at the end of this presentation you should be able to: define the characteristics of mental...

At the end of this presentation you should be able to:

• Define the characteristics of mental retardation.• Describe different supports that may collaborate to meet the needs of students with mental

retardation.• Understand the differences in biomedical, social, behavioral, and educational causes of mental

retardation.• Begin to understand different assessments that are used to evaluate students with mental

retardation.• Define self-determination.• Identify problem behaviors in an inclusive classroom• Determine suitable alternatives to problem behaviors• Understand Universally Designed Learning and apply to inclusive classrooms• Understand Self-Determination Model of Instruction and its impact on students with cognitive

disabilities• Read and apply vignettes from each school setting to an actual case

Chapter 8 Objectives

Mental Retardation

Define characteristics of mental retardation.

How Do You Recognize Students with Mental Retardation?


• IDEA definition– Sub-average general intellectual functioning– Deficits in adaptive behavior– Manifested during developmental period– Adversely affects educational performance

• AAMR definition– Above, expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills– Originates before age 18

• Levels of support– Intermittent– Limited– Extensive– Pervasive

Defining mental retardation

Assumptions• Limitations within context of age and culture specific community

environments• Assessment considers cultural and linguistic diversity,

communication, motor, and behavioral factors• Limitations coexist with strengths• Limitations matched with needed supports• Appropriate supports gradually improve life functioning

Describing the Characteristics

• Limitations in Intellectual Functioning– Memory

http://www.ablelinktech.com/_handhelds/productview.asp?ID=19– Generalization– Motivation - “outer-directedness”

• Limitations in Adaptive Behavior– Self-determination– SIMULATION - http://www.webaim.org/simulations/distractability.php#sim


Define characteristics of mental retardation.

• Causes by Timing– Prenatal (12%)

• Chromosomal (34-38%)• Metabolic• Maternal health

– Perinatal (6%)• Prematurity• Meningitis• Head trauma

– Postnatal (4%)• Head injuries• Lead intoxication• Abuse and neglect

Understand differences in biomedical, social, behavioral, and educational causes of mental retardation.

• Causes by Type– Biomedical (2/3)

• Genetic• nutrition

– Social• Stimulation• Adult responsiveness

– Behavioral• Dangerous activities• Maternal substance abuse

– Educational• Available supports• Adaptive skills


Identifying the Causes

• Preventing Mental Retardation– Primary Prevention - prevent disability from occurring– Secondary Prevention - early intervention– Tertiary Prevention - special education and vocational education

• Identifying the Prevalence– Co-morbidity - connection of poverty, race, and classification


Identifying the Causes

Understand differences in biomedical, social, behavioral, and educational causes of mental retardation.

Prevalence

• 1-3% of general population• Intelligence quotient

– 55-70– 35-50– 20-35– <20

• Disproportionate representation• Co-morbidity

– Poverty– Race– Classification

How Do You Evaluate Students with Mental Retardation?

• Determining the Presence• Determining the Nature and Extent of General and Special Education and

Related Services– Frequency– Daily Support Time– Type of Support

Determining the Presence and Nature and Extent of Services


Begin to understand different assessments that are used to evaluate students with mental retardation.


Determining the Presence and Nature and Extent of Services


Figure 8-5

Including Students

How Do You Assure Progress in the General Curriculum?

Describe different supports that may collaborate to meet the needs of students with mental retardation.

Figure 8-7

Participation in the General Curriculum

• Higher academic gains• Positive gains and greater inclusion• Increased social competence• Age/grade of inclusion impacts overall success rate

• Altering the Curriculum– Functional Skills– Instruction in Inclusive Classrooms– Instruction in Community Settings

• Augmenting the Instruction– Self-determined Model of Instruction

• What is my goal?• What is my plan?• What have I learned?

Planning Universally Designed Learning

How Do You Assure Progress in the General Curriculum?

Begin to understand different assessments that are used to evaluate students with mental retardation. Define self-determination.

Inclusion Tips

• Behavior• Social interactions• Educational performance• Classroom attitudes• Activity

– Problem– Initial response– Alternate response– Peer support

• Collaboration In the Context of the General Curriculum– Who are the collaborators?– What are the challenges?– What can the collaborators do? – What are the results?

• Family Support Programs• Community Employment Programs

Collaborating to Meet Students Needs

How Do You Assure Progress in The General Curriculum?


