Learning Disabilities

Touro 650

Educational Technology in General and Special Education

Learning Disabilities

Melissa Malave & Natasha John

INTRODUCTION

• In the 1950’s most public schools established special education programs or offered some
type of service for students.There was still a group of students with learning difficulties that
did not fit into any existing category.

• Many parents were concerned and took their children to physicians and psychologist.These
children were called terms such as: brain damaged, minimal brain dysfunction, neurological
impairment, perceptual handicap, dyslexia and aphasia.

• The term learning disabilities was coined by Samuel Kirk in 1963.
• The number of persons with learning disabilities has tripled since the passage of Individuals

with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

DEFINITION

• Federal Definition of IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) Definition includes the
term learning disability is currently used to describe a dysfunction that
interferes with someone's ability to store, process, or produce
information. IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) defines a
learning disability as: "A disorder in one or more of the basic psychological
processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written language, which
may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or
do mathematical calculations".

OPERATIONALIZING THE FEDERAL
DEFINITION

• There are three criteria that must be met for the diagnosis of a learning
disability

• A severe discrepancy between the students intellectual ability and academic
achievement.

• An exclusion criterion:The students difficulties are not the result of another
known condition that can cause learning problems.

• A need for special education services

RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION
THE THREE-TIERED MODEL

• An approach that shifts the identification of learning disabilities from “wait-to-fail” model to one of the early identification and prevention.
• There was a large increase in the students being identified as learning disabled and congress changed the way schools could determine a

child’s eligibility for special education.
• A student who moves through each tier of the model experiences all three levels of preventive intervention.
• Teachers use the RTI model to prevent reading problems and identify children who need special education for reading disabilities.
• Tier One: Primary Intervention in the general education classroom

• Primary prevention provided to all students in evidence-based curriculum and instruction. Frequent progress monitoring assess performance. Students are
considered at risk if both their level of performance and rate of growth on CBM are well below their classmates.

• Tier Two: Secondary Intervention

• Students receive intensive fixed-duration of small-group interventions.
• A student who makes adequate progress will be ”deemed” as disability free.
• Students who do not make progress will either receive an addition Tier Two intervention based on observation or move directly to Tier Three.

• Tier Three:Tertiary Intervention (Special Education)

• The school conducts a multi-factored evaluation to determine disability classification and special education disability.

CHARACTERISTICS

• Learning disabilities are associated with problems in: listening, reasoning, memory, attention, selecting and
focusing on relevant stimuli, and the perception and processing of visual and/or auditory information.

• Many students with learning disabilities:

• have difficulty organizing information on their own

• Bring limited stores of background knowledge to many academic activities

• Often do not approach learning tasks in effective and efficient ways

• The perceptual and cognitive processing difficulties are assumed to be the underlying causes of the following
characteristics that Students with learning disabilities experience, either individually or in combination: rSome
characteristics are: Inappropriate behavior for varied situations, excessive variation in mood, poor
organizational skills, failure to see consequence of actions, awkward use of pencil/scissors,
distractibility, hyperactivity, perceptual coordination problems, impulsiveness, frustration,
difficulty in academic areas, low self-esteem, aural and visual memory deficit, auditory processing
disorder, visual-motor coordination problems.

• Reading is the most common characteristic of students with learning disabilities.

CAUSES

• Most causes of learning disabilities are unknown.

• Four classes of suspected causes are:

• Brain Damage
• Heredity
• Biochemical Imbalance
• Environmental Factors

IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT

• There are five forms of assessment with students with learning disabilities:

• 1. Standardized Intelligence and Achievement Tests
• 2. Criterion-referenced Tests
• 3. Informal Reading Inventories
• 4. Curriculum-based Measurement
• 5. Direct Daily Measurement

E D U C AT I O N A L EDUC ATIONAL
APPROACHES PLACEMENT

• Teachers and staff can use: A LT E R N AT I V E S

• Graphic organizers • What setting options are suggested for
• Teach note-taking strategies students with learning disabilities?
• Teach mnemonic strategies
• General Education Classroom
• Consultant Teacher
• Resource Room
• Separate Classroom