Special Education Seminar
The seminar that I
missed dealt with the many types of intellectual, physical, and emotional
exceptionalities that I am sure to come in contact with in my future
classroom. It is very important that all
teachers be familiar with the unique behavioral characteristics and needs of
all their students, and students with disabilities are no exception. The more we know about our students, the ways
they learn best, and their skills and limitations, the better we can foster
their growth in and out of the classroom.
There are two major axioms of in intervening in the
education of children with exceptionalities: children’s deficits in learning
are not completely due to their exceptionalities, and that specific, persistent
and well-structured intervention will help most children to reach their
educational goals (Powers & Mandal, 2011).
There are three tiers of response to intervention (RTI) for students
with exceptionalities. Most (about 80%)
will fit into Tier I, meaning that a good classroom and teacher are all the aid
they need to succeed. 15% of students
with exceptionalities will need “increasingly intense and targeted
interventions (p. 21).” These Tier II
students will be assessed and screened until they are seen as ready to return
to Tier I, or move up to get Tier III services.
This last 5% of students needs more individualized assistance in their
education, often from professionals with special education/ exceptional
education backgrounds. Those students
who still do not show progress after this last push will be referred for
special education services.
Students with intellectual disabilities have intelligent
quotients, or IQs, of 70 or lower. This
means their IQs are at least two standard deviations away from the average IQ
of 100. These students can be classified
by their severity of their intellectual disability, from mildly intellectually
disabled (IQ of 50-70) to profoundly intellectually disabled (IQ of below
25). The degree of impairment determines
the needs of the student, and thus the accommodations his or her teacher should
make in the classroom. Students with
intellectual, or learning, disabilities (LD) tend to struggle especially in
reading, writing, and math, and frequently have poor social skills, trouble
paying attention, and/or behavioral problems.
If effort is not made to intervene early on for children with LD, the
gap in their achievement will grow wider as the years go on, and will often
affect the student for their entire life.
Behavioral and emotional disabilities are also common exceptionalities
in the classroom today. Students’
Emotional Behavior Disorders (EBD) can be manifest both internally and
externally, though the latter is more common and noticeable. Externalizing behaviors may include lying,
stealing, destruction of property, violent acts or threats of violence, while
internalizing behaviors are shyness, immaturity, hypochondria, and emotional
fragility. Children with EBD, like
children with LD, tend to be below grade level in one or many core subject
areas; in fact, many children with EBD also have mild LD. Students with EBD are also likely to miss
school often and cause behavioral issues in the classroom, and they have
trouble forming meaningful relationships and empathizing with their peers. By middle and high school, many children with
EBD fall into juvenile delinquency and crime, and they have high rates of
recidivism. This means that juvenile
delinquents with EBD are more likely than others to commit the same crimes they
had in their pasts after spending time in rehabilitation or penitentiary
centers.
Many people think that Autism should be listed under the
LD category, and that all children with Autism display the same
characteristics. These statements are
completely untrue. Though low IQ can intersect with Autism, people all along
the IQ score curve can have Autism (O’Brien, 2004, p. 125-6). Furthermore, Autism itself represents a whole
spectrum of disorders, meaning that some children may be affected in different
ways and to different degrees than others.
There are some characteristics shared by most children with Autism,
however. Most of these students are
impaired socially to some degree, ranging from mild awkwardness, shyness or
aloofness to the complete lack of speech present in about half of children with
Autism. If they do speak, many children
with Autism repeat words, a condition known as echolalia. They may also repeat behaviors persistently,
and this is called stereotypy. Hyper- or
hyposensitivity to sounds, lights, and other stimuli is present in about 70-80%
of children with Autism spectrum disorders.
While 70-80% of children on the Autism spectrum also have LD, many have
“splinter skills,” meaning that they are stronger academically in certain
academic subjects than their general academic readiness would indicate. A slightly smaller group, those with “savant
syndrome,” is extremely academically
gifted in one area, as compared to the entire population and not just those on
the spectrum. Some children with Autism
disorders can exhibit unpredictable aggression and behavioral issues, though
this is not true of all children on the spectrum.
