Week Two Powerpoint Definition+Prevalence

CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS WITH MILD/MODERATE INTERVENTION NEEDS

SPED 4/53050INSTRUCTOR: BRIAN FRIEDT

Week two: Definitions and prevalence

Labeling

Benefits Avenue to services Assuming standard definition, gives teachers

information Precision

Potential risks Stigmatization and marginalization Negative shaping of teacher expectation

Disability/handicap

The text makes the following distinction:

A disability is an “atypical inability to perform a specific skill or a diminished capacity to perform a particular skill” (p. 5)

A handicap is a “disadvantage or inability imposed on an individual through an interaction with the demands of a particular environment” (p. 5)

Generally, disabilities are lifelong conditions, while handicaps are situation dependent

Definitional clarity

Several different ways to refer to roughly the same population: Text: “high-incidence disabilities” Title of our course: “mild/moderate intervention needs” Kent State’s description of licensure: “The Mild-

Moderate Educational Needs Intervention Specialist license is valid for teaching learners from ages 5 through 21, and grades K through 12 who have been identified with a disability that requires mild to moderate intervention (e.g. learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders, developmental disabilities.)”

Definitional clarity

To further complicate the issue, the text refers to “mild mental retardation.”

Ohio uses the term “cognitive disabilities” and does not make a distinction based on severity or intensity.

Kent lists “developmental disabilities” under both the mild/moderate license and the moderate/severe license.

Prevalence

High incidence refers to the incidence within the special education population, not within the school population in general

Most recent data from OSEP (2006): Students with disabilities comprise 9.2% of the school

age (5-21) population.

Students with high incidence disabilities (SLD, EBD, CD) comprise about 64% of that population.

Prevalence

Services

FAPE (free and appropriate public education)

IEP (individualized education program)

LRE (least restrictive environment)

CAP (continuum of alternative placements)

(Much more on all of this beginning in April)

Emotional and behavioral disorders

Exhibits one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree: Inability to learn not explained by other factors Inability to build and maintain satisfactory

relationships Inappropriate behaviors/feelings Pervasive unhappiness Tendency to develop physical symptoms as a result of

stress or fear

Emotional and behavioral disorders

Federal definition (and Ohio’s) are fairly subjective. Non-specific language and no operational definitions

How long is a “long period?” What are “satisfactory relationships?”

Alternate definitions exist

Specific learning disabilities

Disorder in one or more of the major psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, resulting in an imperfect ability to: Listen Think Speak Read Write Spell Do math

Specific learning disabilities

Cannot be the result of another disability or an environmental, cultural or economic factor

“unexpected underachievement”

Longstanding disagreement over actual rate in the population and effective identification

Cognitive disabilities

Significantly subaverage intellectual functioning (in Ohio, an IQ score lower than 70 or, if appropriate in the judgment of a certified clinician, less than 75)

Deficits in adaptive behavior (conceptual skills, social skills, practical skills,)

Note: while the text will refer to mild mental retardation, I will use the language from Ohio’s definition. This might be occasionally confusing, but highlights the importance of definition as discussed earlier; in Ohio, think “cognitive disability,” not mental retardation.