Review Materials In Special Education

Myra Angelie D. Oliveros

What is Special Education?

- Is a set of educational programs or services designed to meet the particular

needs of exceptional children. It is a type of education tailored to meet the needs
of children who cannot profit normally from general education because of
disabilities or exceptional abilities.
- Special education meets the needs of a given exceptional child or a group of
exceptional children with educational plans and instruments which will bring the
individual to the highest level of his potential and capacity.
- It is an individually planned, systematically implemented and carefully evaluated
instruction to help exceptional children achieve the greatest possible personal
self- sufficiency and success in present and future environment.
- Is a complex enterprise that can be defined and evaluated from many
perspectives.
- Individually planned, systematically implemented, and carefully evaluated
instruction to help exceptional children achieve the greatest possible personal
self-sufficiency and success. (Heward, 2003)

Four points of view about Special Education

1. Special education is a legislatively governed enterprise.

- This point of view is expressed in the legal bases of special education that are
discussed in Chapter 1. Article IV, Section 1 and Section 5, Article XIII, Section
11 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution guarantee that the State shall protect and
promote the rights of all citizens to quality education at all levels and shall take
appropriate steps to make such education available to all.
- R.A. 7277- The Magna Carta for Disabled Persons- provides for the
rehabilitation, self- development and self-reliance of disabled persons and their
integration into mainstream society.
- The Philippines Policies and Guidelines for Special Education provides that every
child with special needs has a right to an educational program that is suitable to
his/her needs. Special education shares with regular education basic
responsibilities of the educational system to fulfill the right of the child to develop
his/her potential.
2. Special education is a part of the country’s educational system.
- Special education is a part of the Department of Education’s basic education
program. With its modest historical beginning in 1907, special education is now a
major part of the basic education program in Elementary and secondary schools.
The Special Education Division of the Bureau of Elementary Education formulates
policies, plans and programs, develops standards of programs and services.
There are special education programs in public and private schools in all the
regions of the country.
3. Special education is teaching children with special needs in the least
restrictive environment.
Least restrictive environment- students w/ disabilities should be educated in
a setting that as closely as possible resembles the general education program,
while simultaneously meeting the unique special needs for each individual w/
disabilities.
- In the final analysis, teaching is what special education is all about. From this
perspective, special education is defined in terms of the who, what, how,
where of its implementation.
 4. Special education is purposeful intervention.
- Intervention prevents, eliminates and overcomes the obstacles that might keep
an individual with disabilities from learning, from full and active participation in
school activities, and from engaging in social and leisure activities.
- Preventive intervention is designed to keep potential or minor problems from
becoming a disability. Primary prevention is designed to eliminate or
counteract risk factors so that a disability is not acquired. Secondary
intervention is aimed at reducing or eliminating the effects of existing risk
factors. Tertiary prevention is intended to minimize the impact of a specific
condition or disability among those with disabilities. Remedial intervention
attempts to eliminate the effects of a disability.
-

Special Education as Intervention

 Special Education is, first of all, purposeful intervention designed to prevent,
eliminate and/or overcome the obstacles that might keep a child with disabilities
from learning and from full and active participation and school and society.
Special education provides three basic types of intervention: preventive,
remedial and compensatory.

Preventive Intervention
Special education design preventive intervention to keep a potential and minor
problem from a becoming a disability. Preventive interventions include actions that
stop an event from happening and those that reduce the negative outcomes of a
disability or condition that has already been identified. Prevention can occur at three
levels:
 Primary prevention is designed to reduce the number of two cases (incidence)
of disability; it consists of efforts to eliminate or counteract risk factors so that a
child never acquires a disability.
 Secondary prevention is aimed at individuals who have already been exposed to
or are displaying specific risk factors and is intended to eliminate or counteract
the effects of those risk factors.
 Tertiary prevention is aimed at individuals with disability and is intended to
prevent the effects of the disability from worsening.

Remedial Intervention
Remediation attempts to eliminate specific effects of a disability. The word
remediation is primarily an educational term; social service often use the word
rehabilitation. Both terms have a common purpose: to teach the person with disabilities
skills for independent and successful functioning.

Compensatory Intervention
Compensatory intervention involves teaching a substitute skill that enables a
person to engage in an activity or perform a task in spite of the disability. It give the
person with disability an asset that non-disabled individuals do not need, including, for
example, assistive devices or special training such as orientation and mobility instruction
for a child who is blind.

Special Education as Instruction

Ultimately, teaching is what special education is most about. Examine special
education in terms of the WHO, WHAT, HOW and WHERE of its teaching.
WHO
We have already identified the most important who is special education:
exceptional children whose educational needs necessitate an individually planned
program of instruction. Teachers provide the instruction that is the heart of each child’s
individualized education program.

WHAT
Special education can sometimes be differentiated from general education by its
curriculum－that is, by what is taught. Although every student with disabilities needs
access to and support in learning as much of the general education curriculum as
appropriate, the IEP goals and objectives for some special education students will not be
found in state standards or the school district’s curriculum guide.

HOW
Special education also differs from general education by its use of specialized or
adapted, materials and methods. This difference is obvious when you observe a special
educator use sign language with students who are deaf. When watching a special
educator use sign language gradually and systematically withdraw verbal and physical
prompts while helping a student learn to perform the steps of a task, you may find the
differentiated nature of special education instruction less obvious but it is no less
specialized.

WHERE
Special education can sometimes be identified (but not defined) by where it
takes place.

Educational Environments for Students with Disabilities.

EDUCATIONAL SETTING DEFINITION

Regular classroom Student depends at least 80% of the school day inside regular class.

Resource Room (Pull-out) Student depends at least between 40% and 79% of the school day
inside regular class.

Separate Classroom Student depends less than 40% of the school day inside regular
class.

