Month: November 2011

impairments

Visual Impairments

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Those with visual impairments can find many challenges in education and in their social environments. By educators being prepared and open toward including those with these impairments, they can help to bridge the gap in the children’s development. Children can also find help through specialized programs and organizations. It is important for the teachers, parents, and students to explore all of their options available to the child and pick the best environment for the child in order to maximize their education and quality of life.

impairments

Visual Impairments

Sight involves many complex processes, so that individuals can explore their world through pictures. It takes a part of the eye to filter light through, part to convert the light energy into electrical energy, and then the brain has to translate that into objects/pictures (Turnbull et Al, 2002). When part of this process is damaged at birth or later in an individual’s life, this will lead to visual impairments (Turnbull et Al, 2002). There are three main classifications for the visual impairments within schools: low vision, functionally blind, and totally blind (Turnbull et Al, 2002). If a student is obtaining no valuable information from their sight, then they are considered to be totally blind, but when the student is using their sight to enhance the information that they primarily obtain through their other primary senses, they are classified as functionally blind (Heward, 2003). If the child, however, uses their sight as their primary source for obtaining information and sometimes uses other senses to enhance this information, then they are considered to have low vision (Heward, 2003). To be legally blind a person must have a field of vision that is limited to seeing only twenty percent of their field of vision, which is clinically measured by a professional (Turnbull et Al, 2002).

When a child has any vision loss, they are often confronted with additional issues that interfere with obtaining an education. When it does interfere with education, the child is considered by the definition provided by IDEA to have a visual impairment (Turnbull et Al). The impairment can hinder the child’s self-concept and environmental interactions and exploration. A teacher can assist the child by providing a wide array of experiences where the child can discover the world around them with their other senses (Turnbull et Al, 2002). Through exploring the world, they can expand their vocabulary, fine motor, and cognition skills. It is also helpful to have the children interact with their sighted peers, so that they can build friendships and experience appropriate social interaction, which can in turn help to build self-concepts. It is also important for educators to incorporate assistive learning technology and to be aware of their communication with the child, as often those with sight communicate through physical cues, which those with vision impairments cannot see.

As there are many obstacles for a child with vision impairments to overcome, they can become active in the social experiences available to them. In Arizona, there is the Arizona Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the Foundation for the Blind, the School for the Deaf and Blind, Arizona Industries for the Blind, Arizona Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and many others. These groups offer opportunities for those whom are blind to interact with others that are experiencing the world similarly, through social events, special classrooms/schools, and group therapy.

References

Turnbull, Rud, Ann Turnbull, Marilyn Shank, Sean Smith, & Dorthy Leal (2002). Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today’s Schools(3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.

adult on his own

Adults with Mental Retardation

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As children complete high school, often there are expectations of independence and decisions to make on their next steps. This transition can be difficult for anyone, especially those with mental retardation. There are many decisions for them to make from this point on, such as living, employment, extra training, and social decisions. Throughout the rest of their life, they face many choices. The following paper will discuss their needs and provide ideas on how the community can help these individuals to be successful.

The congress has set up four big goals aimed to make adult-life more accommodating for those with disabilities (ADA). These goals include: equal opportunity, independence, inclusion, and productivity (ADA). Equal opportunity includes the chance for those in the United States with disabilities to get higher educations and the chance to live the ideal American life (ADA). Independence includes the right for those with disabilities to make their own decisions and assert control over themselves and their environment (ADA). Inclusion includes the right of those with disabilities to have full participation as a citizen in the U.S. with access to the same community resources, activities, and shelter that their non-disabled peers have access to (ADA). The congress’ idea of productivity includes the right of individuals with disabilities to have jobs where they contribute to their own financial standing, as well as, their families and community (ADA). With these ideals in mind, those with mental retardation have opportunities available to them that are in context with their own limitations.

adult on his own

At eighteen years of age, most individuals gain legal independence, however, if a parent chooses to challenge this, the individual’s rights can be overturned due to mentally competency. If the individual with mental retardation receive independence, they have many choices to make. According to Turnbull, Turnbull, Shank, Smith, and Leal (2002), 2.5 percent of individuals with mental retardation enroll in postsecondary academic programs after high school, 5.7 percent enroll in post secondary vocational programs after high school, 40.8 percent become competitively employed, 14.8 percent live independently, and they earn 8,274 dollars as average annual compensation for workers.

Many factors contribute to the success of Adults with mental retardation. They include self-determination, community resources, and social adaptation. As they go through school and therapy, they are often preparing for life after school. Once they get to the point of adult standing, they need to be able to make decisions, enquire on needs, and search for resources. They need to be able to keep appointments, go to the doctors, take medicine, get groceries, keep hygiene, and live through daily transitions. If they are unable to do any of these things, they need to ask for the resources and/or get the appropriate services.

