How Disability Impacts Learning… and what we can do about it!

1. How Disability Impacts Learning…and what we can do about it! Ellen J. Stoltz, Ph.D. Acting Senior Director, Special Education Department

2. Three P’s • Purpose: To provide new teachers with background knowledge to promote effective instruction by presenting observable traits of students with disabilities; • Presentation: Power Point, large- and small-groupwork, hands-on activity; • Pay-off: Increase understanding of the challenges of specific disabilities; Develop the concept of Universal Design;

3. Setting the Scene…Neurodevelopmental Constructs..Disrupt the Deficit Paradigm…Person First….Instructional Connectivity

4. Neurodevelopmental Constructs Across the Grades • Temporal-Sequential Ordering: time, seriation, problem-solving • Spatial Ordering: patterns,geometric imaging, whole-to-part, spatial concepts, nonverbal thinking • Memory: Abstract, symbolic information, procedural recall, rapid recall of facts,

5. Disability Categories

6. Total Students with Disabilities=3658 Incidence in Hartford

7. Achievement below ability; 60-80% of students with LD are males; Comprise 4-10% of population, Familial pattern; Inconsistent performance; Short- and long-term memory deficits; Disorganized in thought, action, and materials; Poor spatial awareness and sequencing in time and space; Socially immature; misinterpret social cues; Characteristics of Students with Learning Disabilities

8. What will students with LD struggle with? • Numerical Proportional Reasoning • Geometry and Measurement • Algebraic reasoning: Patterns and Functions

9. Relational and positional concepts Fractions and decimals One more Skip counting Place value Patterns Multi-step word problems Money Subtraction and division Calendar and time Estimation Operational signs What will students with LD struggle with? (or how does the student’s disability interfere with benefit from participating in and benefiting from the general education curriculum?)

10. Strategies for Students with LD • Increase Memory: Multisensory Presentation and Response…seeing (V),hearing (A), saying (A), doing (K), writing (V,K,T), acting (VAKT); • Increase Organization: Provide routines, graphic organizers for math concepts, visual symbols for math-problem-solving

11. FACT FAMILIES and UNIVERSAL DESIGN • Visual: • Auditory: • Kinesthetic: • Tactile:

13. Below average intellect AND adaptive skills, IQ=70 or below; Adaptive functioning= communication, social, self-help skills; No specific personality and behavioral features: may be placid, dependent, aggressive, impulsive; Strategy: 80-100 repetitions with drill, concrete examples, personalized experience, realia, manipulatives, VAKT Characteristics of Students with Intellectual Disabilities

14. Impaired articulation, expressive language, receptive language; May occur with spoken or sign language; Limited vocabulary, simple grammar and sentences, unusual word order; slow speech; circumlocutions; Poor language comprehension; misarticulations; Strategy: Ask students to retell directions in own words utilizing peers as language models; Characteristics of Students with Speech and Language Impairment

15. limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness with respect to the educational environment, attention deficit with/withouthyperactivity disorder; tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, nephritis, asthma, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, epilepsy, lead poisoning, leukemia, or diabetes, adversely affects a learner’s performance Strategy: breaks, hi-protein snacks, visual schedule, 3:1 praise ratio Characteristics of Students with Other Health Impairments

16. ADD/ADHD: Distracted by sound and movement, impulsive, inconsistent across settings, task-dependent; hyper-alert; Moves from one activity to the next; incomplete work; Winded, easily fatigued, little interest in activities, low motivation; Lethargic, low energy, disorganized thinking; Did you know that… ADHD occurs in different lobes of the brain? Characteristics of Students with Other Health Impairments

17. Strategies for Students with OHI • Scheduled breaks • Hi-protein or complex carb snacks • Visual schedule • 3:1 praise ratio • Elapsed timer • Fidget toy • Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior (DRO)

18. Impaired development in social interaction and communication; Restricted repertoire of activity and interests; Lack of social/emotional reciprocity; Lacks awareness of others, prefers solitary interests; Delayed language comprehension; Triggers: gym floor, florescent lights, noise, movement, inconsistency Characteristics of Students with Autism

19. Strategies for Students with Autism • Visual supports (icons, pictures, photo album of school locations) • Elapsed timer • Numbered turn takers • Transition warnings, such as bells, claps, lights • Routines

20. Inability to learn due to poor peer and adult relationships; Abnormal feelings and behaviors under normal circumstances; Physical symptoms or fears associated with school; Emotional/Social behaviors that are of a marked degree and have lasted for longer than six months AND affect learning; 2-16% of population; Bright, easily bored, distracted; Characteristics of Students with Emotional Disturbance

21. Argumentative, defiant, blames others, loses temper easily; mood swings; Verbal and/or physical aggression; agitated; Passive, socially reclusive; Low self-esteem; poor memory and decision-making; Acting out; poor social relationships; Strategy: anticipate behaviors, be proactive, use preferred activity for leverage, stay calm; puzzle reinforcer, preferred activities, hands-on Characteristics of Students with Emotional Disturbance

22. What Can You Do To Help?...Universal Design • Understand your own Knowing-Doing gap when you present your lessons! • Build lessons with the product in mind. • Know there are better ways of doing things…tap your internal experts in your classroom! • PLAN grouping, traffic flow, multi-sensory tasks, environmental triggers, choices • Don’t Assume! Refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy to guide lesson-planning, i.e. knowledge vs. application; • Embed accommodations and modifications into the lesson for all students to access; Think VAKT. • Repetition: similar (drill) and diverse (multiple ways) to learn the same material;

23. Additional Ideas… • Measure and Display Successes for Learning and Behavior; Link to BIP; • Increase Student’s Awareness of How Disability Affects Learning and Behavior; Link to IEP; • Utilize an Array of Consistently Applied Strategies to Ensure Success, i.e. highlighting verbs, restating directions in student language; • Focus on Student Strengths and Interests for Preferred Activities (leverage); • Utilize Visual Supports for Learning and Behavior, such as authentic pictures of student working, daily schedule; point system (individual and group) with puzzle reinforcer and preferred activity; elapsed timer

24. Questions? stole001@hartfordschools.org; Kindergartensigns.com Environments.com www.4teachers.org www.help4teachers.com www.tandl.leon.k12.fl.us/lang/Ellessonspage.html www.borenson.com http://.timetimer.com