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Most educators today maintain that developmental levels have little relevance to this
population and instead emphasize that a student with severe disabilitiesregardless of age
is one who needs instruction in basic skills, such as getting from place to place independently,
communicating with others, controlling bowel and bladder functions, and self-feeding.
Most children without disabilities acquire these basic skills in the first 5 years of life, but
the student with severe disabilities needs special instruction to do so.
The basic-skills definition makes it clear that special education for students with severe
disabilities must not focus on traditional academic instruction.
The Association for Persons with Severe Disabilities (TASH) definition:
individuals of all ages who require extensive ongoing support in more than one major life
activity in order to participate in integrated community settings and to enjoy a quality of
life that is available to citizens with fewer or no disabilities. Support may be required for
life activities such as mobility, communication, self-care, and learning, as necessary for
independent living, employment and self-sufficiency.
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DEAF-BLINDNESS
IDEA defines students with deaf-blindness as a combination of both auditory and visual disabilities
that causes
such severe communication and other developmental and learning needs that
the persons cannot properly be educated in special education programs solely
for children and youth with hearing impairments, visual impairments, or severe
disabilities, without supplementary assistance to address their education needs
due to these dual, concurrent disabilities. (IDEA, 1990, sec. 1422)
the intellectual level of students with dual sensory impairments ranges from giftedness
(as in the case of Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing at about 16 months of age) to
profound mental retardation
over 90% of students labeled deaf-blind have some functional hearing and/or vision and can
make use of information presented in those modalities
when used in instruction, however, auditory and visual stimuli must be enhanced and the
students' attention directed toward them
tactile teaching techniques involving the sense of touch are used to supplement the information
obtained through visual and auditory modes.
dual communication boards can help students who are deaf-blind discriminate the receptive or
expressive functions of responses from a communication partner
W. L. Heward, Exceptional Children, 6e,
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AUTISM
autism a disability marked by severe impairment of communication, social, and emotional functioning,
usually accompanied by severe intellectual impairment
The essential features of the condition typically appear prior to 30 months of age, and consist of
disturbances of (1) developmental rates and/or sequences; (2) responses to sensory stimuli; (3) speech,
language, and cognitive capacities; and (4) capacities to relate to people, events, and objects (Autism
Society of America).
autism occurs in approximately 5 to 15 of every 10,000 children
boys are affected four to five times more often than girls
although the precise cause of autism is unknown, it almost certainly is of biological or organic origin
six frequently observed characteristics (Lovaas & Newsom, 1976):
apparent sensory deficit
severe affect isolation
self-stimulation
tantrums and self-injurious behavior
echolalic and psychotic speech
behavior deficiencies
Although the prognosis is generally considered to be extremely poor, with problems existing into
adulthood for 90% of cases, recent research evaluating the effects of intensive early intervention based
on principles of applied behavior analysis is encouraging.
W. L. Heward, Exceptional Children, 6e,
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