EDU732: Analysis of Learning

Disabilities in Education

Week 1:
Introduction to the Analysis of
Learning Disabilities in Education
and Differentiated Teaching
Topic goals
 To gain an understanding of Special Education
 To familiarize with concepts relative with Special
Education and Disabilities
 To learn about Differentiated Teaching

Task – Forum
 Introduce yourself and write about your expectations of
the course. Share your opinion, views and your
experience in Special Education Needs.
 SEN legislation, framework and type of SEN cases can be
found within your own country.
 Analysis of Salamanca Statement. Provide an overview.

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SPECIAL EDUCATION NEEDS (SEN)

1.1 Introduction

Special Education or Special Education Needs is the education of students with

special need in a way that addresses the students’ individual differences and
needs.

“Special education needs began to come into use in the late 1960s… There was,
moreover an increasing awareness of the frequency of learning in ordinary
schools ” (Gulliford & Upton, 2002, pg.1)

What does it mean to be a child with Special Education Needs?

Definitions

“A child has Special Education Needs if he or she has a learning difficulty which
calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.
A child has Learning Difficulties if he/she:
a. has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children
of his/her age.
b. has a disability which either prevents or hinders the child from making use of
educational facilities of a kind generally provided for a children of the same age
in schools within the area of the local education authority”.
(The Education Act, 1996, pg.211)

“Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can affect a child or young
person’s ability to learn. They can affect their: behavior or ability to socialize,
e.g. they struggle to make friends reading and writing, e.g. because they have
dyslexia ability to understand things concentration levels, e.g. because they
have ADHD physical ability” (DfE and DoH,2015).

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Disabled pupils are those who have a physical or mental impairment which has
a substantial and long term adverse effect on the ability to carry out normal
day to day (Definition of disability from SEN and Disability Act (SENDA), 2001).

1.2 Exceptional Children

Who are Exceptional Children?

Exceptional children differ from the norm (either below or above) to such an
extent that they require an individual program of special education.

“The term exceptional children includes children who experience difficulties in

learning as well as those whose performance is so advanced that modifications
in curriculum and instruction are necessary to help them fulfill their potential…
The term students with disabilities is more restrictive than exceptional children
because it does not include gifted and talented children.” (Heward, 2013, pg.7)

Four key terms:

Impairment – the loss or reduced function of a body part or organ.

Disability – Exists when impairment limits the ability to perform

certain tasks.

Handicap – A problem encountered when interacting with the

environment. Not all children with a disability are handicapped.

At risk – Children who have a greater than usual chance of

developing a disability.

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These characteristics fall into the following categories of exceptionality:

 Intellectual disabilities
 Learning disabilities
 Emotional or behavioral disorders
 Autism
 Speech or language impairments
 Hearing impairments
 Visual impairments
 Physical or health impairments
 Traumatic brain injury
 Multiple disabilities
 Giftedness and special talents
(Heward, 2013, pg.8)

Why do we label and classify exceptional children?

Possible benefits of labeling:

 Recognizing differences in learning and behavior is the first step in

responding responsibly to those differences
 May lead to more acceptance of atypical behavior by peers
 Helps professionals communicate and disseminate research findings
 Funding and resources are often based on categories
 Helps advocacy groups promote more awareness
 Makes special need more visible

Possible disadvantages of labeling:

 Focuses on what students cannot do

 May stigmatize the child and lead to peer rejection
 May negatively affect self-esteem
 May cause other to have low expectations for the student
 Takes away from the child’s individuality
 Suggests that there is something wrong with the child
 Basis for keeping children out of the regular classroom

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1.3 What is special education?

“It is a complex enterprise that can be defined and evaluated from many
perspectives. One may, for example, view special education as a legislatively
governed enterprise whose practitioners are concerned with issues such as due
process procedures for informing parents of their right to participate in
decisions about their children’s education and the extent to which the school
district’s IEPs include each component required by IDEA. From a sociopolitical
perspective, special education can be seen as an outgrowth of the civil rights
movement and society’s changing attitudes about people with disabilities. Each
of these perspectives has some validity, and each has had and continues to play
an important role in defining special education and its practice.” (Heward,
2013, pg.28)

“Special education is individually planned, specialized, intensive, goal-directed

instruction” (Heward, 2013, pg.33)

SEN Code of Practice 0 to 25

• Involving children, parents and young people in decision making is a key

principle of the Code. Local authorities must ensure that parents, children and
young people are involved in discussions and decisions about every aspect of
their SEN, and in: - planning and reviewing the local offer; - reviewing special
educational provision; - drawing up EHC plans, reviews and reassessments.
• Early years providers, schools and colleges should fully engage parents
and/or young people with SEN when drawing up policies that affect them.
• When a child is over 25 it is their views that take precedence over those of
their parents, in respect of assessments and EHC plans.

