EDU 239

Portfolio
By: Kayla Colang, Brittni Battaglia, Taryn
Burkholder
 IDEA 2004
 IDEA 2004 gives in authority for legislation to strengthen
and improve earlier versions (41). Some of the key point of IDEA
is quality of personnel, IEP standards, and transitions services.
For quality of personnel what must be done “special education
specialists must hold full stat certification as special education
teachers and have a license to teach” (41). This document also
discusses IEP standards, “individualized education programs,
and must reflect scientifically based instructional practices,
cognitive behavioral interventions, and early intervention
services, as appropriate. They must include plans for the use of
assistive technology and short-term objectives for children with
disabilities who take alternative assessments” (41). The finally
thing that is discussed in this document is transition services, “a
transition plan must be included in all IEP’s for students at age
16 and for younger students if appropriate. Transition services
must include instruction, community experiences, development
of employment, and other post school adult-living objectives”
(41).
Section 504
 A 504 plan is for students that do not meet
the criteria for IDEA but are eligible for
services receive a 504 plan. Students that
have bad grades, patterns of suspensions,
behavioral problems, and have trouble
complete their homework or even doing
fall under receiving a 504 plan. The 504
plan “can act as a bridge between general
and special education and is a first step to
the response to intervention (RTI) model”
(41).
Definition:


  Physical Impairment- significant limitation,

impairment, or delay in physical capacity to move
coordinate actions, perform physical activities,
exhibited by difficulties in one or more of the
following areas; physical and motor tasks,
independent movement, performing basic life
functions. The term shall include severe
orthopedic impairments or impairments caused by
congenital anomaly, cerebral palsy, amputations,
and fractures if such impairment adversely affects
a students’ educational performance.


Some physical disabilities
are:
 cerebral palsy, neutral tube defects, seizure
disorders, traumatic brain injury, muscular
dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy,
juvenile arthritis, spinal curvatures etc.

For example- Cerebral
palsy
 cerebral palsy refers to a disorder of movement and
posture caused by damage to the motor control centers
of the brain. A child who has this disorder is limited to
muscle tone, and this disorder interferes with voluntary
movement and full control of the muscles, and delays
growth and fine motor development.


There are four different categories which include:



 In spastic cerebral palsy muscle tone is abnormally high.

So in this case a child who has this muscles and joints
are tight or still, and movements are limited in the
affected areas of the body.
 In dyskinetic cerebral palsy tonal abnormalities involve
the entire body. The individuals muscle tone is
changing constantly.


 



Continued…
 Ataxic cerebral palsy – individuals with this
disorder have trouble controlling their hands
and arms.
 A child with mixed cerebral palsy will have a
combination of all the disorders listed above,
but this combination will be different for each
child but all will likely have severe problems
with balance and coordination.
 Additional problems that can be associated with
cerebral palsy include: learning disabilities,
intellectual and development disabilities,
seizures, speech impairments, eating
problems, sensory impairments.

Differences
 The typical three-year-old has mastered many
skills, including sitting, walking, toilet training,
using a spoon, scribbling, and sufficient hand-
eye coordination to catch and throw a ball.
Also a typical student can participate in
physical activity such as football, soccer,
hockey, lacrosse etc. Running is a simple task
and wouldn’t have to be something challenge
for a student to excel in. Also, students have
control of their own body, and their muscle
tones are normal. Children continue to grow
rapidly and begin to develop fine-motor skills.
By age five most children demonstrate fairly
good control of pencils, crayons, and scissors.
Gross motor accomplishments may include the
ability to skip and balance on one foot.

Instructional Strategies
 depending on the disability, the assessment
will be modified to allow the child to
participate. These modifications are made
to accommodate the students’ disability
and to ensure that we get an accurate
picture of his or her abilities and needs.
Accommodations can include changes in
the testing materials or procedures that
allow students to participate so that their
abilities rather than their disabilities are
assessed.

Technology
 the Childs technology needs may include instructional
technology, assistive technology and technology related
to augmentative communication. Examples assistive
technology are: walker, wheelchair, university cuff and
strap for holding items in hand, non slip surface on chair,
eye glasses or brail material, flash alerting signals, toys
with Velcro, and computer games.