What Can You Learn from Others Who Teach Students with Mental Retardation?

The Early Childhood Years

• Granville County Child Development Center, North Carolina• Focus on the strengths and needs of each child’s family and develop an

individual plan.– Cognitive– Adaptive– Supports

Early Childhood

What Can You Learn from Others Who Teach Students with Mental

Retardation?

The Elementary Years

• The University of Kansas• Self-determined learning model of instruction

– 12 student questions– Teacher objectives– Educational supports

Elementary

What Can You Learn From Other Who Teach Students with Mental

Retardation?

Middle and Secondary Years

• Teaching in the natural environment• Community-based Instructional Approaches

– “Learn it where you’ll need to do it.”– “Teach it where you want your students to practice it.”

• Service learning opportunities– Students with and without disabilities contribute to area businesses and

not-for-profit organizations.

Middle and Secondary


Retardation?

Transitional and Post-Secondary Years

• Project TASSEL, North Carolina• Students enter at age 14• School-level, community-referenced, interagency teams are created for each

student• Student complete 360 class hours of competitive employment by the end of

their senior year– Job coaches

Transitional and Post Secondary


Retardation?

Young child with cognitive disability

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are needed to see this picture.

Self-Determined Model of Instruction

• Phase 1 - Set a goal– What do I want to learn?– What do I know about it now?– What must change for me to learn what I don’t know?– What can I do to make this happen?


• Phase 2 - Take action– What can I do to learn what I don’t know?– What could keep me from taking action?– What can I do to remove these barriers?– When will I take action?


• Phase 3 - Adjust goal or plan– What actions have I taken?– What barriers have been removed?– What has changed about what I don’t know?– Do I know what I want to know?

Five Assumptions Essential to the Application of the Definition

• Limitations in present functioning must be considered within the context of community environments typical of the individual's age peers and culture.

• Valid assessment considers cultural and linguistic diversity as well as differences in communication, sensory, motor, and behavioral factors.

• Within an individual, limitations often coexist with strengths.• An important purpose of describing limitations is to develop a profile of needed

supports.• With appropriate personalized supports over a sustained period, the life

functioning of the person with mental retardation generally will improve.

Identification of Cognitive Disabilities

• Evaluate limitations in present functioning within the context of the individual's age peers and culture

• Take into account the individual's cultural and linguistic differences as well as communication, sensory, motor, and behavioral factors

• Recognize that within an individual limitations often coexist with strengths• Describe limitations so that an individualized plan of needed supports can be

developed• Provide appropriate personalized supports to improve the functioning of a

person with mental retardation

Intelligence

• General mental capability• The ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly,

comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience

• Significant limitations in adaptive behavior skills• Evidence that the disability was present before age 18

Adaptive Behavior

• Collection of conceptual, social, and practical skills that people have learned so they can function in their everyday lives.

• Significant limitations in adaptive behavior impact a person's daily life and affect the ability to respond to a particular situation or to the environment.

Adaptive Behavior Skills

• Conceptual Skills– Receptive and expressive language– Reading and writing– Money concepts– Self-directions

• Social Skills– Interpersonal– Responsibility– Self-esteem– Vulnerability– Following rules/laws

• Practical Skills– Personal cares– Independent living– Occupational skills– Safety

Support Areas and Support Activities

• Human development activities• Teaching and education activities• Home living activities• Community living activities• Employment activities• Health and safety activities• Behavioral activities• Social activities• Protection and advocacy activities

“Sam”

• Sam is a 12.0-year-old male presently in sixth grade. His primary diagnosis is Brain Injury/Mental Retardation. His secondary disability is behavior disorder.

• Sam as been through a great deal in his short life. He was born in a rural county. When he was 5 years old, his father threw a brick at this head causing a severe brain injury. As a result of this injury Sam has an IQ which ranges in the mid-sixties. After this incident Sam and his brother were put into a foster home. Sadly this foster family decided to adopt Sam’s brother and not him. So the brothers were separated and Sam was sent to another foster home. Sam’s second foster home resulted in Sam being sexually abused by an older male child in the house. He was sent to a third foster home and then sent to a fourth foster home, all before the age of seven. He is currently with the fourth foster family.

• Sam has many emotional needs. He has emotional outbursts and can overload over small incidents. Despite all of this, he has a great personality and is a very funny person. Sam’s main frustration is his impulsivity and his inability to read. His outbursts have varied from him telling our principal “What are you looking at four eyes?,” to yelling out in class that he was growing hair “you know where.”

