1. Children with Exceptionalities and Their Families
Chapter 1
Children with Exceptionalities and Their Families
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2. Children with Exceptionalities
Mental characteristics
Sensory abilities
Communication abilities
Behavior and emotional development
Physical characteristics
Difference must occur to an extent that the child requires either a modification of school practices or special educational services to develop his or her unique capabilities.
Who are the children with exceptionalities?
Children are considered educationally exceptional only when it is necessary to alter the educational program. Adapting to the educational environment frames the discussion of what makes the child with exceptionalities different from the “average” child. Differences may be (1) mental characteristics, (2) sensory abilities, (3) communication abilities, (4) behavior and emotional development, and/or (5) physical characteristics. Although the focus is on altering the environment, we still tend to classify the child into one or a combination of the following subgroups: (1) intellectual differences, including children who are intellectually superior and children who are slow to learn; (2) communication differences, including children with learning disabilities, autism, or speech and language disabilities; (3) sensory differences, including children with auditory or visual disabilities; (4) behavioral differences, including children who are emotionally disturbed or socially maladjusted; (5) multiple and severe disabilities, including children with combinations of impairments (cerebral palsy and IDD; deafness and blindness); and (6) physical differences, including children with nonsensory disabilities that impede mobility and physical vitality. The legal categories are outlined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004), see Table 1.1 in the text.
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3. Difference in Development
Inter-individual differences - The general gap in ability or performance between the child with disabilities and his/her peers.
Intra-individual differences- A major variation in the abilities or development of a single child.
Interindividual Differences: the general gap in ability or performance between the child with disabilities and his or her peers.
Intraindividual differences reflect differences within a child’s own abilities, as opposed to interindividual differences, which reflect how children differ from other children. A child may have the intelligence of an 11-year-old but the social behavior of a 6-year-old, so both interindividual and intraindividual differences are of concern to special educators. It is just as important for teachers to know a child’s individual strengths and weaknesses as it is to know how she compares with other children. Intraindividual differences can show up in any area: intellectual, psychological, physical, or social.
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4. Historical Overview
Early History: Era of Superstition (1500 BC–1700 AD)
Nineteenth Century: Era of Institutions (1790–1870)
Early Twentieth Century: Era of Public School Classes (1900–1950)
1950s & 60s: Era of Legislation and National Support
1970s: Era of Normalization, Child Advocacy and Litigation
1990s: Era of Rededication, Redefinition, Refinement
How have approaches to treating individuals with special needs changed over time?
Early History: (1500 bc–1700 ad): Early beliefs centered on superstitions, witchcraft and generally not a supportive environment for someone with disabilities.
Nineteenth Century: (1790–1870): Jean-Marc Itard and Edouard Sequin were the first individuals to work with children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Toward the end of this era, many institutions were in existence in the United States. Dr. Thomas Gallaudet started programs for students with hearing impairment and deafness.
Early Twentieth Century: (1900–1950): Isolated classes for students with disabilities were started in the United States. In 1922, the Council for Exceptional Children was founded in order to organize teachers who were working to help children with exceptionalities.
1950s and 1960s: In 1950, the post–World War II era saw the beginnings of special programs for children with exceptionalities. This era included the civil rights movement for our country.
1970s: During this era, many lawsuits, class action suits, and laws were established to provide services for students with disabilities. The courts were enacting legislation that mandated that schools provide students with disabilities a free and appropriate education. P.L was passed.
1990s: Era of Rededication, Redefinition, and Refinement. This era has seen a movement toward the use of a multidisciplinary team of specialist to work with children with exceptionalities. A strong state and federal legislative base has been established supporting a “free and appropriate public education” (FAPE).
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5. Response to Intervention
Intervening Hierarchy for RTI
Tier I: The General Education Classroom
Tier II: Collaborative Interventions
Tier III: Individualized Educational Services
Response to intervention provides educational strategies for special education to collaborate with general education to meet the needs of children who need help but not necessarily special education. This permits early and pre-referral intensive interventions based on the student’s needs without waiting for the student to “fail.” The four main components of RTI are as follows. (1) An intervening hierarchy with three or more tiers. Tier I is a high-quality general learning environment and the additional tiers provide more help for students whose needs require more intensive supports. (2) Evidence-based interventions meet the students’ needs, also called standard protocol approaches. (3) Collaborative problem solving involves a multidisciplinary team working with parents to design services that address the students’ needs. (4) Progress monitoring uses data on students’ achievement, performance, etc., to monitor progress, guide decision making, and plan for future needs. Will be further discussed in Chapter Four
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6. The Information Processing Model
The information processing model explains how students interact with and respond to the world around them. Students receive information through sensory input. This information is then processed through memory classification and reasoning abilities. They finally respond to this information through an output mechanism (i.e., speaking, writing, or acting). Through this course, this model will demonstrate how and way learning is impact by each exceptionality.
