Unit 5- Learning Disabilities
IDEA 2004 regulations made a significant change from the 1997 language in regard to use of the "discrepancy model" in identifying a student as having a learning disability. Which of the following statements correctly identifies that change?
"Discrepancy" may be among a variety of methods used by school districts for determining the presence of a learning disability
Learning disabilities definition
"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 may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include children who have learning disabilities which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, or mental retardation, or emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage
Characteristics of learning disabilities
-disorders of attention -hyperactivity -info processing problems -lack of cognitive strategies for learning -memory difficulties -oral language difficulties -poor gross & fine motor skills -psychological processing deficits -quantitive disabilities -reading disorders -social/emotional challenges -written language problems
Possible reasons for this decrease include the following:
-students identifying as other disabilities such as ADHD -improvements in the quality of instructions -identification procedures are better -early childhood programs have expanded
The IDEA language contains two central components worthy of additional attention:
1) the notion of a discrepancy between the student's academic performance and his or her estimated or assumed ability or potential, and 2) a passage that has come to be known as the exclusionary clause, which specifies that a learning disability cannot be due primarily to sensory impairments, intellectual disability, emotional problems, or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage
Recent statistics compiled by the U.S. Department of Education (2012b) indicate that only six out of ten students with learning disabilities graduate from high school with a regular diploma, while almost ___% drop out of school—the second highest dropout rate of all pupils with disabilities.
25%
Learning disabilities is the largest category within special education, accounting for about ___% of all individuals receiving services
40%
investigators posit four basic categories for explaining the etiology of learning disabilities:
Acquired trauma Genetic and hereditary influences Biochemical abnormalities Environmental possibilities
13 types of learning disabilities
Autism Deaf-blindness Deafness Emotional disturbance Hearing impairment Intellectual disability Multiple disabilities Orthopedic impairment Other health impairment (includes ADHD) Specific learning disability (includes dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and other learning differences) Speech or language impairment Traumatic brain injury Visual impairment, including blindnes
3 broad approaches to teaching academic skills:
Cognitive training direct instruction learning strategies
Cognitive training
Cognitive training is an umbrella approach covering a variety of educational procedures. It seeks to manipulate or modify a student's underlying thought patterns to affect observable changes in performance ex: self instruction mnemonics
Bill is failing his American history class because he constantly confuses or forgets important names, dates, and events despite his long hours of study. He will have a test next week on the American Civil War. What instructional technique would help him learn and recall the important facts?
Creating a mnemonic chart of the names of important generals
Genetic/Hereditary Influences
Do learning disabilities run in families? Researchers investigating this question believe that some learning problems are inherited; however, no single gene is believed to cause learning disabilities
Direct Instruction
Drill and practice are stressed. DI lessons, which are teacher-directed, are precisely scripted, fast-paced, and typically presented to small groups of children, usually five to ten. Teachers lead their students using a "script" or precisely worded lesson in an effort to ensure consistency and quality of instruction.
A student is highly intelligent and artistically talented but suffers from dyslexia and dysgraphia. Which of the following conditions would most likely support an LD diagnosis for this student?
Dysfunctional neurological processing
True or false? Under IDEA, all states must use the same severe discrepancy formula as the diagnostic basis for specific learning disabilities.
FALSE; Currently, there is no single, established standard across all 50 states to show a discrepancy between aptitude and achievement for an LD diagnosis. States even vary widely in which tests or discrepancy formula are used by educators. The result is that a student can be diagnosed with LD in one state and not in another
True or false? ADHD is a learning disability.
FALSE; Not all students with learning disabilities will exhibit the characteristics identified. For example, not all students with learning disabilities have ADHD, and vice versa. It is often the frequency, intensity, and duration of the behaviors that lead to problems in school and elsewhere
True or false? Individuals with learning disabilities usually exhibit the same learning, emotional, and social characteristics among them.
FALSE; The IDEA definition calls this disability category "specific learning disabilities" (SLD) because, unlike the other disability categories, it is an "umbrella" category that encompasses many different issues--and many different combinations of those issues. Examples include, but are not limited to reading, writing, spelling, or math problems; processing disorders; organizational difficulties; social skill disorders; and gross motor issues
Learning Strategies
In other words, learning strategies are the tools that individuals use to help themselves learn and recall new material. The goal of this approach is to help students become more actively engaged and involved in their own learning.
