Understanding the students we teach

Disabilities: A SPED Movie

Objectives

• Discuss the most common disabilities that are in the general education Classroom.

• Identify best teaching strategies for children with disabilities

• Answer questions concerning children with disabilities

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Lights, Camera, Action!

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Fast Facts about Special Education

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13.6% of total student enrollment age 3 to 21 is served under one of IDEA’s disability categories.13.6% of total student enrollment age 3 to 21 is served under one of IDEA’s disability categories.

Children 3 to 21 years old served in federally supported programs for the disabled, by type of disability: Selected years, 1976-77 through 2009-10

Type of Disability 1976-77 1980-81 1990-911999-2000

2000-01 2002-03 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-081 2008-091 2009-10

Number served (in thousands)

All disabilities 3,694 4,144 4,710 6,195 6,296 6,523 6,719 6,713 6,686 6,606 6,483 6,481

Specific learning disabilities

796 1,462 2,129 2,834 2,868 2,848 2,798 2,735 2,665 2,573 2,476 2,431

Speech or language impairments

1,302 1,168 985 1,080 1,409 1,412 1,463 1,468 1,475 1,456 1,426 1,416

Intellectual disability 961 830 534 600 624 602 578 556 534 500 478 463

Emotional disturbance

283 347 389 469 481 485 489 477 464 442 420 407

Hearing impairments 88 79 58 71 78 78 79 79 80 79 78 79

Orthopedic impairments

87 58 49 71 83 83 73 71 69 67 70 65

Other health impairments2 141 98 55 253 303 403 521 570 611 641 659 689

Visual impairments 38 31 23 26 29 29 29 29 29 29 29 29

Multiple disabilities --- 68 96 111 133 138 140 141 142 138 130 131

Deaf-blindness --- 3 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2

Autism --- --- --- 65 94 137 191 223 258 296 336 378

Traumatic brain injury

--- --- --- 14 16 22 24 24 25 25 26 25

Developmental delay --- --- --- 19 178 283 332 339 333 358 354 368

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2012). Digest of Education Statistics, 2011 (NCES 2012-001), Chapter 2.

Males served: 4,421,464  

Females served 2,191,288  

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Fast Facts about Special Education

1. There are 6,612,752 children and students age 3 to 21 served under IDEA, Part B in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.  There are more than twice as many males served as females. 

2. Since the first Special Education law was enacted in 1977 the total number of children and students served has increased by 81%. 

1. There are 6,612,752 children and students age 3 to 21 served under IDEA, Part B in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.  There are more than twice as many males served as females.

2. The most prevalent disabilities in the classroom are Specific Learning Disabilities, Intellectual Disabilties, and Other Health Impairments. (ADD, ADHD)

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Specific Learning Disability

• 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 do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental aphasia. 6

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Subcategories of SLD

• Basic Reading • Reading Comprehension• Reading Fluency• Math Problem Solving• Math Calculation• Oral Expression• Written Expression• Listening Comprehension

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A Few Facts about SLDs• 1 in 7 Americans has some type of LD

according to National Institutes of Health• Difficulty with basic reading and language

skills are most common• Often run in families • ADD/ADHD and SLDs often occur at the

same time• The DSM-lV mentions that low self-esteem,

demoralization, and social skill deficits as associated with LDs.

• The school dropout rate is significantly higher for students with LDs.

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Basic Reading• SLD, BR Specifics• SLD,BR affects one’s

ability to read words in isolation and in passages. SLD,BR causes difficulty in understanding the relationship between letters and sounds (phonological awareness). Reading is physically and psychologically draining for students with reading learning disabilities.