Separate School Student receive special education and related services on a public
or private separate day school for students with disabilities, at public
expense, for more than 50% of the school day.

Residential Facility Student receives special education and related services in public or
privately operated residential facility in which children receive care
or services24 hours.

Homebound/Hospital Student receives special education and related service in an hospital

or homebound program.

Special Education in the Philippines

- The growth of special education in the Philippines has been given a relatively
good support all these years both by the government, non-government
organizations and stakeholders in response to the needs and challenges of the
times.
- One positive development in special education is the implementation of Republic
Act 7277, otherwise known as the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, an Act
 providing for the rehabilitation, self-reliance of disabled persons and their
integration into the mainstream of society.

General/ Regular Education

- Refers to the educational foundation of skills, knowledge, habits of mind, and

values that prepares students for success in their majors and in their personal
and professional lives after graduation.

Where are students with disabilities served?

Level 1: General education classroom

Level 2: General education classroom with consultative and services
Level 3: General education classroom with instruction and services
Level 4: general education classroom with resource room services
Level 5: Full-time special education classroom
Level 6: Special school
Level 7: Special facilities, nonpublic school (day or residential)

The basic terms in Special Education: Developmental Disability, Impairment

or Disability, Handicap and At Risk

Impairment or Disability

- Refers to reduced function or loss of a specific part of the body or organ. A

person may have disabilities such as blindness or low vision, deafness or hard or
hearing condition, mental retardation, learning disabilities, communication
disorders, emotional and behavioral disorders, physical and health impairments
and severe disabilities.

Handicap
- Refers to a problem a person with disability or impairment encounters when
interacting with people, events and the physical aspects of the environment. For
example, a child with low vision or blindness cannot read regular print or
textbooks. The child either reads books that are published in large print or
transcribed into braille.
At Risk
- Refers to the children who have greater chances than other children to develop
disability. The child is in danger of substantial development delay because of
medical, biological, or environmental factors of early intervention services are not
provided.
- A child who, although not currently identified as having a disability, are
considered to have a greater than usual chance of developing one.

Categories of Children at Risk

- Children with established risk are those with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome,
and other conditions that started during pregnancy. Children with biological
risk are those who are born prematurely, underweight at birth, whose mother
contracted diabetes or rubella during the first trimester of pregnancy, or who had
bacterial infections like meningitis and HIV. Environmental risk results from
extreme poverty, child abuse, absence of adequate shelter and medical care,
parental substance abuse, limited opportunity for nurturance and social
stimulation.
-

Vision for Children with Special Needs

- The Department of Education clearly states its vision for children with special
needs in consonance with the philosophy of inclusive education, thus:
 - “The State, community and family hold a common vision for the Filipino child
with special needs. By the 21st century, it is envisioned that he/she could be
adequately provided with basic education.
- It is also envisioned that the child with special needs will get full parental and
community support for his/her education without discrimination of any kind. This
special child should also be provided with a healthy environment along with
leisure and recreation and social security measures”

Policy, Goal and Objectives of Special Education

- The policy on Inclusive Education for All is adopted in the Philippines to
accelerate access to education among children and young with special needs.
- The goal of the special education of the Department of Education all over the
country is to provide children with special needs appropriate education services
within the mainstream of basic education.

- Special Education aims to:

1. Provide a flexible and individualized support system for children and youth
with special needs in a regular class environment in schools nearest the
student’s home.
2. Provide support services, vocational programs and work training,
employment opportunities for efficient community participation and
independent living.
3. Implement a life-long curriculum to include early intervention and parent
education, basic education and transition programs on vocational training or
preparation for college.
4. Make available an array of education programs and services: the Special
Education Center built on “a school within a school concept” as the resource
center for children and youth with special needs; inclusive education in
regular schools, special and residential schools, homebound instruction,
hospital instruction and community-based programs; alternative modes of
service delivery to reach the disadvantaged children in far-flung towns,
depressed areas and underserved barangays.

Instructional Schemes

- Are special learning plans or arrangements which permits structural flexibility,

collaborative teaching and resource sharing aimed at individualizing and
maximizing intervention for a special child.

Schemes doable within a Philippine Setting

1. Pullout within the room

- A child with special needs enrolled in a regular classroom maybe individualized
without removing him from the homeroom. One option is to deliver the
instruction to a child by seating him in an area within the classroom wherein he
can be monitored by the teacher directly while performing the assigned task.
2. Pullout in another venue
- If the regular classroom is not appropriate for individualization, the child may be
pulled out to another venue. In some schools there is a small room adjacent to
the home room classroom here individualization can occur. Distractions from the
regular classroom are eliminated resource room plan.
3. Assistantship plan
- It is co-teaching here one teacher has the primary teaching responsibility. The
lead teacher is assisted by another teacher without assuming direct teaching
responsibility. The assistant teacher assists learners with their work, monitors
 behavior, simplifies instruction, corrects assignments, observes and records
critical incidents.
4. Team-teaching plan
- This instruction scheme employs the presence of two teachers in the class. They
both present the lesson to the students and may devise a system on how they
share the responsibility in handling. May share or divide in lecturing the topic.
5. Shadow teaching plan
- This scheme emerged from the content of applied behavior analysis (ABA) or
behavior management intervention. In this plan, one person serves as the child
shadow teacher in school.
6. Shadow service plan
- A child whose needs require the employ of supportive service givers such as:
o Psychologist
o Occupational therapist
o Speech therapist
7. Integration plan
- This includes the child with special needs both in a special class and in a regular
class.
- With the special class remaining at the child’s station, he is admitted to the
regular class for integration in non-academic areas. The regular teacher and
Sped teacher work together.
8. Multigrade/multilevel plan
- In this plan, the child can take one or two subjects in one or two grade levels
other than his current grade placement depending on his achievement in the
different subjects.

