{"id":13366,"date":"2024-06-17T10:03:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T09:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/?p=13366"},"modified":"2024-06-19T09:31:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T08:31:55","slug":"learning-disability-awareness-week-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/learning-disability-awareness-week-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Disability Awareness Week 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are over 1,000,000 people living with a learning disability in the UK*. At Family Fund, we want their voices to be heard. To mark Learning Disability Awareness Week, we’re sharing the experiences of families raising children and young people with a learning disability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocating for your child<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thirteen-year-old Lennon has global developmental delay and autism. His mum, Emma, shares her family’s experience with us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When Lennon was a toddler, professionals told us he’d never walk or talk. But after a lot of physiotherapy, he started to walk when he was around eight years old. Now, he can walk short distances and speak seven words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lennon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When a professional says one thing, question it. If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t be here today. Sometimes, you have to advocate for your child, challenge and put up a fight. But you have to want more out of life, for your family and for your children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In our case, Lennon makes his own rules. And he continues to prove the experts wrong, constantly. Lennon is an inspiration to all of us: he has taught our family not to give up.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facing additional costs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Raising a child with a learning disability often comes with additional costs. This is why we’re dedicated to supporting families raising disabled or seriously ill children- providing grants for items or breaks they couldn’t otherwise afford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marion and her husband, Iain, are parents of 17-year-old Kirsten. It was when they were filling out a financial assessment they realised how much they spend on Kirsten’s additional needs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“To keep Kirsten safe, we have to be quite specific about our needs for a holiday home. It needs to be child-proof, with an enclosed garden, which is more expensive. Family Fund gifted us a family break, and it really helps. The breaks keep our sanity. It takes a lot of energy to fight for Kirsten’s future. The breaks give us chance to recharge, so when we return home, we can continue fighting for the best for Kirsten.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kirsten<\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Every family raising a disabled or seriously ill child should have the same choices, quality of life, opportunities and aspirations as any other family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re raising a child with a learning disability, check out the grants Family Fund provides here on our website<\/a>. For wider support – including digital skills, mental health or wellbeing support, visit our support webpages here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*From the GOV.uk website, Learning disability – applying all our health<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learning Disability Awareness week takes place between Monday 17 June, and Sunday 23 June 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"4urgent","_mixd_wp_review_post_reminders":[],"_mixd_wp_review_date":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"class_list":["post-13366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLearning Disability Awareness Week 2024 - Family Fund<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This Learning Disability Awareness Week 2024, we're shining a light on the 1,000,000+ people living in the UK with a learning disability.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/learning-disability-awareness-week-2024\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learning Disability Awareness Week 2024 - Family Fund\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This Learning Disability Awareness Week 2024, we're shining a light on the 1,000,000+ people living in the UK with a learning disability.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/learning-disability-awareness-week-2024\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Family Fund\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-17T09:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-19T08:31:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Decision-making-1-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1460\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"625\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Massen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/learning-disability-awareness-week-2024\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/learning-disability-awareness-week-2024\/\",\"name\":\"Learning Disability Awareness Week 2024 - Family Fund\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/familyfundprd.wpengine.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/learning-disability-awareness-week-2024\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/learning-disability-awareness-week-2024\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Decision-making-1-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-17T09:03:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-19T08:31:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/familyfundprd.wpengine.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6c4629e63e100a5ed41278bba70fab0d\"},\"description\":\"This Learning Disability Awareness Week 2024, we're shining a light on the 1,000,000+ people living in the UK with a learning disability.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/learning-disability-awareness-week-2024\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/learning-disability-awareness-week-2024\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/news\/learning-disability-awareness-week-2024\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Decision-making-1-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.familyfund.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Decision-making-1-1.png\",\"width\":1460,\"height\":625,\"caption\":\"Kirsten is smiling whilst sat on a swing in a park. 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