how a learning disability affects communication, and how-this affects motivation to communicate ,self esteem?

Answer 1

People with serious learning disabilities can definitely have difficulties with communication. A common type of learning problem is an expressive language disorder. As the name implies, individuals with this type of problem have difficulties expressing themselves using language. So a person with ordinary intelligence may find it difficult to communicate his/her needs, wishes or desires. A consequence of this type of learning problem can be a lack of motivation to communicate in this manner. Think about it - if it is hard to do something, people are often unmotivated to do it. They may find other ways of communicating or may let someone else do the communicating for them (especially common with brothers or sisters of individuals with language problems). Self-esteem can also be diminished, as the individual with the learning problem (usually of normal intelligence, remember) realizes that they are inferior to others when it comes to this type of communication. There is often a "vicious circle" here - that is, the person has difficulty communicating, so they stop trying, which increases the difficulty, which makes them feel worse about themselves.

Answer 2

A learning disability is a significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information, to learn new skills and a reduced ability to cope independently which has started before adulthood and has a lasting effect on development. 60% of people with learning disabilities have some skills in symbolic communication and about 20% have no verbal communication skills but show intentional communication.

The answer to the question would depend on the level of the learning disability (mild to profound) and of course the individual him/herself.

Professionals try to enable the patient to have control on their treatment and this can increase self esteem but of course you need communication in order to choose and sometimes there is little awareness of their communication needs.

I have seen adults with severe learning difficulties who can hardly produce speech that can be understood but are able to communicate using communication boards (where you press buttons that have symbols) and thrive on that and in being able to talk to someone else. These boards can also help independence, for instance being able to go to a shop and talk to the staff directly or being able to travel on a bus and ask the bus driver for the correct ticket, etc

PS: Can I just say, although Senlin raised many valid points, a person with a learning disability has an IQ of less than 70, which means they would be well below average when it comes to intelligence. Many have expressive problems but it's often underestimated that a lot would also have comprehension problems as well.

It's when a person has a Specific Language Impairment that their language is below average but everything else is within 'normal' range (including intelligence).

Answer 3

And your actually "Question" is ......WHAT...?

Given your question is about how a learning disability - the type / nature / degree of is not mentioned nor qualified, you then ask "How this effects motivation to communicate ,self esteem" (I now un-quote you.) -

So, I wonder about how the subject matter relates to you personally! ...given your inability to communicate whatever it is that you tried to here!

All you have done is to present an outline of a problem which has a huge spread of possible answers that are each dependant on a huge number of factors.

Try it this way....
'How an ant affects communication, and how this effects motivation to communicate ,self esteem?'

Does that make any greater or lesser sense to you?

(ah, but I know what I was meaning when I wrote it, see)

Sash.