It is important for these individuals to receive support through verbal confirmation and physical resources during their high school to young adult transition and throughout their adult life. The community can provide ongoing services for those that need continued therapies. They can also provide accessible resources, such as job placement, social opportunities, and reference material for those with mental retardation. As a community resource, it is important to find what is appropriate for the individual as each is different. It may be helpful to have specific counselors in their last semester at school to go through their options with them. They might also need ongoing caseworkers that check-in on them yearly to make sure they are getting the services they desire. These caseworkers can also help the individuals in service to find job opportunities, social events, and answers to their other questions. They can give them referrals to the organizations that those in service have not been able to find for themselves. Some individuals with mental retardation may require supervision for some activities, like cooking, so ongoing respite may be necessary. The ongoing respite can also help those individuals to feel more independent, as they can live on their own terms with workers that help when necessary. This resource along with the other one’s desired by the person in service can help the individual with mental retardation find success in living a fulfilling life.

Each person with a disability is different. They merely suffer from a common disability, such as mental retardation, but in fact are they themselves individuals with their own wants and desires. It is important for us as teachers, caseworkers, families, and other providers to support them in defining their own life. It is important to prepare them for the steps they take and then support them throughout their adventure.

References

The Americans with Disabilities Act. (n.d.) Information and Technical Assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act. Retrieved December 4, 2005, from www.ada.gov

Turnbull, Rud, Ann Turnbull, Marilyn Shank, Sean Smith, & Dorthy Leal (2002). Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today’s Schools(3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Successful Collaboration

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There are many things that go into a productive classroom and fulfilling education. For children in Special education classrooms including those with students that have learning disabilities, successful collaboration is a key element. It allows for fluidity through all of their services both at home and school. Collaboration can also bring together the elements and interrelationships of curriculum orientations, standards-based education, and program orientations. In order for all of these things to run smoothly, there are factors that affect program decision-making for the students. These ideas will be discussed in the following paper.

First lets define these elements in order to get a better understanding of what effects the students. Standard-based education is applying the same standards to those in special education, as to those not in special education (Turnbull, Turnbull, Shank, Smith, & Leal, 2002). This can effect the program and curriculum, as it will represent material that those in general education classrooms are also learning. It also means that special education will be working to have their students curriculum and program match the standards and can perhaps distract from the child’s own program or IEP, Individual Education Plan (Turnbull et al, 2002).

The IEP and program orientation are where goals are established for the student. These goals outline the students educational needs, as well as additional services that the student may need, including but not limited to speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, respite, and rehabilitation. According to 1982 legal ruling, an IEP should consist of reasonably calculated program and curriculum to enable the child to receive educational benefit (Wright & Wright, 2003).

The curriculum orientation is defined by the school districts standard-based education. If the school district does not adopt this policy, than the teacher can take in account the child’s IEP and set up curriculum to help the child reach their goal. There are some overlapping goals often found for children with learning disabilities, which should be accounted for when choosing curriculum (Turnbull et al, 2002). They include difficulties with information processing and metacognition (Turnbull et al, 2002). To overcome these difficulties, it is important for students with learning disabilities to be taught how to learn independently in self-directed ways (Turnbull et al, 2002). Another common curricular goal is for students to learn generalizations so that they can apply what they learn in the classroom on a larger scale to real life experiences (Turnbull et al, 2002). Finally students’ curriculum should promote the students’ self-esteem, motivation, and the students’ perception that they do have some control over their own academic progress (Turnbull et al, 2002). Often students with learning disabilities feel a sense of learned helplessness and low-self esteem from being unable to reach curricular goals through previous years (Turnbull et al, 2002).

As these three main terms have been defined, it is already apparent how much they affect one another. It can be hard for the teacher to set up a curriculum to fulfill the school districts standard-based education, as well as, the students’ federally mandated IEP or program. So although these ideals are all equally appreciated, they do not necessarily meet together in a unified manor, which promote the educational benefit of students. Instead perhaps other measures should be referred to for finding beneficial instruction. These include: researched-based criteria, parental concerns, a variety of assessment tools, and a positive professional classroom climate (Texas Education Agency, 1996). Researched-based criteria are “used to select the instructional materials that provide the structure for the classroom reading program. These criteria establish the need for systematic instruction and sufficient practice in a number of aspects” (Texas Education Agency, 1996).

With all of these ideals and important educational elements, it is easy to see how a teacher may be overwhelmed and how a student with learning disabilities may not reach there full educational potential. This makes the program-decision making an essential element to fluidity of the child’s education. Program-decisions within the school district are defined federally and locally, but often the special educator has choices about specific curriculum and instruction within the students program. As an educator it is important to look at what it expected of your program and find the curriculum and instruction that best fits your students. This can help promote success with curriculum and program and can even lead to successful standard-based instruction. The collaboration of these elements along with overlap into the students other services can provide the student the structure to be enabled to fulfill their true educational potential and reach many standardized norms, as well as their individualized goals.

