CHAPTER 6

1. CHAPTER 6 Learners Who Are Exceptional

2. Learners Who Are Exceptional Who Are Children with Disabilities? Emotional and Behavior Disorders Learning Disabilities Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Autism Spectrum Disorders Speech and Language Disorders Mental Retardation Physical Disorders Sensory Disorders

3. 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.

4. 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.”

5. 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.

6. 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

7. Sensory Disorders VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS Low Vision • Acuity between 20/70 and 20/200 with corrective lens Educationally Blind • Cannot use their vision in learning • Must use hearing and touch to learn HEARING IMPAIRMENTS Deafness • Cannot process linguistic information Hard of Hearing • Can process linguistic information with help of hearing aids

8. Potential Signs of Hearing Impairment • 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.

9. Potential Signs of Hearing Impairment (con’t) • 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.

10. Potential Signs of Hearing Impairment (con’t) • Student constantly turns volume up on radio or television. • Student complains of earaches, has frequent colds or ear infections, or has ear discharge.

11. 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

12. Physical Disorders Orthopedic Disorders: Restrictions of movement because of muscle, joint, or bone problems Classroom Accommodations: • computers • speech and voice synthesizers • note taking Cerebral Palsy: • lack of muscular coordination • shaking • slurred speech

13. 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

14. Mental Retardation • Low intelligence • Deficits in adaptive functioning that exist concurrently • Onset before age 18

15. Levels of Support

16. Mental Retardation

17. Mental Retardation – Etiology • Genetic factors • Down syndrome • Fragile X syndrome • Brain damage • Infections • Environmental hazards • Fetal alcohol syndrome

18. Common Problems • Attention • Cognitive Processing • Memory • Transfer • Distractibility

19. Speech and Language Disorders Speech Disorders • Articulation • pronouncing words incorrectly • Voice • hoarse, harsh, too loud/soft, pitch • Fluency • prolongation • spasmodic hesitation • Repetition • Apraxia Language Disorders • Receptive • difficulty in receiving information • Expressive • inability to express oneself

20. Children with Expressive Language Disorder may: • Appear shy and withdrawn • Delayed responses to questions • Difficulty finding words • Language disorganized

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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 Interventionenhanced by small-group instruction, technology, direct questioning, augmentation, and strategy cueing

24. Learning Disabilities • Dysgraphia • Dyscalculia • Dyslexia • http://www.angmail.fsnet.co.uk/jumbltxt.htm • http://www.webaim.org/articles/cognitive/activity.php

26. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Children with ADHD • Inattention • Hyperactivity • Impulsivity Intervention includes a combination of academic, behavioral, and medical interventions

27. Etiology • Irregularities in brain • catecholamines

29. http://www.webaim.org/simulations/distractability-sim.html • http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/attention.html

30. Asperger Syndrome Relatively good verbal language; milder nonverbal language problems Restricted range of interests and relationships Engage in obsessive repetitive routines and preoccupations Autism Spectrum Disorders Autistic Disorder • Onset within first three years of life • Deficiencies in social relationships • Communication abnormalities • Restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped behavior patterns

31. Emotional and Behavior Disorders Serious, persistent problems that involve relationships, aggression, depression, and fears associated with school and personal matters.

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. Characteristics of Gifted Children Children Who Are Gifted • Are precocious • March to their own drummer • Have a passion for mastery (Winner, 1996)

36. 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

37. 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)

38. 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.

39. 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