LEARN ABOUT LEARNING DISABILITIES AND AUTISM
Learning Disability - Definition by MENCAP
Larches Community is proud to be affiliated to MENCAP and sincerely appreciate their support.
A learning disability is a reduced intellectual ability and difficulty with everyday activities - for example household tasks, socialising or managing money - which affects someone for their whole life.
People with a learning disability tend to take longer to learn and may need support to develop new skills, understand complex information and interact with other people.
The level of support someone needs depends on individual factors, including the severity of their learning disability. For example, someone with a mild learning disability may only need support with things like getting a job. However, someone with a severe or profound learning disability may need full-time care and support with every aspect of their life - they may also have physical disabilities.
People with certain specific conditions can have a learning disability too. For example, people with Down's syndrome and some people with autism have a learning disability.
Learning disability is often confused with dyslexia and mental health problems. Mencap describes dyslexia as a "learning difficulty" because, unlike learning disability, it does not affect intellect. Mental health problems can affect anyone at any time and may be overcome with treatment, which is not true of learning disability.
It's important to remember that with the right support, most people with a learning disability in the UK can lead independent lives.
Find out more about Learning Disabilities:
http://www.mencap.org.uk/all-about-learning-disability
-
Autism - Definition by National Autistic Society
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people. It also affects how they make sense of the world around them.
It is a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism share certain difficulties, their condition will affect them in different ways. Some people with autism are able to live relatively independent lives but others may have accompanying learning disabilities and need a lifetime of specialist support. People with autism may also experience over- or under-sensitivity to sounds, touch, tastes, smells, light or colours.
Find out more about Autism:
-
Asperger Syndrome
Asperger syndrome is a form of autism. People with Asperger syndrome are often of average or above average intelligence. They have fewer problems with speech but may still have difficulties with understanding and processing language.
As soon as we meet a person we make judgements about them. From their facial expression, tone of voice and body language we can usually tell whether they are happy, angry or sad and respond accordingly.
People with Asperger syndrome can find it harder to read the signals that most of us take for granted. This means they find it more difficult to communicate and interact with others which can lead to high levels of anxiety and confusion.
Find out more about Asperger Syndrome:
-
Mental Health - Definition by ISPS
Mental illness Iiterally means illness of the mind, in other words a problem in a person’s feelings, thinking, or behaviour. The term ‘mental illness’ is often used when someone experiences significant changes in thinking, feelings or behaviour. The changes need to be bad enough to affect how the person functions or cause distress to them or to other people.
The terms ‘mental disorder’ and ‘mental health problem’ have a similar meaning.
If a person has always had a problem in their thinking, feeling or behaviour, then this is not usually called mental illness. It may then be called as a developmental problem or a difficulty with their personality (sometimes called a personality disorder).
Mental health is the opposite – it means mental wellbeing, good mental functioning or having no particular problems in thinking, feelings or behaviour.
These kinds of definitions of course greatly over-simplify things. All of us experience changes from time to time in our feelings, thinking and behaviour, and there is no clear cut off between illness and health. Also someone may have problems which fit the definition of a mental illness, but they may be very healthy mentally in other ways.
Find out more about Mental Health:
