Date Presented 03/26/20
Successful occupational and role performance for students with LD or ADHD can be fostered through the incorporation or strengthening of a broad range of skills and attributes. Seventeen skills and attributes used by undergraduates with LD or ADHD across six contexts and environments of young adulthood are delineated. Findings provide anticipatory guidance for OTs working with adolescents and inform the creation or improvement of interventions.
Primary Author and Speaker: Consuelo Kreider
Additional Authors and Speakers: Sharon Medina
Contributing Authors: Haley Benner, Kelly Dillon
PURPOSE: College students with learning disabilities (LD) and/or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) face challenges in managing daily tasks needed for successful occupational and social role performance (Kreider, Medina, & Slamka, 2019; Sharfi & Rosenblum, 2016). Specific knowledge, skills, and strategies are needed for managing disability-related symptoms and challenges, and for fostering the young person’s current and future anticipated occupational and social role performance (Kreider et al., 2018). This study investigates the salient skills and attributes that college students with LD/ADHD use to meet expectations, and examines the contexts of emerging adulthood in which the salient skills/attributes were applied.
DESIGN: This qualitative study is a preliminary content analysis of data collected as part of a larger four-year study to develop and test a holistic campus-based model of LD/ADHD supports, which included provision of a range of psychoeducational topical content such as time management and the basic neurobiology of LD/ADHD (Kreider et al, 2018).
METHOD: Data were transcripts from facilitated group discussions that followed delivery of topical content. Data from the first two years (n = 16 of 30 transcripts) were used in this preliminary analysis. Participants were undergraduates with LD/ADHD and registered with the campus disability office; 25 of the sample’s total 52 undergraduate participants were enrolled in the timeframe used in this analysis. Qualitative data were coded to identify passages relevant to skills/attributes. Focused coding was then used to categorize the skills, attributes, and contexts in which participants discussed the skills/attributes. Rigor was facilitated by use of constant comparison of the data to the codes and emerging conceptualizations, use of multiple coders, achievement of consensus, peer debriefing, and researchers’ prolonged engagement with participants.
RESULTS: Seventeen skills/attributes were identified with Self-awareness, Communication, Self-advocacy, and Time Management having the highest relative frequencies of 31%, 16%, 6%, and 6%, respectively. Contexts that emerged from the data were School/Academic, Workplace, General Life, Health and Wellbeing, Personal and Social Relationships, and Extracurricular. Self-awareness was the only skill/attribute used across the six contexts. Self-awareness involved understanding personal strengths, disability-related challenges, and strategies that work; including self-awareness of the contexts in which strengths and strategies can be leveraged. Collaboration (< 1%) and Thinking Through and Adjusting (1%) were the least discussed skills/attributes and were discussed primarily within the School/Academic context.
CONCLUSION: Findings highlight the importance of identifying and focusing on strengths while simultaneously working with the young person to understand the contexts and situations in which personal strengths can be capitalized on and disability-related challenges mitigated. The ubiquitous nature of Self-awareness suggests that self-awareness may be a foundational skill/attribute that can conceivably support the use of other pertinent young adult skills/attributes. While Collaboration and Thinking Through and Adjusting were the skills/attributes least discussed, these skills/attributes will be important for participants’ full participation within anticipated workplace and professional contexts (Doyle & McDowall, 2015). Findings provide a source of anticipatory guidance that can be used by occupational therapist working with younger academically successful adolescents with LD/ADHD and guiding interventions for supporting occupational and role performance during the transition to adulthood.
References
Cortiella, C., and Horowitz, S. H. (2014). The State of Learning Disabilities: Facts, Trends and Emerging Issues, 3rd Edition, New York, NY: National Center for Learning Disabilities.
Sharfi K, Rosenblum S (2016) Executive functions, time organization and quality of life among adults with learning disabilities. PLoS ONE 11(12): e0166939. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166939
Doyle, N., & McDowall, A. (2015). Is coaching an effective adjustment for dyslexic adults?. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 8(2), 154-168. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2015.1065894
Kreider, C. M., Medina, S., Lan, M. F., Wu, C. Y., Percival, S. S., Byrd, C. E., ... & Mann, W. C. (2018). Beyond academics: A model for simultaneously advancing campus-based supports for learning disabilities, STEM students’ skills for self-regulation, and mentors’ knowledge for co-regulating. Frontiers in Psychology. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01466
