Dr. Forgan’s articles about helping children with learning disabilities.

Preparing for College with Learning Differences

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Preparing for College with Learning Differences: Tips for Students and Parents

Transitioning from high school to college is a significant milestone, and for students with learning differences such as ADHD, dyslexia, autism, or executive functioning challenges, the shift can present unique hurdles. However, with thoughtful planning, self-advocacy, and the right support systems in place, students can receive college testing accommodations. These will help you thrive in higher education. Here are practical tips to help you and your student prepare for this exciting new chapter.

  1. Understand the Laws and Your Rights

Unlike high school, where services are provided under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), colleges operate under ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. These laws ensure access, not success, so students must actively request accommodations.

Tip for Parents: By ninth grade help your teen understand their diagnosis and how it impacts their learning. Discuss how accommodations help.

  1. Update Evaluations and Documentation

Colleges often require current documentation of a learning difference to grant accommodations. A comprehensive psychoeducational or neuropsychological evaluation within the last 3-5 years is typically needed.

Tip for Students: Work with us to ensure documentation includes specific diagnoses, functional limitations, and recommended accommodations. We test college students and we provide psychoeducational testing for LSAT, GRE, MCAT, and professional boards.

  1. Learn and Practice Self-Advocacy Skills

In college, students are expected to take charge of their own learning needs. This means contacting the disability services office, attending meetings, and communicating with professors about accommodations.

Tip: Practice self-advocacy in high school—ask for help when you need it, schedule your own appointments, and take responsibility for organizing materials.

  1. Explore Campus Support Services

Most colleges have an office of disability services, tutoring centers, and academic coaching. Some even offer specialized programs for students with learning differences, though these may come with an extra cost. Learn about college disability support at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Tip: Visit the campus and schedule an in person or Zoom meeting with the disability services office to ask questions about the types of support available. Be prepared to briefly explain how your disability affects you and why you require accommodations.

  1. Practice Independent Living Skills

College life involves more than academics. Students must manage time, organize materials, plan meals, do laundry, and navigate new social situations.

Tip: Start building these skills at home—use a planner or calendar app, learn budgeting basics, and practice routines like doing laundry or managing a daily to-do list. Daily practice will make these lifelong good habits.  This year, read or listen to the book, “Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life… and Maybe the World.“

  1. Choose the Right College Fit

Every college has a different culture, size, level of support, and learning environment. Some students thrive at large universities while others prefer smaller schools with a more personal touch. A smaller Florida college with support is Rollins College.

Tip: When visiting colleges, ask about class sizes, availability of one-on-one support, and how professors accommodate students with learning differences.

    7.  Consider a Summer Bridge Program

Many colleges offer summer transition programs for incoming students with learning differences. These can help ease the transition by teaching academic skills, building confidence, and familiarizing students with the campus.

Tip: Look into bridge programs as early as spring of senior year and apply promptly—they often fill up quickly.

  1. Encourage Emotional Readiness

College can be a rollercoaster of emotions including excitement, anxiety, and sometimes homesickness. Students with learning differences may also deal with lower self-esteem or frustration if academic challenges resurface.

Tip: Promote open conversations about mental health, and consider support from a therapist or counselor to ease the emotional transition.

Final Thoughts

The transition to college with a learning difference is not just about academic preparation. It’s about fostering independence, resilience, and self-awareness. With the right tools and mindset, students will succeed in college and grow into confident, capable adults.

We test high school and college students for college testing accommodations. We also test for GRE accommodations, MCAT accommodations, LSAT accommodations, and technical school accommodation.  The college testing accommodations paperwork is thorough and gives specific recommendations such as 100% extended time, individual testing room, stop the clock brain breaks, and others. Contact us if you need new or updated testing for college or graduate school examinations. We have years and years of experience with this type of testing. Call us at (561) 625 4125

Your Child Might Have a Language Impairment

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A third-grade teacher wrote me her observations that were full of language impairment warning signs. She explained, “Sara is a hard worker who seems to compensate.  She needs repeated practice and overlearning for the material to be remembered and mastered.   Sara’s parents work with her at home which has helped her but she still struggles.  Sara needs time to process and complete her own work. When she is confused about a question, she shuts down easily and it’s hard to get her moving forward to complete the task at hand.”  Sara’s mom brought her in for school neuropsychological testing to help her understand why Sara struggled.

Language Impairment Warning Signs

In our pre-evaluation phone conversation mom revealed that when Sara was in kindergarten, she had a public school individualized education program (IEP) for a speech language impairment.  However, Sara’s support from the speech therapist ended in second grade.  At home Sara still had difficulty understanding and following mom’s verbal directions and she explained when she asked a question, Sara would often shrug her shoulders and stand without saying anything. Mom explained it was like Sara could not find the words to speak. Sara could read fluently and accurately but she had difficulty with reading comprehension.

School Neuropsychological Testing & Results

My one-to-one testing revealed that Sara’s reading comprehension was so low she met the criteria for a learning disability.  The testing also showed that Sara’s language impairment was still a primary cause of her school struggles.  She could read words but she could not understand or tell me the meaning of age appropriate words. Thus, it was very surprising that Sara had been discontinued from school-based support. With these new results, Mom quickly arranged a private speech language therapist to begin working with Sara. At home they also began playing games like Simon Says which require listening and following directions. Each night they spent time reading and discussing the meaning of words and passages.  Mom has submitted the testing report to Sara’s school and requested a new IEP. You can learn more about IEPs in our free videos here.

