Sunday, March 13, 2011

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – Students with High-Incidence Disabilities

What are High-Incidence Disabilities?
·          High-incidence disabilities – students with speech or language disabilities, learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, or mild intellectual disabilities
·         Characteristics:
o   Difficult to distinguish from peers without disabilities
o   Exhibit a combination of behavioral, social, and academic problems
o   Benefit from systematic, explicit, highly structured instructional interventions

What accommodations can you make for students with communication disorders?
·         Understanding Speech Problems
o   Speech articulation – the inability to pronounce sounds correctly at and after the developmentally appropriate age
o   Stuttering – a speech impairment in which an individual involuntarily repeats a sound or word, resulting in a loss of speech fluency
·         Understanding Language Problems
o   Students who have language problems have trouble with either or both two key parts of language: receptive language (understanding what people say) and expressive language (speaking so people understand)
o   May have difficulty using language in social situations
o   Problems with sounds can result in students’ having difficulties acquiring word analysis and spelling skills
o   Can impede the content-area learning stressed in middle, junior high, and high school
o   May have difficulty verbalizing the steps to solving problems
·         Accommodations for Students with Communication Disorders
o   Create an atmosphere of acceptance
o   Encourage listening
o   Teach listening skills
o   Use modeling to expand students’ language
o   Provide many meaningful contexts for practicing speech and language skills

What are the academic needs of students with learning and behavioral disabilities?
o   Learning disabilities (LD) – condition in which a student has dysfunction in processing information typically found in language-based activities, resulting in interference with learning
o   Mild intellectual disabilities – condition in which students have some difficulty meeting the academic and social demands of general education classrooms due in large part to below-average intellectual functioning
o   Emotional Disturbance (ED) – condition in which an individual has significant difficulty in the social and emotional domain, so much so that it interferes with learning
·         Reading Skills
o   Problems with decoding (identifying words accurately and fluently) and comprehension
o   May lack background and vocabulary knowledge as well as strategies for identifying the key elements of stories and content-area texts
·         Writing Skills
o   Include handwriting, spelling, and written expression
o   Handwriting – could be due to lack of fine motor coordination, failure to attend to task, inability to perceive and/or remember visual images accurately, and inadequate handwriting instruction in the classroom
o   Spelling – could have trouble with words that can be spelled phonetically, spelled by following certain linguistic rules, and spelled irregularly
o   Written – product problems and process problems
·         Math Skills
o   Problems with spatial organization
o   Lack of alertness to visual detail
o   Procedural errors
o   Failure to shift mindset from one problem type to another
o   Difficulty forming numbers correctly
o   Difficulty with memory
o   Problems with mathematical judgment and reasoning
o   Problems with mathematical language
·         Learning Skills
o   Problems with attention, organizing and interpreting, reasoning, motor coordination and fine motor coordination, independent learning

What are the social and emotional needs of students with learning and behavioral disabilities?
·         Interpersonal Skills
o   Difficulty in social relations with their peers
o   Explanations: not know what to do in social situations, trouble reading social cues, may choose not to act on their previous knowledge, lack confidence
·         Personal and Psychological Adjustment
o   SELF-IMAGE – little confidence in their own abilities
o   May have severe anxiety or depression

What accommodations can you make for students with learning and behavioral disabilities?
·         Addressing Academic Needs
o   Provide instructional accommodations
o   Bypass a student’s need by allowing the student to employ compensatory learning strategies
o   Make accommodation in classroom management, grouping, materials, and methods
o   Provide student with direct instruction on basic or independent learning skills
·         Addressing Social and Emotional Needs
o   Behavior contract
o   Social skills training
o   Self-control training
o   Attribution training (failures are due to lack of effort rather than ability)


Outside Resources
The Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice
LDOonLine
The Learning Disabilities Association of America
National Center for Stuttering


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