Biochemical abnormalities
In the mid-1970s, Feingold (1975, 1976) championed the view that allergic reactions to certain artificial colorings, flavorings, and additives contained in many food products contribute to children's learning problems and hyperactive behavior Another popular theory of this era was megavitamin therapy, whose chief advocate was psychiatrist Alan Cott. Cott (1972) theorized that learning disabilities can be caused by the inability of a person's blood to synthesize a normal amount of vitamins
Common Components of Definitions of Learning Disabilities
Intellectual functioning within normal range Significant gap or disrepancy between a student's assumed potential and actual achievement Cognitive processing deficitsInference that learning disabilities are not primarily caused by other disabilities or extrinsic factors Difficulty in learning in one or more academic areas Presumption of central nervous system dysfunction Lifelong condition
Norm-referenced tests
Measures student ability against mastery level performance by other students
Cognitive training: Mnemonic strategies
Mnemonic strategies are memory tools for helping students recall facts and relationships. Teachers frequently help their students transform abstract material into a more concrete form by constructing personally meaningful representations of the information—that is, a picture or pattern of letters. For example, one popular trick frequently used by beginning music students to help recall the treble staff is the sentence, "Every good boy does fine," which represents the notes e, g, b, d, and f
Which statement below best describes the term "Response to Intervention ( RTI)"?
RTI is a procedure where a student is exposed to increasingly intensive tiers (usually three, and sometimes four) of scientifically validated instructional intervention with ongoing progress monitoring. In addition to its use as a diagnostic tool for students being evaluated for possible special education services
Federal law mandates that an Individual Transition Plan (ITP) be part of every IEP of each student with a disability after age 16.
True PL 108-446 clearly requires that each secondary student with disabilities have an Individual Transition Plan (ITP) as part of his/her IEP.
Direct Instruction qualities
Scripted, fast-paced lessons delivered to small groups of students are a hallmark of this approach. Continuous monitoring of student performance throughout lessons, with immediate feedback, is a hallmark of this approach. Teacher-guided drill and practice is a hallmark of this approach. This approach uses continuous instruction until students' mastery of the content is achieved. This approach is a comprehensive, highly-organized, and teacher-led instructional approach.
If an adult with LD goes to college, he or she can qualify for reasonable accommodations with proper documentation under which laws ?
Section 504 and ADA
Cognitive Training qualities
Self-instruction is one example of this approach Mnemonic strategies are one example of this approach. This is a pedagogical approach concerned with the manipulation or modification of a student's underlying thought patterns.
Based on established definitions, which of the following statements best explains the federal interpretation of a learning disability?
Some people lack information processing skills that are conducive to learning
Assessment strategies
Standardized tests, curriculum-based measurement, portfolio assessment
Learning Strategies qualities
Strategies Intervention Model/Strategic Instruction Model (SIM) is one example of this approach. This approach teaches students how to learn by giving them the techniques, principles and rules they can apply independently to many tasks and learning situations.
True or false? The learning strategies approach differs from other instructional approaches for LD students mainly because it relies on methods of teaching that are effective in traditional classrooms.
TRUE; it teaches students how to learn
Criterion-referenced tests
Teacher-made tests for specific skills
Response to Intervention (RTI)
With the reauthorization of IDEA in 2004, some of the preceding concerns were addressed. States and local school districts now have the option of choosing between the achievement-ability discrepancy model and making eligibility decisions on the basis of how a pupil responds to scientific, research-based educational interventions (1) the use of evidence-based or scientifically validated instructional practices and (2) the frequent and systematic assessment of the individual's performance, known as progress monitoring
Which condition is recognized as a cause of learning disabilities (LD)?
accident related brain injury
Most learning disabilities are identified in_______________.
