General Learning Disabilities

Students with severe to profound general learning disabilities are likely to be severely impaired in their functioning in respect of a basic awareness and understanding of themselves, of the people around them and of the world they live in.

A student with a moderate general learning disability is likely to display significant delay in reaching developmental milestones. These students may have impaired development and learning ability in respect of basic literacy and numeracy, language and communication, mobility and leisure skills, motor co-ordination and social and personal development.

Students with mild general learning disabilities have significantly below-average general intellectual functioning. This is reflected in a slow rate of maturation, reduced learning capacity and inadequate social adjustment. Mild general learning disability may also manifest itself in delayed conceptual development, difficulties in expressing ideas and feelings in words, a limited ability to abstract and generalise what they learn, limited attention-span and poor retention ability, slow speech and language development, and an underdeveloped sense of spatial awareness.

The Report of the Special Education Review Committee (SERC) (1993) referred to 'general learning disabilities' as 'mental handicap' and adopted the classification system used by The World Health Organisation to indicate specific levels of disability. The Department of Education and Skills (DES) continues to adopt The World Health Organisation classification system, but uses the term 'general learning disability' to refer to the special educational needs of students.