Introduction to Special Education Chapter 6 PDF

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CHAPTER 6: STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIESBasic Concepts on Learning, Mental Ability and Learning DisabilitiesWhat is learning?Learning is the process by which experience and practice result in a stable change in the learner's behavior. 'The permanent change in behavior is not the result of matu...

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CHAPTER 6: STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES Basic Concepts on Learning, Mental Ability and Learning Disabilities What is learning? Learning is the process by which experience and practice result in a stable change in the learner's behavior. 'The permanent change in behavior is not the result of maturation or growing up through the years, or because of increase in chronological age. Rather, learning results from efficient teaching that develops the learner's genetic capacity to learn to the maximum in an environment that is conducive to an effective teaching-learning process. Thus, the learner manifests an understanding of content knowledge and demonstrates the ability to perform skills. Learning can be inferred to have taken place when the student's performance and behavior indicate the achievement of the long-term goals set for the school year and the quarterly short term objectives. The student's cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills and competencies are enhanced as indicated by knowledge gained and performance of the activities in the instructional plans that are taught each day. What are the stages of learning? Learning is not a simple process of moving from a state of "not knowing" to a state of "knowing" content or skills. The following figure illustrates that the stages of the learning process proceed from the state of "not knowing" to the state of "knowing, using and inventing."

1. The "Knowing" Stage of Learning 

Acquisition and Reversion

The initial objective of teaching is for the student to acquire knowledge and skills accurately and meaningfully. Acquisition of knowledge and skills takes place when the instructional goals and objectives, skills and competencies, strategies and materials match the learning ability of the student. The teacher's ability to motivate the learner, his or her delivery of accurate content through explicit and effective teaching methods, questioning techniques and evaluation strategies all contribute to the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the learning areas. When the conditions for effective teaching and learning are present the student can learn content and acquire skills from zero to basic mastery of content and skills with about 85% accuracy. The use of relevant instructional systems and practical experiences further increases the chances of achieving the expected percentage of accuracy in executing the tasks learned. In reversion the content and skills learned earlier are further strengthened to increase accuracy and mastery. Correct practice, drill, review and similar strategies are used with immediate feedback and reinforcement. Through continuous efficient and effective instruction, relevant practice, coaching and feedback, the student is gradually helped to perform the skills with at least 85% accuracy during the "knowing" stage of learning.

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Proficiency and Automaticity

Proficiency and automaticity are determined by the strength of prior learning. When mastery of a skill or concept is attained, the learner moves on to the substages of proficiency and automaticity. The student moves beyond the conscious recall of content knowledge thus mastered or the performance of the skills. The goal is to attain fluency so that the skills are automatically applied to appropriate situations in everyday life. The learner executes the tasks immediately and successfully without the need to recall the procedures. 2. The "Using" Stage of Learning 

Maintenance

When the student continues to use the skills thus acquired with proficiency and automaticity over time without explicit instruction, coaching, prompt, help or reinforcement, then maintenance is achieved. Class activities are organized to allow the students to continue to experience meaningful practice of the skills in practical contexts. Application of the skills at home and in other environments outside the school is set up. Appropriate feedback and reinforcement are given to strengthen the maintenance of the skills. The learning of new skills is built on the skills that are maintained. If the learned skills are not used they will weaken even if they were learned earlier with proficiency. 

Generalization

Once a skill is learned proficiently, it should be available for use in any appropriate situation. The goals of generalization are: (a) for the learner to recognize a new or different stimulus as a prompt to apply the learned skills and (b) to use the acquired skills in various situations, behaviors, settings and time. The ability to apply generalization is a major indicator of learning. 3. The "Inventing" Stage of Learning 

Adaptation

In the last stage of learning, the student recognizes the need to apply learned skills in situations outside the school. He or she introduces changes or modifications in the skills and applies them to meet the new situation without help or prompts. Although the basic skills have been learned earlier, the student is able to think how they can be used to achieve a current objective in a new situation with or without assistance or coaching and prompts. The following vignettes illustrate how the stages of learning take place in the case of students with learning disabilities. John is a third grader with a language disability who spends most of his day in the regular classroom. He is an enthusiastic learner, willing to try almost anything. He is one of those students who seem to either "get it" quickly or not understand the lesson at all. He is frequently the first one to respond to questions and to note similarities in content discussions, but he is also the first one to jump to erroneous conclusions. As soon as a skill is introduced, he is most eager, almost impatient, to apply it. Since his tendency is to attempt to quickly practice the skill, he often appears to think that he has achieved mastery of a new skill after only one or two practice sessions. It soon becomes obvious that his accuracy and understanding are not as strong as his enthusiasm, indicating that the learning is still at the reversion substage. Without careful monitoring, he is apt to end up practicing skills incorrectly. He responds well to corrective feedback, but he seems to be amazed when it is pointed out to him that his responses are wrong. The teacher will keep John at the acquisition stage longer to achieve accuracy of learning. Practice will be carefully monitored to attain proficiency and automaticity. Marie is a fourth grader with mild mental retardation. Expectedly, she moves through the stages of learning slowly when compared to typical fourth graders. She frequently needs to have materials taught in a variety of ways and to have concepts retaught several times. She benefits from extensive feedback during the acquisition substage. Achieving proficiency is also difficult, as Marie needs a lot of repetition and practice activities. She tends to rely exclusively on rehearsal as a memory strategy. Conscious attention to maintenance activities is necessary. In Mathematics, Marie has achieved

