Sensory Impairments

Sensory Impairments:

1. Hearing Impairments: This is the generic term that is often used to cover the entire range of hearing loss. Deafness defines a hearing impairment so severe that no speech can be heard through the ear alone.  Hard of Hearing describes a hearing loss that makes it difficult (but not impossible) to hear speech through the ear alone.
2. Vision Impairments: This is the generic term that is often used to cover a wide range of visual problems. Blindness has a few different definitions depending on the context. Legal Blindness refers to visual acuity and field of vision. In the education setting the definition of blindness implies that the student must use Braille in order to receive instruction.  Low Vision refers to students that have some functional vision, meaning they can receive instruction with or without the use of assistant material. (Smith et al.)

Gifted & Talented

 *This is British Columbia's criteria for designations of talented & gifted.

Criteria:

1. High Ability: I.Q. of 130+ for talented & 145+ for gifted & 160+ for genius.  Teachers, parents, etc. can also supply testimonials of a child's high abilities.
2. High Creativity: Different types of creativity, academic, musical, artistic. 
3. High Task -Commitment: When student is interested in task/material they will stick with something for a very long time.

Characteristics: 

(Gifted children versus Bright kids) 

1. Asks questions vs. knowing the answers
2. Wild & silly ideas vs. has good ideas
3. Play around during instruction but test well vs. works hard
4. Strong feelings & opinions vs. listening attentively
5. Takes 1-2 repetitions for mastery vs. takes 6-8 repetitions for mastery
6. Prefers adults versus enjoying the attention of peers
7. Good guessers vs. good memorizers
8. Highly self-critical vs. pleased with their learning 

Tips: 

• These students will start the year knowing half of what will be taught.
• Very few of these students are given extra opportunities to excel - they do not enjoy doing extra work or being teacher's little helper.
• Co-operative learning does not work well for these students.
• Often gifted children are graded harder than other students, that will lead to them resenting the teacher as it is not fair that they are required to do more work than other kids for the same grade.
• If, by grade four or five these children will often detach if they haven't been challenged yet. 
• Remember that "geek" and "nerd" are powerful bullying words (as are "moron" and "retard") that affect these children greatly - do not turn a blind eye.
• These children have the highest rate of substance abuse, depression and anxiety.
• Do not argue with these children, they will often win. 
• Do not try to force them to do anything, instead explain why the task is worthwhile.   

Curricular Options:

• Grade skipping-takes away boredom but presents a social issue.
•  Self-paced instruction-a contract detailing what the student needs to complete in a certain time frame.
• Acceleration-stays in class with age group but moves ahead with the curriculum.
• Credit by examination-if child says they are bored then offer opportunity to pass the test to see if they actually know the material already, if they pass do not have to sit through the material. 
• Extra-curricular programs-offer outlets for creativity and space to test knowledge.
• Mentorships-if the child can get all their work done int he morning they are afforded the opportunity to go into the "real world" in the afternoon and apprentice in a business.

-Information from Heikkila.

Emotional & Behavioural Disorders

*In order to designated with an emotional or behavioural disorder one must exhibit one or more of the following behaviours to an intense degree over a long period (90 days in B.C) of time.

Criteria: 

1. Inability to learn that is inexplicable: In the past the child has done fine, but suddenly grades go from high to low without an apparent trigger.
2. Inability to build & maintain relationships: Children who never have friends to play with, often loners. These children are at risk in committing suicide.
3. Inappropriate behaviour under normal circumstances: Generally juvenile delinquents who exhibit over the top behaviour.
4. General, pervasive unhappiness: There is no apparent reason for their sadness/depression.
5. Tendency to develop physical symptoms: These children show their emotions with their body. They may have phobias, eating disorders, hive, get physically sick, be self-cutters, or have OCDC. (Heikkila)

Intellectual Disabilities

Intellectual Disabilities are often characterized by two dimensions: limited intellectual ability and difficulty in coping with the social demands of the environment. Students with intellectual disabilities, when compared to their same-age peers will often demonstrate less mature adaptive skills, showing difficulties with social behaviour and/or functional academic skills.  The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) have typically defined, diagnosed, and reflected the limitations of intellectual disabilities in three dimensions: intellectual functioning, adaptive behaviour or skills and the developmental period (Smith, et al).   

