CHAPTER 2 CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNERS WITH HIGHINCIDENCE DISABILITIES

CHAPTER 2: CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNERS WITH HIGH-INCIDENCE DISABILITIES Geycell A. Oliva EDSP 5311: Diagnostic and Prescriptive Teaching for Exceptional Teaching Houston Baptist University Dr. Diane Reed 10/1/2015

Objectives: 1. Define and identify high-incidence disabilities and other special needs 2. Discuss the characteristics, prevalence, and etiology of students with exceptional learning needs 3. Describe the effects of disabilities and other special needs on student learning.

WHO ARE THESE CHILDREN? • Students in this group are often difficult to distinguish from their peers without disabilities. • Exhibit combination of behavioral, social, and academic problems • At risk academically and socially • Account for 90 % of students served under IDEA • Most receive their education in the general education classroom.

WHAT ARE HIGH-INCIDENCE DISABILITIES? • Category comprises of developmental disabilities • Specific learning disability (SLD) • Speech and language impairments (SLI) • Emotional disturbance (ED) • Mild Mental Retardation (MMI) • Attention deficit- hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) • Not specifically recognized under IDEA • 3 reasons why it is included in the group: 1. Evidence that ADHD and LD often co-occur 2. Students with SLD make up approx. 50% of students who receive special education services 3. Students with ADHD frequently require special education services under the OHI category

SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITIES (SLD) • IDEA (2004) definition: • … 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 an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. • Does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

DETERMINING SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY (SLD) ELIGIBILITY • Local educational agency shall not be required to take into consideration whether a child has a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in: • • • Oral/ Written expression Listening/ Reading comprehension Basic reading skill Mathematical calculation Mathematical reasoning • ADDITIONAL AUTHORITY: Previous model essentially required waiting for a child to fail before services were provided. • Reauthorization- RTI; process that determined if child responds to intervention to determine SLD.

SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY: PREVALENCE • 1 out of every 5 people in the United States is thought to have a learning disability. • Approximately 3 million of students ages 6 -21 have some form of a learning disability • Receive special education services in school • Majority receive these services in the general education classroom. • High Incidence • Over half of all children who receive special education do so because they have a learning disability.

SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY: ETIOLOGY • Caused by genetic and/or neurobiological factors • Alter brain structure and functioning I • Affects one or more psychological processes related to learning • Variations in certain areas of the brain may contribute to learning disabilities. • Planum temporale, perisylvian regions, frontal cortex, inferior parietal lobe, corpus callosum, occipital-striatal region, and the brainstem reticular activating system. • Example: Planum temporale • Language-related area found in both sides of the brain • People with dyslexia , structures equal in size • Not dyslexic, left side is noticeably larger • Chromosomes contribute to specific reading problems • Other possible causes include injury, childhood illness, exposure to toxins, prenatal complications, perinatal oxygen deprivation, or traumatic brain injury.

SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITIES: CHARACTERISTICS • Range from mild to severe • Lifelong condition • Manner in which it manifests varies • Depends largely on the interaction between the person's strengths and needs and demands of a given environment. •

ATTENTION DEFICITHYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) • One of the most frequently cited disorders affecting school-aged children • Core symptoms: • Inappropriate levels of inattention • Hyperactivity • Impulsivity • Impaired functioning across settings, including home, school, and relationships with peers.

ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) • IDEA does not specify a category for ADHD • No federal definition • Definition most often referred to when identifying and describing ADHD is found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) • Three subtypes of ADHD • Hyperactive-impulsive; does not show significant inattention • Inattentive; does not show significant hyperactive-impulsive behavior • Combined type; displays both inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms

DETERMINING ATTENTION DEFICITHYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) ELIGIBILITY • To be diagnosed with ADHD: 1)According to the DSM-IV- TR, six or more of the following characteristics of inattention must be present for at least six months 2)Must be disruptive and inappropriate for developmental level

DETERMINING ATTENTION DEFICITHYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) ELIGIBILITY • Hyperactivity 1. Often fidgets with hands or feet or squirms in seat 2. Often gets up from seat when remaining seated is expected. 3. Often runs about or climbs when and where it is not appropriate 4. Often has trouble playing or enjoying leisure activities quietly 5. Often is "on the go or often acts as if "driven by a motor" 6. Often talks excessively • Impulsivity 1. Often blurts out answers before questions have been finished 2. Often has trouble waiting one's turn 3. Often interrupts or intrudes on others

DETERMINING ATTENTION DEFICITHYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) ELIGIBILITY • In addition, these characteristics that are present before the age of 7 must be evidenced in two or more settings (e. g. , at school/work and at home) • There must be clear evidence of significant impairment in social, school, or work functioning. • The characteristics are not better accounted for by another mental disorder • • Mood disorder Anxiety disorder Dissociative disorder Personality disorder

DETERMINING ATTENTION DEFICIT -HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) ELIGIBILITY • Diagnosis of ADHD does not automatically qualify a student for special education. • Student must be assessed and found eligible to qualify for services • Must be proof that it adversely affects their educational performance • Student with ADHD may be eligible to receive services under the "specific learning disability (SLD)" category • Attention problems may be the cause of significant academic difficulties • LD and ADHD can co-occur at a rate of 20% to 30%.

