Myths and Facts

Myths	Facts
Learning disabilities (LDs) do not really exist.	LDs are real. Recent research indicates neurological differences in brain structure and function.
Students identified with LDs have below average IQ scores.	Students with LD can fall within the full range of intellectual ability, from average to superior intelligence.
Students with LDs are slow learners.	Many students with LDs can learn as rapidly as their counterparts. Their difficulties with academic skills (reading, writing, spelling) slow their intake and output of information using these mediums only.
Students with LDs cannot learn.	Students with LDs can be successful students, even at tertiary level. They are able to progress by navigating around their learning problems. With alternative presentation of teaching and learning materials and of assessment tasks, students with a learning disability are able to learn and to demonstrate their understanding and competence in the content of the subject.
LDs are simply an excuse for poor learning practices	Like other students, student with LDs may use poor learning practices. However, often learning practices which work for most students are not effective for students with LDs. Alternative learning practices need to be identified and implemented to allow the students to navigate around their individual learning problems.
Students with LDs are just lazy.	Students with LDs generally have to spend more time to adequately complete course requirements. This can often lead to difficulties in completing assignments on time, maintaining course requirements such as tutorial reading and studying. These difficulties should not be misinterpreted as 'laziness'.
Students with LDs are a product of poor teaching practices in school.	LDs do not develop as the result of poor teaching. However, a lack of understanding and appropriate instruction will affect the academic progress of school students with LDs. Students with LDs do not benefit as much as other students from general learning strategies and intensive education instruction. However, academic adjustments and accommodations will enable them to achieve at their true ability levels.
Students diagnosed with LDs at school age should have outgrown them by adulthood.	LD is a lifelong condition. If the diagnosis of learning disability in childhood is accurate, the disability will endure into adulthood. Specific learning strategies and adjustments can be developed to address problems but the learning disability it'self remains.
LDs are remediable.	By definition, LDs are characterised as being chronic and pervasive and therefore highly resistant to intensive education intervention. The effort and time spent in developing literacy skills is enormous in comparison to the results attained.
Students with LDs should spend more time learning the basics of reading, writing and spelling.	The term 'LDs' describes a profile of chronic and pervasive characteristics. In adulthood, intensive educational intervention alone usually produces very slow and limited improvement. Identifying and implementing alternate learning strategies and academic adjustments is more likely to enable students to perform at levels which accurately reflect their abilities, skills and learning.
If students with LDs cannot read and write adequately, they should not be at university.	Technology now exists so that students with LDs can demonstrate their abilities, skills and learning without strong reading and writing skills.
Students with LDs are better suited to positions of employment that do not require academic skills.	While this is true of some people with LDs, it is certainly not true of all. Prominent people who have disproved this myth include Albert Einstein, Kerry Packer and Winston Churchill.
Students with LDs do not have the ability to succeed at university.	Students with LDs, like all other students, have succeeded and continue to succeed at university. Many students with LDs are capable of creative, original thought and have demonstrated these skills in the completion of Doctoral studies. The implementation of reasonable academic adjustments ensures that students with LDs may compete equally in a learning environment and demonstrate their actual level of ability.
Students with LDs have problems only with their academic studies.	Students with LDs often experience frustration, anger and anxiety in attempting to prove their ability using their limited reading, writing and spelling skills. Therefore, secondary social and emotional problems can also be experienced by students with LDs.
All students with LDs require the same level of support and identical types of academic adjustments.	Students with LDs do not experience identical difficulties in learning. To enable equitable participation and competition, and to ensure that performance more accurately reflects ability, learning supports, strategies and adjustments need to be tailored specifically to meet the needs of each individual student with LDs.
Providing academic adjustments gives students with LDs an unfair advantage over other students.	Academic adjustments are determined on identified deficit's resulting from a student's LDs. Adjustments ensure equal and fair participation in a learning environment and ensure actual learning is recognised. Students with LDs are required to meet the same academic standards as their peers.
If students with LDs are achieving Distinction and High Distinction levels, they should not be receiving academic adjustments.	The IQs of students with LDs fall within the full range of intellectual ability. Some students with LDs, therefore, have the potential to achieve very highly. Accurate evaluation of the abilities and learning of students with LDs is most fairly determined when appropriate individual academic adjustments are adopted. Academic adjustments address the difficulties experienced as a result of their LDs. This ensures fair participation and competition in a learning environment.
Accommodating the needs of students with LDs at university or TAFE is too difficult, time consuming and expensive.	Accommodations implemented for students with LDs are often considered good examples of flexible learning strategies. They can improve teaching and learning, not just for students with LDs but also for the overall student population and other minority groups such as people from a non-English speaking background. Academics can also benefit from this approach by developing a range of flexible teaching and learning strategies that can be implemented in a number of different environments.
Students from non-English speaking backgrounds do not have LDs, just difficulties with their second language.	LDs occur in all cultures, nations and language groups. Difficulties in learning over and above the influence of culture and language difference may indicate that a student has a LD. An LD is normally present in first and subsequent languages.