Mainstreaming- placement of students with disabilities, often part time, into

general class setting. It often suggests that students with disabilities really
belong to special education and that they only visit the general classroom. The
student is in reality the responsibility of the SPED teacher, but for certain periods
of the day is part of the mainstream environment.

Inclusion- students with disabilities are served primarily in the general

education classroom, under the responsibility of the general classroom teacher.
When necessary, students with disabilities may receive some of their instruction
in another setting, such as a resource room.

Legal Basis of Special Education in the Philippines

Article 356 and 259 of Commonwealth Act no. 3203

- Right of every child to live in an atmosphere conducive to his physical, moral and
intellectual development.
- Concomitant duty of the government to promote the full growth of the faculties
of every child.

Republic Act No. 3562

- An act that promotes the education of the blind in the Philippines

- Formal training of special education teachers of the blind children at Philippine
Normal College
- Rehabilitation of the Philippine National School for the Blind
- Establishment of the Philippine Printing House of the Blind

Republic Act No. 5250

 - Establishment of a 10 year Teacher training program for teachers of SPED
- Formal training for SPED teachers at Philippine Normal College and the University
of the Philippines

Section 8, Article XB of the 1973 Constitution of the Philippines

- A complete, adequate and integrated system of education relevant to the goals

of the national development.

Articles 3 and 74 of the Presidential Decree No. 603 of 1975

- An emotionally disturbed or socially maladjusted child shall be treated with

sympathy and understanding and shall be given the education and care required
by his particular condition.

Presidential Decree No. 1509 of 1978

- National Commission concerning Disabled persons

Educational Act of 1982 or Batas Pambansa Bilang 232

- The state hall promote the right of every individual to relevant quality education
regardless of sex, age, creed, social economical status, physical and mental
condition, social and ethnic origin, political and other affiliations.

Section 24 of Batas Pambansa 232

- Special Education Services

- Responsibility to provide, within the context of the formal education system
services.
Article XV, Sections 1 and 2 of the 1987 constitution of the Philippines
- The state shall protect and promote the right of all the citizens to quality
education at all levels

Republic Act No. 7277

- Magna Carta for Persons with Disabilities

- Providing for the rehabilitation, self development and self reliance of Disabled
persons

Republic Act No. 9442

- Magna Carta for persons with disability as Amended

- Granting additional privileges and incentives and prohibitions on Verbal, Non
Verbal and vilification against persons

Education Act of 1982

General Provisions
- This act shall apply to and govern both formal and non-formal systems in public
and private schools in all levels of the entire educational system.

The Individualized Education Program

- A program written for every student receiving special education; it describes the
child’s current performance and goals for the school year, the particular special
education services to be delivered, and the procedures by which outcomes are to
evaluated.

Children with Intellectual Disabilities

Definitions and Classification of System

  IDEA defines mental retardation as “significantly subaverage general intellectual
functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and
manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child’s
educational performance.”
 Four degrees of mental retardation are classified by IQ score: mild, moderate,
severe and profound.
 AAIDD’s 2002 definition of intellectual disabilities represents a shift away from
conceptualizations of mental retardation as an inherent trait or permanent state
to a description of the individuals presents functioning and the e3nvironmental
supports needed to improve it.
 Changes in terminology and definitions reflect professionals’ desire to refer to
people with mental retardation/ intellectual disabilities with dignity and to
achieve more effective and reliable methods of identification, classification,
research and education.

Characteristics

 Children with mild intellectual disabilities may experience substantial

performance deficits only in school. Their social and communication skills may
be normal or nearly so. They are likely to become independent or
semi−independent adults.
 Most children with moderate intellectual disabilities show significant
developmental delays during their preschool years.
 Research has found that students with intellectual disabilities have trouble
retaining information in short−term memory.
 Students with intellectual disabilities do not tend to use metacognitive or
executive control strategies such as rehearsing and organizing information.
When taught to use such strategies, their performance on memory−related
and problem−solving tasks is likely to improve.
 Students with intellectual disabilities learn at a slower rate than do their typical
developing age−mates.
 Student with intellectual disabilities often have trouble attending to relevant
features of a learning task, may focus instead on distracting irrelevant stimuli
and often have difficulty sustaining attention.
 Students with intellectual disabilities often have difficulty generalizing and
maintaining newly learned knowledge and skills.
 Some individuals with mental retardation develop learned helplessness, a
condition in which a person expects failures regardless of his efforts.
 Some students with intellectual disabilities exhibit outer−directedness; they
seem to distrust their own responses to situations and rely on others for
assistance and solutions.
 Children with mental retardation have substantial deficits in adaptive behavior
that take many forms and tend to occur across domain of functioning.
Limitations in self−care skills and social relationships as well as behavioral
excesses are common characteristics of individual with mental retardation.
 Many children and adults with intellectual disabilities display positive attributes
such as tenacity and curiosity in learning, getting along with others, and being
a positive influence on those around them.

Causes and Prevention

 Each casual variable is classified by when it occurs (i.e., prenatal, perinatal or

postnatal) and whether its influences is biomedical or environmental (social,
behavioral and educational).
 Biomedical causes are identified for about two thirds of individuals with severe
and profound levels of mental retardation.
 Page 251

 Although etiology is unknown for most individuals with mild mental retardation
psychosocial advantage in early childhood is suspected as causal factor in many
cases.
 Virus vaccines, amniocentesis, CVS, genetic counseling and many screening tests
have reduced the incidence of mental retardation caused by some genetic
disorders.