Criteria: 

1. Significantly sub-average IQ - 70 & lower.
2. Significant deficits in adaptive behaviour.
3. Occurs before the age of eighteen.

Characteristics: 

• Memory - Short term is bad but long term is average.  So keep trying! You need to repeatedly teach new concepts but eventually they will get, but since it is a long process to teach these kids new things, make sure what you are teaching is worth it.
• Language - Their expressive language is really poor, but their receptive language is average.
• Motor Skills - Gross motor skills are average, whereas fine motor skills are really impaired.  These children struggle with finger dexterity.
• Other health problems - Vision, hearing and obesity. (Heikkila)

*Children with Autism used to be placed in this category but that was the wrong diagnosis; it was a designation that negatively affected children with autism.

Learning Disabilities

 There are many different kinds of learning disabilities (LD) but some general facts remain true for all students with an LD.  An LD is a neurological condition, but does not imply the child is slow or has any intelligence issues. (Hiekkila) LD's present as perception problems, with a significant discrepancy between aptitude and achievement. (Hiekkila) Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines learning disabilities as: "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 an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write spell, or to do mathematical calculations. Disorders Included: The term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia." (text)  For another definition of learning disabilities please see the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada's website. 

Types:

*There are five different types of LD's: Identification; Discrimination; Sequencing; Figure Ground; Closure. Below is a brief summary of some of the difficulties that each type of learning disability presents for students.

1. Identification: The ability to recognize (name/sort) sensory information. A student with identification problems would look like they had very unique problems; the student would have difficulties putting word to picture. 
2. Discrimination: The ability to notice increasingly subtle likenesses and differences between items. The brain has to really pay attention to notice these differences, called dyslexia. A helpful hint for teachers: it is easier to decipher text for these students if the black text is presented on a pale yellow, pink, or blue background rather than white. 
3. Sequencing: The ability to recognize meaningful order and position of items. These students have difficulty remembering the order of things. 
4. Figure-Ground: The ability to prioritize items; to focus on the relevant and ignore the irrelevant. These students get distracted very easily (soothing music may be of help). Also it may be useful to keep one wall of your classroom white or have a white sheet to cover the wall this will help the student focus as a blank white wall is not very distracting. This LD should not be confused with ADHD. A child with ADHD is not paying attention to anything, while a child with an LD is paying attention to everything.  
5. Closure: The ability to activate prior learning to form a "gestalt" or meaningful whole. This student has trouble filling in the gaps, they need every instruction spelled out for them.  This student may also have trouble reading between the lines, may have trouble picking up on humour and sarcasm. (Hiekkila)

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD as it is more commonly referred, is classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a "disruptive disorder expressed in persistent patterns of inappropriate degrees of attention or hyperactivity." (Smith)

Characterisitics: 

1. Impulsivity - Often get into trouble because of their lack of filter, often why they are thought of as having behavioural problems.
2. Hyperactivity - Only 40% of kids with ADHD are hyperactive.
3. Poor Attention. (Heikkila) 

*The characteristics of ADHD, like many other disorders, present in different ways according to the individual; children may present with only one or all three of the above characteristics.   

Behaviors Associated with ADHD: 

• Selective attention - go in & out of focus every 5-10 seconds, which results in lots of holes in instructions.  These children are unaware they have missed anything & thus do not ask for clarification.
• Problems with executive functioning - This is the "boss" of your brain, the place that fosters the ability to plan & follow through with a task. Kids with ADHD can have troubles focusing, as well as troubles prying themselves away from something they find interesting. 
• Meta-cognition - Kids with ADHD are bad at figuring out how to help themselves. (Heikkila)

*Students with ADHD need attention stimuli because the attention centers in their brain are asleep.

Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism Disorder & Asperger's Disorder: They are categorized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as pervasive developmental disorders.  Autism was recognized in 1970?? Asperger's is a relatively new diagnostic disorder as it was not recognized on its own (separate from autism) until 1994. 

The difference between autism and Asperger’s is that autism includes language and cognitive delays while Asperger’s does not. To be formally diagnosed with Asperger’s a child needs to display impairment in social interactions and unusual patterns of behaviors along with NO significant delay in language or cognitive development; whereas children with autism will show a delay in language and cognitive development.  Both affect social and cognitive functioning thus presenting varying challenges for the elementary classroom.