The dangers of recognizing someone as learning disabled when they are not.
One of the most important steps in trying to identify whether or not a student has a learning disability is to first make sure that their difficulty in writing is not result of another cause. Studies have shown that the side of the brain that an individual uses more can have a major effect on how that person writes. Students who use the right side of their brains tend to be more visual learners who must be able to see what they are learning as opposed to simply imagining it. A left-brained individual is often more logical, step-by-step, deductive and verbal. Although neither side is inherently better or worse, left-brained people tend to be better writers while many right-brained people exhibit great difficulty when expressing themselves on paper (Marek, 15). A right-brained person's difficulty with writing is sometimes confused with common learning disabilities although their need to improve as a writer is entirely different. There are many other characteristics that can effect how well a person writes. Factors like a person's background in writing or their experience with the English language can have a monumental effect on how a person writes. For these reasons it is important that a tutor communicates with a student who comes into the Writing Center and trys to find out information on their writing background. This information can prevent a tutor from making the wrong assumption.