Life Success
For Students With Learning Disabilities:
A Teacher Guide
 Proactivity
Successful adults with learning disabilities are generally actively engaged in the world around them - politically, economically, and socially. They participate in community activities and take an active role in their families, neighborhoods, and friendship groups. Additionally, they often step into leadership roles at work, in the community, and in social and family settings. Successful individuals demonstrate the ability to “reciprocate” in relationships by adopting a care-taking role with family members or acting as mentors in various settings. In contrast, unsuccessful individuals rarely take on such roles.
Not surprisingly, successful persons with learning disabilities also believe that they have the power to control their own destiny and affect the outcome of their lives. In talking about how he took charge of his college experience, one successful adult remarked:
“I actually didn’t take classes as much as I took professors. The way I got through college was I looked at the classes I was interested in and I was over at the professors’ office times telling them I’m going to need extra time; give me the ability to take the written exam orally. There are a bunch of exceptions and I just listed them out for these people.”
This quote demonstrates the kind of creative self-advocacy and initiative we frequently observed in successful adults. In contrast, unsuccessful individuals tend merely to respond passively to events.
Successful persons with learning disabilities also show the ability to make decisions and act upon those decisions. Additionally, they assume responsibility for their actions and the resulting outcomes. In talking about how his shyness interfered with trying to meet a girl, one successful adult shared:
“I looked at that lesson and said, ‘OK, you blew it that time. What are you going to do? How are you going to overcome that situation?’ So I systematically started working on getting over my shyness . . . And last spring . . . “
Commenting on his career, another individual expressed:
“I think that I worked hard and I made choices instead of letting things happen. I mean stuff that I haven’t actively gone and taken care of are the only things that I’m not as satisfied with.”
When things don’t work out, successful individuals generally take responsibility for the outcome and do not blame others. Commenting on his career, the same individual expressed commitment to action, “Anything I’m going to do, I’m going to give it my all. Otherwise I’m not going to touch it.”
A willingness to consult with others while making decisions is also characteristic of successful people with learning disabilities. For example, one successful adult shared how she consulted friends and family concerning a career change, eventually following her sister’s advice to pursue her strength in fashion design. Successful individuals also appear to be flexible in considering and weighing options. For instance, when faced with a career-ending knee surgery, one successful athlete was able to smoothly shift her career focus to a pottery business. Another individual whose learning disability prevented him from passing required college courses, researched and transferred to a university that did not require those courses for graduation.
In contrast, unsuccessful individuals often do not recognize that situations can be altered, or that multiple solutions may exist. Instead, they are either passive, making no decision, or conversely, stick rigidly to a simplistic, rule-based decision even if it ultimately fails. For instance, one unsuccessful adult in the study continued to apply for secretarial jobs despite her severe reading and spelling disabilities. She did not seem to understand why she was not being hired. Unfortunately, she developed resentment toward potential employers, which in turn affected her interview skills negatively. She continued to externalize blame onto the employers and eventually stopped interviewing altogether.
Next: Perseverance
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