Students with High-Incidence

Disabilities
Jessica
Alexander

What are High-Incidence Disabilities?

Speech and language disabilities, learning disabilities, emotional

disturbance, or mild intellectual disabilities

These students are hard to distinguish from their peers

Often have a combination of behavioral, social, and emotional problems

Benefit from high structured settings

Communication Disorders
Speech Problems
Problem with speech articulation
Pronouncing sounds incorrectly

Voice
Speech is hoarse or too nasality
Excessive volume or too little volume
Lacks inflection

Fluency
Stutters
Excessively slow or uneven, jerky rate of speech

Communication Disorders
Language Problems
Receptive language
Understanding what people mean when they are speaking
This will make comprehension difficult
Problems understanding words with multiple meanings i.e. carry and
times

Expressive Language
Speaking in such a way others will understand
Unable to communicate properly
Incorrect grammar, limited use of vocabulary, frequent hesitations

Accommodations for Communication

Disorder
Create an Atmosphere of Acceptance
Model the correct form
Allow students more time to speak
Do not interrupt or supply words

Minimize peer pressure

Model and reinforce tolerance of differences

Encourage listening and teach listening skills

Listen carefully and praise listening
Engage students before you begin speaking
Make oral material easier to understand and remember
Teach listening skills directly

Accommodations for Communication

Disorder Continued
Use Modeling to expand students language
Add relevant information to student statements
Broadening a minimal statement

Provide many meaningful contexts for practicing speech

and language skills
Goal: teach students to use appropriate language through social
and academic situations
Encourage students to talk about events and experiences in their
environment
Embed information or instruction in the context of functional areas

Learning and Behavioral Disabilities

Students with Learning Disabilities:
Harder time with processing, organizing, and applying academic
information
Normal intelligence and received adequate instruction (presumably)
Are not emotional disturbed, sensory impaired, or environmentally
disadvantaged

Mild Intellectual Disabilities

Difficulty meeting academic and social demands of General Education
Low level intellectual functioning

Emotional Disturbance
Average intelligence
Problems learning because of external factors or internal behavioral
adjustment

Reading Skills
Decoding
Involving identifying words accurately and fluently
Accurately: mispronouncing words, substituting one word or
omitting words
Fluency: read words accurately but do not recognize them
Example: Dyslexia

Comprehension
Partially from decoding
They may not be able to adjust their reading rate

Written Language Skills

Handwriting
Have problems with fine motor skills or had poor writing instruction
Failure to attend to tasks or remembering visual images

Spelling
Three types of words: Phonetic, linguistic rules, irregular
Students would have trouble with all three

Written expression problems

Product problems
Verb-object sentences, incomplete sentences, poor organizations and
mechanical errors

Math Skills
Problems with spatial organization
Unable to align numbers in columns, reverse numbers

Lack of alertness to visual detail

Misread mathematical signs or forget to use the appropriate ones

Procedural errors
Students miss a step in solving a problem

Failure to shift mind-set from one problem type to another

Solve one type and solve a different type the same as the first

Math Skills Continued

Difficulty forming numbers correctly
Numbers are too large or poorly formed

Difficulty with memory

Unable to recall basic math facts or use memory when solving with
multiple steps

Problems with mathematical judgement and reasoning

Unaware that their responses are unreasonable

Problems with mathematical language

Difficulty with key term meanings

Additional Problems with Learning

Skills
Attention or understanding task requirements
Unable to focus on key words

Focusing on important aspects of tasks

What is important to the problem and what is unneeded

Sticking to a task once started

Lack of task persistence
Mostly due to a lack of confidence

Organizing and Interpreting information

Trouble with oral and visual despite adequate hearing and
visual skills

Additional Problems with Learning

Skills
Reasoning Skills
Reading comprehension, generalization, vocabulary knowledge,
induction and sequencing

Motor Skills
Motor coordination and fine motor impairments

Independent Learning
Passive Learners
Dont believe in their abilities
Limited knowledge of problem-strategies

Academic survival skills

Attending school regularly, being organized, completing tasks,
independence, interest in school, and displaying positive
interpersonal skills

Social and Emotional Needs

Students may engage in a number of aggressive or
disruptive behaviors in class
Hitting, fighting, teasing, hyperactivity, yelling, etc.

Interpersonal Skills
Difficult relations with peers
May lack knowledge because they do not learn from naturally
occurring models

Know what to do but not do it.

Impulsive

Not act on their previous knowledge because appropriate

social behavior was unrecognized
Lack confidence to act on socially acceptable knowledge in
social situations

Social and Emotional Needs

Continued
Personal and Psychological Adjustment
Self-image
Self-concept
Little confidence in their own abilities

Learned helplessness
Unable to see relationship between efforts and school or social
success
Can be seen as lack of motivation

Severe anxiety or depression

Refuse to speak up in class, pessimistic, uninterested, visibly
nervous, ill when it is time for school, lack of self-confidence in
common tasks

Accommodations
Addressing academic needs
Bypassing a students need by allowing the student to employ
compensatory learning strategies,
Learning strategies
Accommodations in classroom management, grouping,
materials, and methods
Providing student with direct instruction on basic or
independent learning skills

Accommodations Continued
Addressing Social and Emotional Needs
Clear, consistent behavior management system
Engaging and meaningful academic tasks
Social Skills Training
If they do not how to interact with adults and peers

Self-control
Good in social situations but lack self-control

Opportunities for using social skills

Attribution retraining
Failures due to lack of effort not ability

Accommodations Continued
Enhancing self-image
Set reasonable goals
Provide specific feedback contingent on student behavior
Positive but contingent n completing tasks

Give students responsibility

Showing you trust them a believe they can be mature

Teach students to reinforce themselves

Remind students of their strengths

Give students a chance to show their strengths

Allow them to employ their strengths