Educational Approaches

 Students with intellectual disabilities need instruction in basic academic skills that
are required and/or could be used often in their current and future
environments.
 Curriculum should focus on functional skills that will help the student succeed in
self-care, vocational, domestic, community and leisure domains.
 Major components of explicit systematic instruction are task analysis, active
students response, systematic feedback, transfer of stimulus control from
teacher-provided cues and prompt to natural stimuli, programming for
generalization and maintenance, and direct and frequent measurement of
student performance.

Working with Students with Learning Disabilities

Definitions

 The federal definition of specific learning disability is a disorder in one or more

of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using
language, spoken or written, which may manifest in an imperfect ability to listen,
think, speak, read, write, spell or perform mathematical calculations.
 The National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) has defined
learning disabilities as a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by
significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading,
writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities. These disorders are intrinsic to the
individual and presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction.
 There is no universally agreed-on definition on learning disabilities. Most states
require that three criteria be met: (a) a severe discrepancy between potential or
ability and actual achievement, (b) learning problems that cannot be attributed
to other disabilities, and (c) special educational services needed to succeed in
school.
 Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI), a promising approach to the prevention
and early identification of learning disabilities, uses curriculum –based
measurement of at-risk children’s progress during one or two 10 to 2 week trials
of intensive individual or small group instruction with scientifically validated
instruction. Failure to respond to this treatment suggests a learning disability.

Characteristics

 Difficulty reading is the most common characteristics of students with learning

disabilities. it is estimated that 90%of all children identified as learning disabled
are referred for special education services because of reading problems.
 Many students with learning disabilities show one or more of the following
characteristics: deficits in written language, underachievement in math, poor
social skills, attention deficits and hyperactivity, behavior problems and low self-
esteem/ self-efficacy.
 The fundamental, defining characteristics of students with learning disabilities is
specific and significant achievement deficits in the presence of adequate overall
intelligence.
  In addition to their academic and social-skills deficits, students with learning
disabilities possess positive attributes and interests that teachers should identify
and try to strengthen.

Prevalence

 Learning disabilities make up the largest category in special education. Students

with learning disabilities represent almost one half of all students receiving
special education.
 About three times as many boys as girls are identified as learning disabled.

Causes

 Although the actual cause of specific learning disability is seldom known, four
suspected causal factors are brain damage, heredity, biochemical imbalance and
environmental factors.

Educational Approaches

 Contemporary best practice in educating students with learning disabilities is

characterized by explicit instruction, the use of content enhancement and
teaching learning strategies to students.
 Explicit instruction is unambiguous , clear, direct teaching of targeted knowledge
or skills: Students are shown what to do, given frequent opportunities to practice
with teacher feedback, and opportunities to later apply what they have learned.
 Content enhancements such as graphic organizers, note-taking strategies and
mnemonics help make curriculum content more accessible to students with
learning disabilities.
 Learning strategies help students guide themselves successfully through specific
tasks or general problem.

Working with Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Definitions

 No single, widely used definition of emotional and behavioral disorders exists.

Most definitions require a child’s behavior to differ markedly (extremely) and
chronically (overtime) from current social or cultural norms.
 The CCBD proposed a definition of emotional or behavioral disorders as a
disability characterized by “behavioral or emotional responses in school programs
so different from appropriate age, cultural or ethnic, norms that they adversely
affect educational performance” (Federal Register, February 10, 1993, p. 7938).

Characteristics

 Children with externalizing problems frequently exhibit antisocial behavior; may

become delinquents as adolescents.
 Children with internalizing problems are overly withdrawn and lack social skills
needed to interact effectively with others.
 As a group, students with emotional or behavioral disorders perform
academically 1 or more years below grade level.
 A large number of students with emotional or behavioral disorders also have
learning disabilities and/or language delays.
 On the average, students with emotional and behavioral disorders score slightly
below average on IQ tests.
 Many students with emotional and behavioral disorders have difficulty developing
and maintaining interpersonal relationships.
  About one third of students with emotional and behavioral disorders are arrested
during their school years.

Causes

 Biological factors related to development of behavioral disorders include brain

disorders, genetics and temperament.
 Environmental etiologic factors in the home, school and community.
 Although knowledge if causes is necessary for planning and implementing
prevention programs, effective intervention and treatment of children’s existing
behavior problems do not require precise knowledge of etiology.

Educational Approaches

 Students with emotional and behavioral disorders require systematic instructions

in social skills and academics.
 A good classroom management system uses proactive strategies to create a
positive, supportive and noncoercive environment that promotes prosocial
behavior and academic achievements.
 Self-management skills can help students develop control over their
environment, responsibility for their actions and self-direction.
 Group process approaches use the influence of the peer group to help students
with emotional and behavioral disorders learn to behave appropriately.
 Two important affective traits for teachers of students with emotional or
behavioral disorders are differential acceptance and empathetic relationship.

Working with Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Definitions

 Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) include five developmental disabilities of

childhood: autistic disorder; Asperger syndrome; Rett syndrome; childhood
disintegrative disorder and pervasive developmental disorder – not otherwise
specified (PDD-NOS).
 Autistic disorder is marked by three defining features, with onset before age 3
years: (a) qualitative impairment, of social interaction; (b) qualitative impairment
of communication and (c) restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of
behavior, interests and activities.
 Asperger syndrome is marked by impairments in all social areas, particularly
inability to understand how to interact socially. Other defining characteristics
include repetitive and stereotyped behaviors, preoccupation with atypical things,
pedantic speech patterns and difficulties with motor activities. Children with
Asperger syndrome do not have general language delay and most have average
or above average intelligence.
 Rett syndrome, a distinct neurological condition that begins between 5 and 30
months of age, is marked by a slowing of head growth, stereotypic hand
movements, a gradual onset of unsteadiness and awkward gait, and severe
impairments in language and cognitive abilities.
 Childhood integrative disorder shares characteristic with autistic disorder, but the
condition does not begin until after age 2 and sometimes not until age 10.
 Pervasive developmental disorder− not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) is the
diagnosis given to children who meet some, but not all, of the criteria of autistic
disorder PDD-NOS is marked by significant impairments in socialization
difficulties in either communication or restricted interests.