The four areas of SEN:

1. Communication and interaction;
2. Cognition and learning;
3. Social, emotional and mental health;
4. Sensory and/ or physical needs

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Special education as intervention

 Preventive: designed to keep minor problems from becoming a

disability
 Remedial: Attempt to eliminate the effects of a disability. The word
remediation is primarily an educational term; social service agencies more
often use the word rehabilitation.
 Compensatory: Enable successful functioning in spite of the disability

Special education as instruction

Ultimately, teaching is what special education is most about. But the same
can be said of all of education. What, then, is special about special
education? One way to answer that question is to examine special education
in terms of who (exceptional children, teachers, professionals), what (what is
taught, curriculum, goals and objectives), how (how is taught, language,
methods, material), and where ?

Current and future challenges

 Bridge the research to practice gap

 Increase the availability and intensity of early intervention and
prevention programs
 Improve students transition from school to adult life
 Improve the special education – general education partnership

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1.4 Disability categories

Categories of need from SEN code of practice 2001

 Cognition and learning needs includes:

Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD)
Moderate Learning Difficulty (MLD)
Severe Learning Difficulty (SLD)
Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulty (PMLD)
 Behavior, Emotional and Social Development Needs includes:
Behavior, Emotional and social Difficulty (BESD)
 A communication and Interaction needs includes:
Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)
Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or
Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC)
 Sensory and/or Physical Needs includes:
Visual Impairment (VI)
Hearing Impairment (HI)
Multi – Sensory Impairment (MSI)
Physical Disability (PD)

Autism: developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal

communication and social interaction, generally evident before the age of
three that adversely affects education

Deaf – Blindness: “A combination of hearing and visual impairments causing

such severe communication, developmental, and educational problems that the
child cannot be accommodated in either a program specifically for the deaf or a
program specifically for the blind” (Knoblauch, 1998).

Deafness: hearing impairment so severe that a child is impaired in processing

linguistic information through hearing with or without amplification. That
adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

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Emotional Disturbance: a condition exhibiting one or more of the following
characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that
adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Hearing Impairment: impairment in hearing, whether permanent or

fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but is not
included under the definition of “deafness”

Mental Retardation: significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning,

existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during
the developmental period that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance.

Multiple Disabilities: the combination of disabilities (e.g. mental retardation –

blindness etc.) which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot
be accommodated in a special education program solely for one of the
impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness.

Orthopedic Impairment: affects a child’s educational performance. The term

includes impairment caused by a congenital anomaly (e.g. clubfoot, absence of
some member, etc.), impairments caused by disease (e.g poliomyelitis etc) and
impairments from other causes (e.g. amputations fractures or burns that cause
contractures).

Other Health impairment: having limited strength, vitality or alertness

including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in
limited alertness with respect to the educational environment that is a. due to
chronic or acute health problems (e.g asthma, diabetes, epilepsy etc) and b.
adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Speech or Language Impairment: a communication’s disorder such as

stuttering, impaired articulation, language impairment or a voice impairment
that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

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Traumatic Brain Injury: an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external
physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial
impairment or both, that adversely affect a child’s educational performance.

Visual Impairment including Blindness: impairment in vision that even with

correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term
includes both partial sight and blindness.

1.5 Population with special education

12% to 15% of the population: within a special education category (More than
6 million U.S. school-age children (12%) have some type of functional
limitation. 5,237,000 (11%) have a limitation in terms of their ability to learn.
2,743,000 (6%) have a communication limitation. 650,000 children (1%) limited
mobility)

Disability Category Number Percent of total

Learning Disabilities 2.483.391 42.3
Speech or Language Impairment 1.107.029 18.8
Other Health Impairment 678.970 11.6
Intellectual Disability 460.964 7.8
Emotional Disturbance 405.293 6.9
Autism 333.022 5.7
Multiple Disabilities 124.380 2.1
Developmental Delay 104.432 1.8
Hearing Impairment 70.548 1.2
Orthopedic Impairment 57.930 1.0
Visual Impairment 25.813 0.4
Traumatic Brain Injury 24.395 0.4
Deaf - Blindness 1.359 <0.1
All Disabilities 5.877.196 100.0
Table 1.1: Number of students ages 6-21 who received special education services under
the federal government’s disability categories (2009 – 2010 school year) from U.S.
Department Of Education(2011), (Heward, 2013, pg.9).
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1.6 The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

