Chapter 6: Learners with Learning Disabilities

What is used to monitor or assess progress of students with learning disabilities?

* Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) *. Informal reading inventory (IRI) * Mathematics dynamic assessment (MDA)

Three possible reasons a person came to have neurological dysfunction:

1. Genetic factors 2. Toxins 3. Medical factors

Five essential components of effective reading instruction:

1. Phonological awareness training 2. Phonics instruction 3. Fluency instruction 4. Vocabulary instruction 5. Comprehension instruction

The NJCLD presented their own definition because of the dissatisfaction with the following factors in the federal definition:

1. Reference to psychological process 2. Omission of the intrinsic nature of learning disabilities 3. Omission of adults 4. Omission of self-regulation and social interaction problems 5. Inclusion of terms difficult to define 6. Confusion about the exclusion clause 7. Inclusion of spelling

Students with learning disabilities have at least two types of memory problems:

1. Short-term memory (STM) or working memory (WM) - the ability to hold information for a short period of time. 2. retrieval of information from long-term memory (RLTM)

IQ-achievement discrepency

A comparison between scores on standardized intelligence and achievement tests. Most states rely on this to determine whether a student has a severe discrepancy.

National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) definition of Learning Disabilities

A general term that refers to 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, presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory behaviors, social perception and social interaction may exist with learning disabilities but do not by themselves constitute a learning disability.

APA definition of Learning Disabilities

A neurological disorder that affects academic learning.

Self-regulated strategy development (SRSD)

A research-based model that has been highly effective. It approaches writing as a problem-solving task that involves planning, knowledge, and skills.With SRSD are several strategies focused on different aspects of writing.

Dysgraphia

A specific learning disability in handwriting. Are sometimes very slow writers, and their written products are sometime illegible.

Dyscalculia

A specific learning disability in mathematics. Thy types of problems these students have include difficulties with computation of math facts as well as work problems.

Repeated readings

A technique to improve reading fluency whereby students repeatedly (several times a week) read the same short passages aloud until they are reading at an appropriate pace with few or no errors.

Two ways to identify learning disabilities

Achievement-ability discrepancy - which is the traditional approach to identifying learning disabilities. Response to intervention (RTI), which is the federally preferred way of identifying learning disabilities contained in the reauthorization.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS)

Adaptations of the MRI. Unlike the MRI they are used to detect changes in brain activity while a person is engaged in a task, such as reading.

Toxins

Agents that can cause malformations or defect in the developing fetus. Being exposed to Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and lead at a lower degree than what may cause intellectual disabilities are potential causes of learning disabilities.

Phonemic awareness

An understanding that specific words can be broken down into individual sounds. For example, the word "sat" has three phonemes or sounds: /s/ /a/ /t/.

Phonological awareness

An understanding that the speech flow can be broken down into smaller units of sound units such as words, syllables, onsets-times, and phonemes.

Intraindividual varition

Children with learning disabilities tend to exhibit variability within their own profiles of abilities (i.e. a child might be 2 or 3 years above grade level in reading but 2 or 3 years behind grade level in math). Such uneven profiles account for references to SPECIFIC learning disabilities in the literature on learning disabilities.

Heritability studies

Compare the prevalence of learning disabilities in identical versus fraternal twins.

Familiality studies

Examine the degree to which a certain condition, such as a learning disability, occurs in a single family (i.e. the tendency for it to "run in the family").

Medical factors

Examples: premature birth places children at risk for neurological dysfunction and learning disabilities and pediatric AIDS can result in neurological damage resulting in learning disabilities.

Most common accommodations for students with learning disorders

Extended time & small-group setting administration

Federal definition of Learning Disabilities

First signed into law in 1975. The term "specific learning disability" means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. Disorders included - perceptual disorders, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Disorders NOT included - A learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or econimic disadvantage.

People with learning disabilities often have problems in one or more of these areas:

Handwriting, spelling, and composition.

Achievement-ability discrepency

In order to be identified as learning disabled, the student needs to exhibit a "severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability". In other words, a child who was achieving well below his potential would be identified as learning disabled.

Summary of performance (SOP)

Includes information such as assessment reports, accommodations, recommendations for assistive technology, and support services.

Mnemonics

Involve using pictures and/or words to help remember information.