Characteristics
  Some children with ASD are severely affected in most or all domains of
functioning while others are only mildly affected. Children with different
diagnosis along the spectrum may share many characteristics.
 Impaired social relationships include difficulty in perceiving the emotional state of
others, expressing emotions and forming attachments and relationships, as well
as deficits in joint attention (e.g., not looking at what a parent points to).
 Many children with ASD do not speak. Echolalia is common among those who do
talk.
 Children with ASD tend to exhibit concrete or literal processing verbal
information and have difficulty understanding the social meanings of language.
 A diagnosis of ASD can be made for a child with severe profound mental
retardation as well as for one who is intellectually gifted.
 Many children with ASD exhibit the following cognitive and learning
characteristics:
 Overselectivity− the tendency to focus on a minute feature of an object
or a person rather than a whole.
 Obsessive attention on a specific object or activity for long periods of
time.
 Strong aptitude for rote memory for certain things but difficulty recalling
recent events.
 Uneven skill development− areas of relatively superior performance that
are unexpected compared to other domains of functioning.
 Very rarely, autism savant syndrome− an extraordinary ability in a specific area
or skill while functioning at the mental retardation level in all other areas.
 Children with ASD may show unusual responsiveness to sensory stimuli:
overresponsiveness (hypersensitivity)− for example, intense dislike of certain
sounds, being touched, or the feel of certain textures− and/or
underresponsiveness (hyposensitivity)− for example, no reaction to stimuli that
are painful to most people.
 Children may obsess about having everything in their environment stay the same
and become very upset when items are moved or when routines changed.
 Children may exhibit stereotypic and self-stimulatory behaviors, such as rocking
their bodies when in sitting position, twirling around, flapping hands, flicking
fingers or spinning things.
 Children may exhibit aggressive and self-injurious behavior.
 Some people with autism spectrum disorders have described positive features
associated with their disability, such as sensitivity to detail and intense interest to
topics, which can be assets to functioning in some environments.

Prevalence

 Historically consider a rare disorder, recent estimates show autism occurs in as

many as 1 in 150 people.
 Boys are affected about 4 times more often than are girls.
 Autism is the fastest growing category in special education.
 Reasons for the huge increase in the number of children with ASD receiving
special education are not clear but may include more awareness of the disability,
more wide spread screening and better assessment procedures, great availability
of services via the disability category, and an actual increase in the true
incidence of the disability.

Causes

 For many years, it was widely thought that parents who were indifferent to the
emotional needs in their children caused autism. However, no casual link
between parental personality and autism was ever discovered.
  Recent research shows a clear biological origin for autism in a form of abnormal
brain development, structure and/or neurochemistry.
 Some experts believe that certain genes may make a child more susceptible to
autism but that exposure to certain environmental factors may lead to the
development of the disorder in some individuals.

Educational Approaches

 Children with autism are among the most difficult to teach of all students; they
require carefully planned, meticulously delivered and continually evaluated and
analyzed instruction.
 Although the prognosis for children with autistic disorder was traditionally
extremely poor, early intensive behaviorally based education and treatment has
helped some children achieved communication, language and social skills so they
can succeed in general education classrooms.
 Among the many treatments and therapies available for helping children with
autism, interventions based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) have the clearest
and most consistent research evidence supporting their effectiveness.
 Discrete trial training (DTT) is an important part of ABA-based programming for
children with autism. However, DTT alone does not constitute ABA, and ABA can
be done without DTT.
 ABA programming uses a variety of procedures to help individuals with autism
acquire and generalize new skills, such as strategies for shifting stimulus control,
the Picture Exchange Communication System, peer-mediated interventions,
functional assessments and naturalistic teaching strategies, to name a few.
 Picture activity schedules− a series of images, photos icons or video clips
depicting activities a child can perform, presented in sequence− can help
children with autism independently select and carry out sequence of activities in
the classroom.
 Social stories, which explains social situations and expected behaviors of the
persons involved in a format understandable to a student with ASD, can
decrease a child’s anxiety about an event, improve his behavior and help him
understand events from the perspective of others.

Supporting Students with Language Disorders

Definitions

 Communication is any interaction that transmits information. Narrating,

explaining, informing, requesting and expressing are major communicative
functions.
 A language is an arbitrary symbol system that enables a group of people to
communicate. Each language has rules of phonology, morphology, syntax,
semantics and pragmatics that describe hoe users put sounds and ideas together
to convey meaning.
 Speech is the oral production of language; it is the fastest and most efficient
method of communication by language.
 Typical language development follows a relatively predictable sequence. Most
children learn to talk and use language without any formal instruction; by the
time they enter first grade, their grammar and speech pattern match of the
adults around them.
 A communication disorder is “an impairment in the ability o receive, send,
process and comprehend concepts or verbal, nonverbal and graphic symbol
systems” (ASHA, 1993, p.40).
  A child has a speech impairment, if his speech draws unfavorable attention to
itself, interferes to the ability to communicate, or causes social or interpersonal
problems.
 The three basic types of speech impairments are articulation disorders (errors in
production of speech sounds), fluency disorders (difficulties with the flow of
rhythm of speech) and voice disorders (problems with the quality or use of one’s
voice).
 Some children have trouble understanding language (receptive language
disorders); others have trouble using language to communicate (expressive
language disorders); still others have language delays.
 Speech or language differences based on cultural or regional dialects are not
communication disorders. However, children who use a different dialects may
also have speech or language disorders.

