Effects of Academic Coaching on College Students with Learning Disabilities or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract Learning disabilities (LD) and/or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are the largest and fastest growing categories of disabilities at 4-year colleges and universities (National Health Interview Survey, 2008). Young adults with LD and/or ADHD attend four-year colleges at half the rate of the general populations and have poor outcomes related to retention and success in college (NLTS2, 2011). Although students with LD and/or ADHD are approved for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), they continue to struggle with poor organizational, time management, poor study, and poor social skills (Mull, et al., 2001; Weyandt & DuPaul, 2006). To improve the success of college students with LD and/or ADHD, a growing number of researchers are evaluating the use of Academic Coaching as an intervention to increase the success of these students. Although there is some evidence that Academic Coaching could be effective, more rigorous research is needed to document its efficacy with college students with ADHD and/or LD. The present study aimed to examine the effect of an Academic Coaching intervention plus typical services on college students with disabilities'' (LD or ADHD) use and knowledge of learning and study strategies, academic engagement, self-efficacy, and academic achievement by using a quasi-experimental, pre-posttest, control group design. Controlling for pre-test differences, an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to assess differences between groups on all outcome measures. In addition, this study aimed to provide descriptive information on other services, in addition to Academic Coaching, utilized across groups, whether or not co-occurring diagnoses were present across groups, and the social validity and treatment integrity of the Academic Coaching Intervention. There were significant mean differences across all dependent measures with the exception of two of the scales, one from the LASSI, and one from the NSSE. Findings suggest that Academic Coaching may be an effective intervention to increase the use and knowledge of learning and study strategies, academic engagement, self-efficacy, and academic achievement of students with LD or ADHD. Future research is needed to continue to evaluate the effectiveness of Academic Coaching with college students with disabilities.Key Words: Academic Coaching, Learning Disabilities, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Self-Efficacy, Student Engagement, Academic Achievement, Accommodations