Levels of learning difficulty

[Unintentionallycausingoffence]

My DS is seven and at a generic special needs primary school. He has ASC and Speech and language delay but he’s making progress . He’s year 3 but working at Reception/Year 1 level. I know it’s a long way off but I have been looking at high schools, there is a generic SEN high school locally. There are other SEN schools some cater for mild learning difficulties, ASC and SEMH some for moderate learning difficulties, speech and language and ASC. I just wondered what his degree of learning difficulty would be classed as. He’s teacher says he knows a lot it’s just expressing what he can do in terms of literacy and numeracy

This varies somewhat depending on the LA and individual cohorts. What presentation best fits e.g. a moderate learning difficulties school in one LA can be different to that in another LA, or another year depending on the cohort.

An EP assessment can help.

It depends on your child’s intelligence. The average intelligence range for IQ in the population is 100 plus or minus 15. (So 85 - 115) IQ tests like WISC 5 have two main components for IQ - verbal IQ and non verbal IQ. It could be that your child just has a language disorder (Dorothy Bishop, a professor of psychology at Oxford says there is no difference between the groups of children diagnosed with language disorders and another group, diagnosed with language delays) and a language disorder pulls down the verbal IQ, but a child in the normal intelligence range could still score between 85 - 115 on the non verbal IQ. If they are really bright, they could score higher than 115.

A language disorder is a specific learning difficulty. However if your child scored lower in the IQ test, even on non verbal IQ, they would be classed as:

1. below 80 (70 - 79) - mild learning disability
2. below 70 - moderate learning disability (MLD)
3. below 50 - severe learning disability (SLD)
4. below 20 - profound learning disability (clearly not relevant to DC)

If a child has a language disorder and dyspraxia, the dyspraxia could pull down non verbal IQ, so they appear to be functioning at a moderate learning disability level. It’s the skill of the educational psychologist then to tease out whether it’s a child with normal intelligence, whose functioning is pulled down by the language disorder and dyspraxia; or a child whose intelligence really is below 70. Imo, only as a lay person, you can look into a child’s eyes, and see their intelligence at the back of the eyes!

So, the question for you OP, is what does an educational psychologist’s assessment show is your child’s non verbal IQ?

However as pp has said, it then depends on the peer group in your local special schools. Here we have MLD schools, but they have SLD children in them, as the SLD schools are full what with v premature babies. Children with language disorders and/or autism can end up in the MLD schools, because they can’t cope in mainstream and it’s a gentler environment - so much so, the LA a has redesignated them as MLD, SLCN (speech, language and communication needs) and Autism schools. I have met parents, who were very happy with a local special school for their child with a language disorder and/or autism, who has failed in mainstream.

I believe other LAs have generic special schools, which take children with autism or moderate/severe/profound learning disabilities. Occasionally, there are local special autism schools or additionally resourced units in mainstream schools.

Other parents weren’t happy with the idea and went to tribunal to get their older child into a residential specialist speech and language school, or specialist autism school.

OP said learning difficulty rather than learning disability.

In many LAs that use learning difficulties to describe their schools (e.g. school for moderate learning difficulties, school for severe learning difficulties) their criteria don’t match up to the criteria for learning disabilities.

DS’s IQ has never been assessed. He was assessed by an EP age around three and a half but he was uncooperative if he knew he was being watched or in a formal type setting, at home he showed more of what he was able to do. The EP
said developmentally he was 18 months. His last school report in Year 2 suggested he’s working at Reception/Year 1 level.

I notice if I’m chatting to another adult he will stop and listen and look thoughtful. He often pauses and looks thoughtful.

One school is for ASC Severe and Moderate Learning Difficuties age 2 to 19. The other I think is age 4 to 16/18 ASC because of problems in Mainstream have had a disrupted education.

He previously attended an MS school where he was last assessed age 6, his 1:1 worked very hard with him until his last term, 1:1 left, then various TA’s babysat him, he was assessed as being at a three year old level.. A year later age 7 in Year 2,he has been in a SS for a year where the staff work very hard with the pupils and he is assessed as being Reception/ Year 1 level

His 1:1 in MS left for a job in another school

Presumably a speech and language therapist diagnosed the language delay? What did they say about it?

I meant speech and language delay!

DS was assessed age two and a half with both an expressive and receptive speech and language delay.