Other children in my future classroom may have disorders
with their speech, language, vision, or hearing. Students may not be physically able to make
certain sounds, meaning that they have an articulation disorder, or they may
just not always make the sound correctly, meaning that they have a phonological
disorder. They may also display
impairments in understanding spoken language, or have difficulty speaking
fluently or in what we would consider "normal” (not overly nasally,
hoarse, husky or strained) voices that may need attention from speech
specialists. Children with vision and
hearing loss will especially need accommodations in a mainstreamed classroom to
be able to follow the teacher and their classmates. Hearing loss can translate into speech
disorder, language issues, and even writing if the teacher does not do all they
can to keep the child on top of what is going on. They often also need help socially as they
may be at risk for being bullied or left out of their peers’ activities.
Physical
disabilities, health impairments, and especially ADHD are being diagnosed more
readily today than ever before, so teachers need to be especially acquainted
with their symptoms and needs. As of 2007, about 9.5% of children
are diagnosed with ADHD, and there are many more that are never diagnosed that
show signs of the disorder.
It is also important to know that boys are more than twice as likely to
be diagnosed with ADHD than are girls (CDC).
As far as physical disabilities go, some that I am more likely to see in
my classroom include Spina Bifida and Cerebral Palsy, two conditions involving
malformation of the spine. The latter of
these does not seem to be clearly related to intellectual impairment. Other spinal cord injuries, the degeneration
of muscular tissue known as Muscular Dystrophy, and any other physical
disabilities should be dealt with by teachers on a case-by-case basis. For example, if I have a child with Muscular
Dystrophy in my classroom, I will have to meet with the child and probably his
or her parents to develop a plan for physical movement in the classroom that
the child can do. I will continue to
observe this child throughout the school year, and, depending on the speed of
degeneration, this plan may need to change with the child’s changing abilities.
Rarer disabilities include Deaf-Blindness, Traumatic
Brain Injury (TBI), or combinations of disabilities. To be classified as having multiple
disabilities, a child must have at least two disabilities, each severe enough
that they are not able to be accommodated by a program designed to accommodate
just one of the disabilities. Special
measures must be taken to create a program for this type of child. Deaf-blind children often fall into this
category, unable to be properly educated at either a school for the Blind or
for the Deaf, although many still have some functional hearing and/or
sight. Severe intellectual disability,
which I will probably not encounter in my general education classroom, can be
onset due to TBI, chromosomal disorders, brain dysgenesis, or other
brain-damaging conditions. These
children require special services as they almost always have multiple physical
and intellectual disorders.
I have discussed many disorders and disabilities that can
slow or impede students’ learning. On
the other end of the spectrum, there are the students that are exceptional in
their extreme giftedness and/ or talent.
These students have IQs at least three standard deviations from the
mean, or above 145. They, too, will
likely be present in my classroom, and need special materials and
accommodations to challenge them intellectually beyond what I am teaching the
rest of my class. Many gifted and talented (GT) students are introverted, and
some may also need assistance and encouragement in the classroom setting to
adapt and grow socially.
One day, I will have to be ready to make accommodations
for any and all of these exceptionalities in my lesson plans, my instructional
strategies and materials, and even the way I set up my schedule and the
physical layout of my classroom. Each of
my students will come into my classroom with prior knowledge and room for so
much cognitive, physical, social and emotional growth, no matter what their IQ
or ability level. It is my job as an
educator to learn where each of my students are at the beginning of the year,
and assist and monitor them throughout the year to be sure that I have done all
I can to foster their growth as an individual with unique needs and abilities.
References:
Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD) (2007). In Center for Disease Control.
Retrieved January 31, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html
O’Brien,
G. & Pearson, J. (2004). Autism and
learning disability. Autism: The International Journal of
Research and Practice, 8 (2), 125-140.
Powers,
K., & Mandal, A. (2011). Tier III assessments, data-based decision making,
and interventions. Contemporary School Psychology, 1521-33.
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