SPED 200
Inclusionary Education of
Exceptional Students
Learner Characteristics
• Definitions and Prevalence Rates
At Risk Students
• Teachers Need
Be Prepared
Work with all
Diverse Learners
to
to
Types of
Defining Learner Characteristics
• All people are unique and
abilities or disabilities
• But do not define who
individuals are
certain
are attributes
Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act: (IDEA)
• Children between 3 and 9 may be identified as
developmentally delayed in one or more of the
following areas:
• Physical
• Cognitive
• Communication
• Social/Emotional
• Adaptive Development
After Age 9 - Students Qualify
for Special Education
• If diagnosed with one or more of the following:
• Specific learning disability
• Speech or language impairments
• Mental Retardation (Intellectual Disability)
• Emotional Disturbance
• Multiple Disabilities
Additional Categories
• Hearing impairments
• Orthopedic impairments
• Other health impairments
• Visual Impairment
• Autism
• Deaf - Blindness
• Traumatic brain injury
Cross-Categorical
Approach
• Mild
• Moderate
• Severe
High-Incidence Disabilities
• High Incidence Disabilities are those that
occur in more than 100,000 people in USA
• Speech or Language Impairment
• Learning Disabilities
• Emotional Disturbances
• Mental Retardation (Intellectual Disability)
Low-Incidence Disability
• Mild and Moderate Disabilities
• Learning Disabilities (LD)
• Behavioral/emotional disorders (E/BD)
• Mental Retardation (MR)
• Intellectual Disability (ID)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD)
Categorical vs. Cross Categorical
Classification of Disabilities
•
Level of
Severity
Learning
Disability
(LD)
Emotional/Behavior
Mental Retardation
al
Disorders (EBD)
Mild
Mild LD
Mild MR
Mild EBD
Moderate
Moderate LD
Moderate MR
Moderate EBD
Severe
Severe LD
Severe MR
Severe EBD
Number of Students
Ages 6-21 Served under IDEA
Disability
1991-1992
2000-2001
Percentage
Change
Learning
Disability
2,247,004
2,887,217
28.0
Mental
Retardation
553,262
612,978
10.8
Emotional/Behavi
oral Disorder
400,211
473,663
18.4
Incidence
• Learning Disabilities (LD) are the most
prevalent
• Represent over one-half of students
• Defining and Identifying LD is difficult
LD - Discrepancy Marker
• Students are expected to achieve better
academically than they do
• Expected Achievement is based on IQ Score
• Students scoring below expectations that
can’t be explained by socioeconomic factors,
cultural differences, inadequate instruction,
and disabling condition
• They are assumed to have a Learning
Disability
•
•
LD Identification is Problematic
Many are Advocating if a Student Responds to
Scientific Research-Based Intervention
Response To Intervention (RTI) is defined as a
change in behavior or performance attributable
to appropriate instruction
•
•
A student would be identified as having a
Learning Difficulty only if they do not improve
satisfactorily after receiving intensive
instruction
Critics say RTI doesn’t distinguish between
low achievement and a Cognitive Processing
Disorder
Specific Learning Disability
• The term means a disorder in one or more of
the basic psychological processes involved in
understanding or in using language, spoken
or written, that may manifest itself in an
imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read,
write, spell, or to do mathematical
calculations,
• Including conditions such as perceptual
disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain
disfunction, dyslexia, and developmental
aphasia
Specific Learning
Disability
• Disorders not included:
Emotional/Behavioral
Disabilities (EBD)
• Represent about 8 percent of
Students with Disabilities
• Represents 0.9 percent of Total
school population
• But prevalence rates are estimated
to be 2 to 3 time higher
Emotional Disturbances (EBD) Defined
• The term means a condition exhibiting one
or more of the following characteristics over
a longer period of time and a marked degree
that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance
• A) An inability to learn that cannot be
explained by intellectual, sensory, or
health factors
• B) An inability to build or maintain
satisfactory interpersonal relationship with
peers and teachers
(EBD) continued
•
•
•
•
C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under
normal conditions
D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or
depression
E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears
associated with personal or school problem
ii) The term includes schizophrenia. The term does not
apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it
is determined that they have an emotional disturbance
Mental Retardation (MR)
•
Mental Retardation means significantly subaverage
general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently
with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested
during the developmental period, that adversely
affects a child’s educational performance
•
•
Movement to replace the term Mental Retardation
with terms such as: Intellectual Disability or
Developmental Disability
New research on genes and brain imagining may
soon replace the IQ test for identifying Mental
Retardation
ADHD - Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder
• ADHD is a persistent pattern of inattention
and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that is more
frequently displayed and more severe than is
typical
• Must be clear evidence of interference w/
developmentally social, academic, or
occupational functions
• Occurs in 3-5 percent of children (3 times
more likely in boys)
ADHD Characteristics
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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On others being inattentive to work or play activities
Inattention to detail or careless mistakes
Not completing assigned tasks
Not listening to others when spoken to
Not following directions at home or school
Losing or misplacing materials
Being disorganized
Blurting out answers
Difficulty awaiting turn or failing to take turns
Interrupting or intruding
Motivation
•
•
•
•
Motivation affects the learning process without
motivation students are unlikely to learn
Even motivated students may find it very difficult to
learn if they don’t have the prerequisite skills
Motivation only encourages students to persist in
doing something they are capable of doing
Students with mild and moderate disabilities may be
prone to discouragement (given their record of poor
academic performance)
Attribution
•
•
Students who attribute their success to internal
factors such as effort and ability demonstrate a
positive attribution style
Students who attribute success to external causes
(luck or the teacher likes me) demonstrate a negative
attribution style
•
Teachers need to help students connect
knowledge, effort and achievement by linking
success or failure to effort and application of skills
and strategies
How Teachers can Help
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Design classrooms to be positive & supportive environments
Teach at the students’ appropriate level of understanding
Engage students in their own learning
Make school fun and interesting
Design for errorless learning
Use natural consequences that lead to failure as a teaching
opportunity
Teach self-management and self-determination skills so students
become responsible for their own learning and behavior
Connect effort and knowledge or skills to outcomes
Summary Statements
• Understanding disability characteristics and
definitions help teachers better understand
the students they are teaching
• Focus on the individual not the disability - A
disability does not define a person
Summary Statements
• The categorical approach refers to identifying
and serving students based on their ability
category (e.g., LD, EBD, MR).
• The cross categorical approach refers to the
severity of the disability (e.g., mild-tomoderate disabilities)
•
approach refers to the severity of the
disability (e.g., mid-to Moderate.
Summary Statements
• Most service delivery and teacher liscensing
programs follow the cross-categorical
approach
• Whereas, identification for
students under
IDEA still remains categorical
Summary Statements
• The four major disabling conditions under mild
and moderate include LD, EBD, MR, AND
ADHD, although ADHD is not a disability
category under IDEA
• All four categories of disability have been
and continue to be difficult to define
Summary Statements
• Most students with mild/moderate disabilities
have common learning characteristics
including poor attention, memory, concept
formation, academic skills and social
competence
• They may have low motivation for learning
• LD students may attribute school failures to
themselves but successes to factors outside
themselves
A Smile from Heaven for
Students w/ Disabilities