Caring for Our People: Special Education

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Caring for Our PeopleSpecial Education

• Training by
• Spirit Lake Consulting, Inc.

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Our training is...

• Being created with input from community members
• Designed to be useful for people with
  disabilities, family members and staff
• Under constant development to provide the latest
  up-to-date information and meet community needs

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Introduction

• Who gets special education?
• More than 10 of children nationwide
• 20-30 on most reservations
• Its the law!
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
  requires quality services for students with
  disabilities, including preschoolers infants

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WHO QUALIFIES?

• There are thirteen categories for special
  education
• Mental Retardation
• Learning Disabilities
• Serious Emotional Disturbance
• Visual Impairment
• Hearing Impairment
• Deafness
• Deaf-Blindness

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WHO QUALIFIES?(continued)

1. Autism
2. Speech or Language Impairment
3. Traumatic Brain Injury
4. Orthopedic Impairment
5. Multiple Disabilities
6. Other Health Impairments

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DEFINING THESE CATEGORIES Mental Retardation

• .... a condition in which a person has
  trouble learning, absorbing, and practicing every
  day skills, which slows them from being able to
  take care of themselves and interact with others.
  This disorder is usually present from birth,
  although some cases of retardation can occur
  later in life.

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Learning Disabilities

• defined by law as "an imperfect ability to
  read, write, speak or perform mathematical
  calculations and which is not due to physical,
  sensory or emotional impairment, mental
  retardation or socio-cultural disadvantage."

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Serious Emotional
Disturbance

• Includes depression, Attention
  Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Conduct Disorders
• An ADHD child may impulsively push someone
  too hard on a swing, knock the child down on the
  ground and be sorry she did this afterward. A
  child with a conduct disorder might push the kid
  out of the swing and say she didn't do it.

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Visual Impairment

• The terms partially sighted, low vision,
  legally blind, and totally blind are used to
  describe students with visual impairments.
• "Partially sighted" indicates a visual problem
  that has resulted in a need for special
  education
• "Low vision" generally refers to a severe visual
  impairment, not necessarily limited to distance
  vision.
• "Legally blind" means that a person has less than
  20/200 vision in the better eye or a very limited
  field of vision.
• Totally blind students learn via braille or
  other non-visual media.

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Hearing Impairment

• is when there is an impairment in hearing
  that affects a child's educational performance
  but that is not included under the definition of
  deafness (see next slide).
• Each state defines the degree of hearing
  loss which determines a student's eligibility for
  special education services. Hard of hearing is
  defined as a hearing loss of 35-60 decibels in
  the better ear.

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Deafness

• is a hearing impairment that is so severe
  that the child is impaired in understanding
  speech.
• Deafness is usually defined as a hearing loss
  of 70 decibels or greater in the better ear.

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Deaf-Blindness

• refers to a combination of hearing and
  visual impairments which cause such severe
  communication and other developmental and
  educational needs that they cannot be
  accommodated in special education programs solely
  for children with deafness or children with
  blindness.

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Autism

• this category includes individuals with
  all levels of pervasive development disorder
  the most known of which being autism. People with
  PDD have deficits in social interaction and
  communication.
• Aspergers Syndrome, Retts Syndrome and
  Childhood Disintegrative Disorder are also
  classified under PDD.

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DEFINITIONS (continued)Speech or Language
Impairment

• includes communication or language
  disorders that affect communication and/or oral
  functioning that affects speech.
• Speech disorders include articulation
  disorder and phonological disorder.
• Children with language disorders may have
  trouble with matching a word with its meaning,
  creating sentences, or comprehending what someone
  is saying.

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Traumatic Brain Injury

• usually occurs in an accident when the
  brain literally bounces back and forth inside the
  skull, often hitting in both the front and the
  back of the brain. Brain injury can also occur
  due to lack of oxygen.
• Brain injury is the most common cause of
  death and disability in children. Effects can be
  as serious as mental retardation, learning
  disabilities, loss of vision or speech, inability
  to remember new things and number of other
  complications.

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Orthopedic Impairment

• according to the ADA (2005), an
  individual with a physical disability is a person
  who either
• has a physical or mental impairment that
  substantially limits one or more major life
  activities
• has a record of such an impairment
• is regarded as having such an impairment.
• These conditions can be related to any
  physical disorder or condition or anatomical loss
  affecting one or more body systems. The loss can
  be muscular-skeletal (e.g., a missing limb) or
  neurological (I.e., the body part does not
  function, such as in paraplegia).

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Multiple Disabilities

• refers to a combination of disabilities,
  such as mental retardation and orthopedic
  impairment, that cannot be served in programs for
  either individual disability alone.

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DEFINITIONS (continued) Other Health
Impairments

• cover a variety of diseases and
  disorders focused on a special education category
  that refers to people who have limited strength,
  energy or alertness that affects their ability to
  learn in a normal classroom.
• Less than .5 of students are diagnosed
  with other health impairments.
• Some of these disorders are present at
  birth, such as sickle cell anemia, asthma,
  hemophilia or epilepsy. Other impairments are
  caused by acquired conditions such as lead
  poisoning, rheumatic fever, HIV, or cancer.