1. Autism
1.1. Definition: a developmental spectrum disorder affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction (Hurder, 2014)
1.1.1. Learning potential ranges anywhere from functioning on different levels such as gifted to severely challenged (CDC, 2014)
1.2. Characteristics: • Usually recognized around age 3 • Repetitious behavior • Resistance to change in daily routines/environments • Unusual response to sensory experiences • Obsessive interest (CDC, 2014)
1.2.1. Prevalence: occurs in all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups but are almost 5 times more common among boys than girls. About 1 in 68 children are affected (Hurder, 2014)
1.3. There are no known causes of autism, however, scientist believe genes acting together with environment may be a cause for the disorder (CDC, 2014)
2. Blindness
2.1. Definition: an impairment in which a student cannot use vision as a primary channel for learning, that even with correction, visual acuity is 20/200 or less and is considered legally blind (NCDB, 2017)
2.2. Characteristics: • Use of canes or guide dogs however not always necessary • Students feel isolated • Loss of Peripheral (Side) Vision • Blurred Vision • Extreme Light Sensitivity (Mallory & Killoran, 2007)
2.3. Causes: • Birth defects • Eye injuries/disorders • Childhood diseases • Macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts • Diabetes • Photophobia or Albinism (Mallory & Killoran, 2007)
2.4. Potential Impact on Learning: • Will need special education services • Severe communication and other developmental delays (NCDB, 2017)
2.5. Prevalence: • 45,000 to 50,000 individaul in the U. S. • Over 10,000 are children under 21 (NCDB, 2017)
3. Emotional Disturbance
3.1. Definition: Over a long period of time, students exhibit: • Inability to learn which cannot be explained • Inability to maintain relationships • Inappropriate behavior or feelings • Mood swings/ depression(NDCCD, 2017)
3.2. Characteristics: • Aggression • Withdrawl • Learning difficulties • Hyperactivity • Immaturity • Distorted thinking • Moodswings/anxiety (IDEAL, 2017
3.2.1. Prevalence: • An estimated two-thirds of the young people • 1 in 10 people suffer from the disorder • Psychiatric illness occurs before 14 and by 24 • 17.1 million people have or have had a psychiatric disorder (NDCCD, 2017)
3.2.2. Causes: No one knows the actual cause or causes of emotional disturbance, although several factors—heredity, brain disorder, diet, stress, and family functioning—have been suggested (Brauner & Stephens, 2006)
3.2.3. Potential Impact on Learning: • Behavior continues of long periods of time • Students are not coping with peers or environment • Low average intelligence • Greater risk for continued deficit • Less likely to attend post-secondary school (IDEAL,2013)
4. Hearing Impairment
4.1. Definition: an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but is not included under the definition of deafness (Lin, Niparko, & Ferrucci,2011)
4.2. Potential Impact on Learning: • difficulty in grammar, spelling, and vocabulary • difficulty taking notes and listening to lectures • difficulty participating in classroom discussions • difficulty presenting oral reports (Lin et al, 2011)
4.3. Characteristics: • conductive hearing loss • sensorineural hearing loss • mixed hearing loss • Central Hearing Disorders (Lin et al., 2011)
4.4. Causes: • genetic or hereditary • infections • developmental abnormalities • environmental/ traumatic factors (Lin et al., 2011)
4.5. Prevalance: • 12 years and older • 30.0 million or 12.7% of Americans • Lower in women than men, • Lower in blacks vs. white Lin et al., 2011)
5. Multiple Disabilities
5.1. Definition: Simultaneous impairments that requires coinciding adaptions for more than one disability (Hosken, 2008).
5.2. Characteristics: • hampered speech and communication skills • challenges with basic mobility skills • need for assistance in performing everyday activities (Hosken, 2008)
5.3. Prevalence: • 5,971,495 students receiving special education • roughly 2.2%, or 132,333 students, received special education services based on a classification of multiple disabilities (Escowitz, n.d.)
5.4. Potential Impact on Education: • inability to effectively communicate • inability to function in school • visual and sensory impairment • motor development deficits (Hosken, 2008)
5.5. Causes: • Chromosomal abnormalities • Premature birth • Difficulties after birth • Poor development of the brain or spinal cord • Infections • Genetic disorders • Injuries from accidents (Escowitz, n.d.)
