Disability vs difficulties?

[Whyohwhy99]

Can anyone explain the difference between learning difficulties and learning disabilities please?

But it's not that simple. DD1 has learning disability. She can't complete many activities of daily living without supervision and support. She needs 24/7 care at home (as in, someone has to be there at all times, not present with her necessarily, but in ear shot) and can't leave the house unattended. But she can tell you in great depth about the abuse of animals across the world, the cruelty of the North Korean culture, the different technologies they have in Japan, unique features of animals, information about space, etc. Yet, really basic stuff about social relationships is baffling to her. That's why Autism is so complex - it isn't a uniformly disabling condition, necessarily. People who have profound needs will have an overall very low profile, but even within that they will have relative strengths. Several children in DD1's special school were non-verbal, unable to sign, needed objects of reference and all care, yet could turn the teacher's computer display upside down or sideways. The teachers didn't know how to turn it back the right way. It wasn't accidental because it was a regular party trick.

It’s a bit more complicated @HesterLeggatt, because the educational sector often uses different terminology to the health system.
For example

• Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty (PMLD) results in complex learning needs meaning that a child may have physical difficulties, sensory impairment or a severe medical condition in addition to severe learning difficulties and will require specialist support at all times.

It’s not just dyslexia etc, there are levels of learning difficulty in education.

Ok I will see if I can find ds report.

And I don't understand the last bit abot intellectual

What’s called a learning disability in the UK is called an intellectual disability in the US. It’s just different places using different terms.

Intellectual just means thinking and learning.

It may have been said allredy but I've read a fair bit of misinformation on this thread. As I've just done a day course and had family have issues as he was wrongly classified as learning difficulties, while he actually had a clear cut learning disability and a neurologist helped the family change the diagnosis so he could get appropriate support. A learning disability is present from birth with a person having significant deficiency of self care and socialising. Something along those lines. The difficulty comes when more recently all autism is classified as a disability under the equality act, but that is different to learning disability. A learning difficulty is a broad term. And there are specific differences between to two. An acquired brain injury is not in the same category as a brain injury.

It's not a classification that works very well in my opinion.

"The difficulty comes when more recently all autism is classified as a disability under the equality act, but that is different to learning disability."

Can you explain why you consider this a difficulty? Autism is a disability. That's why it has its own legislation (Autism Act 2009).

To have learning disability diagnosed, you need to meet three criteria. 1. Impaired intelligence (that significantly affects learning), 2. Impaired social functioning (needing support with activities of daily living) 3. Evidence of both before adulthood.

It's a global diagnosis. A learning difficulty like dyslexia doesn’t mean intelligence is Impaired and there are supports that can "help' reduce its 'symptoms'.

im 30 and care for my sister who is 27 with a learning disability and she was diagnosed as a young child by a paediatrician with moderate learning disability. She failed to thrive and meet milestones from birth really, was under speech and language therapy to learn to talk as there were problems there.

I am actually a nurse and we had training recently which explained a learning difficulty is any of the conditions such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, dycalculia and all the other conditions but is usually focussed on learning being difficult but can function at every day activities of living such as washing, hygeine, eating, drinking ( I suppose that’s debatable though)

A learning disability affects an individuals everyday processing of information and even with support it doesn’t tend to improve hugely. It’s lifelong. The difficulty is though that someone with a learning disability can also have conditions classified as learning difficulty but a learning difficulty is normally difficulty with the thing under that condition so dyscalculia - numbers, dyslexia - reading and writing. It is quite difficult to read all the comments about learning disability being low iq as I suppose I take it personally with having my little sister under my care as what she lacks in some areas, she’s very smart in other areas such as her crafts and scrabble and reading but vulnerable with her understanding, communication, memory and the way she understands life and the world around her. She has however never been diagnosed with any conditions mentioned such as dyslexia, adhd, autism and she has yearly learning disability checks with a nurse at our doctors surgery and has since diagnosis as a child

@Whyohwhy99, a lot of LA educational psychologist assessments are poor and do not cover cognitive testing, so DS may not have had any testing like that.

if you were told you were below average at some stage, that would mean you haven't got an intellectual disability.