Characteristics

 Four basic kinds of speech sound errors exist: distortions, substitutions,

omissions and additions.
 A child with an articulation disorder cannot produce a given sound physically.
 A child with a phonological disorder can produce a given sound and does so
correctly in some instances but not at other times.
 Stuttering, the most fluency disorder is marked by five rapid repetitions of
consonant or vowel sounds, especially at the beginning of the words,
prolongations, hesitations, interjections and complete verbal blocks.
 A voice disorder is characterized by abnormal vocal quality, pitch, loudness,
resonance and /or duration for the speaker’s age and sex.
 Language impairments involve problems in phonology, morphology, syntax,
semantics and/or pragmatics; they are usually classified as their receptive or
expressive.

Causes

 Although some speech and language impairments have physical (organic)

causes, most are functional disorders that cannot be directly attributed to
physical conditions.

Educational Approaches

 Speech language pathologists (SLP’s) employ a wide range of techniques for

identifying, evaluating and providing therapeutic services to children. These
include structured exercises and drills as well as individual and group therapy
sessions.
 A general goal of treating speech-sound errors is to help the child speak as
clearly as possible. Addressing articulation and phonological errors involves
discrimination and production activities. Fluency disorders can be treated with
the application of behavioral principles and self-monitoring, although many
children recover spontaneously.
 Voice disorders can be treated surgically or medically if the cause is organic.
Most remedial technique offers direct vocal rehabilitation. Behavioral principles
help break habitual pattern of misuse.
 Language disorders treatments vary widely. Precommunication activities
encourage exploration of expressive language. SLP’s connect oral language to
literacy components of the curriculum. Naturalistic interventions disperse
learning trials throughout the natural environment and normal conversation.
 Argumentative and alternative communication may be aided or unaided and
consists of three components: a representational symbol set or vocabulary, a
means for selecting the symbols, and means for transmitting the symbols.
Taking Advantage of Resources in School and Community

Definitions

 Hearing loss exists on a continuum from mild to profound, and most special
educators distinguish between children who are deaf and those who are hard of
hearing. A deaf child cannot understand speech through the ears alone. A hard-
of-hearing child can use hearing to understand speech, generally with the help of
hearing aid.
 Sound is measured by its intensity (decibels [dB]) and frequency (Hertz [Hz]);
both dimensions are important in considering the special education needs of a
child with a hearing loss. The frequencies most important for understanding
speech are 500 to 2,000 Hz..

Characteristics

 Deaf children− especially those with a prelinguistic loss of 90 dB or greater− are

at a great disadvantage in acquiring English literacy skills, especially reading and
writing.
 The speech of many children with hearing loss may be difficult to understand
because they omit speech sounds they cannot hear, speak too loudly or softly,
speak in an abnormally high pitch, speak with poor inflection, and/or speak at an
improper rate.
 As a group, students who are deaf and hard of hearing lag far behind their
hearing peers in academic achievement, and the achievement gap usually widens
as they get older.
 Children with severe to profound hearing losses often report felling isolated and
unhappy in schools., particularly when their socialization with other children with
hearing loss is limited.
 Many deaf individuals choose membership in the Deaf community and cultures.

Types and Causes of Hearing Loss

 Hearing loss is described as conductive (outer or middle ear) or sensorineural

(inner ear) and unilateral (in one ear) or bilateral (in both ears).
 A prelingual hearing loss occurs before the child has developed speech and
language; a postlingual hearing los occurs after that time.
 Causes of congenital hearing loss include genetic factors, maternal rubella,
heredity, congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV), and prematurity.
 Causes of acquired hearing loss include otitis media, meningitis, Ménière’s
disease and noise exposure.

Techniques and Supports

 Technologies that amplify or provide sound include hearing aids, assisting

listening devices, and cochlear implants.
 Technologies and supports that supplement or replace sound include educational
interpreters, speech-to-text translation, television captioning, text telephones and
alerting devices.

Educational Approaches

 The oral/aural approach views speech as essential if students are to function in

the hearing world; much emphasis is given to amplification, auditory training,
speech reading, the use of technological aids and above all, talking.
 Page 446

 Total communication uses speech and simultaneous manual communication via

signs and finger spelling in English word order.
 In the bilingual-bicultural approach, deafness is viewed as a cultural and
linguistic difference, not a disability, and American Sign Language (ASL) is used
as the language of instruction.

Supporting Students with Visual Impairments in the General Education

Classroom

Definitions

 Legal blindness is defined as visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye
after correction with glasses or contact lenses or a restricted field of vision of 20
degrees or less.
 An educational definition classifies students with visual impairments based on the
extent to which they use vision and/or auditory/tactile means for learning.
 A student who is totally blind receives no useful information through the sense of
vision and must use tactile, auditory and other nonvisual senses for all learning.
 A child who functionally blind has to little vision that she learns primarily through
the auditory and tactile senses; however, she may be able to use her limited
vision to supplement the information received from the other senses.
 A child with low vision uses vision as a primary means of learning.
 The age at onset of a visual impairment affects a child’s educational and
emotional needs.

Characteristics

 Children with severe visual impairment do not benefit from incidental learning
that normally sighted children obtain in everyday experiences and interactions
with the environment.
 Visual impairment often leads to delays or deficits in motor development.
 Some students with visual impairments experience social isolation and difficulties
in social interactions due to limited common experiences with sighted peers;
inability to see and use contact, facial expressions and gestures during
conversations; and/or stereotypic behaviors.
 The behavior and attitudes of sighted persons can be unnecessary barriers to
the social participation of individuals with visual impairments.