DETERMINING ATTENTION DEFICIT-HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD) ELIGIBILITY • If student does not qualify for special education, services may be provided under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act • Prohibits discrimination based on disability • For this to occur, the school's 504 team has to agree that, in comparison to the average child with no disability, a student has an impairment that "substantially limits one or more major life activities. "

ATTENTION DEFICITHYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD): PREVALENCE • Most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorders of childhood • Affects 3 to 7 out of every 100 school aged children or 2 million children • Most frequently diagnosed in boys than girls • Boy/girl ratio is as high as 5: 1 • Boys display more externalizing behaviors in the classroom than do girls

• Precise cause is unknown ATTENTION DEFICITHYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD): ETIOLOGY • Evidence indicates that it does not stem from the home environment but from biological causes • Genetic influences • ADHD runs in families • 25% of close relatives in the families of children with ADHD also have ADHD • Approximately 14% to 40% of children who have ADHD have a parent with ADHD • Approximately 15% to 25% of children who have ADHD have a sibling with ADHD • The exact number of genes involved and their contribution to the disorder is not known

EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WITH ADHD • Does not negatively affect intelligence • Why do they function differently? • Children lack the ability to self-regulate/control in comparison to their peers • Makes children function differently in the classroom • Function to self- regulate is impaired due to neurological abnormalities • As a result, 90% of students are underachievers • Half are held back at least once • 20% have reading difficulties and 60% have serious handwriting problems.

EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WITH ADHD • Deficits in executive functions • Inability to hold information in short-term memory • Unable to "hold" groups of sentences or images in their mind until they are able to extract organized thoughts from them, • Not inattentive, but unable to remember or complete processes that require remembering sequences • Attracted to activities that do not require this working memory or produce distractions • Ex: television, computer games, or active individual sports • No differences in long-term memory compared with other children

EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WITH ADHD • Impaired organizational skills • Inattention and distractibility make organization difficult • Problems being on time, planning the correct amount of time to complete tasks, organizing materials, trouble finding materials at the right moment • Cognitive and metacognitive strategy use • Difficulty selecting strategies, monitoring, modifying, and evaluating tasks • Experience problems working independently, beginning and completing tasks. • Distractibility – Easily distracted and made inattentive by overstimulating environment; difficulty filtering stimuli --> appear distracted as they try to attend to them all. • Hyperactivity- lack ability to control need to fidget; need to be in constant motion, difficulty following routines, rules, and procedures • Impulsivity- inability to delay gratification; inability to impose self-control due to executive processing capabilities. • They think, they say; interrupt, intrude, and talk incessantly.

MILD MENTAL RETARDATION (MMR) DEFINITION AND ELIGIBILITY • By definition, a student must have subaverage intelligence to be classified as MR. • Subaverage intelligence is defined as two or more standard deviations from the mean of an individualized intelligence • Stanford Binet IV or Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children • The mean of the most frequently used intelligence tests is 100 with a standard deviation of 15. • Student has to score 70 or below to be considered eligibility for MMR

MILD MENTAL RETARDATION (MMR): PREVALENCE • Approximately 10. 6% of students receiving services under IDEA have mental retardation • Of these, 85% are considered to have mild mental retardation (MMR)

MILD MENTAL RETARDATION (MMR): ETIOLOGY • Mental retardation can have both biological and environmental determinants that lead to atypical neurological and behavioral development • Most cases of mental retardation occur prenatally; results of genetic abnormalities • Mild mental retardation is not likely to be inherited • The most common genetically transmitted forms of MMR include Down Syndrome and Fragile X syndrome • Environmental factors unrelated to genetics that can lead to mental retardation include maternal drug use, toxins, nutritional deficiencies, and poverty.

CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WITH MILD RETARDATION (MMR) • Physically most students with MMR do not differ from their non-disabled peers. • They perform at an intellectual level below that of their peers • IQ between 50 and 75 • They are inefficient learners • Children with MMR develop cognitively just as nondisabled children do • They go through the same developmental stages, in the same sequence, but at a slower rate • Develop ability to process information more slowly, , but process it differently compared to peers

CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WITH MILD RETARDATION (MMR) • Several areas within the learning process pose academic difficulties for students with MMR, including: attending, cognitive, and metacognitive strategy use, memory, transfer, and generalization of information learned in one setting to another.

EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE (ED): DEFINITION • The IDEA definition of emotional disturbance is as follows: • (i) the term "emotional disturbance" means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree which it adversely affect educational performance: • • Inability to learn which cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or other health factors Inability to build or maintain interpersonal relationships with peers or teachers Inappropriate types of behaviors or feeling under normal circumstances A general, pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression. • includes children who are schizophrenic • Does not include children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they are seriously ED.

EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE (ED): PREVALENCE AND ETIOLOGY • 473, 000 youth in the U. S receive special education and related services under the ED eligibilit • Boys outnumber girls 5: 1 • The cause is unknown • Often the result of multiple factors contributing to the manifestation of maladaptive patterns of behavior • Primary cause of behavioral disorders: biological and environmental factors • Biological causes are genetic or acquired after birth • Begin at a young age and persist across time into adulthood • Function of biochemical imbalances, neurological abnormalities, genetic predisposition, physiological factors, injury, or illness. • Environmental factors that contribute: TBI, child abuse, home environment, socioeconomic status, stress from significant losses.

EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE (ED) • All children engage in inappropriate behavior • Demonstrate

EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WITH ED • Have IQ's in the average to above-average range • Academic performance may not reflect their IQ due to the effects of inappropriate behaviors. • Has immediate effect on learning • Additive effect- successive failures to diminish the student's knowledge base • Negatively affects ability to learn new information. • Downward spiral of academic failure from which they cannot recover • Difficult to make and maintain social relationships

• Classified into 2 categories: EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS STUDENTS WITH ED • Externalizing • Loud, disruptive, aggressive, noncompliant, bullying, intimidating, and regularly truant • Internalizing • May be mistaken for model students • Shy, quiet, don’t cause problems • Anxious, depressed, dependent, helpless, possibly suicidal, frequently victimized. • Social skills deficits • Caused by inability to control or manage their behaviors • Academic and social skills deficits in the following areas • reading skills, problem solving, time management, organization, perseverance, staying on task, lack of motivation, poor concentration.

COMMUNICATION DISORDERS: DEFINITION AND ELIGIBILITY • "… an impairment in the ability to receive, send, process, and comprehend concepts or verbal, nonverbal and graphic symbol systems. A communication disorder may be evident in the process of hearing, language, and/or speech. • To be eligible for special education, services a student's communication problems must be such that they are placing the student at risk for academic failure. • IDEA defines speech and language disorders as stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment, or voice impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance.

COMMUNICATION DISORDERS: PREVALENCE AND ETIOLOGY • 42 million American have a speech, language, or hearing disorder • In schools, students categorized as having speech and language disorders account for approximately 20% of all students receiving special education services. • Affect 1 of every 10 people in the U. S • Exact causes are unknown • Some are believed to be illness, disease, injury to the head, genetic predisposition, or limited opportunity to learn language • Co-occur with other disabilities (AU, LD, MR, , ED, hearing impairment • Also caused by stroke, certain drugs, faulty learning speech sounds, physical impairment, vocal abuse, hearing impairment (eat infection, heredity, birth defects.

CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WITH COMMUNICATION DISORDERS • Find reading difficult, misunderstand social cues, experience frequent absences from school, utilize poor judgement, and perform poorly on academic work. • Experience social isolation --> contribute to their academic problems • Two categories of speech and language problems • Receptive and Expressive • • Phonology (distinguish sounds) Syntax ( extracting meaning) Semantics (differentiating word meaning) Pragmatics (using language in social appropriate ways)

STUDENTS AT RISK FOR ACADEMIC FAILURE • Students may be at risk for academic failure if their appearance, language, cultures, values, communities, and family structures do not match those of the dominant White culture that our public schools were originally designed to serve and support. • Considered culturally or educationally disadvantaged or deprived • What children are at risk? • Minorities • Poverty/ homeless children • Students whose parents were migrant workers and whom English was a second language • Children leaving in foster homes • Children whose families are in the military

STUDENTS AT RISK FOR ACADEMIC FAILURE: PREVALENCE AND ETIOLOGY • Poverty is widely recognized as one of the leading contributors to increased risks for academic and social emotional difficulty. • In 2007, there were 13. 3 million US children living in poverty. • High mobility- move 6 or more times in the course of their school careers • Environmental factors: • Teaching practices, expectations, and beliefs

CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS AT RISK FOR ACADEMIC FAILURE • Substantially lower test scores than those of their peers • Academic achievement significantly below average in areas such as reading, writing, basic math skills, test-taking skills, self-esteem, motivation, social skills, and problem solving skills. • If they don’t receive the necessary support at school or at home, their academic difficulties will increase and build over time, making an established pattern of failure difficult to break.

EFFECTS OF DISABILITY AND EXCEPTIONAL NEEDS OF LEARNING • Students with high-incidence disorders share common characteristics concerning the ways they learn, interact with others, and relate to classroom challenges. • Many of these students have deficits in: • • • Basic skills and knowledge Social and emotional skills and knowledge Problem-solving skills and knowledge Test-taking skills Generalization • Frustration, anger, give up, low-self esteem, school dropout