Cognitive Disabilities

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Cognitive Disabilities

• Intellectual Disabilities across the continuum
• Education of Students with Severe and Multiple
  Disabilities

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What is Intellectual Disability?

• American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR)
  definition (1992)
• Now the American Association on Intellectual and
  Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD)
• Updated in 2003
• Limitations in Intellectual Functioning
• Two standard deviations below the mean on
  intelligence tests
• Limitations in adaptive skill
• Age of onset prior to 18 years

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Classification of Intellectual Disability

• DSM-IV-T-R
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
  Disorders, 4th Text Revision
• Mild
• Moderate
• Severe
• Profound

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Levels of Support

• Intermittent
• Limited
• Extensive
• Pervasive
• Types of Support
• Formal
• Informal

5
Causation

• Sociocultural
• Economic
• Poor nutrition/medical care
• Fewer opportunities for learning
• Biomedical
• Chromosomal
• Metabolic
• Brain disease

• Behavioral/ Environmental
• Maternal infection
• Drug/alcohol abuse
• Postnatal infection
• Trauma
• Unknown Causes

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Physical Characteristics

• May be no physical characteristics
• More severe impairments more physical issues

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Who are Students with Severe Disabilities?

• Individuals who are in need of intensive support
  across the lifespan in critical areas of
  development
• Self-help
• Social
• Cognitive
• Physical

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TASH Definition of Severe Disability www.tash.org

• Individuals of all ages who require extensive
  ongoing support in more than one major life
  activity in order to participate in integrated
  community settings and to enjoy a quality of life
  that is available to citizens with fewer or no
  disabilities. Support may be required for life
  activities such as mobility, communication,
  self-care, and learning as necessary for
  independent living, employment and
  self-sufficiency (Myer et al., 1991, p.19)

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Diagnoses associated with severe disabilities

• Autism/PDD
• Developmental Disabilities
• Dual Diagnoses (e.g., sensory impairments)
• Physical impairments
• Genetic Disorders
• http//www.familyvillage.wisc.edu

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Who has the severe disability?
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Effects on Learning

• May learn at a slower pace
• May have difficulty with retention of information
• May have difficulty using information that they
  have learned generalization
• Problems with abstractions

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Learner Characteristics

• Problems with self-regulation
• Strategies for learning
• Metacognitive strategies
• Adaptive skills being able to adapt to the
  demands of the environment
• Generalization of classroom skills to the real
  world
• More distractibility
• Social skills
• Lower self-image and expectations for failure

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Education of Students with Severe Disabilities

• Education and services will be needed across the
  lifespan
• Early Intervention Services are critical
• Also need to take a team approach to learning
• Need to focus on the needs of parents
• Respite care
• In-home help
• Education and support

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Where should teaching take place?

• Early segregated settings with kids similar to
  them
• Now more benefit from inclusion in the general
  education environment
• IDEA continuum of placements
• Students should be educated in the Least
  Restrictive Environment
• Community-based instruction
• What you teach is what you get, and where you
  teach it is where you are going to get it

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Continuum of Placements
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Who should be teaching?
17
Education of Students with Intellectual and
Severe Disabilities

• Early intervention is key!
• Based upon the achievement of developmental
  milestones (Developmentally Appropriate Practice)
• Head Start federally funded preschool program
  for students at risk for school failure

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Curricular Focus

• For some kids - Shift from academic instruction
  to functional skills
• Self care skills
• Social skills
• Communication
• Functional academics
• Job Training
• Goals should be meaningful to the persons life
  and age appropriate
• Should have access to the general education
  curriculum regardless of disability

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Academic Achievement
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Elementary School

• Focus decreasing dependence upon others and
  adapting to the natural environment
• Motor Skills
• Self-Help Skills
• Social Skills
• Communication Skills
• Functional Academics

21
Adolescence

• Personal independence and community participation
• Social participation in community activities
• Self-determination and Self Advocacy
• Employment preparation
• Must occur before graduation
• Focus on opportunities in the general area
• More specific as graduation approaches
• Collaboration between school and adult services