Many of the labels that educators deal with every day don't immediately come to mind when the general public this about educational disabilities. "Learning Disabilities" are the only disabilities...
This article is a continuation of a previous article, Labels - Part 1.
Half or more of all kids determined to have an educational disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are placed into one of these two categories: Specific Learning Disabilities (LD) or Mentally Impaired. A number of smaller disabilities categories exist. Among them:
- Autism: a developmental disability that significantly affects both verbal and nonverbal communication skills and social interactions.
- Emotionally Disturbance: the name varies from state to state but usually includes some form of the word "Emotional" or "Behavior." It includes psychological conditions like schizophrenia. Often it is characterized by difficulty building relationships, mood problems, anxiety disorders, and/or inappropriate behaviors (Not inappropriate like "you shouldn't have done that," but more like "that's not a normal response to that sort of situation").
- Hearing Impaired: a child's hearing problems may be classified as a disability.
- Vision Impaired: blindness or limited vision is usually considered a disability.
- Orthopedic Impairment: physical conditions that make it difficult for a child to participate in school. These include congenital problems like spina bifida. But they also include conditions like severe arthritis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and amputation.
- Other Health Impairments: medical conditions that limit strength, vitality, or alertness to the point that it impacts the learning process. Everybody's favorite? Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - or "ADHD." Does having ADHD mean that a child has a disability? The answer is a big fat maybe - it depends on exactly how the child's learning is affected. This category is used, however, for everything from severe asthma and bee sting allergies to diabetes, sickle cell anemia, and cancer. It is also the category that would have caught me - for my epilepsy.
- Speech, Communication and/or Language disorders: things that require the services of a speech pathologist.
- Traumatic Brain Injury: covers children who have had a head injury resulting in serious problem in areas like language, memory, attention, motor skills, etc.
Determining whether a child has a disability is not always a quick and easy process. Each state has its own set of policies and procedures to conform with IDEA guidelines. Usually the process takes at least several weeks. With some disabilities (like Emotionally Disturbed), the process may require months. In other cases, the process may be almost a formality as, for example, blind or completely deaf.
Finally, every state shuffles and rearranges the categories a little. Some states will have a special category for children with multiple disabilities; other will try to place a child based on what they determine to be a primary disability. And while legislation may make the list seem clear and managable, litigation and the courts are constantly changing what conditions and problems constitute a disability under IDEA - as a judge in Maine may have done recently (time, and other court rulings, will tell) in a ruling on Asperger's Syndrome.
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