Audiences+with+Learning+or+Mental+Disabilities

Audiences with Learning or Mental Disabilities
Just as the complexities of the human brain could fill pages if we attempted to outline its qualities, so too would an attempt to condense its variations be a challenge as far as learning and mental disabilities. You will see in the following pages that these disabilities run the gamut of conditions, some like jumbling letters in your head as you read, and others as severe as having an infant-like mindset for life.

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Unlike physical disabilities, which are easier to recognize and thus have had a good amount of attention dedicated to their facilitation, learning and mental disabilities are much more subtle. More often than not, we will not be able to tell if someone has such a disability upon first meeting them. Therein lies the challenge of gauging our audience's background. While it may be impossible to immediately pinpoint the range of mental capabilities of a given audience, keep in mind that it is very likely that we will encounter individuals with learning disabilities among the crowd. Having an arsenal of information regarding the varying disabilities will only help to prepare us to better engage these individuals.======

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As educators, we are meant to inspire and touch lives. How much more rewarding would it be to do so with an audience that is often marginalized, an audience that feels incompetent at times. If we take on the responsibility of learning how their minds work, we will be better able to embrace a wider range of people and make them feel welcome in the museum.======

What are learning disabilities?
The trick is that there is no single answer, no one way to define it. It isn’t as simple as stating that it is difficulty with learning. In the broadest terms possible, a learning disability involves actual neurological disorders that affect the brain’s ability to receive, process, store, and respond to information.

As such, learning disabilities are in no way a reflection of a person’s intelligence. Because of this, it can be a particularly frustrating condition to live with as a large majority of people with learning disabilities are actually of at least average intelligence, and yet have difficulty grasping essential skills for school, work, or coping with life in general. Imagine that for a moment. Having a perfectly functioning mind, yet struggling to express it at the same pace as your peers.

Learning disabilities may affect a person’s skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and performing mathematical tasks. It is characterized by a distinct gap between the level of achievement that is expected and the level of actual achievement.

What are Mental Disabilities?
Now more commonly referred to as developmental disabilities since they may also affect physical and social development, mental disorders are characterized as life-long conditions that affect daily functioning in three or more of the following areas:

• capacity for independent living • economic self-sufficiency • learning • mobility • receptive and expressive language • self-care • self-direction

Similarly to learning disabilities, mental disabilities also cover a wide range of conditions and are classified as mild, moderate, profound, or severe.

Although we’ve established that there is quite a range of learning and mental disabilities, for the purposes of this site, we’ve chosen to focus on four specific disabilities:

 * ====**Dyslexia**====
 * ====**Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)**====
 * ====**Autism**====
 * ====**Mental Retardation**====

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