Chapter Summary:
Chapter 12 explains that people with severe disabilities as individuals “who require ongoing support in more than one major life activity in order to participate in an integrated community and enjoy a quality of life similar to that available to all citizens.” Students with profound disabilities have pervasive delays in all domains of functioning at a developmental level no higher than 2 years. Students with severe disabilities frequently have multiple disabilities, including physical impairments and health conditions. Students with deaf-blindness cannot be accommodated in special education programs designed solely for students with hearing or visual impairments. Although the vast majority of children who are deaf-blind have some functional hearing, vision, or both, the dual impairments severely impede learning. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines traumatic brain injury (TBI) as an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability, psychosocial impairments, or both, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. You will also learn about the characteristics, prevalence, causes, and educational approaches for children with low-incident disabilities.
Learning Outcomes:
• Define multiple disabilities, deaf-blindness, and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
• Describe the characteristics of individuals with multiple disabilities, deaf-blindness, and TBI.
• State why it is difficult to identify the exact number of students with severe disabilities.
• List some of the biological causes of severe disabilities.
• Explain why a curriculum based on typical developmental stages and milestones is inappropriate for students with severe and multiple disabilities.
• List advantages and disadvantages of regular classroom placements for students with severe disabilities.
• Identify the skills and dispositions a teacher needs to work with individuals with severe disabilities.
Reflection Questions:
1. Why are traditional methods of intelligence testing virtually useless with children whose disabilities are profound?
2. What should and should not be the focus of special education for students with severe disabilities?
3. Why is deaf-blindness considered by some to be the most disabling condition a child can have?
4. Why are communication skills important for a child with severe disabilities to learn?
Chapter Activity:
1. Complete the Disability Awareness: Prevalence Rates of Disability Categories Activity: https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdf_activities/independent/IA_Prevelance_Rates.pdf.
Read the Objective, Overview, and the Activity. Answer the following questions:
1. Compare the number of students receiving services under each disability category. Which disability category is the most prevalent? The least?
2. Which of these categories do you think would be considered high-incidence disabilities and which would be considered low-incidence disabilities
3. Having calculated the percentages of all schoolchildren with each disability and the percentages of all students with disabilities within each category, have your answers to Question 2 changed? Why or why not?
4. Were you surprised by any of the actual prevalence numbers? Explain