Reach Out to Discuss Your Child

Call (561) 625 4125 if you would like to discuss your child and your concerns for possible learning disabilities, dyslexia, ADHD, autism, or anxiety. We’re ready to help.

Four Ways to Approach Your Child’s Reading Problems

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Your child’s reading problems are real life problems since reading is required in all school subjects.  The percentage can vary depending on the specific definition of “reading problems,” but approximately 20% of children have reading problems. This includes conditions like dyslexia and other reading difficulties. There are four ways to approach your child’s reading problems.

First Approach

The least favorable approach is a wait and see approach. Some parents are told statements such as, “Give it more time and she’ll catch on soon.” or “Boys are just slower to read than girls.”  Well intentioned advice can actually cause your child considerable setback.  Kindergarten through second grade is when children concentrate on learning to read but from third grade onward children must read to learn.  Hence, mandatory third grade retention if your child does not pass the high stakes reading testing.

Second Approach

A second approach is for you to work with your child at home. While you might not be a professional teacher, you can teach your child to read by purchasing reading materials.  One parent book is Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  You might require your child to use reading websites such as ABC Mouse, Starfall, Raz-Kids, or Nessy. These supports help many children learn to read.

Third Approach

Many parents hire a tutor as a third approach to reading struggles. I recommend one-to-one reading tutoring as the best way to make reading gains.  There are plenty of teachers tutoring after school at libraries, homes, and businesses.  Most schoolteachers tutor use an eclectic approach to teaching reading.

Fourth Approach

Call for school neurological testing when your parental instinct is telling you your child’s struggles are more than developmental and might be dyslexia. In this approach we test for dyslexia and other learning disabilities.  Our testing pinpoints exactly what is causing the struggle so you can provide targeted support rather than try and see support. If it is dyslexia, Florida gives parents money to help with tutoring costs.

Call (561) 625 4125 if you would like to discuss your child’s reading problems or concerns for dyslexia, ADHD, autism, or anxiety.

Concerned Mom: Why Can’t My Child Keep Up?

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A concerned mom explained her child’s struggles to me, “I feel like sometimes Jenny cannot keep up with a conversation. When we are talking she often stops and ask questions to explain more or again. When she hears a new word, she does not seem to hear it correctly. We have to repeat it a few times and break it down into the sounds for her to finally get it and repeat it back correctly.  When she is telling a story or giving information, it can take her a long time to think of what she wants to say and if you interrupt her she has to start all the way at the beginning again and she gets frustrated. She says kids at school make fun of her because she can’t read.”

School Neuropsychological Testing

Our school neuropsychological testing showed Jenny had a language based learning disability along with dyslexia and dysgraphia. She was a smart girl but her language disorders interfered with her ability to listen, follow directions, discriminate sounds, and express herself.  Since writing and reading are language based skills she could not put her thoughts into writing and while she could memorize, she could not pronounce unfamiliar words. Jenny had a strong memory and could memorize adequately so this concealed her true struggles.

How Do We Help?

Jenny’s mom wanted to know how to help Jenny so our recommendations provided her with the best reading program and some tutors. We also provided a list of games they could purchase to play at home to help. Testing helped dad learn that when Jenny could not get to the point, he needed to give more patience and understanding. The testing also provided mom with paperwork to share with Jenny’s school staff. They developed a plan with goals to help Jenny in school.  We discussed next steps in our one hour results review meeting.

Reach Out

It’s unusual for smart children to experience long term academic struggles.  If you are a concerned mom or parent, remember, you know your child best. Call to discuss your child. Visit JimForgan.com or call (561) 625 4125.

Math Problems Could Spell Dyscalculia

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Math problems can spell dyscalculia.  Solve this: “If you have $196 dollars and you spend $27, how much money do you have left?” If you are a math whiz you quickly knew the answer was $169 but perhaps you had to think about it, write it, ask Alexa, or use a calculator before knowing the answer.  The key here is you knew the basics of how to solve the problem. If you did not have technology, you could solve the math problem by hand.

Dyscalculia

Some children receive adequate math instruction but perform poorly in math due to a math learning disability called dyscalculia.  These children might grasp simple math but struggle with multistep math or math word problems.  They learn multiplication facts only to forget them.

What Causes Math Difficulty?

There are many reasons why a child might have math difficulty.  Consider the introductory math problem. What brain systems did you use to solve the problem?  One cognitive system which is important for math is visualization.  You might have visualized the numbers 196 and 27 in your mind as you visually regrouped and subtracted in your mind to solve the equation. Another important cognitive system is your working memory.  You had to hold 196 and 27 in your working memory while you performed the math operation.

A third cognitive system important for math is attention.  Regardless of using mental math or paper, you had to give great attention to detail as you solved the problem.  If you made one careless error, it doomed your answer.  Language is a fourth cognitive system involved in math.  You had to use language to understand “how much money do you have left” requires subtraction.  Math has other specialized vocabulary words such as sum, radius, and hypotenuse.  A fifth cognitive system needed for math is processing speed.  Your child is often timed on math tests or expected to rapidly know their basic addition, subtraction, or multiplication facts.

They Can’t Just  “Try Harder”

As you can see, telling your child to ‘try harder’ in math might not be the solution.  Our testing helps identify which of your child’s cognitive systems are working well and which ones might be causing a math learning disability and dyscalculia.  There are specialized math programs and learning strategies available to help children.

Call to discuss your child (561) 625 4125.