International Classification of

Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)

• problems with human functioning are categorized
in three interconnected areas
• impairments are problems in body function or
alterations in body structure – for example,
paralysis or blindness;
• activity limitations are difficulties in executing
activities – for example, walking or eating;
• participation restrictions are problems with
involvement in any area of life – for example,
facing discrimination in employment or
transportation
• Disability refers to difficulties encountered in
any or all three areas of functioning
• Health conditions” are diseases, injuries, and
disorders, while “impairments” are specific
decrements in body functions and structures,
often identified as symptoms or signs of health
conditions.
• Disability arises from the interaction of health
conditions with contextual factors –
environmental and personal factors as shown in
the figure below.
• The ICF contains a classification of environmental
factors describing the world in which people
with different levels of functioning must live and
act.
• These factors can be either facilitators or
barriers.
• INCLUDE:products and technology; the natural
and built environment; support and
relationships; attitudes; and services, systems,
and policies.
• personal factors, such as motivation and self-
esteem, which can influence how much a
person participates in society
• distinguishes between a person’s capacities to
perform actions and the actual performance
of those actions in real life,
 Negative attitudes towards disability
• can result in negative treatment of people with
disabilities, for example:
• children bullying other children with disabilities in
schools
• bus drivers failing to support access needs of
passengers with disabilities
• employers discriminating against people with
disabilities
• strangers mocking people with disabilities
 The diversity of disability
• The disability experience resulting from the
interaction of health conditions, personal factors,
and environmental factors varies greatly
• Disability encompasses the child born with a
congenital condition such as cerebral palsy or the
young soldier who loses his leg to a land-mine, or
the middle-aged woman with severe arthritis, or
the older person with dementia, among many
others
• Health conditions can be visible or invisible;
temporary or long term
• ; static, episodic,
• or degenerating;
• painful or inconsequential.
• Note that many people with disabilities do not
consider themselves to be unhealthy
• Generalizations about “disability” or “people
with disabilities” can mislead. Persons with
disabilities have diverse personal factors with
differences in gender, age, socioeconomic
status, sexuality, ethnicity, or cultural heritage.
Each has his or her personal preferences and
responses to disability
• all people with disabilities are equally
disadvantaged
 Prevention
• Attention to environmental factors – including
nutrition, preventable diseases, safe water
and sanitation, safety on roads and in
workplaces – can greatly reduce the incidence
of health conditions leading to disability
Primary prevention – actions to avoid or remove
the cause of a health problem in an individual or
a population before it arises
Secondary prevention – actions to detect a health
problem at an early stage in an individual or a
population, facilitating cure, or reducing or
preventing spread, or reducing or preventing its
long-term effects-breast cancer screening

• Tertiary prevention – actions to reduce the

impact of an already established disease
 rehabilitation

This Report defines rehabilitation as “a set of measures that assist individuals

who experience, or are likely to experience, disability to achieve and
maintain optimal functioning in interaction with their environments
• prevention of the loss of function
• slowing the rate of loss of function
• improvement or restoration of function
• compensation for lost function
• maintenance of current function.
 Multiple disabilities -IDEA
• “concomitant [simultaneous] impairments (such
as intellectual disability-blindness, intellectual
disability-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the
combination of 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.”
• student whose special needs are categorized
under multiple disabilities requires coinciding
adaptions for more than one disability.
• Given the numerous disability category
combinations possible, the designation multiple
disabilities encompasses a broad range of traits.
• several common characteristics, including
hampered speech and communication skills,
challenges with mobility and a need for
assistance in performing everyday activities.
• Medical conditions such as seizures and
hydrocephalus can accompany multiple
disabilities.
 Educational Challenges