fluency with her multiplication facts after long periods of monitored practice. Now her goal is to use the multiplication table to solve problems and do calculations.

Measures of Mental Ability Another significant concept to understand in teaching children with learning disabilities is the level of the learner's intellectual functioning or mental ability. Here are some concepts on mental ability. Concept 1. Standardized tests of mental ability measure intellectual functioning. Standardized tests of mental ability have been proven to be the best single predictor of school achievement. When administered by a qualified and competent school psychologist, guidance counselor or psychometrician, mental ability test results provide useful information about a student's intelligence quotient (IQ) and his or her potential to gain mastery of the skills and basic learning competencies in the curriculum. A standardized mental ability test or IQ test consists of questions and problem-solving tasks assumed to require certain amounts of intelligence to answer or solve correctly. An IQ test samples only a small portion of an individual's full range of skills and abilities. The child's performance in intelligence tests is used to derive a score that represents his or her overall intelligence. Intelligence tests can be culturally biased. They tend to favor children from the population on which the norms were derived. American intelligence tests were validated primarily among white middle class children. Thus, some questions may tap learning that only middle-class American children are likely to have experienced. Likewise, tests written in English may be inappropriate for Filipino children. Concept 2. IQ scores seem to be distributed throughout the population according to the normal curve. As shown in the figure below, to describe how one particular score varies from the mean or average score, the population is divided into units called standard deviations (SD). A standard deviation is a mathematical concept that refers to the amount by which a particular score on a given test varies from the mean or average score of all the scores in the norm sample. Each standard deviation includes a fixed portion of the population. Theoretically, 34.13% of the population falls one standard deviation above the mean and another 34.13% is one standard deviation below the mean. A person's IQ test score can be described in terms of how many standard deviations it is above or below the mean. IQ scores can change significantly. Studies show that IQ scores can change particularly in the 70 to 80 points range.

Concept 3. Intelligence testing is not an exact science. Even though the major intelligence tests are among the most carefully developed and standardized of all psychological tests, they are still far from perfect. There are many factors or variables that can affect an individual's IQ score, such as, motivation, the time and location of administration and the inconsistency or bias of the test administrator in scoring responses that are not precisely covered by the test manual. Even the selection of the test to use can affect the individual's IQ score. Concept 4. There are children whose IQ scores fall within the average as well as the above average areas of the normal curve who experience learning difficulties. These children are not learning like their peers not because their mental ability is below average. In fact, most children with learning difficulties have average to above average intellectual functioning. They do not belong to the group of children with mental retardation, but they cannot learn most of the basic learning competencies for average children. These children have learning disabilities.

Definition of Learning Disabilities The category of learning disabilities in special education, its concepts and definition has been the subject of much discussion, debate and research in the United States during the past fifty years. The term learning disabilities was introduced in 1963 by Dr. Samuel Kirk, a well-known American special education expert. More than any other area of special education, the area on learning disabilities has sparked misunderstanding and confusion, disagreement and controversy among professionals, parents and the general public. In the Philippines, special education for children with learning disabilities is only in its early years of implementation. Unlike the special education programs for children with mental retardation, giftedness and talent, visual and hearing impairments and behavior problems that date back to the 1950s, there are very few schools all over the country that have started to offer programs for children with learning disabilities. The American National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) which is composed of several professional organizations issued the following definition in 1989: "Learning disabilities is a generic term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities. These disorders are intrinsic to the individual and presumed to be due to central nervous system dysfunction. Learning disabilities may appear across the life span. Problems in self-regulatory behavior, social perception and social interaction may exist in learning disabilities but do not themselves constitute a learning disability. The group of disorders is heterogeneous, that is, there is not only one but several disorders that occur at the same time. No two learning disabled persons are alike in mental and behavioral characteristics. The significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities show in the child's performance in the school subjects. These children cannot learn the regular school subjects like his or her normal classmates although their mental ability is average or above average. Reading is a subject where they meet many difficulties. Processing of Information Difficulties Having LD means that the brain process information differently than most other students. Therefore, certain kinds of information get stuck or lost while traveling through the brain of the student with LD. It is like when you go on a car trip and get stuck in road construction and need to take a detour. It takes you a lot longer to get where you are going. It is the same with information going through the brain of a students with LD.