Signs of SLD, BR•poor memory

•low self-esteem

•need for constant, step by step guidance

•omission of words, phrases

•word substitutions

•disinterested attitude

•sloppy work

•clowning and disruptive

•possible aggression

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Strategies

• Provide instruction in decoding and fluency

• Provide texts on tape or CD Rom• Before reading, identify unfamiliar

words• Use sight word recognition exercises• Provide high interest texts to read• Strategies can be provided through

accommodations or instruction and addressed on goal pages. 10

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Reading Comprehension• SLD, RC Specifics

• SLD, RC affects the student’s ability to understand the meaning of words and passages

• SLD, RC involves difficulty with language processing and visual reasoning

• Comprehension relies on mastery of decoding

Signs of RC disability

Confusion about word meanings

Inability to connect ideas in a passage

Lack of concentration while reading

omission of detail

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Strategies • Vocabulary Development- (crucial for students to learn the content)

helps expand repertoire of new words, improves ability to understand text, and facilitates reading comprehension

• Word Building-students select a root word, a prefix or suffix, and add it to the root word. Write a sentence using the newly created word.

• Illustrate and Associate-introduces associations among words, including synonyms, antonyms, and analogies. Use a bubble map to include the definition, a drawing to illustrate the meaning, and an antonym/synonym.

• Character Mapping-identify a character from the story/passage and use parts of speech to describe the character.

• Use Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR),which combines 2 instructional elements: modified reciprocal teaching and cooperative learning. CSR consists of 4 comprehension strategies that students apply before, during, and after reading in small cooperative groups. They are preview(before reading), click and clunk(during reading), get the gist(during reading), and wrap up(after reading). *HANDOUT

Reading Fluency • SLD, RF Specifics

• SLD, RF causes an inability to process groups of words as meaningful phrases.

• Acts as a bridge between basic word decoding and comprehension.

• 3 factors: rate, accuracy, and prosody

Signs of SLD, RF

Laborious, expressionless reading

Expend more cognitive energy trying to identify individual words

Difficulty retaining text in memory

Affects comprehension

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Strategies

• Provide opportunities for partner reading, choral reading, repeated reading, and read alouds

• Practice difficult words before reading• Speed drills-students read a list of words in 1

minute• Rapid Word Recognition Chart-a matrix with 5

rows and 6 words in each row. Each row contains the same 6 words in a different order. Students read the words aloud in 1 minute, then count the number of words read correctly.

• Carbo Method *Handout

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Math Problem Solving

• SLD,MPS Specifics

• Student may struggle with memorization and organization of numbers

• Affects student’s ability to understand the relationship between numbers

• Difficulty understanding the language and what the problem is asking, sorting out important information to solve the problem,recalling steps needed to solve problem, and implementing a plan to solve the problem

Signs of SLD, MPS

You may say, “He knew the math facts yesterday but he can’t remember them today”.

Misalignment of numerals in columns to solve problems

Need for direct instruction in Geometry and interpreting maps Trouble with counting principles

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Strategies• List the steps/procedures for multi-step problems and have the

student write them at the top of his paper

• Provide sample problems as a reference

• Teach visualization

– Read the problem

– Underline important images in the problem

– Draw a representation

– Write the numerical sentence

• Use Roundtable group work

• Teach Look for a Pattern

• Work backwards *Handout (The Access Center)

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Math Calculation• SLC,MC specifics• An inability to

understand the meanings of numbers and their quantities, basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and real world math applications.

Signs of SLC, MC

Difficulty writing numbers on paper

Difficulty organizing by number and quantity

Often ignore decimal points

Unable to memorize basic number facts

Difficulty telling time and measuring

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Strategies

• Use concrete objects to teach concepts• Provide graph paper or turn lined paper

horizontally• Record math facts and use a listening center• Use larger fonts and leave more white space on

test formats• Assign different colors to numerical functions and

symbols.• Show how to draw representations

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Written Expression

• SLD, WE Specifics• An inability to write and

organize thoughts on paper using appropriate detail, sequence, sentence structure, and literary form

• Includes errors in spacing, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation

• Causes noticeable anxiety and frustration

Signs of SLD, WE

Illegible handwriting

Multiple spelling errors

Incomplete writing tasks

Strange wrist, body, or paper positioning

Difficulty thinking of words to write and organizing thoughts

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Strategies

• Provide more time • Provide partially completed notes and templates• Allow abbreviations• Allow writing with instrument of choice• Provide fun grips, weighted pencils, slanted

writing surface• Assistive technology• Allow dictation• Avoid grading on neatness and spelling when

possible

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Oral Expression• OE Specifics

• An inability to express

one’s thoughts, needs, wants, and ideas using appropriate syntactic, pragmatic, semantic, and phonological language structures.

