Learning disabilities in college may affect only one subject area while others impact on several courses. Learning disabilities, however, directly affect academic skills.

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College students with learning disabilities often read very slowly. They demonstrate poor comprehension of the material and cannot retain facts, details, and concepts. When reading aloud, they may confuse sounds or have difficulty understanding new vocabulary. They may also have difficulty understanding printed directions.

College students with learning disabilities have difficulty with sentence structure and often include run-on sentences, poor grammar, or unsupported ideas when writing. They frequently have spelling errors and weak punctuation skills. They may miss the point when writing or get off the topic easily. When copying from the board, they may copy incorrectly or run out of time. On written assignments such as essays and tests, they write very slowly and often do not finish.

College students with learning disabilities are unable to concentrate and comprehend oral presentations. When they seem to understand a new idea in class, these students later have difficulty explaining the ideas verbally. Often they can write about the ideas but face difficulty when asked to explain them further in writing. These students also find telling stories or procedures in correct sequences quite problematic.