Frequently Asked Questions:

What is special education?

Special education is instruction that is specially designed to meet the unique needs of children who have disabilities. This is done at no cost to the parents. Special education can include special instruction in the classroom, at home, in hospitals or institutions, or in other settings.

Over 6 million children ages 6 through 21 receive special education and related services each year in the United States. Each of these children receives instruction that is specially designed to meet the child's unique needs (that result from having a disability) and to help the child learn the information and skills that other children are learning.

This definition of special education comes from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Public Law 105-17: 
          IN GENERAL- The term 'child with a disability' means a child --

There are two types of disabilities that qualify for special education services:

1) Learning Disability - "LD" is a disorder that affects people's ability to either interpret what they see and hear or to link information from different parts of the brain. These limitations can show up in many ways--as specific difficulties with spoken and written language, coordination, self-control, or attention. Such difficulties extend to schoolwork and can impede learning to read or write, or to do math.
For more basic information on Learning Disabilities visit: Misunderstood Minds

2) Physical Disability - Physical disabilities occur when part of a child's body does not work normally. This can make it difficult for a child to learn in the same way as other students. Examples of physical disabilities include deafness, Tourette's Syndrome or Multiple Sclerosis. For more basic information on Physical Disabilities visit: KIDSOURCE ONLINE

When does a child need help?

If behavior often disrupts regular activities, it may be time to consult a professional. Every child has a tantrum now and then. Most children can at one time seem listless or unhappy, or furious. And some children even resist going to school and act out once they are there. Are these behaviors normal or instead evidence of a behavioral problem or illness? Here are some resources that may help:

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry
Autism Society of America
Caring for Every Child's Mental Health Campaign
Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
 

What is gifted and talented education?

"Giftedness is that precious endowment of potentially outstanding abilities which allows a person to interact with the environment with remarkably high levels of achievement and creativity." From ERIC Digest,1990.
In a series of government studies, the following traits were identified as being representative of a gifted child: good problem solving/reasoning abilities; rapid learning ability; extensive vocabulary; excellent memory; long attention span; personal sensitivity; compassion for others; perfectionism; intensity; moral sensitivity; unusual curiosity; perseverant when interested; high degree of energy; preference for older companions; wide range of interests; great sense of humor; early or avid reading ability; concerned with justice and fairness; at times, judgment seems mature for age; keen powers of observation; vivid imagination; high degree of creativity; tends to question authority; shows ability with numbers; good at jigsaw puzzles. If a child displays three-quarters of the above traits then he or she is more than likely gifted. Silverman, Chitwood & Waters, 1986.

Need more information, this Web site has some excellent information for identifying a gifted child:
 Pre-K Smarties! 

Special Education and Gifted Statistics:

Visit any of these sites to review the statistics on special education and gifted education:

• Disability Statistics Center
  DSC produces statistical reports on disabilities and has an excellent FAQ section that is accessible through the Search function.
• Center for Special Education Finance
  Interested in knowing the amount of money spent on special education in American schools? The Center has comprehensive information on the financing of special education programs.
• National Center for Education Statistics
  NCES collects and reports "statistics and information showing the condition and progress of education in the United States and other nations in order to promote and accelerate the improvement of American education." –Section 402(b) of the National Education Statistics Act of 1994 (20 U.S.C. 9001). This site provides most of the major educational statistical reports online.
  

Glossary of General Terms: 

For specific terminology i.e. specific learning disorders, federal law,  please visit the section category.

Accommodations: Techniques and materials that allow individuals with learning disabilities to complete school or work tasks with greater ease and effectiveness. Examples include spellcheckers, tape recorders, and expanded time for completing assignments.

Assistive Technology: Equipment that enhances the ability of students and employees to be more efficient and successful. For individuals with a learning disability, computer grammar checkers, an overhead projector used by a teacher, or the audiovisual information delivered through a CD-ROM would be typical examples.

Brain Imaging Techniques: Recently developed, noninvasive techniques for studying the activity of living brains. Includes brain electrical activity mapping (BEAM), computerized axial tomography (CAT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Collaboration:  A program model in which the Learning Disability teacher demonstrates for or team teaches with the general classroom teacher to help an "LD" student be successful in a regular classroom.

