1. Exceptional Children
Chapter 1: The Purpose and Promise of Special Education
&
Chapter 5: Learning Disabilities

2. Who are exceptional children?
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Who are exceptional children?
▪ children with learning and/or behavior problems, children with physical disabilities or sensory impairments, and children who are intellectually gifted

3. Impairment: the loss or reduced function of a body part or organ
Key terms
Handicap: a problem encountered when interacting with the environment
Disability: exists when an impairment limits the ability to perform certain tasks
At Risk: children who have a greater-than-usual chance of developing a disability

4. Categories of Exceptionality
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Children in special education represent approximately 12% of the school age population.
About twice as many males as females receive special education.
The number of children and youth who receive special education has grown every year since a national count was begun in the school year.
The four largest categories are learning disabilities, speech and language impairments, mental retardation, and emotional disturbance.
Many children are affected by more than one disability condition.
▪ Intellectual disabilities (mental retardation)
▪ Learning Disabilities
▪ Emotional or behavioral disorders
▪ Autism
▪ Speech or language impairments
▪ Hearing impairments
▪ Visual impairments
▪ Physical or health impairments
▪ Traumatic brain injury
▪ Multiple disabilities
▪ Giftedness and special talents
Categories of Exceptionality
Prevalence

5. What is Special Education?
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Majority of children with disabilities spend most of the school day in general education classrooms, others are in separate classrooms or separate residential and day schools
Purposeful intervention designed to prevent, eliminate, and/or overcome the obstacles that might keep a child with disabilities from learning and from full participation in school and society
Special education is individually planned, specialized, intensive, goal-directed instruction
What is Special Education?

6. What are the advantages of labeling students with exceptionalities?
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Why do we label and classify exceptional children?
What are the advantages of labeling students with exceptionalities?
If disability labels do not tell us what and how to teach, why are they used in special education?
What are the disadvantages of labeling students with exceptionalities?
When is special Education needed? How do we know?

7. Types of Special Education!
Individually Planned
Specialized
Incorporates a variety of instructional materials and supports, natural and contrived, to help students acquire and use targeted learning objectives
Teaching methods and instructional materials selected for each student

8. Types of Special Education!
Research type-based methods
Guided by student performance
Frequent measure of student learning used to inform modifications in instruction
Instructional programs and teaching procedures selected on basis of research support

9. Types of Special Education!
Intensive
Goal-Directed
Purposeful instruction intended to help student achieve the greatest possible personal self-sufficiency and success in the present and future
Instruction presented with attention to detail, precision, structure, clarity, and repeated practice

10. Focus Questions
Why have court cases and federal legislation been required to ensure that children with disabilities receive a free appropriate education?

11. Focus Questions
How can special education provide all 3 kinds of intervention on behalf of a child?
Preventative/Remedial/Compensatory

12. Focus Questions
In what ways do general and special education differ? Are those differences important? If so, why and how?

13. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Originally passed in 1975, this law has been amended five times and was finally renamed in 1990.
▪ IDEA has had a profound influence in every school in the country and has changed the roles and responsibilities of general and special educators, school administrators, parents, and students with disabilities in the educational process.

14. Six Major Principles of IDEA
Zero reject
Nondiscriminatory identification and evaluation
Free appropriate public education
Least restrictive environment
Due process safeguards
Parent and student participation and shared decision making

15. Legal Challenges Based on IDEA
Extended school year
Related services
Disciplining students with disabilities
Right to education

16. Related Legislation Gifted and Talented Children
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Americans with Disabilities Act
Accountability for Student Learning
Emphasis on What Works Based on Scientific Research
Implications for Students with Disabilities

17. Who are exceptional students?
Meet Jack!

18. What is a learning disability?
IDEA-a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language. May manifest itself in an imperfect ability to: listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do math. Does not include learning problems that are the result of other disabilities or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
NJCLD-A continuation of the IDEA definition, but NJCLD addresses the weaknesses of the above definition. The mentioned imperfect abilities are disorders which are intrinsic to the individual, and are presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span.

19. Characteristics
Learning disabilities are associated with problems in listening, reasoning, memory, attention, selecting and focusing on relevant stimuli, and the perception and processing of visual and/or auditory information.

20. Reading problems
Written language deficits
Math underachievement
Social skills deficits
Attention problems and hyperactivity
Behavioral problems
Low ratings of self-efficacy

21. The defining characteristic
-although students with learning disabilities are an extremely heterogeneous group, it is important to remember that the fundamental, defining characteristic of students with learning disabilities is the presence of specific and significant achievement deficits seemingly in spite of adequate overall intelligence.
The difference between what students with learning disabilities “are expected to do and what they can do…..grows larger and larger.”

22. 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
The number of students identified with learning disabilities grew tremendously from , the first school year the federal government reported such data

23. Causes in most cases the cause of a child’s LD is unknown
Other causes have been proposed
Brain damage
Heredity
Biochemical imbalance
Environmental factors

24. Identification and Assessment
Common assessments
Standardized intelligence and achievement tests
Criterion-referenced tests
Curriculum-based measurement
Direct and daily measurement

25. Response to Intervention (RTI)
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
What are the benefits of RTI?
What are some concerns?

26. Educational Approaches
Content Enhancements
Graphic Organizers and Visual Displays
Mnemonics
Note-taking strategies
Strategic note taking
Guided notes

27. Educational Placement Alternatives
General Education Classroom
Consultant Teacher
Resource Room
Separate Classroom