Research on Learning Difficulties

All of the students in my allocated class room have learning difficulties. I thought that the best thing for me to do which would benefit my workshop would be to research learning difficulties which would allow me to have more of an understanding of the children and give me an idea of how to create the best workshop I can for the children. It would be beneficial as it will help me to get to know the students more and also to see what works best for them and how their learn most effectively.

Learning disabilities are mental based problems which makes processing information more of a difficulty. This can affect skills of very basic levels such as; reading, writing and/or math. Which makes it harder for them to able to adapt to more advanced skills such as organisation, time planning, abstract reasoning, long or short term memory and attention. Someone with learning difficulties would have lower intellectual ability which could create a difficulty with simple everyday activities. An example of this would be doing household tasks or socialising. These tasks would always be affected as they will have less ability to do them for the rest of their lives, however, they can develop and try to learn new skills it just takes them longer and they find it harder to do. This means that they could need more help and support when developing new skills (the amount of help will depend on their level of ability). For example, if someone had mild learning disabilities, they might only need help with things like getting a job or slightly need more help of being told what to do, however, someone with severe or profound learning difficulties may need full time or one to one support. This could be with everything, from simple to more complex tasks, it could also include certain physical activities as some people with severe learning difficulties may be not only be mentally unable but also physically. Mentally, someone with this disability would take a longer amount of time to understand information which is more complicated and interact with other people.
There are also people who have specific conditions such as Down's syndrome and Autism who usually also have learning difficulties.

The students in my class are only slightly verbal, meaning they use makaton to help them communicate. Makaton is a language programme using signs and symbols to help people to communicate. It is designed to support spoken language and the signs and symbols are used with speech, in spoken word order. They are also working between P3-P6 on the Pre national curriculum level which means that they are at the ability of someone from the age of 8 months to 2 years old, where as their actual ages are 8-9 years old.