adolescent males
Environmental possibilities
attributes the etiology of learning disabilities to a host of environmental factors such as low socioeconomic status, malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare, and other variables that may contribute to neurological dysfunction also quality of instruction
calculators can aid students with learning disabilities who struggle in calculation or the processing of
basic mathematical facts
Determining whether the student exhibits a discrepancy between assumed ability and actual educational achievement is at the heart of assessing a student for possible placement in a program for individuals with learning disabilities. This discrepancy is typically established by
comparing a student's performance on a standardized achievement test with a measure of cognitive abilities or intelligence
Over the past few years there has been a gradual, but steady, ______ in the number of students identified as learning disabled
decrease
From 2011 to 2012, ___ out of every ten students who received special education services in the United States had been diagnosed with learning disabilities
four
Most students with learning disabilities do most of their learning in the ______, but it used to be in a ______
general classroom resource room since the 1990s, learning is more inclusive
Most assistive technology for adolescents and adults with learning disabilities are ___-tech devices that may be difficult to obtain due to cost and/or use due to lack of training
high
As opposed to cognitive training, direct instruction is designed to ____________.
improve specific skills rather than correct processing impairments
Acquired trauma
injury or damage to the central nervous system (CNS) that originates outside the person and results in learning disorders that can happen prenatally, perinatally or postnatally
According to the IDEA, a learning disability (LD) diagnosis is typically justified when a student demonstrates a noted discrepancy between________________.
intellectual ability and academic achievement
Learning disabilities is therefore by far the _____ category of special education at 3.5% of the student population
largest
Which of the following best describes the instructional approach that teaches students how to learn by giving them the techniques, principles, and rules they can apply independently to many tasks and learning situations?
learning strategies
Smartphones and other portable, mobile technologies can also help students with
memory problems ex: setting a reminder
mathematical impairments
one in four students w a learning disability
The RTI model represents a significant conceptual shift in thinking from a "wait to fail" approach to
one that emphasizes early identification, intervention, and possible prevention
Aside from content-area support, assistive technology can also help students with learning disabilities with regard to
organization and self management
Audiobooks or text-to-speech can help students compensate for
reading challenges
Cognitive training: Self Instruction
self-instruction is a strategy whereby students initially talk to themselves out loud while performing a task—children verbalize instructions necessary to complete the activity and then verbally reward themselves for success. Self-instruction makes the student aware of the various steps used in problem solving and then gradually brings these strategies under covert verbal control
Deficits in metacognition affect reading because
students cannot set goals for prioritizing information
_____ use text-to-speech software to convert text into spoken voice output. This could compensate for auditory problems as people could hear sounds, words, or phrases repeated with increased volume as needed.
talking computers
Which of the following aspects of learning disability are common to both the federal IDEA legislation and the definition provided by the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA, formerly known as the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities)?
that LD interferes with an individual's ability in verbal and/or non-verbal communication (i.e., reading, writing, speaking, listening) and in mathematics
metacognition
the ability to evaluate and monitor one's own performance
A team may determine that a child has a specific learning disability if:
the child does not achieve commensurate with his or her age and ability levels in one or more of the areas listed in paragraph (a) (2) of this section, when provided with learning experiences appropriate for the child's age and ability levels; and the team finds that a child has a severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in one or more of the following areas: oral expression; listening comprehension; written expression; basic reading skill; reading comprehension; mathematics calculation; or mathematics reasoning
IDEA's definition of Learning Disabilities states that the condition " ... does not include children who have learning disabilities which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, or mental retardation, or emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage." This language explaining what LD is not is often referred to as ____________________________.
the exclusionary clause
Livescribe™ smartpens
the pen has the capability of recording the audio of a lecture or discussion while the students simultaneously take notes on its accompanying special paper
Strategies Intervention Model (SIM) or Strategic Instruction Model
this approach is one of the field's most comprehensive models for providing strategy instruction. It can, according to one authority, "be used to teach virtually any strategic intervention" This pedagogical technique emphasizes the cognitive aspects of learning rather than focusing on mastering specific subject content
True or False. Developmentally delayed is a less stigmatizing label for difficulties that preschool age children may exhibit.
true
Generally speaking, in most instances, a discrepancy of ___ years or more below expected performance levels in one academic area is necessary for a designation of learning disabilities.
two years
Dyslexia
type of reading disorder in which the student fails to recognize and comprehend written words—a severe impairment in the ability to read results from difficulties w phonological awareness—a lack of understanding of the rules that govern the correspondence between specific sounds and certain letters that make up words
Reading impairments
well over half of all students with a learning disabilty
computers (word processing programs) and their related software (for example, speech-to-text, word prediction, spell-checkers) can benefit students with
writing challenges