Reciprocal teaching

Involves an interactive dialogue between the teacher and students in which the teacher-student relationship is similar to that of an expert (teacher) and an apprentice (student). The teacher gradually relinquishes her role as the sole instructor and allows the students to assume the role of co-instructor for brief periods.

Task analysis

Involves breaking down academic problems into their component parts so that teachers can teach the parts separately and then teach the students to put the parts together in order to demonstrate the larger skill.

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM)

Involves direct and frequent samples of performance on items from the curriculum in which students are being instructed.

Phonics instruction

Involves learning the alphabetic system, that is, the pairing of letters and words with their sounds.

Self-instruction

It's purpose is to make students aware of the various stages of problem-solving tasks while they are performing them and to bring behavior under verbal control.

Prevalence of learning disabilities

Just under 5% of children between the ages of 6 and 17 years have been identified as learning disabled by the public schools. Learning disabilities is by far the larges category of special education. The size of the category has more than doubled since 1976-1977. Boys outnumber girls by about 3 to 1.

Positron-emission tomography (PET) scan

Like an fMRI or fMRS, it is used while the person is performing a task. The subject is injected with a substance containing a low amount of radiation, which collects in active neurons. Using a scanner to detect the radioactive substance, researchers can tell which part of the brain are actively engaged during various tasks.

Even-related potentials (ERP) / evoked potentials

Measure the brain's response to perceptual and cognitive processing. They result from the administration of an electroencephalograph (EEG)

Response-to-intervention (RTI) or response-to-treatment

No universally accepted RTI model exists but typically it involves three tiers of progressively more intensive instruction, with monitory of progress in each of the tiers. Tier 1 - involves instruction (which is supposed to be evidence-based) that typically occurs in the general education classroom by the general education teacher. Tier 2 - students receive small-group instruction several times a week. Those not responding favorably to the small-group instruction are referred for evaluation for special education (Tier 3).

Metacognition

Refers to a student's ability to think about his own thinking and is critical to learning, memory, and academic achievement.

Minimal brain injury

Refers to individuals who show behavioral but not neurological signs of brain injury.

Reading comprehension

Refers to the ability to gain meaning from print (which is the ultimate goal of reading).

Reading fluency

Refers to the ability to read effortlessly and smoothly. Comprises three skills: Reading words accurately, at an appropriate pace, and with prosody.

Cause of learning disabilities

Researchers have documented neurological dysfunction as a probable cause of learning disabilities using neuroimaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS), and positron-emission tomography (PET) scans, as well as measuring the brain's electrical activity with event-related potentials (ERPs, also referred to as evoked potentials).

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Sends magnetic radio waves through the head and creates cross-sectional images of the brain.

Self-monitoring

Students keep track of their own behavior, often through use of two components: Self-evaluation Self-recording

Scaffolded instruction

Teachers provide assistance to students when they are first learning tasks, and then gradually reduce assistance so that eventually students do the tasks independently.

Decoding

The ability to convert the printed words to spoken words and is highly dependent on phonemic awareness.

Self-regulation

The ability to know that you didn't understand what you just read.

Strategy use

The ability to repair your comprehension by rereading is one demonstration of strategy use.

Mathematics dynamic assessment (MDA)

The teacher integrates research-based assessment techniques including: 1. examining mathematical understanding at concrete, semiconcrete, and abstract levels. 2. Assessing mathematical interests and experiences. 3. Examining error patters. 4. Using flexible interviews.

Prosody

To make your oral reading sound like spoken language, using appropriate intonation and expression.

Genetic factors

Two most common types of studies used to examine the genetic basis of learning disabilities: 1. Familiality studies 2. Heritability studies

Interindividual variation

Using the term, heterogeneity - made up of parts that are different - i.e. some students with learning disabilities will have problems in reading, some with have problems in math, some will have problems in spelling, etc. "no two are exactly alike"

Graphic organizers

Visual devices that employ lines, circles, and boxes to organize information: hierarchic, cause/effect, compare/contrast, and cyclic or linear sequences.

Informal reading inventory (IRI)

a series of reading passages or word graded in order of difficulty. Starting with easy passages and increasing to more difficult passages, the teacher monitors the student's performance.

Direct instruction (DI)

focuses on the details of the instructional process. A critical component of DI is task analysis.

Nonverbal learning disabilities

having difficulties in "reading" the emotions of others.

Cognitive training

involves three components: 1. changing thought processes 2. providing strategies for learning 3. Teaching self-initiative