“IDEA exerts a profound influence on what takes place in every school building
in the country and has changed the roles and responsibilities of general and
special educators, school administrators, parents, and students with disabilities
in the educational process.” (Heward, 2013, pg.16)

The purposes of IDEA are:

“a. To ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free
appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related
services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further
education, employment, and independent living;
b. To ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents of such
children are protected; and
c. To assist States, localities, educational service agencies, and Federal agencies
to provide for the education of all children with disabilities;
d. To assist States in the implementation of a statewide, comprehensive,
coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency system of early intervention services
for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families;
e. To ensure that educators and parents have the necessary tools to improve
educational results for children with disabilities by supporting system
improvement activities; coordinated research and personnel preparation;
coordinated technical assistance, dissemination, and support; and technology
development and media services; and
f. To assess, and ensure the effectiveness of, efforts to educate children with
disabilities. (PL 108-466, Sec. 601 [d])”
(Heward, 2013, pg.16)

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Principles of IDEA

Zero reject: School must educate all children with disabilities. No child with
disabilities may be excluded from a free public education, regardless of the
nature or severity of the disability.

Non-discriminatory Evaluation: Schools must use nonbiased, multifactorial

methods of evaluation to determine whether a child has a disability and, if so,
whether the child needs specially designed instruction to benefit from
education.

Free appropriate public education: All children with disabilities, regardless of

the type or severity of their disability, shall receive a free appropriate public
education (FAPE). This education must be provided at a public expense—that
is, without cost to the child’s parents.

Least restrictive environment: IDEA requires schools to educate students with

disabilities with children without disabilities to the maximum extent
appropriate and that students with disabilities shall be removed to separate
classes or schools only when the nature or severity of their disabilities is such
that they cannot receive an appropriate education in a general education
classroom with supplementary aids and services.

Procedural Safeguards: Schools must follow an extensive set of procedures to

safeguard and protect the rights and interests of children with disabilities and
their parents.

Parent participation and shared decision making: Schools must collaborate

with parents and students with disabilities in the planning and implementation
of special education and related services.

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DIFFERENTIATION
2.1 Introduction to Differentiation

‘Differentiation is the process whereby teachers meet the need for progress
through the curriculum by selecting appropriate teaching methods to match
the individual student’s learning strategies, within a group situation’. (Visser
1993)

“Ensuring that children are all working on something at which they can succeed
and move forward at their own level.” (Teacher, 2008)

Differentiation is an approach to teaching that attempts to ensure that all

students learn well, despite their many differences. It will be efficient, if we
build bridges between students and learning.

As an educator, differentiation is not just an addition of activity to your normal

teaching but permeates everything a good teacher does and it is often
impossible to ‘point’ to a discrete event that achieves it. Some teachers try to
show their intentions to differentiate by setting objectives in their lesson plan;
however, it may not always show up on a lesson plan or in the Scheme of
Work. It is the strategies, not the objectives that achieve differentiation, and
this should be the focus of our interests.

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Differentiation is not new, good teachers have always done it, and when we
stated this we referred to the capability of learners and the nature of learning.
Nowadays weak students do not leave the classroom for the world of work,
while the able students retain for the next level. Education is a ladder, and we
expect every learner to climb as fast and as high as they are able. ‘Drop outs’
are seen as a wasted opportunity, for the learners, and for society as a whole.

2.2 Categories of Differentiation

Differentiation can be defined by:

 Task, where students of different abilities are involved with different tasks
 Support, which gives more help to certain students within the group
 Outcome, which involves setting open-ended tasks and allowing students
response at different levels.

Each school must:

 Help students (very good, average, weak) learn well, despite their many
differences and capability.

Principles for Differentiation in education

 Teacher focuses in main ideas, skills and concepts

 Teacher responds to student diversity
 Evaluation and teaching are interrelated
 Teacher differentiates content, teaching procedure and evaluation
 Each student participates to a valuable work
 There is a cooperation and team work between teacher and students
 Teacher provides and enhances individual and team work.

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2.3 Differentiation for Curriculum and Teaching

To differentiate educational curriculum and teaching you have to know:

 Students
o Needs
o Capabilities
o Interests
o Experiences and background
 Teaching style of educators

To apply differentiation for their teaching, educators have to:

 Know educational theories

 Educational curriculum
 Teaching and Learning strategies and methods
 Understand the needs of their student with difficulties
o Try to identify the strong points and characteristics of students with
difficulties
o Do not allow weakness factors and parts to influence strong parts
o Be careful with important aspects of learning skills and concepts
o Teach them how to improve and success
o Use different teaching methods and material.

