Instructional Strategies for children with special needs

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EXCEPTIONALITY

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DEFINITION

CRITERIA FOR

SERVICES

CHARACTERISTICS

GENERAL TEACHING METHODS/

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES/ TECHNOLOGY

Autism Spectrum Disorder

“A variety (or spectrum) of related disorders that affect a child’s social development and ability to communicate and that include unusual behavioral manifestations such as repetitive motor movements” (Kirk, et al, 2015, p.143).

DSM-5

An individual must meet criteria A, B, C, and D:

A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across contexts, not accounted for by general developmental delays.

B. Restrictive, repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities.

C. Symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities).

D. Symptoms together limit and impair everyday functioning.

(Kirk, et al, 2015, p146)

· Lack of Theory of the Mind (the ability of human beings to understand the thinking and feelings of other people that’s necessary for understanding, predicting, and shaping the behavior of others).

· Acting out or aggressive behavior due to limited ability to communicate.

· Hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli

· Trouble with important thinking skills like decision-making, problem solving, executive function, and the more complex mental processes of reasoning and evaluation.

· Difficulty with a range of motor skills such as gross motor, fine motor, and motor planning.

(Kirk, et al, 2015, pp. 148-150)

· Early intervention and early diagnosis

· Naturalistic intervention Peer-mediated instruction and intervention

· Social narratives of social stories; Comic strip conversations

· Prompting; visual supports

· Creating Structure

· Improving Social Skills

· Functional Behavior Assessment

· Assistive Technology (voice output communication aids)

· Focused Intervention Practice

· Comprehensive Treatment Models (TEACCH, EIBI)

(Kirk, et al, 2015, pp. 154-161)

Emotional/Behavioral Disability

Also called emotional disturbance.

The disorder result to continued and consistent emotional or behavioral reactions which inhibit the social and academic performance. The retardation is not explainable by age, ethnicity or even gender and culture

Individual with the disability exhibit:

A. Anxiety disorder

B. Manic-depressive challenges

C. The have oppositional defiance issues

D. Psychotic challenges

E. Compulsive or obsession issues

· Unexplainable challenge with intellectual abilities.

· Issues with engaging or sustaining interpersonal relationship.

· Irrational or inappropriate reactions even in normal situations.

· General unhappiness or depression

· Use of clear routines and rules

· Use of token for appreciating behavioral changes

· Use of behavior charts

· Peer reviews and monitoring

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Hearing Impairment/Deaf

A person with hearing challenges has hearing loss or retardations which might be aided or unaided.

Hearing challenges are evident when a person is unable to hear and process when is vocally said around.

The implications of hearing impairment are low or inability process linguistic information as and as a result, the person will not perform adequately in academics.

· Challenges following verbal instructions

· Challenges with oral articulations

· Challenges with interpersonal and social skills

· The student will mostly show a degree of linguistic delays

· Use of visual learning strategy

· Use of assistive technology with integrations of gesturing.

· Minimizing lecture background noise

· Encouraging the students to sit near the front. No speaking while facing the writing boards

Intellectual Disability

This is an extremely substandard or below average mental or intellectual as well as the adaptive brain functioning which implicate in very low academic performance and delayed academic growth.

The challenge is usually identifiable at childhood as follows:

· Difficult to grasp new or complex information

· Challenges in earning new skills

· Challenges in comprehending abstract concepts

· Challenges in normal processing of intellectual information

· Retarded cognitive process

· Communication and social interaction challenges

· Challenges in comprehending new information

· Use teaching outlines and highlights

· Provide the student with a reading list to read prior to the teaching

· Use assistive technology

· Support understanding by using real examples

· Use of enough explanations for the information on the board

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Learning Disability

This is a disability that results to a different synthesis of educational information. It is a neurological issue

Children with this type of disability might be very smart at learning or very dull as compared to normal child. However, when left to read or process information on their own, they experience difficulties in:

Reading, remembering, writing and even reasoning

· Extreme smart but poor individual academic independence.

· Challenges in reading. Reasoning, writing and recalling when read alone

· Use of learning assistive such as graphs, pictures and diagrams

· Break the lessons into various sub-lessons

· Use student engagement in class

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Multiple Disabilities

“Concomitant impairments (such as intellectual and developmental disabilities—blindness or intellectual and developmental disabilities—orthopedic impairment) that result in severe educational needs that require special services” (Kirk et al, 2015, p.423).

Difficult in following verbal instructions

Challenges in following visual instruction

Issues with processing intellectual information and reasoning.

The student exhibits various challenges to normal physiological function such as difficulties in following instruction. Difficulties in processing instruction or even difficulties in interacting and visual processing of information

The child requires a special educational program where the teaching is aided specifically to meet the student needs

Use of teaching assistive and technology

Orthopedic Impairment

“A severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures)” (Kirk et al, 2015, p.423)

Student have restrictions and limitations to what they can participate in and do as compared to the other children in the classroom

Students have intellectual challenges

Student have rigid adaptation to changes in the routine

· Use of modified writing and learning aids

· The teacher can allow the student more time for practicing what he or she has taught

· Modify lesson plans to be inclusive

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Other Health Impairment

“Limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that are due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorders, diabetes, epilepsy, cystic fibrosis, ,heart conditions, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, or Tourette syndrome and that require special educational services” (Kirk et al, 2015, p.423).

