Learning Disability

A person with a learning disability has a reduced intellect which makes coping with some everyday activities difficult. A learning difficulty will affect them for all their life means that they may take longer to learn new things and may often need support and extra encouragement to help them develop new skills.

A person with a learning disability will often:

• have difficulty understanding complex information
• be unsure about how to interact with other people in social situations
• struggle to perform every day tasks
• find it hard to manage their money.

After completing this course learners will understand that supporting a person with a learning disability involves assessing how severe their learning disability is so that their needs are identified and provided for in a way that is suitable for the particular individual. A child or young person with a mild learning disability may need help from a specialist school or education facility and as an adult may need assistance in gaining employment and coping with the basic things in life such as getting to work. An individual with a severe or profound learning disability may need a level of support that requires full time care and support to help them cope with all aspects of their daily lives

Learners will understand that an individual with Down Syndrome or autism for example will have a learning disability as a direct consequence of their condition and that it is important that a perdson's mental health and other conditions such as Dyslexia are not labelled as a learning disability because there are some major differences that separate the three conditions:

• a person with Dyslexia does not have impaired intellectual ability whereas a person with a learning disability does
• a person can develop mental health issues at any time in their lives and can recover whereas a person with a learning disability cannot.

On completion of this course learners will have gained skills and knowledge that will help them provide the support to individuals with a learning disability which in many cases will contribute to them living fulfilling and independent lives.

As learners' progress through the training contained in this Understanding an Individual with Learning Disabilities course they will complete quizzes, puzzles and tests to check their understanding of the topics covered in each unit of the course. Finally there is an online assessment for learners to complete so that they can receive a certificate as evidence that they have successfully completed their online learning disability training course.

Training managers and supervisors can use the administration facilities provided by our Learner Management System (LMS) to track the progress of learners taking this learning disability course in order to identify and address any gaps and weaknesses in their training programme.