Portfolio Project

IDEA 2004
IDEA 2004 gives in authority for legislation to strengthen and improve earlier versions (41). Some of the key point of IDEA is quality of personnel, IEP standards, and transitions services. For quality of personnel what must be done “special education specialists must hold full stat certification as special education teachers and have a license to teach” (41). This document also discusses IEP standards, “individualized education programs, and must reflect scientifically based instructional practices, cognitive behavioral interventions, and early intervention services, as appropriate. They must include plans for the use of assistive technology and short-term objectives for children with disabilities who take alternative assessments” (41). The finally thing that is discussed in this document is transition services, “a transition plan must be included in all IEP’s for students at age 16 and for younger students if appropriate. Transition services must include instruction, community experiences, development of employment, and other post school adult-living objectives” (41).

Section 504
A 504 plan is for students that do not meet the criteria for IDEA but are eligible for services receive a 504 plan. Students that have bad grades, patterns of suspensions, behavioral problems, and have trouble complete their homework or even doing fall under receiving a 504 plan. The 504 plan “can act as a bridge between general and special education and is a first step to the response to intervention (RTI) model” (41).

Autism
“Developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3 and that adversely affects a child’s educational performance” (7). Autism is based on a spectrum which is related to how the disorder affects the child ability to learn and communicate with those around them. “A variety of conditions are included in the category of autism spectrum disorders. Although the disorders vary in terms of onset, intensity, and cause, they possess a common set of characteristic, including lack of eye contact, difficulty interacting with peers or adults, language delay, and sometimes random motor movements such as hand flapping” (252). From what i know about autism student have a hard time getting along with their peers because they socially do not act their age. When i was in 7th and 8th grade on my cheerleading team i had a teammate who had autism. It was very hard for her sometimes to stay foucse. I learned that she was a very nice girl but was just hard to understand for must girls on the team.



The possible cause of autism is “because autism spectrum disorder runs in families, a genetic defect is suspected” (257). Another secondary cause that is becoming more common and is being talked about in the media is environmental factors. “Environmental factors can have a secondary influence on the intensity of the problem- but no credible linkage has been found to reactions to vaccines” (257).

Early intervention is the best for children with autism the sooner that child is identified to have autism the sooner they could start getting the help that they need. “Early identification of children with autism is one of the key elements of treatment. The development of language and social skills is critical at ages 18 months to 3 years, and these skills, in addition to imitation of motor behavior and using eye gaze to communicate, need to be forested at that time. If we wait for the child’s autism to be discovered in kindergarten, we lost valuable time that will be very difficult to recover” (258). It is very important to find out that a child has autism at an early age so they can start getting service right away. Parents are trying to figure out a cure and what caused their child to develop autism. “For many years, scientists have puzzled about the collections of symptoms shown by children with autism: the lack of eye contact, limited social interaction, communication delays, and sometimes repetitive motor movements, such as rocking” (258).


There are many special characteristics of children with autism. One indicator that is presents in a child with autism is the lack of theory of the mind. Theory of the mind is “the ability of human beings to understand the thinking and feeling of other people. A theory of mind is necessary for understanding, predicting, and shaping the behavior of others” (259). The children a presented with a task to do that deal with others feeling. Must children with autism do extremely poor on this test? “One of the characteristics shared by many persons with autism is a hypersensitivity to noises in the environment. Loud noises scare children with autism not because they may not know where they are coming from but because it hurts their ears. “In addition to sound sensitivity, sensitivity to stimuli can extend to the tactile-some children with autism are sensitive to touch and will shy away from relative hugging them or from being touched by others” (261). The finally characteristic of children with autism is difficulty with motor skills. “Children on the autism spectrum also have difficulty with a range of motor skills-such as gross motor skills (such as running and jumping), fine motor skills, and motor planning (moving one’s body in space)” (261).
With children that have autism they can benefit from adapting technology. “When a child does not develop speech and receptive language in the usual fashion, a wide variety of devices (called augmentative and alternative communication) are tried to agument or increase the child’s communication skills” (274). Student may also learn hand eye coordination using computers to help them. “Now available are other aids, known as voice output communication aids, to store recorded messages that the child can trigger” (274). Technology can help students with autism be able to learn many things as well as work on what they struggle with.
“In no other category have courts played such a significant role than with children with autism. A total of nineteen cases were brought into federal court between 1998 and 2002 as result of disputes between parents and school districts on the appropriate way of educating autistic children” (280). Many parents were worried that the needs of their child were not being meant and that they were not doing the right things for their child. “In general, the courts were unwilling to substitute their judgment for that of the school system as to what was appropriate for an individual child, assuming that the districts worked closely with the parents and followed the provisions of IDEA” (280).
A center for families to go to get help for their students that Autism society. Families and students can go here for support and can benefit for what they have to offer each one of the families that come into their center.

Communication Impairment
Definition-
“Significantly limited, impaired, or delayed capacity to use expressive and/or receptive language, exhibited by difficulties in one or more of the following areas: speech, such as articulation and/or voice; conveying, understanding, or using spoken, written, or symbolic” (7).
The characteristics
“Communication is central to our ability to fit into society successfully, and when difficulties with language and/or speech interfere with communication, children often experience problems. These problems can affect the formation of a child’s friendships, school success, and self-esteem” (220).

How children with a communication Impairment develop differently the a typical student
Children with speech and language impairments develop knowledge of words at a slower rate than the typical student. The child will struggle with the development of words and the understanding of sounds. The child will struggle with reading they will be unable to read at their grade level.
As a teacher when you have a student in your classroom that has communication impairment there many accommodation and modifications that can be made to benefit the student. With a student with speech impairment modifications and accommodation that could help the student is the student working the speech teacher. The students get help with sounding out words and form the words in the right way. Teacher can also have the student read small short passages of words to develop more confidence for reading out loud. There are many computer games that students can play that well help develop a strong speech with working on sounds that sound the same and forming words. Student could also use a voice recorder to listen to the words said by a teacher and then repeat the word.

There are many state and federal organizations for families to turn for support and services. One organization is American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. On the organizations website it has a quote that says “making effective communication a human right, accessible and achievable for all”. This association is trying to make it easy for families and those who have communication impairments. They offer services for people to go to get the help that they need.





Developmental Delay
Definition-
“Significantly limited impaired, or delayed learning capacity of a young child (3-9 years old), exhibited by difficulties in one or more of the following areas: receptive and/or expressive language cognitive abilities: physical functioning social, emotional, or adaptive functioning: and/or self-help skills” (7).
Characteristics of developmental delays
“Development delays are defined by each state and can occur in any of the five critical domains: cognitive, communicative, social-emotional, motor, and adaptive development” (85).
Children with developmental delays develop at a slower rate than the typical person. Children usually miss milestones that they are supposed to hit. Such as sitting up and walking at certain ages. Due to their developmental delays students struggle in school by developing
With student with development delays the accommodation and modification are very similar to those of a student with a learning disability. The student may either receive an Individualized Family service plan which is developed for each child from birth to 3 years of age who is diagnosed as disabled, developmentally delayed, or at risk for delays. Then the student will receive an IEP. Both of these document set goal for the child and state their weakens and strengthens also they state where the student may need help. Students benefit for playing games and interacting with their peers. They also benefit from playing games on the computer that make them develop better.