To Begin…
Disabilities: Awareness • Identify one of your professional goals
and Support!
• Write your thoughts about this goal in a
paragraph
• Use NO VOWELS (a,e,i,o,u) in the
paragraph!
Dr. Kris Webb
Director: Disability Resource Center
Associate Professor: UNF Department of
Special Education
I am thrilled…
• To be with you today,
Let’s Talk… • That you are willing to help individuals
with disabilities,
• What was most • That we can share information that you
frustrating about may find helpful!
this task?
• How can you relate this activity to
interacting to our UNF students
with special needs?
Handy Information ALWAYS use Person-
about Disabilities… first language
• Use the term Disability rather than • Man with mental illness
handicap when referring to someone • Woman with learning disabilities
who has a disability. Listen to this • Individual with a physical disability
story…
• NEVER:
• Never refer to a person as a victim of a
disability. (victim of cerebral palsy) the learning disabled,
• Never say someone is confined or the retarded
bound to a wheelchair. mentally ill man
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First some
fundamentals… You might be tempted
to…
• Individuals with disabilities must be • Tell an individual she has a
diagnosed by a licensed professional! learning disability,
• We are not qualified to even suggest • Tell an individual she has
that an individual may have a disability! Attention Deficit Disorder,
• Tell an individual she has mental
illness.
• Tell an individual she is paranoid.
HOWEVER:
You could… Who is this person?
• Suggest to an individual that she talk to • Couldn’t read by 3rd grade
her physician and explain the difficulties • Had poor interpersonal skills
she is having with concentration and • Mother was concerned about him
focusing. academically
• Suggest to an individual that she contact • A large part of his life was spent in low-
the Disability Resource Center if she is paying jobs
interested in finding out more about her
difficulties with reading and writing.
• What else?
And finally,
How about this person?
• Has difficulty reading
• Didn’t learn to read beyond
primary skills • Has difficulty writing
• Used a secretary and his wife to • Is an award winning professional
read to him in her field
• Had amazing skills in strategy
planning
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If you are working with a
person who has a LD Definition
disability
• You may find that a definition of • Intelligence scores within normal range
the disability is helpful • A significant discrepancy between
• You may find that knowing about academic achievement and expected
characteristics is helpful potential
• You may find that knowing about • Not caused by other factors (Exclusion
strategies and interventions is Clause)
helpful. • Problems intrinsic to the individual
Learning Disabilities Student with LD
• Unexpected • Students with LD may • Students with LD have a greater
underachievement also develop learned
helplessness and be reliance on external factors for
• Lack of motivation inactive in the learning
or poor attribution process accomplishment which interferes
• Poor language and/or with their motivation
• Attention deficits cognitive development
• Inability to • Immature social skills • Motivation is the inner drive that
generalize • Disorganization
causes individuals to be energized
• Faulty information
processing and directed
• Insufficient problem • Attributions are the self-
solving strategies
explanations about the reasons for
one’s success or failure
Strategies for Success ADHD defined
• You can help if you:
– Repeat important information • ADHD is a persistent pattern of
– Organize content systematically inattention and/or hyperactivity-
– Provide students with relevant impulsivity that is more frequent
information and severe than is typically
– Anchor examples to their experiences observed in individuals at a
– Associate content with familiar comparable level of development.
information
– Teach students to use thinking skills
such as classifying, associating, and
sequencing
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Strategies for Success
• Student engagement in interesting
ADHD Characteristics activities
• Many of the same highly
structured strategies used for
• Hyperactive, impulsive, and students with LD
distracted • Shorter study periods
• Excessive movement, difficult to • Shorter classes more times per
control behavior or verbal week
impulses • Peer tutoring has been very
• Unable to sit for a long time successful with these students
• Unable to concentrate
Emotional Disabilities Characteristics/Emotional
74% have academic Students with externalizing
– An inability to learn that cannot be explained problems display
problems
by factors relating to health, IQ, or sensory excessive behavior
Social Skills
problems – Poor social relationships
problems.
