and social care settings.

GCU's virtual learning environment and state-of-the-art inter-professional simulation suite provide flexible, innovative, appropriate and effective learning design, content and assessment. There is the opportunity to undertake clinical placements in a variety of NHS Health Boards and third sector organisations throughout west and central Scotland.

Your career

On successful completion of the course, you will be eligible for registration as a Registered Nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

There are a wide range of employment opportunities in both NHS and third sector services, for example, assessment and treatment units, community learning disability teams, hospital liaison services, forensic services, child and adolescent mental health services, and other specialist services.

What you will study

Glasgow Caledonian is among the top 10 universities in the UK in the category of ‘Teaching on my course’ for the subject of Nursing (Learning Disability). 93% of our students on courses within the subject were positive about the teaching on their course in the National Student Survey 2023.

Course Information

Find out more.

Ask a student

COMMENTS

PDF The Transition of Students with Learning Disabilities: A Case Study
Julie, a 17-year-old white female, lived in a large, urban, midwestern city with her parents. She had received special education services since first grade, where she attended a special school for students with physical and learning disabilities. During seventh grade, Julie transferred to an accessible regular junior high.
Specific Learning Disability
Dyscalculia is a form of math-related disability that involves difficulties with learning math-related concepts (such as quantity, place value, and time), memorizing math-related facts, organizing numbers, and understanding how problems are organized on the page. People with dyscalculia are often referred to as having poor "number sense.".
LEARNING DISABILITY : A CASE STUDY
SRJHS&EL/ Ritu Sharma (367-372) LEARNING DISABILITY : A CASE STUDY Ritu Sharma Abstract The present investigation was carried out on a girl name Harshita who has been identified with learning disability. She is presently studying at 'Udaan' a school for the special children in Shimla. The girl was brought to this special school from the ...
Case Studies
Case Studies for using strengths and interests. Case Study One: Grace has a diagnosis of dyslexia. She has trouble with visual scanning, processing, and working memory. She also has difficulties with spelling and sequencing for problem solving. She has strong verbal skills and is artistic abilities. She learns well with color and when her hands ...
PDF CASE STUDIES OF STUDENTS WITH EXCEPTIONAL NEEDS
The Web site for the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). This national organization is important for special education teachers and others who deal with children with special needs. Case Studies of Students With Exceptional Needs113. 05-Campoy.qxd 6/23/2004 7:33 PM Page 113.
Diverse needs of students with learning disabilities: a case study of
In this exploratory case study, the researchers conducted a descriptive, qualitative microanalysis of the tutoring of two eighth grade students with learning disabilities while solving algebra problems. The researchers analyzed the participants' problem solving tendencies and interventions that helped the students succeed.
(PDF) A Case Study of Giftedness and Specific Learning Disabilities
The case study conducted by Hua and Coleman (2002) on the development of career self-efficacy of a gifted high school student with SLD underlined the importance of recognizing the potential of the ...
Understanding, Educating, and Supporting Children with Specific
Fifty years ago, the US federal government, following an advisory committee recommendation (United States Office of Education, 1968), first recognized specific learning disabilities (SLD) as a potentially disabling condition that interferes with adaptation at school and in society.Over these 50 years, a significant research base has emerged on the identification and treatment of SLD, with ...
A comparative case study of the accommodation of students with
1. Introduction. Legal requirements institutionalized the provision of learning accommodations for students with disabilities in American colleges and universities [1-3].Within this context, a disability is defined as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such impairment, or being regarded as having such an impairment ...
Experiences of Students with Learning Disabilities in Higher Education
Experiences of Students with Learning Disabilities in Higher Education: A Scoping Review. Indian J Psychol Med. 2024;46(3):196-207. Address for correspondence: Anekal C Amaresha, Dept. of Psychiatric Social Work, Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health (LGBRIMH), Tezpur, Assam 784001, India. E-mail: [email protected].
Learning Disability: Working Hard, yet Achieving Low (A Case Study of
Therefore, the present study aims to discuss ways to identify learners with Learning disabilities and provide multi-tiered support and Response to Intervention (RTI) to minimize their disability and boost their confidence. The study adopted a One-shot Case Study Research Design which is a subtype of experimental research design. The dependent ...
"Everyone has a story to tell": A review of life stories in learning
In this paper, the authors review life stories in learning disability research and practice since the 1960s. Although there is consistent evidence of their value in giving people a voice and an identity beyond the service label, they are not widely used in the provision of health and social care.