To seek help in the Community

 To seek help with early intervention go to

the following website:
http://nichcy.org/StateAgencies/Pages/Defa
ult.aspx

Emotional impairment:
 One or more of the following characteristics
exhibited over a long period of time and to a
marked degree that adversely affects
educational performance: and inability to learn
that cannot be explained by intellectual,
sensory or health factors; an ability to build or
maintain satisfactory interpersonal
relationships with peers and teachers,
inappropriate behavior or feelings under
normal circumstances, a general pervasive
mood of happiness or depression, or a
tendency to develop physical symptoms or
fear associated with personal or school
problems.
Characteristics of Emotional
Impairments:
 Inability to build or maintain satisfactory
interpersonal relationships in school.
 Inappropriate behaviors and or feelings
under normal circumstances.
 General mood of unhappiness or depression.
 Tendency to develop physical symptoms
(stomach ache, headache, etc.) when
faced with fears as they relate to school
and personal issues.

Differences:

 A student with this  While a child with the

disability differs from emotional impairment
has a hard time
a typical human interacting with others.
growth and Another difference is a
child with emotional
development impairment is low
patterns in many academic
ways. One way the achievement, while a
typical student can
dependent newborn excel in school work.
grows into a young Also typical students
person who can take begin to form groups of
friends, while a child
care of his or her with this disability will
own body
A student withand
a intentionally exclude
interact effectively themselves
A typical from peers.
student
disability 
with others.

Instructional Strategies


 Many children with emotional impairment not

only engage in non adaptive behaviors that
cause them trouble with their peers and
teachers but also lack positive social skills.
One specific goal of a special
education program is to enhance the use and
practice of socially expectable behaviors such
as self monitoring, self instruction, self
evaluation, and self reinforcement. Those
techniques are designed to increase students’
awareness, competent, and commitment to
eliminating negative behaviors and to
encourage the acquisition of constructive
ones.

Technology
 A computer can be an especially useful
learning tool for a student with a behavior
disorder because it provides an objective
neutral response to the child sometimes
provoking or challenging behavior.

To seek help in the community

 Mental Health Matters is an organization

that can help a child with emotional
impairments. The Mental Health
Association in Niagara County, Inc. will
create a community where mental
disorders are treated in the same manner
as physical disorders, where stigma no
longer exists, where recovery is an
expectation following mental disorder
diagnoses, where finding meaningful
employment is possible and living a safe,
satisfying life with meaningful relationships
is a reality.
Intellectual impairment
 Intellectual impairment- significant
limitation or impairment in the permanent
capacity for performing cognitive tasks,
functions, or problem solving, exhibited by
more than one of the following: a slower
rate of learning, disorganized patterns of
learning, difficulty with adaptive behavior,
and or difficulty abstract concepts.

Intellectual continued…
 Special education for children with IDD
(Intellectual Developmental Disabilities) is
separated based on whether their IDD is
mild or moderate. This will distinguish
these students from their agemates.
Factors which will justify their level of
intellectual development may include: the
ability to process information, the ability to
acquire and use language, and emotional
development . The most obvious
characteristic of children with IDD is their
limited cognitive ability. (155)
Intelluctual Continued..
 Usually this characteristic will show up in
their academic work. One of the main
problems children with IDD possess is
problems with central processing. This is
also known as the classification of a
stimulus through the use of memory,
reasoning, and evaluaton. Classification,
for example, appears to be one of the
largest problems for children with IDD .
Memory is also a huge problem for children
with IDD.
Differences
 Compared with other students, students
with intellectual impairment will generally
be much slower to learn new knowledge
and skills. Students with intellectual
impairment will have their learning of new
knowledge and skills affected in the areas
of attention, memory, perception, thought
processing and generalisation.

Adjustments may need to be
considered regarding:
As future teachers we need to consider making some adjustments'


such as follows:
 age appropriate, high interest activities
 curriculum content
 alternate formats for class tasks and assessment items
 breaking tasks into smaller and logically sequenced sub-tasks
 frequent and specific feedback for reinforcement and correction
 concrete materials and examples
 modelling, physical and verbal prompts
 short clear directions
 real life experiences connected beyond the classroom
 allowing 'wait time' for student to process information
 visual supports (e.g. symbol charts, pictorial timetables, self-
organisation charts)
 over learning opportunities
 assistive technology.