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7. The Interaction of Heredity and Environment
Pre Heredity determines intelligence
1960’s Environment determines intelligence
1990’s Interaction of heredity/environment
Human Genome Project
Three major stages have occurred in our belief system regarding the relative influence of heredity and environment on human development. Initially, it was believed that heredity determined intelligence or that intelligence was a function of heredity. Starting around 1960, the important role played by the environment was recognized. The belief that intelligence is a function of environment is the second stage. Currently, the emphasis is on the progressive interaction of heredity and the environment. Gottlieb (1997) proposed that by changing the environmental conditions of early childhood, we could activate different patterns of genes, which then can result in behavioral changes. One of the most dramatic recent scientific breakthroughs has been made by the Human Genome Project ( Refer to Figure 1.2 Human Genome in text. The goals of this international project were to determine the complete sequence of the 3 billion DNA subunits (bases) and to identify all human genes and make them accessible for further biological study (Tartaglia, Hansen, & Hagerman, 2007). The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health were the U.S. sponsors. The initial goals were reached in The many research projects fanning out from these basic discoveries include a number that relate to exceptional children.
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8. Estimates of Exceptional with Children
6.0 million children
can be classified in one of the
categories of exceptional children
1 in every 10 children
may be classified as Exceptional
A reasonable estimate is that more than 6 million children in the United States can be classified among the categories of exceptional children. This estimate is obtained by aggregating the reports of the 50 states, which is required by law. This means that approximately one out of about every 10 children can be labeled exceptional.
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9. Percentage of Total Disability Population of High Incidence Children
About 1 percent of the school population exhibit high-incidence disabilities (learning disabilities, speech impairments, IDD, behavior disorders and autism. The category of learning disability includes almost 45 percent of all children called exceptional (Twenty-eighth Annual Report to Congress, 2008). Children with speech and language disorders make up the next highest category, at almost 20 percent of the disability categories; children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, almost 10 percent; and those with behavioral or emotional disturbances, about 8 percent. Children with autism have been rapidly increasing, to almost 5 percent of the disability group. Please refer to Figure 1.3 in the text.
Source: (2008) 28th Annual Report to Congress, Washington D.C., Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education.
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10. Percentage of Total Disability Population of Low Incidence Children
The remaining low-incidence categories are less than 1 percent of the school population. The percentage of children receiving services under the “Other Health Impaired” category has increased, due largely to the inclusion of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. An upward trend in the percentage of children identified as having multiple disabilities may be partly the result of improvements in medical science.
Source: (2008) 28th Annual Report to Congress, Washington D.C., Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education.
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11. Percentage of Total Disability by Race and Ethnicity
One specific way in which culture appears to spill over into education is in the seemingly disproportionate number of minority students assigned to special education. Such observations came to the attention of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education, and OCR mounted a major national survey to determine whether such observations were true (Donovan & Cross, 2002). Figure 1.5 provides a summary of the results in three categories of children with exceptionalities intellectual and developmental disabilities, learning disabilities, and emotional disturbance. In the area of IDD, the percentage of black students is more than twice that of white students in those programs, whereas the percentages of Hispanic and Asian students are somewhat less than the whites. In contrast, the learning disabilities category contains high percentages of white, black, and Hispanic students, but a very small percentage of Asian students. Again in the area of emotional disturbance the racial trend is the same as IDD.
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12. Modify learning and improve the environment
Intervention
Ecological Model
Interactions with environment
Role of the environment in the development of the child
Modify learning and improve the environment
Family Centered Model
Power provided to family
Strengths orientation
Entire family is unit of support for intervention
The Ecological Approach
What is the ecological approach?
