Assessment of learning disabilities among a pharmacy student population

American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy GAPS funding provided support to screen 214 pharmacy students enrolled in a Doctor of Pharmacy Program fo r dyslexia and other learning disabilities. The results have substantial im plications for teaching, testing; and student performance in schools of pha rmacy. In its simplest definition, dyslexia is "word difficulty." Recent st udies indicate that this condition can also involve numbers and symbols, as well as words and letters. This study was designed to detect dyslexia as w ell as other learning disabilities included under the term "information pro cessing variations." It seems logical that not all individuals receive, pro cess, send, or recall information in the same way or with the same speed, y et our educational methods tend to expect and demand this of students. Lear ning disabilities have been reported to occur with varying degrees and with varying compensatory mechanisms in approximately 15 percent of all childre n in the United States. Results from our preliminary study utilizing a broa d assessment corroborated these findings among pharmacy students. The stude nt's individual performance on each visual and auditory test was ranked amo ng all students from lowest to highest. Statistical analysis of ail objecti ve tests was completed using SPSS for Windows (release 6.0). Extreme values (widely variant) were recorded for individual tests. Thirty-four students (15.9 percent) of the 214 tested had one or more test scores in the "extrem e" value range, Studies at the New York University College of Dentistry als o have found a similar frequency of occurrence among their professional stu dent population further supporting the value and necessity of assessing hea lth profession students for learning disabilities.