Local support with... Learning Difficulties

Adrian_Scope

On the community later this month, our focus will be on Learning Difficulties, including, among others, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia and Autism.

If you, or someone close to you, is living with Learning Difficulties, it can be helpful to get support that’s local to you. With this in mind, we’ve found four organisations from across England and Wales who you might find useful.

North:

Yorkshire Rose Dyslexia strives for a neuro-diverse friendly society. They organise fun events for both kids and parents, arrange seminars on topics that might be relevant to you and operate a support helpline for when you need information.

You can visit them online at https://yorkshirerosedyslexia.org.uk

South:

Helen Arkell offer Dyslexia support to both children and adults, providing assessments, consultations and specialist tuition to help people with Dyslexia realise their potential.

You can visit them online at http://www.helenarkell.org.uk/

East:

The Dyslexia Association of London hosts a monthly Adult Dyslexia support group as well as regular events to help adults with dyslexia unlock opportunities.

You can visit them online at https://dyslexialondon.org/

West:

Tomorrow’s Generation helps young people (between the ages of 6 and 16) and their families cope with Dyslexia. During term time, you can visit their Dyslexia Learning Centre in Lisvane, Cardiff which offers Launchpad for Learning sessions for children aged between 7 and 11 years old.

You can visit them online at https://tomorrowsgeneration.co.uk/

If you know of some fantastic support for people with Learning Difficulties somewhere in the UK, we’d love to hear from you. Please post below in the comments!

April2018mom

I have dyscalculia myself. I was diagnosed with it nearly five years ago when I went to see a ed pysch for a assessment. Thanks @Adrian_Scope! 

dolfrog

Hi @Adrian_Scope
I am dyslexic, and the Temporal type of Auditory Processing Disorder, having problems processing  the gaps between sounds, is the underlying cognitive cause of my dyslexia symptom. I have problems processing the gaps between sounds, which can include the gaps between words in rapid speech., and i am cognitively not able to use phonics, nor phonetically sound out new an unfamiliar words from the written word, text.

Dyslexia is a man made problem concerning decoding and recoding the visual notation of speech, or the graphic symbols society chooses to represent the sounds of speech.

Dyslexia is language dependent.

There are two types of dyslexia. Acquired Dyslexia, also known as Alexia, is caused by brain injury, stroke, atrophy, etc which is concerned with those loosing or have lost the previously acquired skills to decode and recode the visual notation of speech.
And Developmental Dyslexia which has a genetic causes. There are three cognitive subtypes of Developmental Dyslexia - Auditory, Visual and Attentional. Which means that an Auditory Processing Disorder, a Visual Processing Disorder, an Attention Deficit / Disorder, or any combination of these issues can cause the Dyslexic Symptom

So those who are classified as being dyslexic need to identify the underlying cognitive / clinical / medical cause of their dyslexic symptom, so that they can fully understand the nature of their own specific disability, and the limitations it or they impose. And more importantly identify the alternative compensating skills and abilities that they will be best able to access to work around their personal limitations.

Some Research papers:

A case study of an English-Japanese Bilingual with monolingual dyslexia

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027799000165 

http://cnps.umin.jp/pastcnp/PDFs1999/WYDELL.pdf  

Cognitive subtypes of dyslexia.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18389017 

Cognitive subtypes of dyslexia are characterized by distinct patterns of grey matter volume 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4147248/  

A multidisciplinary approach to understanding developmental dyslexia within working-memory architecture: genotypes, phenotypes, brain, and instruction.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19005912

A structural–functional basis for dyslexia in the cortex of Chinese readers

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2291101/ 

The neurological basis of developmental dyslexia

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/123/12/2373.full 

Theories of developmental dyslexia: insights from a multiple case study of dyslexic adults

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/126/4/841.full  

Unstable Representation of Sound: A Biological Marker of Dyslexia 

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/8/3500.full  

For Reading Development,Auditory Processing Is Fundamental

https://northwestern.app.box.com/s/ofltmhk8evamzwh4qebbsic993u57fz0  

Visual word learning in adults with dyslexia 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00264/full 

Sequential Prediction of Literacy Achievement for Specific Learning Disabilities Contrasting in Impaired Levels of Language in Grades 4 to 9

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5538955/  

Aphasia, Alexia, and Oral Reading 

https://doi.org/10.1310/VUPX-WDX7-J1EU-00TB 

Connectionist neuropsychology: uncovering ultimate causes of acquired dyslexia

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/369/1634/20120398.long 

and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3866427/  

You could have a look at more research papers in my "Some PubMed Dyslexia Research Paper Collections" at

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s329/sh/b7ee9497-d963-4b30-a328-0d7b087e0d09/2f19fea1f77027b91566b316fb1989f0  

dolfrog

Hi @Adrian_Scope
Just an update.
Back in 1994, an international symposium, held in Canada, changed the name dyspraxia to Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) which has been the term used on a global basis and in the related international research since then.   

Adrian_Scope

Thanks @dolfrog.
This is all really interesting.

Adrian_Scope

Quick update:
National Autistic Society have a tool allowing you to find your nearest Autism Hour for the week beginning 5th October. Participating shops will be turning down the volume on music and dimming lights.

Adrian_Scope

If you'd like an insight into Autism from a child's perspective, you can listen to Kenzi Jupp's poem here.