Types and Causes of Visual Impairment

 The eye collects light reflected from objects and focuses the objects’ image on
the retina. The optic nerve transmits the image to the visual cortex of the brain.
Difficulty with any part of this process can cause vision problem.
 Refractive errors mean that the size and shape of the eye prevent the light rays
from focusing clearly on the retina.
 Structural impairments are visual impairments caused by poor development of,
damage to, or malfunction of one or more parts of the eye’s optical or muscular
systems.
 Cortical visual impairment (CVI) refers to decreased vision or blindness due to
damage to or malfunction of the parts of the brain that interpret visual
information.

Educational Approaches
  Braille− a tactile system of reading and writing in which letters, words, numbers
and other systems are made from arrangements of embossed six-dot cells− is
the primary means of literacy for students who are blind.
 Students who are blind may also use special equipment to access standard print
through touch, reading machines and prerecorded materials.
 Children with low vision should be taught to use visual efficiency or functioning.
 Students with low vision use three basic methods for reading print:
magnification, optical devices and large prints.
 Students who are blind or have severe visual impairments need instruction in
orientation (knowing where they are, where they are going and hoe to get there)
and mobility (moving safely and efficiently from one point to another).
 Systematic development of listening skills is an important component of the
educational program of every child with visual impairments.
 The curriculum for students with visual impairments should also include
systematic instruction in functional living skills such as cooking, personal hygiene
and grooming, shopping, financial management, transportation and recreational
activities.

Promoting the Success of Students with Physical Disabilities and Special

Health Care Needs

Definitions of Physical Disabilities and Health Impairments

 Children with physical disabilities and health impairments are eligible for special
education under two disability categories of IDEA: orthopedic impairments and
other health impairments.
 Orthopedic impairments involve the skeletal system; a neuromotor impairment
involves the nervous system. Both are frequently described in terms of the
affected arts of the body.
 Physical disabilities and health impairments may be congenital or acquired,
chronic or acute.

Types and Causes

 Cerebral palsy is a long term condition arising from impairment to the brain and
casing disturbances in voluntary motor functions.
 Spina Bifida is a congenital condition that may cause loss of sensations and
severe muscle weakness in the lower part of the body. Children with spina bifida
can usually participate in most classroom activities but need assistance in
toileting.
 Muscular dystrophy is a long term condition; most children gradually lose the
ability to walk independently.
 Spinal cord injuries are caused by a penetrating injury, stretching of the vertebral
column, fracture of the vertebrae, or compression of the spinal cord and usually
result in some form of paralysis below the site of the injury.
 Epilepsy produces disturbances of movement, sensation, behavior and/or
consciousness.
 Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism that can often be controlled of injections of
insulin.
 Children with cystic fibrosis, asthma, HV/AIDS and other chronic health
conditions may require special education and other related services, such as
health care services and counseling.

Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder

  To be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a child
must consistently display six or more symptoms listed in the DSM-IV of
inattention or hyperactivity-impulsivity for a period of at least 6 months.
 Students with ADHD are eligible for special education under the other health
impairment category if they have a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli
that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment that
adversely affects academic performance. Many children with ADHD who meet
eligibility requirements for special education are served under the disability
categories, most often emotional disturbance or learning disabilities. Some
children with ADHD are eligible for services under Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act.
 The prevalence of ADHD is estimated to be 3% to 5% of all school age children.
 Boys are much more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than are girls.
 Genetic factors may place individuals at a greater than normal risk of an ADHD
diagnosis. ADHD is associated with a wide range of genetic disorders and
diseases such as fragile syndrome. Turner syndrome, Williams syndrome, fetal
alcohol syndrome, prenatal exposure to cocaine and lead poisoning.
 Some individuals with ADHD have structural or biochemical differences in their
brains that may play a causal role in their behavioral deficits and excesses.
 Behavioral interventions for students with ADHD include reinforcing on-task
behavior, modifying assignments and instructional activities to promote success
and teaching self-control strategies.

Educational Approaches

 Most children with physical disabilities and health impairments require services
from an interdisciplinary team of professionals.
 Physical therapists (PT’s) use specialized knowledge to plan and oversee a child’s
program for making correct and usefull movements. Occupational therapists
(OT’s) are concerned with a child’s participation in activities, especially those that
will be usefulll in self-help employment, recreation, communication and other
aspects of daily living.
 Modifications to the physical environment and to classroom activities can enable
students with physical and health impairments to participate more fully in the
school program.
 An assistive technology device is any piece of equipment used to increase,
maintain or improve the functional capabilities of a child with disabilities.
 Animals, particularly dogs and monkeys, can assist people with physical
disabilities in various way.
 Students can increase their independence by learning to take care of their
personal health care routines such as clean intermittent catheterization and self-
administration of medication.
 Proper positioning and seating are important for children with physical
disabilities. All teachers and other staff should follow a standard routine for lifting
and moving a child with physical disabilities.
 How parents, teachers, classmates and other react to a child with physical
disabilities is atleast as important as the disability itself.
 Students with physical limitations should be encouraged to develop as much
independence as possible. Effective teachers help students cope with their
disabilities, set realistic expectations, and accept help gracefully when needed.
 Children with physical disabilities and health impairments can gain self-
knowledge and self-confidence by meeting capable adults with disabilities in
joining self-advocacy groups.

Tips for Teaching Students with Severe Disabilities

Defining Severe, Profound and Multiple Disabilities

 Students with severe disabilities need instruction in many basic skills that most
children without disabilities acquire without instruction in the first 5 years of life.
 TASH defines persons with severe disabilities as individuals “who require ongoing
support in more than one major life activity in order to participate in an
integrated community and enjoy a quality of life similar to that available to all
citizens.”
 Students with profound disabilities have pervasive delays in all domains of
functioning at a developmental level no higher than 2 years.
 Students with severe disabilities frequently have multiple disabilities, including
physical impairments and health conditions.
 Students with deaf-blindness cannot be accommodated in special education
programs designed solely for students with hearing or visual impairments.
Although the vast majority of children who are deaf-blind have some functional
hearing and/or vision, the dual impairments severely impede learning.