6. Other Health Impairments
6.1. Definition: having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that— (a) is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis [a kidney disorder], rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; and (b) adversely affects a child’s educational performance (Fenell et al, 2018)
6.1.1. Characteristics: Including but not limited to; *Physical, sensory, cognitive, academic, social, emotional, and, behavioral disability • Missing school more than the average child • Academic delay, not due to the level of intelligence. • Social developmental delays • Behavioral problems due to frustration • Depression (Fenell et al, 2018)
6.1.1.1. Potential Impact on Learning: • Safety issues • Trouble concentrating • Difficulty sitting still (Fenell et al, 2018)
6.1.1.1.1. Causes: • Trauma • Illness • Congenital disease • Genetics (Fenell et al, 2018)
7. Speech or Language Disability
7.1. Definition: a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance (Rosenbaum, 2016) ). Characteristics: • disability emerges at an early age • sound errors/ voice disorder • articulatin disorder • language impairment/ stuttering • repetition (Rosenbaum, 2016) Causes: • Physical or Organic –malfunction in a specific organ or body part • Functional disorder not directly attributed to physical conditions possibly caused by environmental influences (Rosenbaum, 2016) Prevalence: • Differs with age • Vary in scope Potential impact on Learning: • Pragmatic language skills • Achievement goals affected • Reading skills affected • Poor test scores (Rosenbaum, 2016)
8. Deafness
8.1. Definition: hearing impairment that is so severe that a child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing with or without amplifications (CDC, 2014)
8.2. Characteristics: • Difficulty following verbal directions and oral expression • Language delay/articulation difficulty • Limited, poor, or no speech • Increase volume on tv, radio, etc. • Inability to hear intensity, pitch or both • Learning difficulty (Reis, 1994)
8.2.1. Causes: • Premature birth/complication at birth • Medication • Exposed to loud sounds • Family history • Frequent ear infections • Other infections such as meningitis or cytomegalovirus (Fenell et al, 2018)
8.3. Prevalence: • 3 in 10 people over age 60 have hearing loss; • 1 in 6 baby boomers (ages 41-59), or 14.6%, have a hearing problem; • 1 in 14 Generation Xers (ages 29-40), or 7.4%, already have hearing loss; • At least 1.4 million children (18 or younger) have hearing problems; • It is estimated that 3 in 1,000 infants are born with serious to profound hearing loss (Reis, 1994)
8.4. Potential Impact on Learning: Students face learning barriers such as inability to - • Learn by lecture • Participate in classroom discussions • Give oral presentations/take oral exams • Note taking/ watching educational films (CDC, 2014)
9. Intellectual Disability
9.1. Definition: Sub-average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during developmental periods that adversely affects a child’s educational performance (CDC, 2014)
9.1.1. Prevalence: • 1 in 10 families are affected • More than 425,000 Children (ages 3-21) (CDC. 2014)
9.2. Characteristics: • Delay in reaching developmental milestones such as sitting up and talking • Difficulty remembering things • Trouble comprehending accepted social behaviors and/or understanding the consequences to actions • Poor problem-solving skills (Malloy & Killoran, 2017)
9.2.1. Causes: • Genetic conditions • Problems during pregnancy • Problems at birth • Health problems (NCDB, 2007)
9.2.1.1. Potential Impact on Learning: • learn and develop more slowly than a typical child. • take longer to learn to speak, walk, and take care of their personal needs • Trouble understanding new concepts • Inappropriate behavior • Limited vocabulary • Difficulty accomplishing complex tasks (NCDB, 2007)
10. Orthopedic Impairment
10.1. Definition: • impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g., clubfoot, absence of some member, etc.), • impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.), and • impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures). Characteristics: • neuromotor impairments • degenerative diseases • musculoskeletal disorders. Prevalence: • approximately 1% of all students having a classification in special education Causes: • congenital anomaly • disease • other causes such as amputations, fractures, and/or burns Potential Impact on Learning: • contingent upon the disease, it’s severity, and individual factors • higher incidence of impairments • necessary accommodations (IDEAL, 2013)
11. Traumatic Brain Injury
11.1. Definitions: external physical force to the brain that causes injury which results in total or partial disability or psycho-social injury or both that adversely affects educational performance (TBI, n.d.)
11.2. Causes: • Open head injuries • Close heads injuries • Motor vehicle accidents • Sports • abuse (TBI, n.d.)
11.3. Potential Impact on Learning: • Difficulty taking tests and exams • Problems with following complex directions • Difficulty learning new skills (TBI, n.d.)
11.4. Characteristics: Including but not limited to; • Chronic headaches, dizziness, light-headedness, nausea • Chronically agitated, irritable, restless, or anxious • Reduced speed of motor performance and precision of movement. • Poor body temperature regulation • Impairments to all five senses • Inability to perceive voice inflections and nonverbal • Trouble sleeping (TBI, n.d.)
11.5. Prevalence: • 15 – 24 age group • As many as one million students and youth will sustain
12. Visual Impairment
12.1. Definition: vision that even with correction adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness. Partial sight can refer to low vision (cannot read at a normal reading distance even with corrective lenses). Blindness can refer to either being legally blind (less than 20/200 vision in the better eye), a limited field of vision, or total blindness (no sight) (WHO, 2003) Characteristics: • Irregular eye movements • Unusual habits (such as covering one eye or frequently rubbing eyes) • Sitting abnormally close to a television or holding a book close to the face (Rettig, 1994) Potential Impact on Education: Inability to - • Safely maneuver around classroom and building • Hypothesizing objects • Reading • Operating standard educational tools such as calculators and word processing software (Rettig, 1994) Causes: • Inheritied conditions • Eye infections • Injury to eyes • Medical conditions (WHO, 2003) Prevalence: • Increases with age • 93,600 students who are visually impaired or blind; • 55,200 students who are legally blind; • 5,500 braille readers (WHO, 2003)
13. Specific Learning Disability
13.1. Definition: a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations ( L D, 2015)
13.2. Characteristics: • Dyslexia (reading) • Dysgraphia (writing) • Dyscalculia (math) • Reasoning • Speaking • Listening (L D, 2015)
13.2.1. Prevalence • 1 out of every 5 people in the U. S. • Ages 6-21
13.2.1.1. Causes: • Hereditary – genetics • Teratogenic factors – alcohol, drugs, etc. • Medical factors – premature birth • Environmental factors – malnutrition