Reference

Texas Education Agency. (1996). School Features that Support Effective Instruction. Retrieved May 20, 2006 from www.Idonline.org

Turnbull, Rud, Ann Turnbull, Marilyn Shank, Sean Smith, & Dorthy Leal. (2002). Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today’s Schools (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Wright, Pete and Pam Wright. (2003). Your Child’s IEP: Practical and Legal Guidance for Parents. Retrieved May 20, 2006 from www.Idonline.org

issues

Issues Relating to Terminology of Mental Retardation

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Some of the issues relating to terminology of mental retardation are how it affects the parent and their perception of their child and other people’s perception of their child. We used to label children TMH (trainable Mentally handicap) and EMH (educable mentally handicap) for the primary reason of not saying “retardation” as a label. However, in the last few years, the labels have changed to MIMR, mildly mentally retarded, and MOMR, severely mentally retarded. This could create some issues with others keeping pace with the terminology and perhaps some getting confused.

Issues relating to the law are related to the new law of “no child left behind”. This law states that no matter the severity of the disability the child should be main-steamed into the regular classroom so that they are exposed to the same opportunities as “regular” children. However, the drawback to this is that the curriculum, language used by teacher and students, does not necessarily match their ability. It can lead to disruptions to the rest of the class.

issues

Issues relating to identification of mentally retardation are the comparison of standard scores and their IQ. IQ is rated by scores. For example, an IQ of 130 and above means Very Superior, an IQ of 120-129 means Superior, an 110-119 means High Average, an IQ of 90-109 means Average, an IQ of 80-89 means Low Average, an IQ of 70-79 means MIMR, and an IQ 69 and Lower means MOMR. Standard scores are principles that all standardized tests have to allow a psychologist to “label” a child. If their Standard Score were 72, they would fall in the MIMR range. The final decision is suppose to be a “team ” decision, but an issue might arise if the teachers involved, the psychologist, and parent do not agree.

The impact of characteristics might be physical appearance, different walking gaits, being made fun of, being picked on, getting into trouble because they cannot think things through and don’t understand the consequences, being taken advantage of by regular students.

All of these issues demonstrate how difficult it is not to offend some and how the issues evolve as politics change. By discussing with others their views of the issues, it helps to better understand how many issues there truly are in the school system.

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Hearing Impairments

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People use senses to explore the world around them. The senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell allow people to define the objects surrounding them, relate to one another, navigate through places, and learn things in school. Often people rely heavily on sound to exchange information. In the classroom, these senses are used regularly, so when individuals have hearing impairments, it adds extra obstacles toward achieving an adequate education. This paper will help define hearing, as well as, look at the impact of this sense in the classroom and explore resources available in the community to help those with hearing impairments.

girl resting

Hearing includes collecting and interpreting sound. This involves different components of the ears and brain to gather and translate sound waves or vibrations in the air (Turnbull, Turnbull, Shank, Smith, & Leal, 2002). According to Turnbull (2002, p. 518), the three separate components of the ear work like this, “the outer ear is the microphone in the studio, the middle-ear the radio transmitter, and the inner ear the radio receiver.” The main receptor organ for hearing is the cochlea, which is in the inner ear (Heward, 2003). It “consists of two fluid filled cavities and contains 30,000 tiny hair cells arranged in four rows” (Heward, 2005). The different components of this complex organ help to translate high and low tones that are in turn transmitted by the auditory nerve to the brain (Heward, 2003). This multifaceted system helps us to perceive sounds in our environment. When it is not working correctly, it can lead to hearing loss or deafness.

Medically deafness is defined with specific measurements. Decimals measure the intensity of sound (Turnbull et Al, 2002). Hertz measure the pitch of the sound (Heward, 2003). Some individuals with hearing loss can hear only specific hertz or decimals that are more exclusive than the array of hertz and decimals those without impairments can hear (Turnbull et Al, 2003). For example, they may hear a siren but not a waterfall.

Within education, according to IDEA, hearing impairments are defined by a loss that interferes with and negatively impacts a child’s educational performance (Turnbull et Al, 2002). Hearing loss normally creates a communication barrier that impacts the child’s education by distracting from age appropriate lessons and focusing more on getting simple points across (Turnbull et Al, 2002). Often in school, children who are deaf are challenged most by math and reading, but find difficulty in all academic areas (Heward, 2003). It also creates extra barriers in the child’s social interactions and can leave children feeling low self-esteems. Teachers have a special job in helping build the child’s communication skills, social interaction, academic achievements, and self-concept. There are many options for children and families with children who are deaf. There are technology and surgical procedures. There are special classes and schools. There are a variety of communication techniques. Within the school, Children who are deaf can find help in speech therapy, assistive technology, resource rooms, special classrooms, special schools, and other social programs.

The deaf community is a great group for the children to find a place where they fit in and find others that relate to them. Within Arizona, there are specific nights that people within the deaf community meet at a coffee house, go to a closed caption movie theatre, or out to the local bookstore. There are also schools geared toward the deaf, like the School for the Deaf and the Blind.

References

Heward, William L. (2003). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education (7th ed.).Ohio: Merrill Prentice Hall.

Turnbull, Rud, Ann Turnbull, Marilyn Shank, Sean Smith, & Dorthy Leal (2002).Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today’s Schools(3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.