Characteristics of Students with Severe and Multiple Disabilities

 Students with severe disabilities need instruction in many basic skills that most
children without disabilities learn without help. Children with severe disabilities
may show some or all of the following behaviors or skill deficit: slow acquisition
rates for learning new skills, difficulty in generalizing and maintaining newly
learned skills, severe deficits in communication skill, impaired physical and motor
development, deficits in self-help skills, in frequent constructive behavior and
interaction, and frequent inappropriate behavior.
 Despite their intense challenges, students with severe disabilities often exhibit
many positive characteristics, such as warmth, humor, sociability and
persistence.
 Despite their limitations, children with severe disabilities can and do learn.

Causes of Severe and Multiple Disabilities

 Brain disorders, which are involve in most cases of severe intellectual disabilities,
are the result of either brain dysgenesis (abnormal brain development) or brain
damage (caused by influences that alter the structure or function of the brain
that had been developing normally up to that point).
 Severe and profound disabilities most often have biological causes, including
chromosomal abnormalities, genetic and metabolic disorders, complications of
pregnancy and prenatal care, birth trauma, and later brain damage.
 In about one sixth of all cases of severe disabilities, the cause cannot be clearly
determined.

Traumatic Brain Injury

 IDEA defines traumatic brain injury (TBI) as an acquired injury to the brain
caused by an external physical force, resulting in total of partial functional
disability or psycho-social impairments, or both, that adversely affects a child’s
educational performance.
 Causes of TBI are often head injuries, which are the result of penetration of the
skull, and closed head injuries, which are more common and result from the
head hitting a stationary object with such force that the brain slams against the
inside of the cranium.
 Major causes of traumatic brain injury are car and bicycle accidents, falls, and
accidents during contact sports, and shaken baby syndrome.
 Impairments caused by brain injuries fall into three main categories: (a) physical
and sensory changes (e.g., lack of coordination, spasticity of muscles); (b)
cognitive impairments (e.g., short-and long-term memory deficits, difficulty
 maintaining attention and concentration); (c) social, behavioral and emotional
problems (e.g., mood swings [emotional lability], self-centeredness, lack of
motivation).

Educational Approach

 A curriculum based on typical developmental milestone is inappropriate for most

students with severe disabilities.
 Students with severe disabilities must be taught skills that are functional, age-
appropriate, and directed toward current and future environments.
 Students with severe disabilities should be taught choice-making skills.
 Some students with severe disabilities use augmentative and alternative systems
of communication (AAC), such as gestures, various sign language system,
pictorial communication boards, picture exchange communication system
(PEC’s), and electronic communication aids.
 Students with severe disabilities should be taught age-appropriate recreation and
leisure skills.
 The teacher of students with severe disabilities must be skilled in positive,
instructionally relevant strategies for assessing and dealing with challenging and
problem behaviors.
 Research has shown that integrated small group instructional arrangement with
students with severe disabilities can be effective.
 Students with severe disabilities are more likely to develop social relationships
with students without disabilities if they attended their home school and are
included in the general education classroom.

Teaching Gifted and Talented Children

Definitions

 The federal government defines gifted and talented children are those who give
evidences of high-achievement capabilities in areas such as intellectual, creative,
artistic or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who need
services and activities not ordinarily provided by the school in order to fully
develop those capabilities.
 Renzulli’s definition of giftedness is based on the traits of above-average general
abilities, high level of task commitment and creativity.
 Piirto defines the gifted as having a superior memory, observational powers,
curiosity, creativity and ability to learn.
 Maker defines the gifted and talented student as a problem solver problem who
can (a) create a new or clearer definition of an existing problem, (b) device new
and more efficient or effective methods and (c) reach solutions that may differ
from the usual.

Characteristic

 Learning and intellectual characteristics of gifted and talented students include

the ability to do the following:
 Rapidly acquire, retain and use large amounts of information.
 Relate new idea to another.
 Make sound judgments.
 Perceive the operation of larger system of knowledge that others may not
recognize.
 Acquire and manipulate abstract symbol system.
 Solve problems by reframing the question and creating novel solutions.
  Asynchrony is a term used to describe desperate rates of intellectual, emotional
and physical growth or development often displayed by gifted children.
 Many gifted children are creative. Although no universally accepted definition of
creativity exists, we know creative children have knowledge, examine it in a
variety of ways, critically analyze the outcomes and communicate their ideas.
 Guilford’s definition of creativity includes dimensions of fluency, flexibility,
originality and elaboration.

Educational Approaches

 Curriculum should consider the learning characteristics of gifted and talented

students, preserve academic rigor, be thematic and interdisciplinary, consider
various curriculum orientations and be balanced and articulate.
 Differentiation is broad term referring to a variety of strategies for providing
gifted and talented students with a challenging and conceptually rich curriculum.
 Acceleration is the general term for modifying the pace at which the students
moves through the curriculum.
 Enrichment means probing or studying a subject at a greater depth than would
occur in the general education curriculum.
 Curriculum compacting involves compressing instructional content so students
have time to work on more challenging materials.
 Tiered lessons provide extension of the same basic lessons for groups of
students of differing abilities.
 Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives provides a framework for
differentiating curriculum by asking questions and assigning activities that
requires students to demonstrate different types of knowledge.
 Options for learning outside of school include internships and mentorships,
special courses and workshops in the community, Junior Great Books, summer
programs and international experiences.
 Three models for differentiating curriculum for gifted students are Renzulli’s
School wide Enrichment Model, Maker’s active Problem Solver Model and the
Problem-Based Learning Units.