ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the broad areas of need outlined in the Code of Practice in both England and Wales: cognition and learning. Learners’ ability to understand symbolic representation depends on understanding of the first-hand experience to which the symbolic representation refers. The school environment/curriculum can present a range of barriers to participation and learning for pupils with moderate learning difficulty. 'Dyslexia' is a psychological explanation of difficulties in learning. As with other specific learning difficulties, the information-processing system of 'dyslexic' individuals is seen as different from that of non-dyslexics in ways that have an impact on a number of areas of performance. The 'Balance Model' of reading and dyslexia is another example of a biological model. Dyslexic children with poorer phonological representations will have fewer compensatory word attack strategies to draw on and this will further undermine their reading performance. Children and young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities are individual human beings.
