CHAPTER 6
Learners Who Are
Exceptional
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Learners Who Are Exceptional
Who Are Children
with
Disabilities?
Learning
Disabilities
Emotional and
Behavior
Disorders
Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity
Disorder
Mental
Retardation
Autism
Spectrum
Disorders
Physical
Disorders
Sensory
Disorders
Speech and
Language
Disorders
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Disability vs. Handicap
A disability involves a limitation on a
person’s functioning that restricts the
individual’s abilities.
A handicap is a condition imposed on a
person who has a disability. The condition
could be imposed by society, the physical
environment, or the person’s attitude.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Welcome to Holland
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child
with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that
unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would
feel. It’s like this…
When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous
vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and
make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo
David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy
phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You
pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane
lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to
Holland.”
“Holland?!!” you say. “What do you mean, Holland? I signed
up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed
of going to Italy.”
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Welcome to Holland
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve
landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a
horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine
and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you
must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a
whole new group of people you would never have met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less
flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while
and you catch your breath, you look around, and you
begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has
tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.
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Welcome to Holland
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from
Italy, and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time
they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say,
“Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I
had planned.”
The pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because
the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.
But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you
didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very
special, the very lovely things about Holland.
Emily Pearl Kingsley
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Sensory Disorders
VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS
HEARING IMPAIRMENTS
Low Vision
Deafness
• Acuity between 20/70 and
20/200 with corrective
lens
• Cannot process linguistic
information
Educationally Blind
• Cannot use their vision in
learning
• Must use hearing and
touch to learn
Hard of Hearing
• Can process linguistic
information with help of
hearing aids
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Potential Signs of Hearing
Impairment
1.
2.
3.
4.
Student experiences difficulties
following oral presentation and
directions.
Student watches lips of teachers or
other speakers very closely.
Student turns head and leans toward
speaker.
Student uses limited vocabulary.
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Potential Signs of Hearing
Impairment (con’t)
5.
6.
7.
8.
Student uses speech sounds poorly.
Student shows delayed language
development.
Student often doesn’t respond when
called from behind.
Student is generally inattentive during
oral presentations.
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Potential Signs of Hearing
Impairment (con’t)
9.
10.
Student constantly turns volume up
on radio or television.
Student complains of earaches, has
frequent colds or ear infections, or
has ear discharge.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Classroom Accommodations
Visual Impairments:
Determine the modality (such as touch or hearing)
through which the child learns best
Front-row seating
Textbooks from “Recording for the Blind”
Use of Braille
Hearing Impairments:
Speak normally
Reduce distractions and background noises
Face the student for lip reading and gestures
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Physical Disorders
Orthopedic Disorders: Restrictions of movement
because of muscle, joint, or bone problems
Cerebral Palsy:
• lack of muscular coordination
• shaking
• slurred speech
Classroom
Accommodations:
• computers
• speech and voice
synthesizers
• note taking
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Physical Disorders
Seizure Disorders: Nervous disorders characterized by
recurring sensorimotor attacks or movement convulsions
Absent Seizures
(< 30 seconds)
Brief staring spells
Twitching of eyelids
Tonic-Clonic
Loss of
consciousness,
rigidity, shakes
Classroom Accommodations
Become acquainted with monitoring procedures
Be aware of medications
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Mental Retardation
Low intelligence
Deficits in adaptive
functioning that exist
concurrently
Onset before age 18
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Levels of Support
Intermittent Supports are provided “as
needed.”
Limited
Supports are intense and
relatively consistent over time.