Not necessarily. You can have a low average or very low/borderline scores and not have a learning disability/intellectual disability. Someone may even have composite scores that fall within the extremely low category and still not have a learning disability/intellectual disability.

The difficulty comes when more recently all autism is classified as a disability under the equality act, but that is different to learning disability.

Autism is a disability. On its own it isn’t a Learning Disability, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a disability. Why do you think that poses a difficulty?

I took a driving test 6 times 😭 and never did pass. I don't have a single GCSE.

Things don't sink in. For example on this thread yesterday someone explained what intellectual meant. The word has popped up again today and I don't know what it meant again.

I have to read cooking instructions everytime I cook even if its just chicken nuggets which I have cooked 100s of times. If I'm doing 2 portions I would have to read it for each portion I do. I can't read a book.

I only know my 2,5 ,10 times tables even then if i was asked 5 times table in a different order I would struggle. I have heard times tables are needed for other maths? Unless its small equal numbers i can't do maths in my head I would need it written and i would need to use fingers or drawer lines on the paper to work it out. Writing wise how I write on here is good as it gets. Thats with predictive text without it. It there would be loads of mistakes. I asked on here once if i needed a passport for ile of white. Everyone thought i was taking the piss 😭.

So academic wise I think probably pretty low. But there are other stuff that i can do which i feel I can do quite well. But they are more practical. But they are things I have lived.

I know ds saw an educational psychologist i just don't know what was said. I may have something on my downloads so I will look of not then its in my paper work stuff which I'm not digging through now.

If DS had an ed psych assessment, there will be a report, but there may not be cognitive testing results in the report because the ed psych may not have undertaken cognitive tests. A lot of LA assessments are poor and they don’t always.

You should be able to be assessed for ADHD and Autism. But you might not be able to with Right to Choose. This might mean a longer wait to see someone in the NHS. But Right to Choose organisations won't have the right skills to be sure they get the diagnosis right. They need to be sure they don't give Autism and ADHD diagnoses to people who don't have it. Your GP should know what to do if the Right to Choose organisations can't assess you. You could call your GP in 3-4 weeks if you haven't heard back from them.

I just found it doesn't saying anything about IQ just says what he struggles with and the support put in place.

That seems odd. nhs accepts right to choose diagnosis for adhd and autism?

If you had an intellectual disability your score would have been 69 or below. if you scored between 69 to 55 you would be classed as having a mild intellectual disability, if you scored 35 to 40 you would be classed as having a moderate intellectual disability. Because you said that you were classed in the below average range, then you scored anything between 80 to 89. 90 and above is average. I live in Ireland so maybe its different here, they obviously weren't concerned that he had an intellectual disability if they didn't do an iq test as part of his educational assessment.

they obviously weren't concerned that he had an intellectual disability if they didn't do an iq test as part of his educational assessment.

This is just not true in England.

I have no idea someone several posts up said IQ is not always done. Either way it probably doesn't matter as long as he's getting support which he is.

Yes, but more specialist teams might be needed if someone has a learning disability too, so not all of the usual places that assess autism will be suitable, only some of them.
The NHS can assess but the Right to Choose places often would not cover more complex cases.

Yes, they do, and they're appropriate for people without other diagnoses. But they might not have the expertise to adapt the process for people with other conditions. I couldn't use one of the Right to Choose providers for my daughter for Autism because she had an existing mental health diagnosis (Generalised Anxiety Disorder). But it was fine for my other daughter who didn't have a mental health condition. They both have Autism but my daughter with a mental heath diagnosis needed someone with expertise in mental health as well as Autism to make sure they got it right. I imagine it's similar with your situation.

I guess i will have to see ☹️

Thats not quite true my son has autism and severe learning disabillities hes never had an IQ test as he wont be able to coopprate he presntss as though he haa severe learning disabillies and goes to a school for children with severe and profound learning disabillities hes 16.

They can't do a test for autism on someone with a learning disability? I'm not sure what examples of a learning disability they'd give. Things like downs syndrome? But that's a genetic disorder. I guess it's also affects learning?

It seems quite difficult to categorise!

Yeah I think thats why I just have to see.