Effective teaching and
learning strategies may
include:
 scripting, modelling and role playing skills
 rehearsing skills in appropriate contexts
 identifying and creating situations to use
skills
 positively reinforcing the use of the skill in
everyday situations
 real life application of the skill.

In the community

 One thing that can help children with these

types of learning disabilities is the
special Olympics. This gives these kids the
opportunity to take part in sports and
activities that regular kids can do.
Sensory Impairment-
 hearing- Limitation, impairment, or absence of the
capacity to hear with amplification, resulting in one or
more of the following: reduced performance in hearing
acuity tasks, difficulty with oral communication, and/or
difficulty in understanding auditorallypresented
information in the education environment the term
included students who are death and students who are
hard of hearing.
 Vision- Limitation impairment; or absence of capacity to
see after correction, resulting in one or more of the
following: produced performance in visual acuity tasks,
difficulty with written communication, and/ or difficulty
with understanding information presented visually in
the education environment.
 Deaf blind- concomitant hearing and visual impairment,
the combination of which causes severe
communication and other developmental and
educational needs.

Characteristics:
 Students who are deaf or hard of hearing do not
all have the same characteristics. Some have
a measure of usable residual hearing and use
a device to amplify sounds (FM system).
 Some choose to speak; others use very little or
no oral communication. Some students are
extremely adept at speech reading, while
others have very limited ability to “read lips.”
For some, sign language and/or finger spelling
are the preferred means of communication;
other communication choices include gestures
and writing. Most students who are deaf or
hard of hearing have experience
communicating with the hearing population.
Let them be the guide on how best to
communicate.

Differences
 Students with hearing problems differ from
other students with their delay in language
and speech. Their speech and language along
with their reading and spelling skills are
delayed because usually a student would learn
from listening to others read and talk but since
they cannot fully hear it delays their
development. Without hearing how words are
pronounced or without being able to hear how
the words are articulated the student doesn't
get the true concept. The lack and delay in
speech and language effects the development
of the students cognitive and academic skills
could differ from the true meaning. For
students who do not have these disabilities
they get the true concept they don’t have any
problems understanding what is being said or
asked.
Instructional strategies

 Gaining Attention: Teachers should make sure

you have a deaf student’s attention before
speaking. A light touch on the shoulder, a wave, or
other visual signal will help.
 Preferential Seating: Offer the student
preferential seating near the front of the
classroom so that he/she can get as much from
visual and auditory clues as possible or clearly see
a sign language interpreter if one is used.
 Effective Communication: Don’t talk with your
back to the class (for example, when writing on
the chalkboard). It destroys any chance of the
student getting facial or speech reading cues.
 Your face and mouth need to be clearly visible at all
times. Avoid sitting with your back to a window,
chewing gum, biting on a pencil, or other similar
obstructions.

Continued..
 Videos and Slides: Provide videos and slides with
captioning. If captioning is not available, supply an
outline or summary of the materials covered. If an
interpreter is in the classroom, make sure that
he/she is visible.
 Class Discussion: When students make comments
in class or ask questions, repeat the questions
before answering, or phrase your answers in such
a way that the questions are obvious.
 Preferential Seating: Students with visual
impairments may need preferential seating since
they depend upon listening. Since they may want
the same anonymity as other students, it is
important that you avoid pointing out the student
or the alternative arrangements to others in the
class.

Continued..
 Exam Accommodations: Exam
accommodations, which may include
adaptive technology, a reader/scribe and
extra time, a computer, closed circuit TV
(CCTV), Braille, enlargements, tapes,
and/or image enhanced materials, may be
needed. Coordinate these arrangements
with The Office for Disability Services
(ODS).

Seeking help in community
 One thing that the women's ice hockey does
here at NU is SABAHwhich stands for
Skating Athletes Bold At Heart. This gives
children the chance to skate like a typical
child can do.
 Another
Health impairments
 chronic or acute health problem such that
the physiological capacity to function
significantly limited or impaired and that
results in limited strength, vitality, or
alertness, including a heightened alertness
to environmental stimuli, resulting in
limited alertness with respect to the
educational environment.