Noncompliance
– The condition results in poor interpersonal – Inability to cope effectively
Coercive behaviors
with expectations of social
behaviors, a pervasive mood of depression settings Aggression
or unhappiness, and inappropriate behaviors – Inappropriate expression Overactive and inattentive
of desires and needs Students with
– The condition persists and adversely affects – Lack of social competence internalizing problems
educational performance and life functions Peers without disabilities display these
perceive these characteristics
individuals as different. – Depression
– Withdrawn
– Anxiety
Strategies for Success Physical Disabilities
Physical impairments Special health care
• Make sure these students feel that Individuals have needs
they have a circle of support problems with
– individuals as having:
structure or
• Help them find their strengths functioning of their • Limited strength
bodies • Chronic or acute
• Many of the strategies used for – Includes impairments health problems
students with LD are helpful caused by: • Affected educational
performance
• Congenital
• Help them access services and anomaly – Can be divided into
counseling • Disease two categories
• Neuromotor
• Other causes such
as cerebral palsy • Muscular/skeletal
and amputations
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Characteristics Strategies for Success
College students may require special features
Fatigue and instructional accommodations such as:
Inconsistent abilities to pay attention – Adjusted schedules and extra time
Weakened muscles and physical – Accessible physical and learning
environments
conditions
– Planning for health care on campus
Absences from school – Creative solutions to lessen impact of
Loss of physical coordination absences
– Goals that foster independence
– Assistive technology
Characteristics
Asperger’s Syndrome
– Significantly affects verbal and
• On the Autism Spectrum nonverbal communication and social
Autistic Spectrum • Disorders share
similar behavioral interaction
Disorder covers five
specific disorders: traits including – Generally evident before the age of
– Autistic disorder or autism
problems with: 3
– Communication
– Childhood disintegrative
disorder (CDD) – Social skills – Adversely affects child’s
– Asperger’s syndrome – Patterns of performance
behavior or range
– Rett’s syndrome
of interests
– May includes characteristics of:
– Pervasive developmental
• Engagement in repetitive movements
disorder – not otherwise
specified (PDD-NOS • Resistance to environmental change or
changes in routine
• Unusual response to sensory
experiences
Strategies for Success Blind/Low Vision
• Teaching communication and social • Visual efficiency: • Students with low vision
skills is paramount – Is how well people use may use sight for
their sight reading
• Strategies for successful participation – Is influenced by visual • Students who are blind
– Develop a schedule acuity and peripheral
vision cannot use vision and
– Avoid surprises – Varies greatly among are educated through
– Provide structure and a routine individuals other sensory channels
– Use direct statements • Can be divided into: • Acuity
– Avoid slang or metaphors – Low vision – Normal vision is said to be
– Blindness 20/20
– Use concrete examples – 20/70 means this person
• Can be classified by: can se at 20 feet what
– Severity people with normal vision
– Age of onset see at 70 feet
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Characteristics Strategies for Success
• Visual information contributes to the • Accommodations and
acquisition of social skills
• Lack of good interpersonal skills can have a modifications are determined for
lifelong impact each student and may include:
• Characteristics attributed to people who are
blind include: – Changing a teaching style
– Low self-esteem – Allowing students to position
– Socially immature themselves where they can benefit
– Isolated
– Passive most from instruction
– Withdrawn – Elimination of obstacles and hazards
– Dependent
– Providing consistent organization,
expectations, and consequences
Deaf/hard of hearing Characteristics
• People who are Deaf: • People who are hard of • Estimated that 25% of Deaf and
– Have profound hearing:
hearing loss – Experience a loss of
hard of hearing children have
– Have little use of hearing in the additional disabilities
hearing, even with speech range
a hearing aid greater than 15–
• Academic achievement levels are
– Usually perceive 25dB and less than poor but improving
some sound 60 dB
– Experience a loss
• Reading achievement is poor
in the speech • Between 25 and 45 percent have
range of greater
than 60 dB
intelligible speech
Strategies for Success Remember…
• Hard of hearing students usually find that
proper amplification allows them to benefit • To address the person who is
from typical classroom instruction with some deaf, NOT the interpreter!
accommodations
• Accommodations include: • Always talk to the person so
– Placing student close to speaker he/she can see your mouth and
– Reducing background noise facial expressions
– Using an overhead projector for notes or
assign a peer helper • Slow your speech so the
– Gain student’s attention interpreter can sign all of your
– Articulate clearly language clearly.
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What would you do
with these students? I learned…
• Connect with 5-6 others to form a
working group.
• Your group will be assigned a
case study.
• With your team, create a plan that
will help each student maximize
his tutoring time.
• Share your ideas with the group!
I felt… I noticed…
I wondered
Thank you for allowing me
to be a part of your day!
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