Young adults with ADHD or adult learning disabilities often find it difficult to concentrate, keep ahead and maintain motivation to finish projects they’ve started. This can make school life and employment routines almost unbearable. It seems that the world has been tailored to people who learn, understand and experience everything differently than them. Many adults with special needs become withdrawn, aggressive, anxious or depressed about these differences from their peers and, as a result, do not seek the help they need. Yet, with some understanding of the natural forces that shape their perspective and their mind, these individuals can have successful academic futures, careers and relationships.

A 2005 study published in the Journal of Attention Disorders found that young adults with ADHD had a more difficult time adjusting to college academically, socially and emotionally, when compared to their non-ADHD peers. Researchers found that nearly all the students with ADHD anxiety had never been previously diagnosed or received any prior treatment. They also concluded that universities need better support services like specialized counseling programs and labs for reading difficulties to help these students. Despite the difficulties students faced, researchers added that the potential to succeed was there.

According to ADHD coach, Dr. Rory Stern, young adults with ADHD can excel in school if they identify and understand their particular adult learning styles. Sometimes teachers try a one-size-fits-all approach that just doesn’t work with special needs adults, Stern says. For instance, visual learners “do best from seeing examples and having an opportunity to watch.” This means note taking, drawing diagrams and studying illustrations. Auditory learners “learn and retain information when they have an opportunity to hear it.” They absorb information by recording and listening to class lectures. Kinesthetic learners are often labeled with ADHD anxiety because they’re fidgety and highly active, but they love hands-on experiences like field trips, model-building, skits and science projects. Often trying different techniques to facilitate learning empowers students and gives them a better chance at succeeding in the classroom.

Some young adults are misdiagnosed with ADHD, when in reality they suffer from dyslexia. In fact, many perfectly intelligent, successful adults have been diagnosed with dyslexia, such as Albert Einstein, Tom Cruise, Whoopie Goldberg, Thomas Edison and Orlando Bloom, to name just a few of the working adults with some degree of dyslexia. Common symptoms include reading slowly, mixing up the order of letters, skipping over small words, difficulty understanding rhymes, better at listening and understanding than reading and understanding, making many spelling errors, avoiding writing by hand, making careless math errors and excelling at oral testing rather than written tests. To improve in school and in the workplace, individuals must learn all they can about facing the challenges that dyslexia throws their way.

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