• Can create numerous educational challenge : seizures

raises safety concerns inside a classroom.
• Other common educational challenges revolve around
the following issues:
• Finding a setting suitable to the child’s intelligence
level
• A child’s ability to effectively communicate with
teachers, support staff and peers
• A student’s capability to function in the classroom
• Assessing and compensating for visual or hearing
impairments
• Consideration to medical conditions can assist with classroom
placement, as can being aware of a student’s intelligence level.
• Assistive technology (AT) and alternative communication methods,
including text-to-speech technologies, hearing aids and sign
language, can neutralize communication problems.
• Physical therapy and occupational therapy can ease physical
challenges, and improve a student’s ability to function inside the
classroom
• Assistive technology and special education aids can be helpful here
as well.
• Meanwhile, an assigned aid can provide assistance in cases in which
functioning independently is difficult or impossible.
• Solutions ranging from priority seating to
alternative textbooks (braille, audio, etc.) to
hearing aids and sign language can compensate
for visual and hearing impairments.
• A closer look at the specific disability categories
which comprise a student’s multiple disabilities
can supply further suggestions for overcoming
educational challenges.
 Autism

• a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and

nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident
before age three, that adversely affects a child’s educational
performance.”
• “Other characteristics often associated with autism are engaging in
repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to
environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual
responses to sensory experiences.
• The term autism does not apply if the child’s educational
performance is adversely affected primarily because the ch
• Child who shows the characteristics of autism after age three could
be diagnosed as having autism if the criteria above are satisfied. ild
has an emotional disturbance, as defined in [IDEA].”
• Unusual fixation (for instance, only playing
with round toys)
• Inability to focus without first completing a
routine
• Disruptive behavior when ordinary schedule is
interrupted
• Unusual communication habits (from not
talking at all to repeating certain phrases)
• Difficulty understanding social interactions
 Educational Challenges

• Trouble following directions

• Hampered ability to communicate
• Disinterest
• Disruptive behavioral problems
• Assistive technology can reduce communication issues.
• EG: if a student is heavily fixated on airplanes but uninterested in
math, write word problems that incorporate situations relating to
airplanes.
• Teachers, getting to know a student can help you avoid disruptive
behavior. Find out what calms your student and what riles up him
or her.
• Parents you can assist here by providing such knowledge to your
kid’s teachers.
 Deafness

• “a hearing impairment that is so severe that the

child is impaired in processing linguistic
information through hearing, with or without
amplification.” The phrase “with or without
amplification”
• Impairments can affect the ability to hear
intensity (loudness, measured in decibels),
pitch (frequency, measured in hertz) or both.
Typically hearing loss above 90 decibels is
considered deafness
 Educational Challenges

• Learning by lectures
• Participating in classroom discussions
• Giving oral presentations
• Taking oral exams
• Note taking
• Watching educational films
• assistance from a note taker-can focus on lip
reading during lectures
• Priority seating at the front of the
classroom can enable a child to lip read more
effectively
• A sign language interpreter can also assist
by translating spoken lectures.
• Teachers, using PowerPoint presentations to
accompany your lectures can help as well.
• The same text-to-speech assistive technology
can enable a student to give oral
presentations and take oral exams
 Deaf-blindness
• refers to a child with both hearing and visual
disabilities.
• “concomitant [simultaneous] hearing and
visual impairments, the combination of which
causes such severe communication and other
developmental and educational needs that
they cannot be accommodated in special
education programs solely for children with
deafness or children with blindness.”
 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:
(A) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory,
or health factors.
(B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships
with peers and teachers.
(C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal
circumstances.
(D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
(E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with
personal or school problems.

• The term includes schizophrenia.

