Areas of Eligibility and Learning Styles

1. Areas of Eligibility and Learning Styles CAC4-11-16

2. Legal Considerations • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines the 13 eligibility categories of special education. In order to qualify for special education, the IEP team must determine that a child qualifies under one of the follow areas:

3. 13 Disabilities as Defined by IDEA • Autism • Blindness • Deafness • Emotional Disturbance • Hearing Impairment • Intellectual Disability • Multiple Disabilities • Orthopedic Impairment • Other Health Impaired • Specific Learning Disability • Speech or Language Impairment • Traumatic Brain Injury • Visual Impairment

4. Overview of Each Category Will Include: • Definition as found in IDEA • Characteristics of the disability • Potential impact of that disability on curriculum and instruction • Teaching strategies

5. Autism Defined • Refers to “a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction…” • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) “spectrum” is used since disorders can range from mild to severe

6. Characteristics of Autism • A neurological disorder • Cognitive abilities range from gifted to cognitively delayed • Uneven profile/splinter skills • Usually identified in the first three years of life • 4:1 male to female ratio

7. Impact of Autism in the Classroom • Student may: • Perseverate on a topic • Appear to not be paying attention • Call out answers • Struggles to attend to task • Have limited interests • Have interfering behaviors

8. Impact of Autism in the Classroom • Student may: • Have difficulty sharing/taking turns • Have difficulty with noise or visual stimuli • Not understand the big picture • Struggle with transitions or change to routine

9. Impact of Autism in the Classroom • Student may: • Fidget, rock, flap, stim • Run from stressful situations • Not understand abstract concepts • Lack reciprocal communication skills • Not understand non-verbal cues, jargon or slang terms

10. Impact of Autism in the Classroom • Student may: • Have difficulty with volume control, cadence, intonation • Use echolalia, rote phrases or scripts • Use large vocabulary, but not understand • Be non-verbal

11. Deaf-Blindness Defined • “concomitant (simultaneous) hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other development and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness”

12. Characteristics of Deaf-Blindness • A student who falls into this eligibility category has any combination of vision and hearing loss; not necessarily complete deafness and/or complete blindness • Wide range of cognitive and developmental abilities

13. Impact of Deaf-Blindness in the Classroom • Information must be introduced deliberately and systematically • Many individuals utilize the service of Support Service Provider (SSP)

14. Deafness Defined • As defined by IDEA “ a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification.”

15. Characteristics of Deafness • May also have difficulty with speech, reading and writing skills • May use speech, lip reading, hearing aids/ and or other amplification system • American Sign Language (ASL) may be their first language and English may be their second

16. Impact of Deafness in the Classroom • Seating, being in view of teacher • Written supplements to oral instruction • Visual aides/clues • Make sure you have the student’s attention prior to speaking • May have difficulties with social/emotional or interpersonal skills

17. Impact of Deafness in the Classroom • Will usually exhibit some form of articulation difficulty • Can become frustrated and may have behavioral concerns • The use of hearing devices DOES NOT return a child’s hearing to normal • May benefit from small group instruction

18. Emotional Disturbance (ED) Defined • A condition exhibiting one or more of the following over a long period and to a marked degree that adversely affect a child’s 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 or teachers • Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances

19. Emotional Disturbance, Continued: • A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression • A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems

20. Emotional Disturbance Characteristics • Hyperactivity • Aggression or self-injurious behavior • Withdrawal • Immaturity • Learning difficulties

21. Impact of ED in the Classroom • Inability to exhibit appropriate behavior under ordinary circumstances • Inability to maintain relationships • Inappropriate affect such as depression or anxiety • Inappropriate manifestation of physical symptoms or fears in response to school or personal difficulties

22. Specific Learning Disability (SLD) Defined • As defined by IDEA, means 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 the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and development aphasia.”

23. Characteristics of Specific Learning Disability (SLD) • May Impact • Reading • Writing • Oral Language • Math • Study Skills

24. Impact of SLD in the Classroom • Slower reading rate • Frequent spelling errors • Difficulty copying • Difficulty memorizing basic facts • Difficulty describing events • Difficulty interpreting subtle messages

25. Visual Impairment (VI) Defined • Visual impairment including blindness means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a student’s education performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.