Charateristics
 Some types of health impairments are
asthma, cardiac conditions, blood
disorders, cancer, cystic fibrosis, HIV/Aids,
hepatitis B, meningitis, encephalitis.
For example
 for Asthma all teachers need to know how to deal
with the frequent absences of children with severe
asthma and must understand the symptoms that
indicate that at child is having an attack. Teachers
who have a child with asthma in their classrooms
should have a doctor’s suggested plan on
medication, a list of symptoms that indicate daily
or emergency medical attention. Teachers must
also monitor the classroom environment and
remove any triggers that may cause the child to
experience an asthma attack. Asthma is the
leading cause of hospitalization for children and
the number one cause of elementary
absenteeism. Asthma is a condition effecting an
individual’s breathing. It usually has three
features: lunges are swollen, breathing is difficult,
and the airways react negatively to a variety of
environmental conditions.

Instructional strategies-
 modifications: avoidance of allergens;
participation in physical activity, administration of
medication as needed. Skills required are CPR,
recognition of signs and symptoms of respiratory
distress, and of medication side effects.
 Assistive technology including augmentative
communication devises, help individuals gain
independence. It is often necessary to modify and
adapt the school environment to make it
accessible, safe, and less restrictive. Also it is
important that modifications be no more
restrictive than absolutely necessary so that the
student's school experiences can be as normal as
possible. Many authorities stress the importance
of avoiding overprotection of students with
physical or health impairments
Differences:
 while others are very  Have no restrictions on
limited in their what they can do
activities and require
intensive medical and and learn.
educational help. 
-A health impairment
can reflect on a  They don’t have
student's mobility, trouble with mobility
coordination, stamina, or coordination.
communication or
learning abilities.
Sometimes to the
extent that special
education intervention
is required.

A child with disability

 A typical child

Neurological Impairment

 Neurological Impairment- Limitation or

impairment in the permanent capacity of
the nervous system, with difficulties
exhibited in one or more of the following
areas: the use of memory, the control and
use of cognitive functioning, sensory and
motor skills, skills in speech and language,
organizational skills, information
processing, affect, social skills, or basic life
functions.

characteristics
 Neurological impairments are categorized
into three major types: Childhood Aphasia
which primarily affects speech and
language abilities’; Minimal Brain
Dysfunction that affects learning and
behavioral abilities; and Learning Disability
which primarily affects understanding or
the ability to process language.
 A neurological impairment or disability may
affect an individual’s speech, motor skills,
vision, memory, muscle actions and
learning abilities.

Instructional strategies
 Communication boards are a great way for
students with language, speech, and
communication problems to express
themselves and their needs. Also breaking
down processes and creating scaffolding and
Tier to show the steps of a problem allows for
a better understanding of the presented
information. Also computer games, and
electronic aids to operate a TV or DVD are
useful tools because it allows the student to
control an aspect of their life without
necessarily physically moving more then a
finger.
differences
 Students with this  A typical student can
disorder have trouble read, write, and
grasping information understand readings
being presented to from the textbook
them. They also have without any major
trouble speaking, difficulties.
and processing 
language.

A student with the


A typical student

disabilty
In the community
 Majority of schools have after school
programs where the students can stay and
play games and learn more. This helps
parents who may have to work late hours
and cant provide time right after school.

Specific Learning Disorders

 Specific Learning Disabilities- Disorders in

one or more of the basic psychological
process evolved in understand or in using
language, spoken or written, that may
manifest itself in an imperfect ability to
listen, thing, speech, read, write, spell, or
do mathematical calculations, including
conditions such as, perceptual disabilities,
brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction,
dyslexia, and developmental aphasia.

Some characteristics may
include:
 may have trouble learning the alphabet,
rhyming words, or connecting letters to their
sounds;
 may make many mistakes when reading aloud,
and repeat and pause often;
 may not understand what he or she reads;
 may have trouble with spelling;
 may have very messy handwriting or hold a
pencil awkwardly;
 may struggle to express ideas in writing; may
lean language late and have a limited
vocabulary; 
 may have trouble remembering the sounds that
letters make or hearing slight differences
between words;
Characteristics' combined
 may have trouble understanding jokes, comic strips, and
sarcasm;
 may have trouble following directions;
 may mispronounce words or use a wrong word that
sounds similar;
 may have trouble organizing what the or she wants to
say or not be able to think of the word he or she needs
for writing or conversation;
 may not follow the social rules of conversation, such as
taking turns, and may stand too close to the listener;
 may confuse math symbols and misread numbers;
 may not be able to retell a story in order; or
 may not know where to begin a task or how to go on
from there.
  
