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Exploring learning disabilities: supporting belonging
Exploring learning disabilities: supporting belonging

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

Introduction and guidance

This free badged course, Exploring learning disabilities: supporting belonging, lasts 24 hours and is comprised of eight sessions. You can work through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one week there is no problem with pushing on to complete a further study session. The eight sessions are linked to ensure a logical flow through the course. They are:

  1. What is a learning disability?
  2. History: different approaches to learning disability over time
  3. Families
  4. Education
  5. Work and employment
  6. Health and well-being
  7. Relationships
  8. Making belonging happen: rights and advocacy

In this course you will meet a number of people, pictured in Figure 1 below, and hear about their experiences.

Figure 1 from left to right (top) Shaun, Dayo, Cian, Charlene (bottom) Terry, Phil, Clare Palmer, Elinor Palmer

Each session should take you around 3 hours. There are a number of activities throughout the course where you are asked to note down your response. A text box is provided for you to do this, however if you would prefer to record your answers in another way that is fine.

At the end of each session there is also a quiz to help you check your understanding. And, if you want to receive a formal statement of participation, at the end of Sessions 4 and 8 there is a quiz which you need to pass.

As you work through the course you may find you want to learn more. There are pointers at the end of each session to get you started. If you work in this field, or want to advocate more effectively, this course will give you some of the knowledge and the language to help you do that.

After completing this course, you should be able to:

  • explain the term ‘learning disability’
  • describe different ways learning disabilities have been viewed over time
  • reflect upon the impact that being labelled as having learning disabilities has on people and their families
  • explain why it can be difficult for people with learning disabilities and their families to feel like they belong in society
  • understand some of the barriers to people with learning disabilities and their families enjoying good lives and equal rights.

Moving around the course

In the ‘Summary’ at the end of each session, you will find a link to the next session. If at any time you want to return to the start of the course, click on ‘Full course description’. From here you can navigate to any part of the course.

It’s also good practice, if you access a link from within a course page (including links to the quizzes), to open it in a new window or tab. That way you can easily return to where you’ve come from without having to use the back button on your browser.

The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.