• when it comes to special education, the term “emotional disturbance” is
associated with mental health or severe behavior issues.
• anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, conduct
disorders, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive
disorder (OCD) and psychotic disorders; however,
they note that this list isn’t all-inclusive
• challenge often stems from potential classroom
disruptions; for instance, imagine the trouble
created when a student begins crying
uncontrollably or starts throwing a wild temper
tantrum.
 orthopedic impairment
• “a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely
affects a child’s educational performance.”
• “includes impairments caused by a congenital
anomaly [birth defects], impairments caused by
disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis),
and impairments from other causes (e.g.,
cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or
burns that cause contractures).”
• Put directly, orthopedic impairments involve
physical disabilities which could affect the
academic process.
 Intellectual disability
• , formerly labeled “mental retardation
• “significantly subaverage general intellectual
functioning, existing concurrently [at the same time]
with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested
during the developmental period, that adversely
affects a child’s educational performance.”
• There are two key components within this definition: a
student’s IQ and his or her capability to function
independently, usually referred to as adaptive
behavior.
• You may find that your state still
• Delay in reaching developmental milestones
such as sitting up and talking
• Difficulty remembering things
• Trouble comprehending accepted social
behaviors and/or understanding the
consequences to actions
• Poor problem-solving skills
 Educational Challenges

• Trouble understanding new concepts

• Inappropriate behavior
• Limited vocabulary
• Difficulty accomplishing complex tasks
 other health impairment” (OHI)
• “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— (a) is due to chronic
or acute health problems such as asthma, attention
deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition,
hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis [a
kidney disorder], rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia,
and Tourette syndrome; and
• (b) adversely affects a child’s educational
performance.”
 Specific Learning Disabilities

• “a disorder in one or more of the basic

psychological processes involved in
understanding or in using language, spoken or
written, that may manifest itself in the imperfect
ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or
to do mathematical calculations.”
• This disability category includes such conditions
as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal
brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental
aphasia (a type of language disorder).
• “Specific Learning Disability does not include
learning problems that are primarily the result
of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities; of
intellectual disability; of emotional
disturbance; or of environmental, cultural, or
economic disadvantage.”
• Reading (called dyslexia)
• Writing (called dysgraphia)
• Listening
• Speaking
• Reasoning
• Math (called dyscalculia)
 Educational Challenges

• Difficulty reading out loud

• Poor reading comprehension
• Struggling to write papers and essays
• Trouble understanding lectures
• Difficulty holding a pencil
 Speech and Language Impairments

• “a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a

language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a
child’s educational performance.”

• . “A communication disorder such as stuttering”-fluency disorder other

fluency issues include unusual word repetition and hesitant speech

• . “Impaired articulation” indicates impairments in which a child

experiences challenges in pronouncing specific sounds.

• “A language impairment” can entail difficulty comprehending words

properly, expressing oneself and listening to others

• Finally, “a voice impairment” involves difficulty voicing words; for instance,

throat issues may cause an abnormally soft voice.
 Educational Challenges

• Communicating effectively with

classmates and teachers
• Understanding and/or giving oral
presentations
• Participating in classroom discussions
• Attaining normalcy within a group
 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 affects a
child’s educational performance.”
• “Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed
head injuries resulting in impairments in one or
more areas, such as cognition; language;
memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking;
judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual,
and motor abilities; psycho-social behavior;
physical functions; information processing; and
speech.
• The term does not apply to brain injuries that are
congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries
induced by birth trauma.”
 Common Traits

• Memory difficulties, both short-term and long-

term
• Problems concentrating
• Trouble maneuvering, maybe even paralysis
• Struggles with relating to peers
• Educational Challenges
• Difficulty taking tests and exams
• Problems with following complex directions
• Difficulty learning new skills
 visual impairments,
• near-sightedness and far-sightedness, as well as
more complex conditions like congenital cataracts
and strabismus. While the causes vary, there are
several common signs which may indicate that a
child has a visual impairment. These include:
• Irregular eye movements (for instance, eyes that
don’t move together or that appear unfocused)
• Unusual habits (such as covering one eye or
frequently rubbing eyes)
• Sitting abnormally close to a television or holding
a book close to the face
 Educational Challenges

• Safely maneuvering around the classroom

• Conceptualizing objects
• Reading
• Operating standard educational tools such as
calculators and word processing software
CEREBRAL PALSY
DOWN SYNDROME
CONGENITAL RUBELLA SYNDROME
HYPOTHYROIDISM
NTD/CP-CL
ASD
EPILEPTIC SYNDROMES