Do you know these
celebrities?
How well do you really know them?
• Tom Cruise
– Successful actor who starred in such films as Top Gun, Rain
Man, & Minority Report in spite of having dyslexia.
• Robin Williams
– Successful actor and comedian who has starred in such films as
Mrs. Doubtfire & Hook, who with all his success, has a learning
disability and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).
• Sylvester Stallone
– Star of the Rocky and Rambo movies who shares the same type
of disabilities as Robin Williams (LD & ADD).
http://www.masspac.org/awareness/celebrities.htm
What about these women
celebrities
Women Celebrities
• Audrey Hepburn, star of such classics as
“The African Queen” and “Breakfast at
Tiffany’s,” had depression.
• Erin Brockovich, woman who inspired a
movie for her work on the environment in
the southern US, has dyslexia.
What’s the point?
• Having a disability WILL NOT prevent you
from obtaining success! YOU have to
know your disability and make the
appropriate accommodations that will
generate your success.
• You’re not alone. There are thousands and
millions of students with the same types of
disabilities.
Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
• Federal Definition: Specific Learning
Disability (SLD) means a disorder in one
or more of the basic psychological
processes involved in understanding or in
using language, spoken or written, which
may manifest itself in an imperfect ability
to listen, speak, read, write, spell, or do
mathematical calculations (Hallahan &
Kauffman, 2003).
Specific Learning Disability (SLD)
• Dyslexia, for example, is considered one SLD.
• Over half (50.8%) of the students with
disabilities in the US have a SLD.
• The number of students with a SLD is close to
3 MILLION!
cont.
Speech & Language Disabilities
• Speech disorders include disorders of
voice, articulation, & fluency.
• Language disorders affect the student’s
ability to use language (phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, &
pragmatics).
• Over a million students have a speech or
language disability.
Emotional Behavioral Disorders
(EBD)
• Difficult to define: Behavior that is
unacceptable because of social or cultural
experiences that goes to an extreme and
that is chronic.
• Includes Conduct Disorders, Affective
Disorders, and Anxiety Disorders.
• Close to half a million students have an
EBD, but the numbers are on the rise.
Emotional Behavioral Disorders
(EBD)
(cont)
• Conduct Disorders
– Behaviorally based
– Typically, the person has
problems with peers &
authority figures.
– Manifests behavior with
aggression
– Behavioral management
program &
psychotherapy
http://www.aacap.org/publications/facts
fam/conduct.htm
• Affective Disorders
– Something in the body is
affected.
– Example: Bipolar
Disorder.
– Cause: Genetics
– M.D. will place bipolar
patients on medication to
help stabilize chemicals
in the body (brain)
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/bipolar.cfm#
bp6
Autism
• A pervasive developmental disability
characterized by extreme withdrawal, cognitive
deficits, language disorders, self-stimulation;
and the onset is before the age of 30 months.
• Sometimes regarded as PDD or Pervasive
Developmental Disorder.
• Runs a “spectrum”
• Over 50,000 students are autistic but the
numbers rise steadily every year.
Other Disabilities
• Orthopedic Disabilities
• Visual Disabilities
• Audio or Hearing Disabilities
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Multiple Disabilities (MD)
Activity Time!!!!!
Take about 7 minutes to fill out the Student
Disability Worksheet