Supporting Students with High-Incidence Disabilities and Communication Disorders

1. Chapter 7 Students with High-Incidence Disabilities

2. objectives Explain what is meant by high-incidence disabilities and describe their prevalence and the key elements of the federal definitions of each of the high-incidence categories. Describe the characteristics and needs of students with communication disorders, and explain how you can differentiate classroom instruction for them using the INCLUDE strategy. Describe the characteristics and needs of students with learning disabilities and how you can differentiate instruction for them using the INCLUDE strategy.

3. Students with high-incidence disabilities affect their language, learning and behavior. • The expectation from IDEA for these students will be that these student’s will spend most of their time in general education and meeting the same curricular standards as their classmates with no disabilities. • In order to follow through, the students will need support from general and special education professionals. • Support is shown through instructional accommodations rather than modifications.

4. What are high incidence disabilities? • Students that have high incidence disabilities have speech or language disabilities, learning disabilities, or mild intellectual disabilities. • These students make up over 80% of all students that have disabilities. • Federal terms and proportions for high incidence disabilities through IDEA are summarized in TABLE 7.1 PG. 243

5. Students with high-incidence disabilities share 3 important characteristics They are often hard to distinguish from peers without disabilities, particularly in nonschool settings. They often exhibit a combination of behavioral, social, and academic problems. They benefit from systematic, explicit, highly structured instructional interventions. Having these interventions in place will help them meet the same standards as their classmates without disabilities.

6. What accommodations can you make for students with communication disorders? Communication is the exchange of ideas, opinions, or facts between people. Students with communication disorders have problems with speech and/or language that interfere with communication. These students need accommodations that help them better understand and express oral language.

7. Understanding Speech problems • Speech is the behavior of forming and sequencing the sounds of oral language. • 1 common speech problem is SPEECH ARTICULATION • The inability to pronounce sounds correctly at and after developmentally appropriate age. • Example 7.1 Speech problems • Communication is social, students with speech disorders often experience social problems. • Stuttering • The most common kind of speech problem involving fluency. Stuttering is a speech impairment in which an individual involuntarily repeats a sound or word, resulting in a loss of speech fluency.

8. Figure 7.1 speech problems pg.244 • Articulation • Has difficulty pronouncing sounds correctly (at and after the developmentally appropriate age). Frequent articulation errors include, f,v,k,g,r,,l,s,z,sh,ch, and j. Sounds may be distorted or omitted, or one sound may be inappropriately substituted for another. • Speech may be slurred. • Voice • Speech is excessively hoarse. • May use excessive volume or too little volume. • Speech has too much nasality. • Speech lacks inflection. • Fluency • Stutters when speaking. • May have excessively slow rate of speech. • May exhibit uneven, jerky rate of speech. Sources: Adapting instruction in general education for students with communication disorders, by d. Barad,1985, unpublished manuscript, de Kalb: Northern Illinois University; and introduction to communication disorders (3rd ed.), by R. Owens, D. Metz, and A. Haas, 2007, Boston: Allyn & Bacon

9. Understanding Language problems • Language is a system of symbols that we used to communicate feelings, thoughts, desires, and actions. • Language can exist without speech • Sign language • Students who have language problems have trouble with either or both of two key parts of language • Receptive language –involves understanding what people mean when they speak to you. • Expressive language-concerns speaking in such a way that others understand you.

10. Understanding speech problems CONT. • Receptive language problems occur when students are unable to understand what their teachers and peers are saying. • E.g. not understanding questions, following directions, • Expressive language problems are unable to communicate clearly • E.g. their spoken language may include incorrect grammar, a limited of use vocabulary and frequent hesitations. • Students with language problems may have difficulty using language in social situations, taking turns while speaking, trouble with academics, spelling skills, solving problems.

11. Figure 7.2 language problems pg. 246 • Receptive language problems • Does not respond to questions appropriately. • Cannot think abstractly or comprehend abstractions as idioms. • Cannot retain information presented verbally. • Has difficulty following oral directions. • Cannot detect breakdowns in communication. • Expressive language problems • Uses incorrect grammar or syntax. • Lacks specificity. • Frequently hesitates. • Jumps from topic to topic. • Has limited use of vocabulary. • Has trouble finding the right word to communicate meaning.

12. Accommodations for students with communication disorders • The INCLUDE strategy suggests that before you differentiate instructions, you should carefully consider potential student problems in view of your instructional demands. • Students with speech and language problems, note any areas in which students are required to understand oral language or to communicate orally.

