Page 6 - Part-A
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Understanding Specific Learning Difficulties
In addition, individuals who have an Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), and are
therefore on the autistic spectrum, often have co-occurring SpLDs as well.
An individual who has an SpLD will have difficulties in areas specific to them, for
example they could suffer from problems with reading, writing, and remembering. The
difficulties people experience are on a scale from mild to moderate through to severe.
A person who is identified as having one SpLD often has traits of others to a greater or
lesser degree.
Although SpLDs do not mean that the person cannot achieve academically, they
can have a significant impact on education and learning. For people with SpLDs, the
learning journey can be a lot harder and require much more effort.
SpLDs should be distinguished from general learning difficulties, which are
identified when a child has very low general cognitive ability (this is the mental
action or process of acquiring knowledge) and hence is likely to have problems in
all areas of learning.
It is also important to note that SpLDs are independent of intellectual ability,
socioeconomic background or language background.
Key Fact
SpLD is an umbrella term used to cover a range of difficulties
affecting the way information is learnt and processed. A person
may have more than one of these difficulties at the same time.
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