Natural consequences, the law of the street, law of the playground, pub, eye for an eye, etc., etc. Natural consequences are what help to teach us how to act, or rather not act, in certain social situations. Without them there would be something close to anarchy, people wouldn’t know where they stand, right and wrong would be right out the window.
So how does this affect people with learning difficulties, I mean, they can’t help it, right? Wrong! They are never going to get it because the world seems to dodge the task of educating them.
I’m going to use a real life example here to back this up, the names have been changed to protect the parties involved. Jack loves going to the pub, however Jack displays some quite unsociable traits at times in this situation, these being stealing peoples drinks, grabbing women and trying to kiss them, stroking their hair and touching their bums. Now, you could just put this down to him having a learning difficulty and just not understanding that this is wrong. Ok, but surely the best thing you could do is teach him that it’s wrong instead of patting him on the head and laughing it off, I’m pretty sure if I did this I’d get a slap at the least!
It is not just the support workers job to educate, it is all of societies. So what can you do? Ok, I’m not advocating violence, but if someone like Jack steals your pint or touches your bum let him know it’s wrong! We have a duty to people with learning difficulties to help them to understand the unwritten social laws.
