Supporting a young person with a learning disability cont.
money. They tend to take longer to learn and may need support to develop new skills, understand complicated information, and interact with other people (176). Like all young people, young individuals with a learning disability will generally continue to progress and learn throughout their childhood – but more slowly and will not meet the expected standards of independence and responsibility for their age (177). Every young person with a learning disability is an individual with their own needs and support requirements. Learning disability is often confused with learning difficulty. A person with a learning disability may also have one or more learning difficulties. A learning difficulty is a reduced ability for a specific form of learning and includes dyslexia (reading, writing, and information processing), dyspraxia (physical co-ordination) and dyscalculia (working with and processing numbers and maths). Some people also confuse neurodevelopmental conditions like ADHD with a learning difficulty or a learning disability (174). People with a learning disability can also live with neurodevelopment or physical conditions, for example down’s syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, and cerebral palsy. Understand the mental health impacts Risk factors Young people who have a learning disability are more likely to experience poor mental health. There are lots of different reasons for this, including: – Biological factors Pain, poor physical health, and taking multiple types of medication can all contribute to poor mental health.
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