Developmental Disabilities

This course explains the fundamental differences between developmental learning difficulties and academic learning difficulties, emphasizing that developmental difficulties typically precede academic difficulties and are often a direct cause of them, particularly in areas such as reading, writing, and mathematics. The course highlights the importance of pre-academic skills, including attention, perception, memory, sequencing, and executive functions, and their essential role in successful learning.

Participants will examine the heterogeneous nature of developmental learning difficulties, recognizing that their manifestations and severity may vary significantly from one learner to another. The course reviews major classification frameworks used to describe learning difficulties, with particular attention to distinguishing developmental difficulties from academic ones, while also discussing the strengths and limitations of different classification systems.

The course also reviews the diagnostic criteria used in identifying developmental learning difficulties. These include the exclusion criterion, maturation criterion, special education criterion, and neurological indicators, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive multi-criteria assessment to ensure accurate diagnosis and the development of appropriate educational plans.

In addition, the course explores the emotional, social, and academic characteristics often associated with developmental learning difficulties, including the impact of repeated academic failure on self-concept, motivation, and social interaction. Participants will also be introduced to several theoretical models that explain learning difficulties, including the neurological model, psychological processes model, developmental model, behavioural model, cognitive model, perceptual–motor model, and physiological model.

The course further highlights the role of genetic factors, prenatal influences, and environmental conditions in the development of developmental learning difficulties. It emphasizes the critical importance of early identification and early intervention in reducing the likelihood of later academic difficulties.

By the end of the course, participants will have developed an integrated understanding of how to support the developmental processes that underpin academic learning, as well as the importance of making educational decisions grounded in developmental understanding to better support learners with developmental learning difficulties.