Extensive
Supports are characterized by
regular involvement in at least one
setting
Supports are constant, very
intense, and are provided across
settings
Pervasive
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Mental Retardation
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Mental Retardation – Etiology
Genetic factors
Down syndrome
Fragile X syndrome
Brain damage
Infections
Environmental hazards
Fetal alcohol syndrome
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Common Problems
Attention
Cognitive Processing
Memory
Transfer
Distractibility
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Speech and Language Disorders
Speech Disorders
Articulation
pronouncing words
incorrectly
hoarse, harsh, too
loud/soft, pitch
Fluency
Receptive
difficulty in receiving
information
Voice
Language Disorders
Expressive
inability to express
oneself
prolongation
spasmodic hesitation
Repetition
Apraxia
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Children with Expressive
Language Disorder may:
Appear shy and withdrawn
Delayed responses to questions
Difficulty finding words
Language disorganized
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Learning Disabilities
A general term that srefre toa
suoenegoreteh manifested of disorders
difficulties in the by significant acquisition
and use of lsning, speeking, reding, riting,
resoning, or lacitamehtam seitiliba. Intrinsic
are these disorders to the laudividni
presumed to and due be nervous central to
system noitcnufsyd, and may exist
interaction social disabilities with learning
but do not constitute themselves a lrning
dsablity.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
National Joint Committee for
Learning Disabilities’ Definition
Learning disabilities is a generic term
that refers to a heterogeneous group
of disorders manifested by significant
difficulties in the acquisition and use of
reading, writing, reasoning, or
mathematical abilities.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Learning Disabilities
Children with Learning Disabilities
Normal intelligence or above
Difficulty in one or more academic subjects
No other diagnosed problem/disorder
Identified
Significant discrepancy between actual and
expected achievement
Response-to-intervention
Intervention enhanced by small-group
instruction, technology, direct questioning,
augmentation, and strategy cueing
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Learning Disabilities
Dysgraphia
Dyscalculia
Dyslexia
http://www.angmail.fsnet.co.uk/jumbltxt
.htm
http://www.webaim.org/articles/cognitiv
e/activity.php
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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder
Children with ADHD
Inattention
Hyperactivity
Impulsivity
Intervention includes a combination of
academic, behavioral, and medical interventions
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Etiology
Irregularities in brain
catecholamines
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http://www.webaim.org/simulations/dist
ractability-sim.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoo
dminds/attention.html
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Autism Spectrum Disorders
Autistic Disorder
Onset within first three
years of life
Deficiencies in social
relationships
Communication
abnormalities
Restricted, repetitive, and
stereotyped behavior
patterns
Asperger Syndrome
Relatively good verbal
language; milder
nonverbal language
problems
Restricted range of
interests and relationships
Engage in obsessive
repetitive routines and
preoccupations
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Emotional and Behavior
Disorders
Serious, persistent problems that involve relationships,
aggression, depression, and fears associated with
school and personal matters.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Aggressive, Out-of-Control
Behavior
•
Have serious emotional disturbance
•
Engage in aggressive, defiant, dangerous acts
•
Incidence greater in boys than girls
•
Occurs more in low-SES students
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Depression
Symptoms
•
•
•
•
•
Feelings of worthlessness
Feelings of hopelessness
Behaving lethargically for a prolonged period
Poor appetite
Sleep problems
Incidence
•
•
More likely in adolescence than childhood
Higher incidence in girls
Classroom Accommodation
•
•
•
Vigilance in recognizing symptoms
Refer students to school counselor
Cognitive therapy and drug therapy have helped
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Anxiety
Anxiety involves a vague, highly unpleasant feeling
of fear and apprehension.
— If intense and prolonged, it substantially
impairs school performance
— Refer students to school counselor
— Behavioral therapies have been effective
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Characteristics of Gifted Children
Children Who Are Gifted
Are precocious
March to their own drummer
Have a passion for mastery
(Winner, 1996)
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Educating Children Who Are Gifted
Special classes
Acceleration and enrichment
in the regular classroom
setting
Mentor and apprenticeship
programs
Work/study and/or community
service programs
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Legal Issues
Public Law 94-142
(1975) requires that
all students with a
disability be given a
free, appropriate
education.
Individuals with
Disabilities Act (IDEA)
(1990/1997)
Special education
services will include:
Evaluation and eligibility
determination
Appropriate education
Individualized education
plan (IEP)
“Least restrictive
environment” (LRE)
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Strategies for Working with Children
with Disabilities
Follow student’s individualized education plan.
Participate in in-service education/training.
Use available support and seek additional support.
Become knowledgeable about the disabilities
represented in your classroom.
Be cautious about labeling children with disabilities.
Remember all children benefit from similar teaching
strategies.
Help children understand and accept children with a
disability
Keep up-to-date on available instructional and assistive
technology for educating children with a disability.
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.
Parents as Educational Partners
Let parents know you understand and appreciate
their child’s individuality
Place yourself in parents’ shoes
Provide information about disability
Talk with, not to, parents
Avoid stereotyping
Establish and maintain effective communication
Talk with parents about erroneous media
portrayals of students with disabilities
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