• Boys outnumber girls 4 to 1

Signs of SLD, OE

Difficulty sharing or retelling stories

Refusal to ask questions in class

Difficulty communicating with peers during recess/social time and in cooperative groups

Difficulty predicting/hypothesizing

Difficulty finding main idea or theme

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Strategies

• Repeat sentences through chunking• Use rhyme and songs to remember content• Use mnemonics• Use graphic organizers to build vocabulary• take 30 seconds a day to engage them in a

conversation• Pair auditory instruction with visual cues• Use teacher read alouds

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Listening Comprehension• SLD, LC Specifics• Difficulty or inability to process

auditory information.

• LC refers to the understanding of the meanings of words and sentences

• Includes a lack of proficiency in one or more of the following:

• Syntax-word order; sentence structure Grammar-the rules of language Morphology-the meaning units in words Pragmatics-social language Semantics-knowledge of vocabulary Phonology-use of sounds to encode meaning of language

• LC is hard to assess and diagnose

• Highly related to Oral Expression

Signs of SLD, LC

Difficulty following oral instruction

Off task behaviors

Poor memory

Difficulty with proper syntax, grammar, semantics, pragmatics

Poor comprehension skills

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Strategies• Preferential seating near the teacher

• Use visual cues to gain and keep student’s attention

• Ask the student to rephrase the directions you gave

• Provide an outline and vocabulary list prior to test reviews

• Provide study guides and copies of notes

• Frequently repeat and summarize important information presented orally

• Give directions in written and oral format

• Keep directions simple

• Teach listening skills

• Focus on sentence building structure

• Soundfields, hearing aids

• Computer games, audio books with headphones24

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Multiple Disabilities• MD Specifics• Concomitant

impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness or mental retardation-orthopedic impairment), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that children cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities do not include Deaf-Blindness, Specific Learning Disability, Developmental Delay, or Language or Speech Impairment.

CharacteristicsTypically share deficits in 5 distinct areas:intellectual functioningadaptive skillsmotor skillssensory functioningcommunication skills

Most have some level of cognitive impairment

Ability levels widely vary

Motor development may impact independence and access to the environment

Challenges with developing age appropriate adaptive skills

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Strategies• Programming should include self care and self advocacy

• Peer tutoring

• Assistive Technology (evaluation conducted to determine appropriate supports)

• Augmentative and Alternative Communication

– Sign Language

– Tangible and tactile symbol systems

– choice boards

– object prompts and symbols

– physical modeling

– microswitches

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Organizations• American Association on Intellectual and Developmental

Disabilities (AAIDD)

• The Arc of the United States

• Center for Disability and Development

• Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)

• The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps (TASH)

• March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation

• National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC)

• United Cerebral Palsy Associations, INC.

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Orthopedic Impairment• OI Specifics• A severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s

educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by a congenital anomaly (e.g. clubfoot or absence of one or more members), impairments caused by disease (e.g. poliomyelitis or bone tuberculosis), and impairments resulting from other causes (e.g. cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns causing contractures).

• Three main areas of impairment:

– Neuromotor impairments: abnormality of, or damage to, the brain, spinal cord, or nervous system. They are acquired at or before birth. (Cerebral Palsy and Spina Bifida are 2 most common)

– Degenerative diseases: composed of various diseases that affect motor development. Most common in Muscular Dystrophy which is an inherited disease characterized by progressive muscle weakness from degeneration of muscle fibers.