Three Criteria in Determining the Presence of Learning Disabilities The following criteria must be present when assessing children to have learning disabilities:

1. Severe discrepancy between the child's potential and actual achievement Learning disabilities is present when mental ability tests and standardized achievement test results show discrepancy between general mental ability and achievement in school. There are pieces of evidence of a discrepancy score of two or greater than two in intellectual ability and achievement in one or more of the following areas: oral expression, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, written expression, basic reading skills, mathematics calculation, reasoning. Children may show learning difficulties that are minor or temporary, in which case a true learning disability is not present. This means that when learning disabilities are present, they are neither minor nor temporary. The degree of discrepancy is such that special education is needed. They manifest specific and severe learning problems despite regular education efforts. 2. Exclusion or absence of mental retardation, sensory impairment and other disabilities The exclusion criterion means that the child has significant problems that cannot be explained by mental retardation, sensory impairment like low vision, blindness, hearing impairment, emotional disturbance or lack of opportunity to learn. As explained earlier, mental ability is within the average range or may even be above average. There are no sensory impairments like low vision, blindness, deafness or behavior problems. While all the conditions for learning to take place are present, the student experiences learning disabilities. 3. Need for special education services Teaching the child with learning disabilities involves strategies that are unique, uncommon and of unusual quality. The strategies supplement the organizational and instructional procedures used with majority of the children in regular schools. This criterion is meant to keep children who have not had the opportunity to learn from being classified as learning disabled. Children with learning disabilities should progress normally as soon as they receive effective instruction at a curricular level that is appropriate to their current skills. They need special education services to remediate their achievement deficiencies.

Learning and Behavior Characteristics of Children with Learning Disabilities (from IDEA)              

May not understand what he or she reads; May have real trouble with spelling; May struggle to express ideas in writing; May have trouble following directions; May confuse Math symbols and misread numbers; May learn language late and have a limited vocabulary; May have trouble learning the alphabet, or connecting letters to their sounds; May make many mistakes when reading aloud, and repeat, and pause often; May have very messy handwriting or hold a pencil awkwardly; May not be able to retell a story in order (what happened first, second, or third); May mispronounce words or use a wrong words that sound similar; May have trouble remembering the sounds that letters make or hearing slightly differences between words; May not follow the social rules of a conversation such as, taking turns, and may stand to close to the listeners; May have trouble organizing what he or she wants to say or not be able to think of the word he or she needs for writing.

Causes of Learning Disabilities The Genetic Factors in Learning Disabilities Learning disabilities constitutes a heterogeneous set of conditions with no single syndrome nor a single cause or etiology. Thus far, research findings cite two genetic causes of learning disabilities. These are brain damage and biochemical imbalance.

1. Brain Damage An increasing consensus attributes learning disabilities to neurological dysfunction or central nervous system pathology. The models on the causes of learning disabilities state that the condition can be: a. hereditary, indicating the presence in the genetic makeup of certain inherited diseases or disorders that damage the brain. b. innate, resulting from biological influences during the period of conception or pregnancy. c. congenital or constitutional, indicating that biological influences may have originated during the process of gestation or development in the prenatal (before birth), perinatal (during birth), or postnatal (after birth) periods of development. Some individuals with learning disabilities show definite signs of brain damage, which may well be the cause of their learning problems. It is estimated that as many as 20% of American children with learning disabilities have sustained prior brain injury, either before, during or after birth. Some professionals believe that all children with learning disabilities suffer from certain types of brain injury or dysfunction of the central nervous system. The brain damage may not be extensive enough to cause a generalized and severe learning problems in all areas of intellectual development. In this case, the child is described as minimally brain damaged. In recent years, neurologists and other professionals use advance technology to assess brain activities more accurately. Some of the new procedures are: a. electroencephalogram or EEC This is a graphic measure and recording of the brain's electrical impulses. The EEG is a digitally computerized recording and analysis of the brain waves. Many students with learning disabilities have abnormal brain waves as shown by the encephalograph that records the brain's electrical impulses. b. computerized tomographic scans or CT. This is a neuroimaging technique whereby X-rays of the brain are compiled by a computer to produce an overall picture of the brain. The CT scans enable the neurologist to look at the underlying physiology or physical condition of the brain. c. magnetic resonance imaging or MRI. This is a neuroimaging technique whereby radio waves are used to produce cross-sectional images of the brain. CT scans and MRI results show that the brains of those with learning disabilities suffered from a disruption in the development of the neural cells during the early months of pregnancy. This means that the neurons in the brain area did not develop normally. 2. Biochemical Imbalance Some researchers claim that biochemical disturbances in a child's body cause learning disabilities. A study in 1975 (Feingold) suggested that artificial food colors, flavors, preservatives, salicylates, and megavitamins in many of the foods that children eat can cause learni...