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SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff
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SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

Dec 22, 2015

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Damian Farmer
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Page 1: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties)

Raising Awareness for Staff

Page 2: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

Today we will…

• Recognise what SpLD and hidden disability mean

• Describe some features of dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia

• Investigate how they may impact on students

• Identify some strategies for supporting students

Page 3: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

What is a hidden disability?

• One is unable to “see” the disability.• There are no “visible” supports to indicate

a disability such as canes, wheelchairs or sign language used.

• It is a permanent disability that they cope with on a daily basis.

• Learning difficulties fall under this umbrella (others include psychiatric problems, HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, CFS, Cystic Fibrosis, Epilepsy, Medical conditions e.g. cancer)

Page 5: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

Definition of Specific Learning Difficulty (or difference)

• Group of developmental disorders• Significant unexpected, specific and

persistent difficulties in the acquisition of skills associated with literacy, numeracy and motor coordination

• Despite conventional instruction, normal cognitive ability, proper motivation and adequate socio-cultural opportunity

Page 6: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

What is dyslexia? Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling.

Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed.

Dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities.

Rose Report 2009: 10

Page 7: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

Dyslexia•A language-based learning disability•Involves a cluster of symptoms resulting in difficulty with specific language skills, particularly reading. •The core difficulty is with word recognition and reading fluency, spelling, and writing.

•Dyslexia is diagnosed in people of all levels of intelligence.

•Caused by an under developed cerebellum and differences in

brain structure. Left and right hemispheres are the same size

(normally asymmetric)•Most people with dyslexia need help from a teacher, tutor, or therapist specially trained in using a multisensory, structured language approach.

Page 8: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

Dyslexia Empathy Activity

You will be given exactly one minute to read the paragraph on the following slide. You will then be given two minutes to answer questions relating to the excerpt.

Ready…

Page 9: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.
Page 10: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

Answer the following questions on your whiteboard:

What did Bob suggest to do for the day? Watch a movie

What were Bob and John searching for in the cupboard?Popcorn

How did they cook it? In the microwave

Page 11: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.
Page 12: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

What is dyspraxia?

• “Dyspraxia, a type of developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD), is a disability that affects basic motor skills (such as walking or sitting upright) and fine motor skills (such as writing or picking up small objects) in children and adults. Often, it can lead to problems with language, perception and thought.” NHS Choices (2014)

Page 13: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

How does it impact on students?• Poor posture, trip and bump into things

• Problems judging heights and distances, catching, balancing

• Difficult to handle keyboards, tools, bandages, laboratory and cooking equipment

• Hand-writing: write laboriously slowly and/or untidily and illegibly. Accurate copying can be difficult.

• Language: Difficult to pronounce some words and some may stutter.

• Concentration: Take longer to complete a task, hard to do more than one thing at a time.

• Short term memory and sequencing tasks: making sense of information when listening or reading instructions, taking notes, dealing with maps and charts.

Page 14: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

So how’s it feel to be dyspraxic?

• On your mini whiteboards, re-write the following statement using your non-dominant hand. You will be given two minutes to complete this task. Write neatly!!

“Dyspraxia is an impairment of the organisation of movement that is often accompanied by problems with language and perception. It is estimated that dyspraxia affects at least two percent of the general population.”

Page 15: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.
Page 16: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

What is dyscalculia?

• DfE definition:“A condition that affects the ability to acquire arithmetical skills. Dyscalculic learners may have difficulty understanding simple number concepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbers and have problems learning number facts and procedures.”

Page 17: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

However…

• This definition is too broad• Results in lots of students being

misdiagnosed with dyscalculia• Very difficult to diagnose• Unlike dyslexia and dyspraxia there

is no clear consensus on how to define or classify maths difficulties

Page 18: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

Other causes of maths difficulty?

• Working memory problems• Anxiety, ‘maths phobia’• Attention deficit• Visual stress

• ALL of these will make learning maths difficult

Page 19: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

Signs

• Maths skills impede on everyday life e.g. working out change

• Problems with ‘numerosity’ – recognising value–Which is greater?

6 4

Page 20: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.

Dyscalculia Empathy Activity

Solve the following maths problem. You will be given 2 minutes to complete this task.

One day, a person went to a horse racing area. Instead of counting the number of humans and horses, he instead counted 74 heads and 196 legs. How many humans and horses are there? (No one is missing any appendages or heads) Answer: 50 humans 24 horses

Page 21: SpLDs (Specific Learning Difficulties) Raising Awareness for Staff.