Welcome to our site

Here at Prairie River Middle School, the focus of our special education program is to facilitate access to an appropriate education, regardless of the disability, to help the student achieve academic and life success. As a team, we have worked together to create a site that can help answer some of the questions you may have about special education, as well as provide you with strategies and resources you may use when living with a child who has special needs.

P.R.M.S. SPECIAL EDUCATION TEAM

Autism

Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting a child’s social interaction, verbal communication, and nonverbal communication, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects learning and educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences.

Emotional disturbance

EBD --EBD stands for Emotional Behavioral Disability. In order for a student to have this designation, he or she must meet the following criteria: 1) Social, emotional, or behavioral functioning that is VERY different from that of peers AND has a negative effect on academic progress, social relationships, personal or classroom adjustment, or self-care or job skills; 2) Behaviors must be severe (very intense), chronic (happening over time), and frequent (happening often); 3) Behavior must happen in school and at least 1 other setting; 4) Student must exhibit at least 1 of 8 characteristics (inability to develop or maintain satisfactory relationships, inappropriate behavior or feelings in response to a normal situation, extreme unhappiness/depression/anxiety, physical symptoms, inability to learn unrelated to other factors, extreme social withdrawal, extreme aggressiveness, other very different inappropriate behaviors). For further explanation from Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction, refer to this page: https://dpi.wi.gov/sped/program/emotional-behavioral-disability.

Hearing impairment

Hearing impairment, including deafness, means a significant impairment in hearing, with or without amplification, whether permanent or chronically fluctuating, that significantly adversely affects a child’s educational performance including academic performance, speech perception and production, or language and communication skills.

Intellectual disability

Intellectual Disability Severe - this disability places less emphasis on things like IQ scores and more on the interventions needed for that student to have success. For these students, there are considerable delays in development, along with the ability to communicate with those around them. Students may understand more than they are able to communicate back. Tasks are simple, short and typically somewhat repetitive. Self care is limited and typically, students require supervision at most times of the day. Most students will not live independently upon completing high school; however, they may be able to learn some basic job skills that can be completed with support services around them.

Other health impairment

OHI -- Other Health Impairment- means having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment. 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, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome and adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Specific learning disability

SLD -- "Specific learning disability" means 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 an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia and developmental aphasia. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural or economic disadvantage.

Speech or language impairment

S/L -- Speech/Language: The technical definition for a speech and language disability is: An impairment of speech or sound production, voice, fluency, or language that significantly affects educational performance or social, emotional, or vocational development. Speech/Language is broken down into four disability areas. They are as follows:

Speech or sound production (generally referred to as articulation, but could also be phonological): A child must demonstrate consistent errors in speech sound production beyond the time when 90 percent of typically developing children acquire the sound or phonological patterns of sound are at least 40 percent disordered.

Language: There are various forms of language that can be impaired. They are: Semantics -- the understanding or use of meaning. For example: concepts, vocabulary, and ideas. Syntax -- the understanding or production of correct grammatical forms, subject-verb agreement or the production of complex sentences. Pragmatics -- the ability to communicate effectively in a variety of social contexts.

Fluency: Characteristics of a fluency disorder may include any of the following: • Sound, part-word, whole-word, phrase and sentence repetitions, sound prolongations, interjections, revisions. • Tension-related behaviors or secondary characteristics such as excessive muscle tension, extraneous body movements (eye blinking), hard vocal attack, tense voice, blocks. • Rapid or varied and irregular speaking rate • Abnormal intonation or stress patterns. • Word substitutions. • Anxiety toward speaking, avoidance of speaking situations, specific sound or words, or speaking with specific people. The most common fluency disorder is stuttering,

Voice: Characteristics of a voice disorder are extreme vocal characteristics that are atypical when compared same-aged peers of the same gender with these characteristics being observable in specific settings for a given duration of time. Judgments of vocal characteristics by a trained Speech/Language Pathologist include: • Pitch: high, typical, or low, • Loudness: loud, typical, or soft, • Quality: may include descriptive terms such as hoarse, harsh, breathy, strained, or weak, • Resonance: hyper-nasal (too much nasality) or hypo-nasal (not enough nasality).

Traumatic brain injury

TBI -- Traumatic Brain Injury, also called “acquired brain injury” or simply “head injury,” occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. The damage can be focal - confined to one area of the brain - or diffuse - involving more than one area of the brain. TBI can result from a closed head injury* or a penetrating head injury. A closed injury occurs when the head suddenly and violently hits an object but the object does not break through the skull. A penetrating injury occurs when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue. A student’s educational performance (academic and nonacademic) must be partially or totally affected by the acquired brain injury in one or more of the following areas: Cognition; Speech & Language; Memory; Attention; Reasoning; Abstract Thinking; Communication; Judgment; Problem Solving; Sensory, Perceptual and Motor Abilities; Physical Functions; Information Processing; Psychosocial Behavior (psychological or social functioning); Executive Functions (e.g. organizing, evaluating, and goal-directed activities).