College Students with Disabilities Essay -- ADD ADHD Writing Attention

College Students with Disabilities As societal pressures for higher education increase, more emphasis has been placed on the importance of a minimum of a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university. This has led to the increased enrollment of students with learning disabilities over the past decade. According to a recent survey from the National Clearinghouse on Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Disabilities, one in eleven full-time first-year students entering college in 1998 self-reported a disability. This translates to approximately 154,520 college students, or about 9% of the total number of first-year freshmen, who reported a wide range of disabilities, ranging from attention deficit disorder to writing disabilities (Horn). Attention deficit disorder, with or without hyperactivity, is frequently misunderstood, but it affects college students' academic and social success, as well as their emotional development. Attention deficit disorders are the second most common disability among college students, and it is classified as a psychiatric disorder, rather than a learning disability, in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, DSM-IV. Characterized by attention difficulties, specifically short attention spans, as well as impulsivity, distractibility, and restlessness, attention deficit disorders can adversely affect the performance capabilities of college students. Individuals report "drifting" during classroom lectures or social conversations, as well as difficulties focusing in noisy environments. The Connection Between Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorders The onset of attention deficit disorder usually occur b... ...A Comprehensive Guide to Attention Deficit Disorder in Adults: Research,Diagnosis, and Treatment.New York: Brunner and Mazel Press, 1995. Sills, Caryl K. "Success for learning disabled writers across the curriculum." College Teaching 43 (Spring 95): 66-72. Smith, Carl B. "Helping Children Overcome Reading Difficulties." ERIC Digest, 1992. ED 344190. Stage, Frances K. et al. "Creating Learning Centered Classrooms: What Does Learning Theory Have to Say?" ERIC Digest, 1998. ED422777. Stein, Marcy and Robert C. Dixon. "Effective writing instruction for diverse learners." School Psychology Review 23 (1994): 392-406. Vogel, S. A. and M. Moran. "Written language disorders in learning disabled college students - a preliminary report." In Coming of Age: The Best of ACLD - 1982. Eds. W. Cruickshank and J. Lerner. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1982.