A proposal presentation for a documentary on the positives and negatives of learning difficulties. Gives information on what various LD's do and how to help them.

1. S
Positives and
Negatives of Learning
Difficulties
By Jamie Appleyard

2. Positives and Negatives of
Learning Difficulties
S In my documentary I will be going into detail on: how
many people are in the UK are affected by learning
difficulties, the difference between learning difficulties and
learning disabilities, how many types of learning
difficulties they are and how they affect people. I will also
go into detail on the positives of some of the learning
difficulties I have listed.

3. Did you know..?
S Synesthesia, a neurological condition that causes those diagnosed to mix
up senses. This can have some strange effects such as “seeing” sound as
colours and shapes, or personifying numbers. This allows them to see the
world in a completely different way from everyone else. For this reason
almost everyone who has it wouldn’t get rid of it for anything. This can
stop them from being able to solve basic math sums however. A person
with OLP (Ordinal Linguistic Personification) Synesthesia, might see 3 as
a really nice guy who looks after his younger brother 1, whereas 9 might
be a bully. In some sufferers this can cause mental anxiety because they’d
feel guilty about solving “9+3” because they wouldn’t want to put the nice
and kind 3 with the bully 9.
S https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_B-41pmlpU - This is the way the
world might be perceived by someone with Grapheme synesthesia.

4. What’s the difference
between learning disabilities
and learning difficulties?
S A learning difficulty is a “problem” that occurs in the brain, resulting
in the person in question struggling with various “simple” tasks. A
person with a learning difficulty will often exceed in other areas
however. This is the human body’s way of making up for being
unable to do some tasks. A learning disability however is
(according to the NHS) when a person has an IQ of 70 or less,
other than that you are just considered either stupid or branded
with a learning difficulty. Upon doing a test, in my class there is 1
person with an IQ of 121 (high end “above average” category) 1
person with an IQ of 130 (“gifted” category) a 97 (“average”
category) and a 110 (low end “above average” category). It is very
rare to find somebody with an IQ as low as 70. One of our tutors
even got an IQ of 142 (high end “gifted” Category)

5. How many people are
affected by learning
difficulties? S This was last measured in 2011 and results showed that in England alone
there are 1,191,000. Out of these people 530,000 are men aged 18 or up,
and 375,000 women from 18 and up. The remaining 286,000 are people
under the age of 18 of varying gender. This was around 2%
(2.2426337671728125%) of England’s population. Because this number is
so low, a lot of people don’t know anything about various disabilities or
difficulties. This can lead to people who suffer from them forming mental
conditions such as depression or paranoia.

6. How many people are
affected by learning
difficulties in England?
Learning Difficulty percentages
2%
98%
No Learning Difficulty
Learning Difficulties

7. How many people are
affected by learning
difficulties in England?
Learning Difficulty percentages
10%
38%
11%
23%
5%
6%
7%
Other
Specific Learning
Difficulty (I.E. Dyslexia)
Speech Inpediment
Autism
Other health
impairments
Emotional Disturbance
Interllectual disabilites
(mental retardation)

8. How many types of learning
difficulty are there?
S There are six major disorders that are usually named: dyspraxia,
dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, Asperger syndrome and
ADD/ADHD. however there are hundreds and hundreds of smaller
disorders that come under the category of “Autism” All of these
LD’s require special assistance from teachers or SENCO (Special
Educational Needs Co-Ordinator). Because learning difficulties are
so rare, a lot of people lack the required knowledge to help people
who suffer with them. This limits how well people with these
difficulties can do in important exams such as: GCSEs and A-Levels.
S https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHw4qGF6f9A - Interview with
a SENCO

9. What are the symptoms of
learning difficulties?
S Learning difficulties present themselves in various forms, usually categorized as
different forms of autism. Some of the most common difficulties are: dyslexia,
dyspraxia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, ADD/ADHD and Asperger syndrome, however
the majority of English citizens (including teachers) have never heard of dyspraxia,
dysgraphia or dyscalculia. Dyslexia gives sufferers difficulties with reading text from
a page; changing the colour of the paper can help this. People with dyspraxia
struggle with fine motor skills and writing, the most common solution for this is giving
them a laptop but people started to exploit the system as not enough people in the
country know what dyspraxia is and some even deny it exists. Asperger syndrome
causes sufferers to take everything literally. This makes it difficult for them to talk to
people, and causes them to dislike change. In schools where the teachers or
students don’t know anything about Asperger syndrome, these students quickly
become outcasts. Dyscalculia is probably the worst out of the four mentioned.
Children born with Dyscalculia are unable to tell apart patterns. When you where a
child you could tell the difference between someone holding 1 finger up and
someone holding 2, however people born with dyscalculia cannot. This leads to
extreme difficulty with maths later on in life.

10. What are the upsides?
S Each learning difficulty is caused by the brain working in a different way to most people’s. Because of this
each of them have a unique way of thinking and because of this, tend to excel at something.
S People with Dyspraxia have poor motor skills. This often means they aren’t good at sports, however
usually have completely unique ideas. They tend to be extremely empathetic and rarely give up once they
start something. It is no longer classed as a learning difficulty but almost always displays itself along with
another learning difficulty
S People with dyslexia struggle to read things as the words seem to “float of the page” or “jumble
themselves up”. On the other hand they are normally highly intuitive and insightful, and can visualize
things using all 5 senses, not just the 2 that most people are limited too, they are also highly adept at
finding patterns that are usually invisible to other people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e76FHNfMs4w - The Dyslexia Benefits
S People with Dysgraphia have problems with tasks such as writing, spelling and putting thoughts down on
paper, they usually have photographic memories, are good at debates, and like people with Dyspraxia,
they are highly empathetic towards other people.

11. In Conclusion…
S To conclude, in this presentation I have explained the
difference between learning difficulties and disabilities. I
have covered both the positives and negatives of the
major learning difficulties, How many different types there
are and how much of the English population is affected.
Overall I believe this will make an interesting
documentary as it provides information on a topic that not
many people are aware off. I hope it will raise awareness
for people with learning difficulties as well as to show how
they are affected, though it may not be a bad thing.

12. Bibliography
Websites:
https://www.osep-meeting.
org/2011conf/presentations/Breakouts/Tue_PM-
35yrEdChildwDisabilities/markowitz.htm
-Pie chart info
http://www.bild.org.uk/EasysiteWeb/getresource.axd?AssetI
D=2522&type=full&servicetype=Attachment - percentage of
UK has learning difficulties
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/pop-estimate/population-estimates-
for-england-and-wales/mid-2011--2011-census-based-/
index.html - England Population 2011
http://www.dyspraxicfantastic.com - Positives and negatives
of dyspraxia