The social interactions that the child with exceptionalities encounters form the child’s ecology. Whereas in the 1950s the concept of exceptionality was centered on the child, we have since come to realize the significance of the environment. With this recognition there has been a distinct shift from a medical model to an ecological model of exceptionality. The ecological approach tries not only to modify the child’s learning and behavior through direct contact with the child but also attempts to improve the environments surrounding the child. The support of the family in caring for the child continues to be important as the child grows, but it is joined by other factors, especially the school, peers, and the community. The ecological model also helps to realistically expect what can be accomplished through intervention programs.
The Family-Centered Model
The family-centered model is the most current model in the “professional family” intervention models.
Three unique features to the family-centered model are:
(1) changes the power relationship between professionals and family;
(2) adopts a strengths orientation to the exceptional individual; and
(3) the entire family is the unit of support.
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13. Family Influence Child-Family Interaction Parental Response
Family Harmony
Family Empowerment
Siblings
Family as Advocate
The Unique Influence of the Family
How do parents respond to the presence of a child with disabilities in the family?
With the shift toward an ecological model, the influence of the family is increasing important. Focus on the ecological model led to research that pointed out that educational programs could not change enough of the ecology of the child unless they also worked collaboratively with the family and the larger environment (Bailey, Buysee, Edmondson, & Smith, 1994; Zigler & Black, 1989). This family-focused approach helps parents become more autonomous and less dependent on professionals to meet their child’s needs.
() Child-Family Interaction
Differences in family attitudes, actions, and support affect how children with disabilities adjust to education or cope with their disabilities. (Review the case study Roger in the text)
() Parental Response
Parents who must cope with a child with severe disabilities face two major crises: (1) symbolic death of the child of their dreams—the actual grieving for the lost child, and (2) providing for daily care of the child—that is, providing for appropriate care, which goes above and beyond care for the child without disabilities.
Stages of mourning parent go through: shock, denial, guilt, anger, sadness, and acceptance (consistent with mourning and grieving processes originally identified by Kubler-Ross).
() Family Responsibility
The concept of family harmony focuses on the agreed-on responsibilities within the family life cycle. Professionals need to become aware of these responsibilities and not assume accountability for them. With a greater awareness of parent empowerment, the parent becomes a knowledge holder who tries to provide needed information. Professionals need to involve parents as team members in organized parent groups. The parents actively seek and collect more information on the child and also act as advocates for the child.
() Parent Empowerment
Parent empowerment refers to the parents as taking an active rather than passive role in their child’s education. This approach has the family actively seeking and collecting information from many different sources, and has resulted in a more collaborative relationship between parents and educators. Parents serve three primary functions as collaborators in their child’s education program. They are a valuable source of information for professionals, they can take an active part in the teaching process, and they can reinforce learning.
() Siblings
The role of the sibling must be considered to further understand how the child with exceptionalities is perceived. Siblings may have questions that need to be answered concerning his/her siblings exceptionality and its impact on the family. The Sibling Support Project are an example of organized help for siblings. Discuss the story of Roger’s sister in the text.
() Family as Advocate
A number of parent organizations have evolved to ensure that the rights of children with exceptionalities are addressed at the local, state, and federal levels. These organizations have successfully stimulated important legislation for children with disabilities and increased public awareness.
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14. Cultural Influence Culture Cultural Awareness
The social context in which the child with exceptionalities interacts includes the environmental forces of school, peers, the larger society, and culture itself. Children from diverse cultural backgrounds are often exposed to conflicting expectations and values in the home and in the school. When the values honored by the school conflict with a student’s culture, the preference is for cooperation rather than competition. All involved must work toward collaboration.
. Families from Diverse Cultures
Culture refers to the attitudes, values, customs, and language that family and friends transmit to children. This culture has been passed down from former generations and forms an individual’s heritage. Culture cannot be separated from the social context of the child with exceptionalities. It should provide a framework in which to begin intervention strategies.
One of the responsibilities of teachers and teachers-to-be trying to be culturally aware is self-awareness (Turnbull & Turnbull, 2002). It is important that teachers are aware of what factors shape their own cultural views, in particular, to know that their cultural beliefs and traditions may work well for them but not necessarily for others (Turnbull & Turnbull, 1997). Teachers should be aware of the cultures that affect all of the children they work with, and identify the strengths of the cultures of each family.
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