• When Sam entered fourth grade, his reputation followed. He was known for swearing, running out of the room, throwing scissors and having severe outbursts. In truth, Sam trusted no one. By October of his first year, there was some doubt about Sam belonging in a public school setting. But, one teacher was determined to see what could be done for Sam. The teacher placed him in a strict token economy and worked at building a relationship with Sam.

• Sam has made academic gains. He has gone from adding and subtracting single digit numbers to multiplying and dividing double and triple digits. His reading has been slower. He went from a pre-primer in fourth grade to a 2.0 in sixth grade. However, his emotional growth has been huge! He is able to control his impulsivity 80 percent of the time. He no longer swears at the students or teacher. He is also able, when upset, to ask to talk to the teacher out in the hall. He and the teacher have a very strong bond.

• Sam will graduate from Junior High School in 5 months.

Questions for Discussion

• List what you learned about the characteristics of the child in this case.

• How can a classroom teacher address Sam’s difficult behavior?• Where would you begin to address Sam’s academic difficulties?• What do you believe made this difference for this child in the

classroom.• What suggestions would you make to the teacher for teaching

math to this child?

• Student with cognitive disability in the classroom– Reading and writing lessons– http://www.wholeschooling.net/

• Inclusive activities– “Circle of friends”– “Getting to know you”

Collaborating to Meet Students Needs

How Do You Assure Progress in The General Curriculum?


Video Essay

Circle of Friends

• Method to build relationships among the regular classroom students and those who have been integrated into the classroom

• Helps sensitize regular students and helps them become involved in the life of the student with a disability.

• It is not a "buddy" system, but a network that allows for genuine involvement of peers in a friendship

• Gives students power and decision-making responsibility to determine what they need for themselves and for their peers.

• An adult facilitates, supports and encourages the group. Regular meetings may be necessary.

(Snow & Forest, 1987; Forest & Lusthaus, 1989)

Establishing the Circle of Friends

• I've come to talk to you about (name).• For years (name) has been in a segregated classroom. What does that

mean?• Give info re student: age, etc.• (name) is going to come into your classroom. Why?• Do you think it would be scary to come into a new classroom? Why?Do you

think it is scary for (name) to come into this classroom? Why?• There are some things we don't want you to do when (name) comes into the

room? What do you think these things may be?• What do you think we want you to do?• Let's switch gears for a minute. Let's talk about you.


• I'm going to have you make your Circle of Friends.– Draw four circles around a stick man. In the first circle, put the people you

really love, the closest people to you. In the second circle, put people you really like, but not enough to put in circle one. In the third circle, put groups of people you like or people you like to do things with (e.g., hockey team, etc.). In the fourth circle, put people you pay to be in your life (e.g., doctor, etc.).

• Ask volunteers to share their circles: ask who and why for each circle.• Draw a fictitious circle with people only in circle one and four. How would this

feel?• (name) has a picture that looks like this. Why did I do all this?


• What I'd like to ask is for a group of you to act as a welcome committee and a friendship committee for (name). Do you think that's a good idea?

• (name) needs friends just like you do. Not all of you will be (name)'s friends, but you can all be friendly. My hope and dream is that out of this great class, (name) will have at least six friends who will do things with him/her at recess, in class and even after school. This won't happen fast, but I bet it will happen. Who wants to help?

• The circle should be informal and flexible. It should meet regularly to promote the relationships and the reciprocal nature of real friendship.

Who Is Tory Woodard?

• Tory is 3 years old and lives with a large extended family.• He was born prematurely and spent the first 6 months of life in the hospital.• He has the ability to memorize songs, sing the alphabet, count to 10, and follow

instructions.• He also has marked delays in cognitive, speech/language, and motor skills.• What he will become will be influenced by early intervention, supports, and

collaborative efforts.

Understanding Students

Mental Retardation

A Vision for Tory’s Future

• Good evaluations lead to early interventions through early childhood education and collaboration.

• Strong and supportive family members are active members of the collaboration team.

• Continued collaboration between school, the community, and Tory’s family will allow a transition to later education and, finally, a productive adult life.

at the end of this presentation you should be able to: define the characteristics of mental...

Documents

causes slide

characteristics limitations

needs of students

behavioral factors limitations

life functioning slide

directedness limitations

assumptions limitations

strengths limitations