The person has had previous health complications

The person has repellant reaction to various situations due to past experiences

Avoiding certain activities

Avoiding specific foods

The student might show relatively slow academic progress

The child motivation for learning might be retarded due to the complication he or she goes through

Use of gentle and considerate communication when addressing the students

Establishing a healthy repour and relationship with the student so that they can freely tell when in difficulties.

Having a helping nurse around the learning environment in to take care of the student needs.

Speech-Language Impairment

This is a communicational disorder such as being a stammerer or any other vocal impairments that implicates negatively to a student performance

The disorder is discoverable at pretty early age.

A child failing to pass the speech and language set milestones

If the child has other issues such as hearing issues and autism

The student might be stammering

The student might have fluency disorder

The student might have impaired articulation

The student might have a voice impairment such as too soft voice.

School to have a speech pathologist to discuss with the student and the teachers on the best way to communicate

The school should overlay strict rules against bullying the impaired student

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Developmental Delays

“In the United States, defined by each state, and can occur in any of the five critical domains: cognitive, communicative, social-emotional, motor, and adaptive development” (Kirk, et al, 2015, p.79).

Developmental delays may be as a result of:

Autism spectrum disorder

Cerebral palsy and genetic disorder.

The child shows challenges with cognitive functioning such as remembering

The child has communicational, social, and emotional imbalances at unexpected time of his or her growth

Use of clear learning routines for students

Communicate what to be learned next for students to prepare

Teach students communication skills

Use of questions as a way of reminding student what they learned.

Cognitive Functioning/Impairment

This is a disability that results to challenges in remembering, learning and sustaining concentration for a reasonable period of time

The student easily forgets learned concepts

The student has identity confusion

The student exhibits poor motor coordination

General confusion

Student struggles remembering concepts

Student easily forget or have an abnormally short memory

Student get confused on normal things like when to submit assignment

Student mixing things up due to confusion

Teachers to use self-monitoring techniques for students

Students to do every assignment in another color

A teacher can allow a student to subvocalize when reading words

The teacher should teach note taking skills to the students

Explain importance of self-evaluation and questioning in learning process

Use of poems, song and rhymes to enable student to remember.

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Language Developmental Disorder

“This disorder involves difficulties with any combination of spoken, written, and symbol systems used to share ideas and messages. Language disorders may impact understanding and use of (a) language form (phonology, morphology, syntax), (b) language content (semantics), or (c) language function (pragmatics)”

(Kirk, et al, 2015, p.293).

The person has difficulties understanding words that he can read or hear

The person has a problem speaking or expressing themselves in a specific language

Challenges understanding concepts and ideas

Difficulties understanding what one can read or write

Difficulties learning new words or even expressing simple feelings in a language

Difficulties in telling stories

Use of diagrammatic representation of concepts

Exhaustively explaining concepts with real life examples

Use of teaching assistive such as technology that integrates words into action.

Allowing more time for practice on the learned words.

Social Developmental Disorder

A disorder that result to interactional issues as well as communicational interpersonal challenges.

· Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across contexts, not accounted for by general developmental delays.

· Symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities).

· Challenges establishing and sustaining interactions

· Irrational or abnormal response to feedback from other people action

· Overreacting, over excitement in normal circumstances

· Loneliness or low interactivity.

· Social narratives of social stories; Comic strip conversations

· Prompting; visual supports

· Creating Structure

· Improving Social Skills

· Assistive Technology (voice output communication aids)

· Focused Intervention Practice Comprehensive Treatment Models

EXCEPTIONALITY CHART

EXCEPTIONALITY

&

DEFINITION

CRITERIA FOR

SERVICES

CHARACTERISTICS

GENERAL TEACHING METHODS/

INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES/ TECHNOLOGY

Cultural/Ethnic/Socioeconomic Factors/ELL

“Many students for whom English is a second language have difficulty learning in American schools and may be referred to special education as a result” (Kirk et al, 2015, p.57).

The criteria for services should be the same for the exceptionality of a student with English as the primary language as it is for a student with English as a second language.

Students who fall under the characteristics of a specific disability, but also who have other cultural/ethnic/socioeconomic factors or variables.

· Test students with nonbiased assessment that include the use of interpreters, “culture fair” tests, and separate norms. (Kirk et al, 2015, p.56).

· Mindful interpretations of the tests.

· “The RtI model Tier II, which allows for additional support for learning short of referral to special education” (Kirk et al, 2015, p.57).

Medical Aspects/Major Health Impairments

A broad range of exceptionalities that involve medical attention/care.

“When children are dealing with serious health problems, their life and education will be impacted. The support needed for each child will depend on the range and severity of the problem…medical experts take the lead on the diagnosis and planning medical interventions, while the general education teacher takes responsibility for needed daily supports and for knowing the appropriate protocols for initial response in an emergency” (Kirk et al, 2015, p.427).

A wide variety of medical health impairments that could include:

· Asthma

· Cancer

· Sickle Cell Anemia

· HIV/AIDS

· Acquired Diseases

“Advances in medicine have led to lifesaving interventions for children with physical disabilities and health impairments. As medical interventions have improved, the life expectancy for children with severe disabilities has been extended. Improved medical interventions are also increasing the survival rate for soldiers who have been wounded…medical supports also can enhance the quality of individuals who have lost limbs regain functioning, new blood sugar monitors can maintain a continuous check to help regular diabetes, improvements in surgical procedures for infants allow doctors to repair heart defects, and new treatments for cancer have led to nearly 80 percent survival rates for children” (Kirk et al, 2015, p.421).