26. Visual Impairment Characteristics • Clumsiness • Spatial positioning • Short attention span • Sensitivity to bright light • Poor eye and hand coordination • Poor academic performance

27. Impact of VI in the Classroom • Slower reading rate • Frequent spelling errors • Difficulty copying • Auditory information preferred

28. Hard of Hearing (HH) Defined • Hearing impairment means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent of fluctuating, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness in this section

29. Hard of Hearing Characteristics • Articulation difficulties • Language delays • Easily frustrated • Difficulty with oral expression • Difficulty with social/emotional skills • Often follows others, but rarely leads

30. Impact of HH in the Classroom • May wear hearing aids • May use FM systems • May read lips or use ASL • May need a quiet environment to be successful • Use as many visuals as possible • Be mindful of your rate of speech and enunciation

31. Intellectual Disability (ID) Defined • Intellectual disability means significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.

32. Intellectual Disability Characteristics • Struggle with overall academics • Struggle with attention • Struggle with memory • Struggle to make generalizations • Trouble interacting socially

33. Impact of ID in the Classroom • Student may: • Mot be working on grade level materials • Not understand social norms • Struggle with problem solving across all areas (academic as well as functional living skills)

34. Multiple Disabilities (MD) Defined • Multiple disabilities means concomitant (simultaneous) impairments, such as intellectual disability-orthopedic impairment, the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness

35. Multiple Disability Characteristics • Hampered speech and communication skills • Challenges with mobility • Need assistance with everyday tasks • Students usually has medical needs

36. Impact of MD In the Classroom • Medical needs • Cognitive level • Multiple services • Alternate communication methods • Alternate curriculum materials

37. Orthopedic Impairment (OI) Defined • Orthopedic impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a student’s educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by a congenital anomaly, impairments caused by a disease ( e.g. poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g. cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures.)

38. Orthopedic Impairment Characterisitics • It is difficult or perhaps impossible to generalize the characteristics of a student who qualifies under OL. For example, a child with spinal cord injury could have immobility limited to one side of his or her body, just the arms or legs, or total paralysis. A child with cerebral palsy may have movement but need a wheelchair since walking may be difficult.

39. Impact of OI in the Classroom • May have no cognitive concerns • If appropriate student may be integrated into the general education setting all the time • May use assistive technology

40. Other Health Impairment (OHI) Defined • Other health impairment is having limited strength, vitality, or alertness with respect to the educational environment that: • Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; AND • Adversely affects a student’s educational performance

41. Other Health Impairment (OHI) Characteristics • Fatigue • Mobility Issues • Issues around attention • Coordination difficulties • Muscles weakness • Lack of stamina • Inability to concentrate

42. Impact of OHI in the Classroom • May not be able to attend to a task for extended periods of time • Poor physical awareness • Handwriting • Organizational concerns • Gross or fine motor concerns

43. Speech or Language Impairment (SLI) Defined • A student has a language or speech disorder once it is determined that the student’s disorder meets one or more of the following criteria: • Articulation disorder • Abnormal voice • Fluency disorder • Language disorder

44. Speech or Language Impairment (SLI) Characteristics • Tend to emerge at a young age • May have difficulties with comprehension • May have difficulties being understood • May have difficulty expressing needs, ideas or information • May struggle with social interactions

45. Impact of SLI in the classroom • Capitalize on student’s strength as much as possible • Avoid correcting speech difficulties • Work closely with speech/language pathologist to support the student

46. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Defined • Traumatic brain injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance. Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in ore or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgement; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech

47. Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Characteristics • Memory concerns • Social skill concerns • Emotional regulation concerns • Attention concerns • Speech and language concerns • Physical concerns

48. Impact of TBI in the Classroom • May struggle to process visual information • May struggle to follow multi-step directions • May struggle to communicate • May have difficulty with grade level work • May struggle with logic, problem solving and reasoning skills

49. Teaching Strategies • Now that we have reviewed the 13 eligibility categories specified in IDEA how do we best teach and support the students we work with?

50. Teaching Strategies: Good for all curriculum areas • Accommodations vs Modification • IEP at a glance • Strength-based learning strategies • Scaffolded learning