Learning Difficulties In Health And Social Care

The history and definitions of moderate learning difficulties

It can be confusing knowing when to use the term ‘Learning Difficulty’ and ‘learning Disability’. It seems as though each organisation has their own interpretation of each of the conditions. From what I can gather:

A Learning Difficulty is: any learning problems, or emotional problems that can affect an individual’s ability to learn, to socialise and interact with others and follow social norms.

And a Learning Disability is: A major condition that usually occurs before becoming an adult. According to the NHS a person with a learning disability usually has an IQ of below 70 and It affects all aspects of development, with the individual requiring extra help and support with:

• Understanding

‘Moderate learning difficulty’

Learning difficulty Is the term introduced to replace the rather insensitive term of ‘Educationally sub-normal’. To further describe the individuals needs the addition of Moderate or Severe before the term Learning difficulty is used.

Generally the terms used to describe someone with a learning difficulty comes under 3 categories: Moderate, Severe and Profound.

Moderate learning difficulty has a wide range of meaning, from describing children who achieve at a low level to those that are struggling with learning as they have been diagnosed as having serious difficulties such as autism or aspergers. Teachers who aren’t sure how they should support children with MLD will usually condult the SENCo so that the individual can be assessed and supported in every possibly

• At the time terms such as imbecile, idiot and feeble minded were used to describe pupils levels of ability.

1889

C&E commission advise that ‘feeble minded’ children attend mainstream schools with special provision (separate SEN classes) and ‘Educable imbeciles’ be schooled in special institutions.

1890’s

C&E recommendations lead to Special schools being set up.

1898

Departmental Committee on Defective and Epileptic Children introduced new guidelines to identify level of ability regarding SENs.:

• Children considered able to earn a living were termed as: Feeble minded.

• Children who were seen as not able to earn a living were termed: Imbecile or Idiot

1913

Chief Medical Officer from the board of education introduces the use of the following categories to describe the level of children’s ability:

• The mentally normal child.

• The dull or backward child.

• The feeble-minded child.

• The imbecile child.

• The idiot.

Definitely a step in the right direction as it considered more variations of having a learning difficulty/ disability however the language used isn’t nice.