EDU 477SPECIAL EDUCATION

"Specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability. ( IDEA-Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)

Special education is in place to provide additional services, support, programs, specialized placements or environments to ensure that all students' educational needs are provided for. 

Special Education

Children with Specific Learning Disabilities, or SLD's, is the fastest growing population of special education students whose difficulties require special education services, but are best served in an inclusive, general education classroom with supports. SLD's include dyslexia, aphasia, perceptual disabilities and brain injury

Disabilities in Special Education

Learning disability or neurobehavioral disorder is a classification including several areas of functioning in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors.

While learning disability, learning disorder and learning difficulty are often used interchangeably, they differ in many ways.

Learning disability

Learning disability refers to significant learning problems in an academic area. These problems, however, are not enough to warrant an official diagnosis.

 Learning disorder is an official clinical diagnosis, whereby the individual meets certain criteria, as determined by a professional (psychologist, pediatrician, etc.)

The difference is in degree, frequency, and intensity of reported symptoms and problems, and thus the two should not be confused. 

When the term "learning disabilities" is used, it describes a group of disorders characterized by inadequate development of specific academic, language, and speech skills

Types of learning disabilities include reading disability (dyslexia), mathematics disability (dyscalculia) and writing disability (dysgraphia).

Learning Disability vs. Learning Disorder

Weak memory for visual sequences. Weak memory for audtitory sequence. Difficulty inferring or predicting. (This relates to comprehension in stories

with questions like: What do you think will happen next? Why do you think the character did that? etc.)

Slower processing rate. (When 2-3 instructions are given, this child is often still processing the first instruction and will therefore miss the next instruction.)

Lacking permanence or transference of skill. (May appear to know something one day but not the next, or can do it in one subject but not another.)

Sound symbol relationships are often weak and the ability to de-code text is also weak.

Academic performance is full of gaps and often weak overall. Word retrieval will be weak. Will have a strong reliance on familar things and routines, needs to stay in

the comfort zone. Difficulty distinguishing between foreground and background noise.

Symptoms Of Language Disorders/Delays

Problems pronouncing words Trouble finding the right word Difficulty rhyming Trouble learning the alphabet, numbers, colors,

shapes, days of the week Difficulty following directions or learning

routines Difficulty controlling crayons, pencils, and

scissors or coloring within the lines Trouble with buttons, zippers, snaps, learning

to tie shoes

Preschool signs and symptoms of learning disabilities

Trouble learning the connection between letters and sounds

Unable to blend sounds to make words Confuses basic words when reading Consistently misspells words and makes

frequent reading errors Trouble learning basic math concepts Difficulty telling time and remembering

sequences Slow to learn new skills

Ages 5-9 signs and symptoms of learning disabilities

Difficulty with reading comprehension or math skills

Trouble with open-ended test questions and word problems

Dislikes reading and writing; avoids reading aloud Spells the same word differently in a single

document Poor organizational skills (bedroom, homework,

desk is messy and disorganized) Trouble following classroom discussions and

expressing thoughts aloud Poor handwriting

Ages 10-13 signs and symptoms of learning disabilities

Diagnosing a learning disability is a process. It involves testing, history taking, and observation by a trained specialist.

Clinical psychologists School psychologists Child psychiatrists Educational psychologists Developmental psychologists Neuropsychologist Psychometrist Occupational therapist (tests sensory disorders that can

lead to learning problems) Speech and language therapist

The diagnosis and testing process for learning disabilities