– Musculoskeletal disorders: composed of various conditions that can result in various levels of physical limitations such as juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and limb deficiency. 28

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CharacteristicsStrategies

• The impact on learning is contingent upon the disease, its severity, and individual factors

• Each individual is different in terms of capabilities

• Many students with OI have no cognitive, learning, perceptual, language, or sensory issues

• Children with neuromotor impairments have a higher incidence of additional impairments

Provide special seating arrangements

Programming should include development of gross and fine motor skills

Augmentative communication and other assistive devices

speech recognition softwarecommunication boardsspecialized chairs, desks, and tables

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Autism

• Autism Specifics

• A neurological or developmental disability that impairs a person’s sensory processing, verbal and nonverbal communication, social interaction, problem solving, and development.

The term “spectrum” is used because no two people have exactly the same symptoms.

Symptoms range from mild to severe.

Signs or Characteristics

Social skills deficits

Communication deficits

Engagement in repetitive activities

Resistance to change

Unusual responses to sensoryexperiences

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Strategies• Offer sensory breaks

• Teach social skills

• Use social stories

• Use visual schedules

• Use timers or notifications for transitions

• Use video modeling

• Assistive technology (writing, communication)

• Give directions orally and in written form

• Break tasks into smaller steps

• Use the “Garage Sale Sticker strategy”

• First/Then

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Meaningful Visual Supports

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Emotional Disability

• Emotional Disability (EmD) exists when a student exhibits one (1) or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and/or to a marked degree, adversely affecting educational performance:– An inability to learn that cannot be explained by

intellectual, sensory or health factors;– An inability to build or maintain satisfactory

interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; – Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal

circumstances;– A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression;

and/or– A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears

associated with personal or school problems. 33

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• Emotional Disability includes schizophrenia. The term does not refer to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an Emotional Disability.

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Signs or Characteristics• Refusal to follow directions

• Use of inappropriate language

• Failure to interact with peers and teachers

• Unprovoked aggressive behaviors

• Skewed sense of reality

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Strategies• Use rewards, punishment is not as successful with

students with EMD• Use a token economy system and avoid a

response-cost system• Be consistent• Be structured• Use positive reinforcement• Avoid demanding eye contact• Avoid a power struggle• Implement the use of a “safe person” for needed

breaks• Be aware of cultural differences 36

Visual Strategies

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OHI: ADHD

• Other Health Impairment (OHI) means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that:– Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as

asthma, attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, or Tourette Syndrome; and

– Adversely affects a child’s educational performance. 37

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• When the evaluation team is considering eligibility under the Other Health Impairment (OHI) category due to an attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the comprehensive evaluation report and/or eligibility determination report must include the following:

A description of the student’s behaviors, settings in which the behaviors occur, antecedents leading to the behaviors, and consequences immediately following the behaviors;

Attempts to address the behaviors and the results, including office discipline referrals and disciplinary actions;

A description of how the behaviors adversely affect educational performance;

A statement as to whether the behaviors are typical for the student’s age, setting, circumstances, and peer group, and if not, how the behaviors are different; and

The correlation between documented behaviors and results of ADHD assessments.

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Signs or characteristics of ADHD, Inattentiveness

•Difficulty paying attention to details and tendency to make careless mistakes in school or other activities; producing work that is often messy and careless

•Easily distracted by irrelevant stimuli and frequently interrupting ongoing tasks to attend to trivial noises or events that are usually ignored by others

•Inability to sustain attention on tasks or activities

•Difficulty finishing schoolwork or paperwork or performing tasks that require concentration

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Inattentiveness

• Forgetfulness in daily activities (for example, missing appointments, forgetting to bring lunch)

• Failure to complete tasks such as homework or chores

• Frequent shifts in conversation, not listening to others, not keeping one's mind on conversations, and not following details or rules of activities in social situations

• Procrastination or disorganized work habits

• Frequent shifts from one uncompleted activity to another

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Best Strategies for these students

• Maintain close proximity at all times • Buddy system with students that are self

motivated and can offer a model • “Brain breaks”• Visual cues to remind student of

expectations– Schedules, task analysis– Chunk assignments and directives

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Brain Breaks

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HyperactivityFidgeting, squirming when seated