Developmental Aphasia:  A severe language disorder that is presumed to be due to brain injury rather than because of a developmental delay in the normal acquisition of language.

Direct Instruction:  An instructional approach to academic subjects that emphasizes the use of carefully sequenced steps that include demonstration, modeling, guided practice, and independent application.

Learning Disabilities: Intellectual or learning disabilities occur when your child's brain is unable to process information in the same way or as fully as most children do at the same age. These disabilities may be mild - for example, an inability to quickly identify letter shapes. They may also be more severe, involving moderate to severe mental retardation. Some learning disabilities will become less severe as a child grows older. Other disabilities will not change and will remain with a child permanently.

Learned Helplessness:  A tendency to be a passive learner who depends on others for decisions and guidance. In individuals with a learning disability, continued struggle and failure can heighten this lack of self-confidence.

Learning Modalities:  Approaches to assessment or instruction stressing the auditory, visual, or tactile avenues for learning that are dependent upon the individual.

Learning Strategy Approaches:  Instructional approaches that focus on efficient ways to learn, rather than on curriculum. Includes specific techniques for organizing, actively interacting with material, memorizing, and monitoring any content or subject.

Learning Styles:  Approaches to assessment or instruction emphasizing the variations in temperament, attitude, and preferred manner of tackling a task. Typically considered are styles along the active/passive, reflective/impulsive, or verbal/spatial dimensions.

Locus of Control: The tendency to attribute success and difficulties either to internal factors such as effort or to external factors such as chance. Individuals with learning disabilities tend to blame failure on themselves and achievement on luck, leading to frustration and passivity.

Metacognitive Learning:  Instructional approaches emphasizing awareness of the cognitive processes that facilitate one's own learning and its application to academic and work assignments. Typical metacognitive techniques include systematic rehearsal of steps or conscious selection among strategies for completing a task.

Multisensory Learning:  An instructional approach that combines auditory, visual, and tactile elements into a learning task. Tracing sandpaper numbers while saying a number fact aloud would be a multisensory learning activity.

Neuropsychological Examination:  A series of tasks that allow observation of performance that is presumed to be related to the intactness of brain function.

Perceptual Handicap: Difficulty in accurately processing, organizing, and discriminating among visual, auditory, or tactile information. A person with a perceptual handicap may say that "cap/cup" sound the same or that "b" and "d" look the same. However, glasses or hearing aids do not necessarily indicate a perceptual handicap.

Physical Disabilities:  Physical disabilities occur when part of your child's body - for example, an eye, ear, or hand - does not work normally. This can make it difficult for your child to learn in the same way that other children do, even though he or she may be just as intelligent as other children.

Pre-referral Process:  A procedure in which special and regular teachers develop trial strategies to help a student showing difficulty in learning remain in the regular classroom.

Resource Program:  A program model in which a student with a learning disability is in a regular classroom for most of each day, but also receives regularly scheduled individual services in a specialized learning disability resource classroom.

Self-Advocacy:  The development of specific skills and understandings that enable children and adults to explain their specific learning disabilities to others and cope positively with the attitudes of peers, parents, teachers, and employers.

Specific Language Disability (SLD): A severe difficulty in some aspect of listening, speaking, reading, writing, or spelling, while skills in the other areas are age-appropriate. Also called Specific Language Learning Disability (SLLD).

Specific Learning Disability (SLD): The official term used in federal legislation to refer to difficulty in certain areas of learning, rather than in all areas of learning. Synonymous with learning disabilities.

Subtype Research:  A recently developed research method that seeks to identify characteristics that are common to specific groups within the larger population of individuals identified as having learning disabilities.

Transition:  Commonly used to refer to the change from secondary school to postsecondary programs, work, and independent living typical of young adults. Also used to describe other periods of major change such as from early childhood to school or from more specialized to mainstreamed settings.
Glossary excerpted from: Learning Disabilities: Glossary of Some Important Terms. ERIC Digest #E517