PDF Psychological intervention for specific learning disability: A case report
ning learning disabilities disabilities and are well established [7] [7]. Current case work included included two two types types of of treatment treatment modalities modalities i.e. i.e. remedial rem. dial training training and and cognitive cognitive retraining. retraining. The The aim aim of of the the case case work work was was to work on ...
Supporting successful inclusive practices for learners with
A case study approach was used to describe in detail practices and experiences of individuals working with learners with additional support needs and disabilities. According to Yin [Citation 46], case studies are used to "investigate contemporary phenomena within its real-life context". Our multisite case study included the everyday ...
PDF Case Study: Specific Learning Disability
For this case study, I analyzed a seventh grade student who has been given the pseudonym Mary. Mary has been diagnosed with a Specific Learning Disability (SLD). SLD is one of the most common diagnoses in public school, thus this case study provides an opportunity to shed light on a disability that most new teachers will encounter.
Narrating personal experience of living with learning disabilities and
This is a case study about a man with learning disabilities who has mental health issues. The case study describes the way that he told a researcher about his life. Thirty years of his earlier life were spent in a long-stay hospital in England, UK and more recently he has lived in a community setting with five other people.
Learning Disabilities: Types, Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment
Dyslexia: Dyslexia is the most common learning disability, accounting for 80% of all learning disability cases. It is a language processing disorder characterized by difficulty with speaking, reading, writing, or understanding words. This can cause the person's vocabulary to develop at a slower pace and lead to issues with grammar, reading comprehension, and other language skills.
Psychological Aspects of Students With Learning Disabilities in E
Studies on the perception of the impact of e-learning on the development of academic skills and social interaction from the perspective of students and/or teachers showed that the quality of teacher-student relationships contribute to producing improvements in learning achievement (Alamri and Tyler-Wood, 2017; Lipka et al., 2019; Ziadat, 2019 ...
Understanding and supporting learners with specific learning
These were relative versus absolute cognitive strengths, development of social and emotional strengths, and neurodiverse teaching interventions can foster successful learning. Quantitative studies were in the majority (11), with qualitative (5), reviews (5), semi-experimental research (1) and case study methodology (1) also considered.
Case studies
Case studies. We know that the transforming care programme is making a difference to people's lives. Our projects are: improving people's health, quality of care and quality of life. Our case studies tell you how services are changing to make this happen and how real people are having their lives and care transformed.
Case Study in Reading Disability: An Emergent Literacy Perspective
This case study chronicles the development of reading and writing in an eight-year-old student identified as learning disabled. The study is rooted in the forms of multiple theoretical perspectives of literacy, including cognitive science, sociohistorical, and developmental (emergent literacy). The central focus is on the changes in the forms ...
Lessons Learned: Achieving Consensus About Learning Disability
Since the term was first used by Samuel Kirk (1962), definitions of learning disabilities (LD) and methods for diagnosing it have been controversial and a source of much debate among psychologists (Fletcher & Miciak, 2019).There have been widespread calls for professional consensus on assessment and criteria for diagnosing LD (Fletcher & Miciak, 2019; Lyon et al., 2001; Taymans & Kosaraju, 2012).
Productive Problem-Solving Behaviors of Students with Learning Disabilities
ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to explore the problem-solving behaviors of middle-school students with learning disabilities (SLD). Think-aloud interviews were performed with 20 seventh- and eighth-grade students who had learning disabilities to observe their behaviors while solving mathematical word problems (i.e., behaviors and patterns of behaviors).
Nursing Studies (Learning Disability)
BSc Nursing Studies (Learning Disability) Overview. Learning Disability nursing involves working in partnership with individuals and families to improve autonomy, promote health and support inclusion. This includes making a real contribution towards enhancing behaviours and lifestyles that help achieve the best health outcomes.
Youth with specific learning disorders: attitudes and clinical decision
Individuals with disabilities often face discrimination due to negative attitudes from others around them. This is true for youth with specific learning disorders (SLD), whose experiences of discrimination can increase the risk for developing mental health concerns.
Addressing Diversity and Social Justice in Education: Case Study
2 Learning Outcomes Project According to Gorski and Pothini (2018) it stated, noting is simple when it comes to diversity and social justice. Being an educator, one should not limit students' abilities based on how they identify. The educational opportunity that a student can access should not be limited or defined by their race, sexuality, gender identification, disability, or socioeconomic ...