•Getting up frequently to walk or run around

•Running or climbing excessively when it's inappropriate (in teens this may appear as restlessness)

•Having difficulty playing quietly or engaging in quiet leisure activities

•Always being 'on the go'

•Often talking excessively 41

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Impulsivity

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• Impatience

• Difficulty delaying responses

• Blurting out answers before questions have been completed

• Difficulty awaiting one's turn

• Frequently interrupting or intruding on others to the point of causing problems in social or work settings

• Initiating conversations at inappropriate times

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• Incorporate movement into lessons • Interactive lessons that are student lead• Chunk assignments • Seat the student away from doors,

windows• Alternative seating

– Opportunity to stand– Bounce on a ball

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Best Strategies for these students

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Best Strategies for these students

• Allow frequent breaks• Provide fidgets (pipe cleaner, straw,

velcro)• Write down important information so

the student can reference it

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Deaf-Blind– DB Specifics– Concomitant

[simultaneous] hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness. [§300.8(c)(2)]

Key Feature of D/B

•“is that the combination of losses limits access to auditory and visual information. This can severely limit an individual’s natural opportunities to learn and communicate with others.”National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness

(2007)

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Traumatic Brain Injury• TBI Specifics• An acquired injury to the brain caused by an external

physical force resulting in total or partial disability and/or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely impacts a child’s educational performance

• TBI does not include congenital, degenerative, or birth trauma induced injuries

• TBI can include impairments in cognition, language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgement, problem-solving, physical functions, speech, motor abilities, and/or behavior

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Strategies

• Large group instruction is only valuable if student is active; individual/small group instruction is more valuable

• Develop relationship with student• Have balanced interactions• Provide a safe environment

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Strategies

• Ensure the curriculum focus is on bonding and developing interactions and routines for expanding the frequency and functions of communication.– the use of print, pictures, and

demonstration will be of little or no value to this child.

– Move the student co-actively through an activity to know what is expected. Once expectation is understood, fade support to avoid building prompt dependence. 47

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Strategies

• Focus on making learning functional– develop clear goals and objectives for

the child;– Limit the objectives in number since the

child will need many opportunities to practice skills before he is able to generalize the concept to other situations.

• Vocabulary (concepts) should be more broad in nature.

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Visually Impaired

• A child with a vision impairment is one who has an impairment in vision even with correction, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance and includes:A. Blind: has little remaining vision that the

child must use Braille as their reading medium;

B. Partially Sighted: has a significant loss of vision but who are able to use regular or large print as their reading medium. Child may have a visual acuity between 20/70 & 20/200 in the better eye after correction;

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• Legally Blind: has a visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye after correction &/or peripheral field so contracted that the widest diamter subtends an arc no greater than twenty (20) degrees;

D. Other severe visual problems

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Important Vision Reminders

• Vision may fluctuate… weekly, daily, or by the hour

• Variables affect vision – Lighting

– Contrast

– Magnification: larger can be too big; image can fall outside of the spot of good vision

• Be verbal• VI student will

frequently have to be stimulated or encouraged

• VI students learn part to whole, rather than whole to part

• Replace a “good” & smile with a “good” and a pat

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Important Vision Reminders

• The student with a Vision Impairment can do the same things as a sighted peer.

• You just have to be creative with your adaptations.

• Use the student’s senses other than sight: touch, hear, smell, and taste.

• Don’t just allow the student to rely on hearing

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Ask yourself:

– What is the sighted student getting from this activity?

– What is the VI student missing?– How can I adapt this activity so the VI

student can get the same or nearly the same as the sighted peer?

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Kids Who Are Different Here's to the kids who are different, The kids who don't always get A's,

The kids who have ears twice the size of their peers',

And noses that go on for days . . .

Here's to the kids who are different, The kids they call crazy or dumb,

The kids who don't fit, with the guts and the grit,

Who dance to a different drum . . .

Here's to the kids who are different, The kids with the mischievous streak,

For when they have grown, as history's shown, It's their difference

that makes them unique.

by Digby Wolfe.