Adults who learn differently: Help through a volunteer literacy program

Abstract

In adult literacy programs today, well-intentioned but inadequately prepared volunteer tutors are being matched with learning disabled adult students without the benefit of receiving training from experts in the field of language/learning disabilities. The collaboration of adult literacy providers and learning specialists is obviously the most resourceful, yet most untried, solution to a problem that is plaguing volunteer-based programs across the country: meeting the needs of learning disabled adults. One adult literacy program—READ/San Diego of the San Diego Public Library—recognized that its volunteer tutors needed training in special instructional methods to teach adults who evidence learning disabilities. Accordingly, the program’s administrator obtained the services of specialists to develop a learning disabilities tutor-training module. This article (1) presents an overview of preservice volunteer training at READ/San Diego; (2) discusses informal assessment procedures that help identify possible language/learning disabilities in adults and provide valuable information for instructional planning; and (3) describes selected multisensory teaching techniques designed especially for adults who “learn differently.”