(Tomlinson, 2002)
Strategies for Differentiation

 Differentiate homework
 Differentiate questions during the teaching
 Differentiate evaluation
 Differentiate learning goals
 Mention the time limits of work
 Provide hints, key words, diagrams and examples
 Learning becomes creative, attractive and fun.
 Students are active and engage with learning.

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2.4 Learning readiness

• Student's
Teacher • Teacher adjusts
knowledge at a • Mention the the teaching
given time aspect that
student needs
help to work
Student Teaching

2.5 Differentiation in practice

A practical approach to differentiation

“Take a practical and realistic approach to differentiation. "When planning

group work, try to plan so that groups can access work at different times in the
week, so that the less able cover the work set at the middle group level by
Wednesday for example - this saves planning four different types of work for
each group, each day," says Mrs Aspin. "Think of group work using a traffic
light system: green for work they can do unaided once explained; amber for
work that may require support; and red for work that requires a teacher or TA
to 'scaffold' it. Then you can plan around the support staff that you have."

Always have an extra activity on hand for finishers and the most able. "Open-
ended activities are good, as well as games and questions which ask children to
apply the knowledge they have just gained or rehearsed," says Kate.

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Remember that it is not just the core subjects that need differentiating - be
creative with resources and support, as well as how you group pupils, to ensure
you are not spending excess hours planning.
It is important to vary the ways your pupils access lessons and achieve learning
success, so be creative.” (Differentiation by Sean Farelly)

Things to think about:

 Try to use all three types of differentiation to accommodate the different

learning styles.
 Try not to rely on outcome as a differentiator.
 Be creative with resources and support to ensure you are not spending
excess hours planning.
 Think about liaising with colleagues to assess which pupils are in need of
differentiation.

Differentiation in classroom is not

 Individualized teaching
 Separate normal and different child

Difficulties that will appear for differentiation

 Long time preparation for teachers

 Different manuals and handouts
 Reactions from teachers group
 Responses from parent group

2.6 Teaching methods for differentiation

Stations: different places in the classroom where students are active and work
in different activities or subjects.

Daily agendas: it is a worklist which a student must complete at an indicated

time and teachers will have the ability to help and guide the students.

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Advanced teaching: teacher provides each student’s opinion during the
teaching process, as important to complete an activity, exercise or project.

Orbital studies: independent projects where students choose the topic and
teacher guides them to complete their work.

Learning center: a place where different material and activities are provided
for learning and enhancement of skills and concepts.

Classified activities: activities for the same concepts and skills but with
different difficult level.

Learning contracts: it is an agreement between student and teacher for

concepts, skills and the learning goals that will be achieved.

3.1 Task – Forum

 Introduce yourself, why you are studying this course and write about
your expectations of the course. Share your opinion, views and any
experience you have with Special Education Needs.

 Describe SEN legislation, framework and type of SEN cases that can be
found within your own country. Provide your view and opinion on local
perspectives (Provide your post and comment in another post.)

 Analysis of Salamanca Statement. Read the Salamanca Statement and

provide an overview. Discuss and provide a general idea for this
Framework of action, Education for all, etc. (Provide your post and
comment in another post.)

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Further Reading and Study

Department for education and health, (2016), SEND Code of practice 0 to 25.

Banks, J., Frawley, D., & McCoy, S. (2015). Achieving inclusion? Effective
resourcing of students with special educational needs. International Journal of
Inclusive Education, 19(9), 926-943.

Forlin, C. (2006). Inclusive education in Australia ten years after

Salamanca. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 21(3), 265-277.

Video:
Inclusive Education Global Meeting Salamanca 2009
This is the video of the Global Meeting on Inclusive Education Salamanca 2009. Some of the
participants of the meeting explain why Inclusive Education is important and they share
experiences in their countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sierpB2ydrE

References:
Department for education and health, (2016), SEND Code of practice 0 to 25.
GREAT BRITAIN. Special Educational Needs and Disability Act, 2001 (c.2)
London: HMSO.
Gulliford, R., & Upton, G. (Eds.). (2002). Special educational needs. Routledge.
Heward, W. L. (2013). Exceptional children: An introduction to special
education. Pearson College Div.
Knoblauch, B. S. (1998). IDEA's Definition of Disabilities. ERIC Digest E560.
Parliament of the United Kingdom, (1996) Education Act.
Tomlinson, C. A. (2002). Different learners different lessons. Instructor, 112(2),
21-25.
Visser, J. (1993). Differentiation: Making it work: Ideas for staff development.
NASEN: Tamworth.

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