Instruction Strategies:
 As a teacher these are the things you need to
do for students with a disability:
 Offer extended amount of time on tests
 Use of alternative assessments such as projects,
films, photo essays..etc.
 Allow short writing answers when appropriate
 Give oral response test
 Remind students to look over the entire test
before starting and to focus on the items that
score the highest number of points
 Read the test to the student
 Offer distraction free environment for test
taking

Technology
 Also use supportive technology such as:
computers
calculator
spell checker
voice recorders
book cassettes

Differences


 Students with special learning disorders

differ from a typical student by
comprehending information at a slower
rate than the typical student. This
student's grade level might be lower than
your typical student’s. A typical student
would be able to be more focused and get
distracted less often versus a student with
a learning disability.

In the community
 http://wchob.org/ecdc/ this center provides
free information and support to families in
the community with children birth to five
with suspected or diagnosed delays or
disabilities they provide ongoing
community training for both parents and
professionals and is located in Amherst, NY.

Autism
 Definition-
◦ “Developmental disability that significantly affects verbal
and nonverbal communication and social interaction,
generally evident before age 3 and that adversely
affects a child’s educational performance” (7). Autism is
based on a spectrum which is related to how the
disorder affects the child ability to learn and
communicate with those around them. “A variety of
conditions are included in the category of autism
spectrum disorders. Although the disorders vary in
terms of onset, intensity, and cause, they possess a
common set of characteristic, including lack of eye
contact, difficulty interacting with peers or adults,
language delay, and sometimes random motor
movements such as hand flapping” (252). From what i
know about autism student have a hard time getting
along with their peers because they socially do not act
their age. When I was in 7th and 8th grade on my
cheerleading team i had a teammate who had autism. It
was very hard for her sometimes to stay focuses. I
learned that she was a very nice girl but was just hard
to understand for must girls on the team
Causes
 The possible cause of autism is “because
autism spectrum disorder runs in families,
a genetic defect is suspected” (257).
Another secondary cause that is becoming
more common and is being talked about in
the media is environmental factors.
“Environmental factors can have a
secondary influence on the intensity of the
problem- but no credible linkage has been
found to reactions to vaccines” (257).
Identification
 Early intervention is the best for children with autism the
sooner that child is identified to have autism the sooner they
could start getting the help that they need. “Early
identification of children with autism is one of the key
elements of treatment. The development of language and
social skills is critical at ages 18 months to 3 years, and these
skills, in addition to imitation of motor behavior and using
eye gaze to communicate, need to be forested at that time. If
we wait for the child’s autism to be discovered in
kindergarten, we lost valuable time that will be very difficult
to recover” (258). It is very important to find out that a child
has autism at an early age so they can start getting service
right away. Parents are trying to figure out a cure and what
caused their child to develop autism. “For many years,
scientists have puzzled about the collections of symptoms
shown by children with autism: the lack of eye contact,
limited social interaction, communication delays, and
sometimes repetitive motor movements, such as rocking”
(258).
There are many special
characteristics of children
with

