Los Angeles Unified School District

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Los Angeles Unified School District Division of
Special Education
Schools for All Children
Developmental and Learning Characteristics of
Students with Mental Retardation
Donnalyn Jaque-Antón Associate Superintendent
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Definition

• A disability that originates before the age of 18
  and is characterized by significant limitations
  both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive
  behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and
  practical adaptive skills
• AAMR 2002

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• Significantly subaverage general intellectual
  functioning, existing concurrently with deficits
  in adaptive behavior and manifested during the
  developmental period, that adversely affects a
  childs educational performance
• CFR 300.7(c)(6)

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Causes of Mental Retardation

• Chromosomal abnormalities including genetic,
  metabolic and neurological disorders
• Congenital infections
• Prenatal drug exposure
• Perinatal/postnatal factors

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Levels of Mental Retardation

• Mild
• Moderate
• Severe
• Profound

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Adapted from Institute On Violence and
Destructive Behaviors, University of Oregon (1999)
Significant/ Pervasive Support Supports are
Constant, High Intensity
Limited Support Supports are Needed
Consistently
Intermittent Support Supports are on
as Needed Basis
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Levels of Support for Students with Mild Mental
Retardation

• Intermittent Supports
• As needed basis
• High or low intensity
• Most likely to be required at life transitions

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Levels of Support for Students with Moderate
Mental Retardation

• Limited Supports
• Needed consistently over time but not on a
  daily basis
• Non-intensive
• Transitional sensitive

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Levels of Support for Students with Severe
Mental Retardation

• Significant Supports
• Regular and frequent involvement
• Situational sensitive

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Levels of Support for Students with Profound
Mental Retardation

• Pervasive Supports
• Consistent
• High intensity
• Across environments

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Educational Implications

• Attention, memory, and decision making
• Good attention to task at hand
• Decision-making capability varies
• Difficulty generalizing

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Educational Implications (continued)

• Cognitive characteristics related to skill
  acquisition
• Difficulty in organizing thought
• Persistence in using incorrect methods
• Difficulty in self-evaluation
• Less preparation and slower movement times

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Addressing Educational Challenges

• Student learns through direct interactions with
  things activities people

• Teacher provides activity-based hands-on
  learning experiences

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Addressing Educational Challenges (continued)

• Student learns through associations

• Teacher uses meaningful context such as daily
  routines organization of materials

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Addressing Educational Challenges (continued)

• Students understanding is likely based upon
  their own perceptions, experiences, or scripted
  answers that are not completely understood

• Teacher explicitly links causeeffect, especially
  through social skills instruction

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Addressing Educational Challenges (continued)

• Student learns through repetition

• Teacher provides multiple opportunities to learn
  and practice skills systematically

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What is Systematic Instruction?

• Identification of the learning target
• Breaking down the learning target into
  incremental steps
• Knowing where each student enters the learning
  sequence
• Practicing across environments

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Systematic Instruction Includes

• Task Analysis
• Teaching Strategies
• Reinforcement, shaping, fading and prompting
  hierarchies
• Data collection

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Task Analysis

• Break down a task into a behavior chain
  consisting of separate, teachable, smaller
  steps/links
• Steps/links should be individualized to meet
  students needs
• Behavior chains range in amount of steps/links

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Teaching Strategies

• Direct Instruction is often used to teach rote
  association, vocabulary skills, early academic
  skills, and sometimes behavior scripts

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Teaching Strategies

• Tasks are broken into small skills
• Tasks are taught using a structured format
• (StimulusgtResponsegtConsequence)
• Provides multiple opportunities to practice

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Teaching Strategies

• Effective for varied skills and group size
• Keep the individual or groups attention by serial
  responding, active participation, pacing and
  varying materials
• Consequence tends to be an external reinforcer

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Reinforcement

• A tool used to support, establish, maintain, or
  generalize a behavior
• Kinds of reinforcers
• How much

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Shaping/Fading/Prompting

• Shape or prompt the correct response
• Block error or use maximum prompt to cue correct
  response
• Verbally prompt correct response
• Model correct response
• Reduce choices (simplify task)
• As student gains mastery fade or reduce the
  prompts

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Data Collection

• We need to
• Monitor student learning
• Monitor effectiveness of teaching strategies
• Write observable, measurable goals and objectives
• Demonstrate adequate yearly progress

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Adapted from Institute On Violence and
Destructive Behaviors, University of Oregon (1999)
Significant/ Pervasive Support Supports are
Constant, High Intensity

• Alternate curriculum or Life Skills
• Intensive social skills training
• Parent training and collaboration
• Multi-agency collaboration (wrap-around) services

Limited Support Supports are Needed
Consistently

• Modifying Core curriculum
• Varying response output
• Small group targeted instruction
• Pre-teach/Re-teach/Remediation
• Social Skill Training

Intermittent Support Supports are on
as Needed Basis

• Based on Core Curriculum
• Universal Access
• Based on individual students need
• High-quality instructional methods
• strategies that ensure progress
• Frequent assessment to monitor progress
• Positive reinforcement systems

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Curriculum

• An applied curriculum that connects the general
  education concepts being taught with the context
  where those concepts are utilized in managing
  ones everyday life is key to making the standard
  curriculum accessible for students with moderate
  to severe disabilities.
• Teaching Students with Moderate to Severe
  Disabilities by Hammill Everington

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Strategies for Access to Standards-based
Instruction

• Curriculum provides multiple means of
  representation
• Alternate modes for subject matter
• Visual
• Auditory
• Differentiated

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Strategies for Access to Standards-based
Instruction (continued)

• Curriculum provides multiple means of expression
• Allows students to respond with their preferred
  modality
• Accommodates the differing cognitive strategies
  and motor systems of students

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Strategies for Access to Standards-based
Instruction (continued)

• Curriculum provides multiple means of engagement
• Students interests in learning are matched with
  the mode of presentation and their preferred
  means of expression
• Students are engaged
• Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)

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Importance of Choice-Making

• Relates to
• Self-determination
• Motivation
• Positive behavior support

• Structuring Choice-Making
• Within a task
• Between tasks
• Order of tasks
• With whom to do task
• More of task
• Yes or no

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Positive outcomes

• Can live independently or semi-independently
• Can develop meaningful social and personal
  relationships
• Can be meaningfully employed within the community
• Can enjoy a high quality of life

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"How we spend our days is, of course, how we
spend our lives."--Annie Dillard