13. Create an atmosphere of acceptance • Let children know that they can express their feelings without having to worry about making mistakes. Have a non judgmental atmosphere • When the student makes a mistake, model the correct way instead of directly correcting the mistake. • For students who stutter or have fluency problems give them more time to speak, don’t interrupt them while they are speaking and don’t give them difficult words to pronounce, and praise them for their effort. • Try to minimize the peer pressure, by modeling tolerance for individual differences

14. Encourage listening and teach skills • The teacher should listen and praise students for listening. • Get the students attention, give them direct instructions, reduce the amount of noise or activities going on in the class room, cue the students when to listen and use visual aids. • Make oral material easier to understand and to remember by simplifying the vocabulary and the sentence structure, repeat important information and give the important information in short parts. • Teach listening skills directly; give students the opportunity to practice listening skills. • Teachers should make sure to let their students know the important words by putting emphasis on the word they are teaching them.

15. Use modeling to expand student’s language Provide many meaningful context for practicing speech and language skills A way to expand student’s language would be by adding relative information to their statement and it is most effective when it is done on a everyday basis. • Give students many opportunities to practice language skills that have multiple meaning s • Make sure to Practice as this will improve the students language skills. • Encourage students to talk about the events and experiences in their everyday life with great detail.

16. What are the academic needs of students with learning and behavioral disabilities? The three types of behavioral disabilities are • Learning disability • Mild intellectual disability • Emotional disturbance

17. What are academic needs of students with learning and behavioral disabilities? • Students with learning disabilities have trouble with academics due to the fact that they can not properly process the academic information, therefore achieving less academically. • Students with mild intellectual disabilitieshave the same difficulty meeting academic demands as students with learning disabilities but because they also struggle with social demands from general education classes they report below average intellectual functions such as low IQ’s, there are students with mild intellectual disability that can meet some of the social and academic demands with proper education within the general education classroom. • Students with emotional disturbances have problems due to acting out or internal behavioral problems such as anxiety and depression but show an average level of intelligence.

18. What are the academic needs of students with learning and behavioral disabilities? There is computerized imaging techniques to detect neurological differences in children with learning and behavior disabilities but because every child and their environment is different there is no precise cause to these disabilities. Students with learning and behavior disabilities have a difficult time learning the basic skills reading, writing and math. The most important reason why students with high-incidence disabilities are grouped together is because they benefit from the same teaching methods.

19. Reading skills • 2 major reading problems • Decoding problems • involves the kills of identifying words accurately and fluently • Comprehension problems • Decoding problems • Poor background and vocabulary knowledge • Lack of strategies for identifying the key elements of stories and texts.

20. Written language skills Written language difficulties of students with learning and behavior disability include: • Handwriting • Problems can be caused by: • Lack of fine motor coordination • Failure to attend to task • Inability to perceive and/or remember visual images accurately • Students may have a problem with letter formation, size, alignment, slant, line quality, straightness and spacing. • Spelling problems • Phonetical words • Words that follow a linguistic rule • Regular words

21. Written language skills CONT. • Written communication (2 types of written expression problems) • Product problems • Few words • Incomplete sentences • Overuse of simple subjects-verbs • Repetition • Use of high frequency words • Poor organizational skills • Mechanical errors • Process problem • Little systematic planning • Difficulty putting ideas on paper • Failure to monitor writing • Little useful revision

22. Math skills Students with leaning and behavior disabilities can have difficulty with math in these areas: Problem with spatial organization Lack of alertness to visual detail Procedural errors Failure to shift mindset Difficulty forming numbers correctly Difficulty with memory Problems with mathematical judgment and reasoning Problem with math language

23. Learning skills Students with learning and behavioral disabilities have difficulty performing skills that could help them learn more readily. • Students have difficulty coming to attention or understanding task requirements. • Having trouble focusing on the important aspects of tasks. • Students having trouble sticking to a task once they have started it. • Memory problems may also make learning difficult for students. • Students also may lack the reasoning skills necessary for success in school. • Independent learning can also be a challenge for students with learning and behavioral disabilities.

24. Social and Emotional needs of students with learning and behavioral disabilities Engage in a number of disruptive behaviors Teachers may see the student abnormal

25. Interpersonal Skills Will have difficulty in social relations with peers Never were taught how to act Students knows but does not want to Bad attention=attention Fear of reaction

26. Personal and Psychological Adjustment • Little confidence in their own abilities • Good- luck • Bad – lack of ability Low self esteem may lead to a lack of motivation Students may have personal and psychological adjustment problems

27. What accommodations can you make for students with learning and behavioral disabilities? • Addressing academic needs • Remember to use the INCLUDE strategy! • Not modification…ACCOMODATION!!! • 3 types of accommodations • Rewarding approach • Adaptations in classroom organization • Organization • Grouping • Materials • Methods • Provide direct instruction on basic independent learning skills.

28. Continuation to ADDRESSING ACADEMIC NEEDS • Inclusion is a benefit • Teachers have academic and social responsibilities Addressing social and emotional needs • Behavior contract • Social skills training • Self-control training • Attribution retraining • Set reasonable goals • Specific feedback • Assign student responsibilities • Positive self-reinforcement • Chance to prove themselves

29. Enhancing student’s self-image Set reasonable goals Provide specific feedback contingent on student behavior. Give students responsibility. Teach students to reinforce themselves. Give students a chance to show their strengths.