Patricia Mild General Learning Disabilities

Developmental Psychology Assignment: ( Noel Colfer – PEB 3 – 11385941 )

Patricia: Mild general learning disabilities:(MGLD)

Learning environment, social and emotional skills challenges:

Patricia has been diagnosed with mild general learning difficulties. From her case study it can be clearly seen that she finds the work load in school very difficult. She struggles to work independently and before she moved to a special school she rarely experienced success. This is vital as children need to feel and experience success in order to improve motivation and confidence (Griffin and Shevlin 2007). Poor memory, high levels of distractibility and short attention spans are common traits associated with MGLD that make school very tough for Patricia

Students ticked negative interactions with teachers, not being listened to and not receiving help and support as main reasons for dropping out of school (Scanlon 2011). This was similar to what was happening to Patricia in her old school leading to her hating the teachers, her peers and the school itself. Once she moved to the special school she started to like school and the teachers as they were helpful, supportive and educated in inclusion. 60% of teachers are unhappy with their schools policy on inclusion (Stevens and O’ Moore 2009 IN: Scanlon 2011). Clearly Patricia needs caring, educated teachers (in special needs) and inclusive schools to help her learn. As Rhodes and Mulhall 2003 IN: Scanlon (2011) state, teacher support is vital to the development of a positive school climate. Students also learn much better in a positive learning environment so teachers need to create this (Scanlon 2011). Ways to create this will be discussed in the strategies section. However an individual teacher or staff member should not have to deal with all this on there own (Griffin and Shevlin 2007). That’s where an individual education plan (IEP) becomes useful. The main aims of these are to develop a plan to reduce the amount of time that pupils with challenging disorders are excluded from mainstream classrooms (Scanlon 2011). They are also a system of identifying where the student is, where she is going and how she will get there (Griffin and Shevlin 2007). Patricia needs one of these as they will focus on strategies to help her feel included, to help her learn and to prevent her from being bullied. Patricia also needs teachers to apply teaching methods that will allow her to socialise, to feel confident speaking, to work with other student’s, to not be afraid of asking questions, to memorise material, to not be easily distracted, to improve her attention span and to feel free to talk about her problems or