Learning disabled children suffer

A new report by the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities and Lancaster University has found that children with learning disabilities are up to six times as likely to suffer from mental-health problems as other children. The study, The Mental Health of Children and Adolescents with Learning Disabilities, found that the increased risk of mental illness is not always due to the learning disability per se but arises because of exposure to greater poverty and social exclusion than experienced by other children. The report, based on a survey of 18,000 children aged 5-15, found that a third of children with learning disabilities had mothers with mental-health problems and nearly half (47%) were living in poverty. Children with learning disabilities had fewer friends than other children and were more likely to suffer abuse or be involved in serious accidents.