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31 Jobs Found - Search: "learning difficulties"
About learning difficulties jobs
When an individual is considered to have learning difficulties, this means that they have more trouble and impairments than usual when processing the stimuli from their environment and then retaining and organising the information. It might mean that it takes longer to learn something or that they need to learn it in a different way from what might be typically expected. It might be that they have trouble understanding what people are saying, find reading difficult, have trouble with short- or long-term memory or find literacy and numeracy particularly difficult. A learning difficulties job is one that helps individuals cope with these differences in processing.
These issues do not just affect individuals at school, however; they can have an impact on retaining information on social behaviour and appropriacy, processing emotions and also retaining the risk-assessment skills that help them protect themselves.
There are a few reasons that an individual might come to have learning difficulties. It may be due to a genetic issue, brain damage from an accident, trauma during birth that starves the brain of oxygen or a pregnancy that exposed them to drugs, alcohol or other toxicities. Neglect can also massively hamper an individual’s learning development and many learning disabilities can be prevented when delays in development are considered and addressed.
Duties of learning difficulties jobs
The main aim of a learning difficulties job is to assist affected people with daily living and to encourage as independent a life as possible. There are many ways you can help people with learning difficulties. It depends if you want to work with them in a clinical capacity or as part of the daily routine. Due to the different types of learning difficulties too, you may specialise in certain areas. For instance, the author also works with college students with specific learning difficulties. During her day, she works with students with dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, autistic spectrum disorders and other specific blends of learning delay to achieve the same educational standards as everyone else.
Due to varying impaired information organisation and risk-assessment skills, you may also provide financial and medication support. This will ensure that people receive the right medication, do not fail to take notice of contraindications nor succumb to inappropriate spending sprees or being taken advantage of financially.
If you choose to take a clinical role, you will specialise in the medical and clinical needs of people with learning difficulties. If their learning difficulty is genetic or from pregnancy and birth, rather than from neglect, they may well have physical needs that require a trained nurse to help with as well. Working with things like catheterisation, feeding tubes or diabetes could be a possibility; equally, you might work mainly with people that have a specific sensory impairment, such as sight impairment.
If you work at a managerial level, you’ll pull back somewhat from the front line of support and care provision and focus on making sure the resources and infrastructure for your organisation are in place and running smoothly. You’ll work with your staff team to make sure they have everything they need, are carrying out their jobs correctly and that their training needs are identified and provided for. You’ll also take on responsibility for the estates and maintenance, liaise with family, friends and health professionals and ensure that every process complies with the appropriate legislation.
What kind of person suits a learning difficulties job?
First and foremost, you are patient, empathetic and reflective. You need to really think about how your service user understands the world in order to best work with them. Communication skills, both in the sense of learning different languages and communication methods as well as reading body language and emotional intelligence, are of huge importance. Common sense to deal with day-to-day situations never goes amiss and neither does the skill of being able to teach and explain, rather than just tell.
I want a learning difficulties job now!
Good! It’s really rewarding and you help people with the most important thing they have; the expression of themselves and their lives. You can have a look on here in our job database to find out the kinds of jobs available now and find a learning difficulties vacancy near you and at the right level.