autism.
indicator that is presents in a child with autism is the lack of
theory of
the mind. Theory of the mind is “the ability of human beings
to understand
the thinking and feeling of other people. A theory of mind is
necessary
for understanding, predicting, and shaping the behavior of
others” (259).
The children a presented with a task to do that deal with
others feeling.
Must children with autism do extremely poor on this test?
“One of the
characteristics shared by many persons with autism is a
hypersensitivity
to noises in the environment. Loud noises scare children with
autism not
because they may not know where they are coming from but
because it hurts their ears. “In addition to sound sensitivity,
sensitivity to stimuli can
extend to the tactile-some children with autism are sensitive
to touch and
will shy away from relative hugging them or from being
touched by others”
Technology
 With children that have autism they can benefit
from adapting technology. “When a child does
not develop speech and receptive language in
the usual fashion, a wide variety of devices
(called augmentative and alternative
communication) are tried to augment or
increase the child’s communication
skills” (274). Student may also learn hand eye
coordination using computers to help them.
“Now available are other aids, known as voice
output communication aids, to store recorded
messages that the child can trigger” (274).
Technology can help students with autism be
able to learn
many things as well as work on what they
struggle with.
The law getting involed
 “In no other category have courts played such a
significant role than with children with autism.
A total of nineteen cases were brought into
federal court between 1998 and 2002 as result
of disputes between parents and school
districts on the appropriate way of educating
autistic children” (280). Many parents were
worried that the needs of their child were not
being meant and that they were not doing the
right things for their child. “In general, the
courts were unwilling to substitute their
judgment for that of the school system as to
what was appropriate for an individual child,
assuming that the districts worked closely with
the parents and followed the provisions of
IDEA” (280).
In the community
 A center for families to go to get help for
their students that Autism society. Families
and students can go here for support and
can benefit for what they have to offer
each one of the families that come into
their center.
Communication
Impairments
 Definition-
“Significantly limited, impaired, or delayed
capacity to use expressive and/or
receptive language, exhibited by
difficulties in one or more of the following
areas: speech, such as articulation and/or
voice; conveying, understanding, or using
spoken, written, or symbolic” (7).
Characteristics
 “Communication is central to our ability to fit
into society successfully, and when
difficulties with language and/or speech
interfere with communication, children often
experience problems. These problems can
affect the formation of a child’s friendships,
school success, and self-esteem” (220).
How children with a communication
Impairment develop differently the a typical
student
 Children with speech and language
impairments develop knowledge of words at a
slower rate than the typical student. The child
will struggle with the development of words and
the understanding of sounds. The child will
struggle with reading they will be unable to read
at their grade level.
As a teacher when you have a student in your
classroom that has communication impairment
there many accommodation and modifications
that can be made to benefit the student.

Technology
 With a student with speech impairment
modifications and accommodation that could
help the student is the student working the
speech teacher. The students get help with
sounding out words and form the words in the
right way. Teacher can also have the student
read small short passages of words to develop
more confidence for reading out loud. There
are many computer games that students can
play that well help develop a strong speech
with working on sounds that sound the same
and forming words. Student could also use a
voice recorder to listen to the words said by a
teacher and then repeat the word.
In the community
 There are many state and federal
organizations for families to turn for
support and services. One organization is
American Speech-Language-Hearing Associatio
. On the organizations website it has a
quote that says “making effective
communication a human right, accessible
and achievable for all”. This association is
trying to make it easy for families and
those who have communication
impairments. They offer services for
people to go to get the help that they
need.
Developmental Delay
 Definition-
“Significantly limited impaired, or delayed
learning capacity of a young child (3-9
years old), exhibited by difficulties in one
or more of the following areas: receptive
and/or expressive language cognitive
abilities: physical functioning social,
emotional, or adaptive functioning: and/or
self-help skills” (7).
Characteristics
 “Development delays are defined by each
state and can occur in any of the five
critical domains: cognitive, communicative,
social-emotional, motor, and adaptive
development” (85).
Causes
 There are many reason why a child could
have developmental delays. Genetic
disorders is one cause of having delays.
“Genetic-related causes of learning
disabilities and autism are also emerging
as we learn more about the role of genes
in setting the stage for cognitive
development” (88). “The second broad
category of condition that may put infants
at risk are events that occur during
pregnancy or during birth” (89).
Difference From typical
Student
 Children with developmental delays develop
at a slower rate than the typical person.
Children usually miss milestones that they
are supposed to hit. Such as sitting up and
walking at certain ages. Due to their
developmental delays students struggle in
school by developing
With student with development delays the
accommodation and modification are very
similar to those of a student with a
learning disability
Technology
 The student may either receive an
Individualized Family service plan which is
developed for each child from birth to 3
years of age who is diagnosed as disabled,
developmentally delayed, or at risk for
delays. Then the student will receive an
IEP. Both of these document set goal for
the child and state their weakens and
strengthens also they state where the
student may need help. Students benefit
for playing games and interacting with
their peers. They also benefit from playing
games on the computer that make them
develop better.
In the community
 A services that families can go to for help is
Developmental Disabilities Alliance Of Western
They help families deal with the issues
that there child has a educate them on
how to make their child’s life easier
bibliography
 Kirk S. , Gallagher J.J. , Coleman M.R. , &
Anastasiow N. (2009). Educating
Exceptional Children (12th ed. , pp. 322-
402). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin
Company.
