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Contact Information
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Latasha Williamson, Coordinator
Anderson Technical Building, room 209A
Phone: (270) 534-3406
Fax: (270) 554-9754
E-mail: lwilliamson0011@kctcs.edu |
Disabilities
Learning Disability
A
learning disability is a permanent disorder which affects how individuals
with normal or often above average intelligence acquire, retain,
and express information. Such difficulties in processing information can
significantly interfere with academic and/or social development. Like
interference on the radio or a fuzzy TV picture, incoming or outgoing
information may become scrambled as it travels between the senses and
the brain.
Learning
disabilities are commonly recognized in adults as a difficulty
in one or more of these areas: reading, comprehension, spelling, written
expression, handwriting, mathematics, oral expression, and/or problem
solving. Adults with learning disabilities may also have perceptual difficulties.
It is important to remember that no two students with learning disabilities
have the same profile of strengths and weaknesses.
Learning
disabilities are often inconsistent. While the disability does
not ever go away, it might well manifest itself more strongly in certain
settings and/or academic areas. For instance, a student might have problems
in grade school that seem to disappear in high school and return in college.
A student with a learning disability might also find that his/her
disability is restricted to one area, like math or foreign languages,
or that it manifests itself across a variety of subject areas and disciplines.
By
definition, individuals with learning disabilities may possess
average to superior intelligence, but may have difficulty discriminating
between similar sounds, symbols, or objects. While some individuals may
think logically, they may be unable to write coherently. Other
students may learn effectively from lectures but have difficulty
decoding and comprehending reading assignments.
Common Learning Disabilities
Dyslexia is a reading disability typified
by problems in expressive or receptive, oral or written language.
Problems may emerge in reading, spelling, and writing, speaking,
or listening. People with dyslexia often show talent in areas
that require visual, spatial, and motor integration.
Dyscalculia causes
people to have problems with arithmetic and grasping mathematical concepts.
While many people have problems with math, a person with dyscalculia has
a much more difficult time than his or her peers solving basic math problems.
Dysgraphia is
a writing disorder that causes people to have difficulty forming letters
or writing within a defined space. People with this disorder need extra
time and effort to write neatly. Despite their efforts, their handwriting
may be almost illegible.
Dyspraxia is
a problem with the body's system of motion that interferes with a person's
ability to make a controlled or coordinated physical response in a given
situation.
Attention deficit disorder ADD/ADHD
AD(H)D
is a disorder characterized by inappropriate degrees of attention, impulsiveness,
and/or hyperactivity. Although these areas are considered to be core symptoms,
all three characteristics are not necessarily present in those affected.
Symptoms are generally first manifested early in childhood and may persist
in varying degrees throughout adult life. The difference between ADD and
ADHD is the absence or presence of hyperactivity.
Attention
deficit disorders are commonly manifested in difficulty with sustaining
attention and focusing on information for long periods of time. AD(H)D
is a medical diagnosis (Learning Disability is an educational one), and
people diagnosed with AD(H)D are often prescribed medication to stabilize
attention and activity levels.
Traumatic Brain Injury
TBI is a permanent disorder which results from a serious head injury.
Often, the person has fallen or been in a serious car accident. Common
problems faced by students with TBI are loss of train of thought, short-term
memory deficits, difficulty with work recall, difficulty concentrating,
and rigidity of thinking.
Epilepsy/Seizure Disorder
This category includes a group of disorders of the central nervous system
characterized by sudden seizures, muscle contractions, and partial or
total loss of consciousness.
Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)/Visual Processing
CAPD
is a permanent disorder which affects the manner in which people
understand or remember words or sounds due to a language processing problem
in the brain. Some individuals may experience difficulty integrating
information presented orally or visually, hindering their ability to follow
the sequence and organization of a lecture, or follow a series of instructions. Many
of the strategies listed below which aid such student’s classroom
performances are good teaching practices which maximize ALL student’s
performance. Others are management techniques which improve job
performance for all workers.
Deaf or hard of hearing
A
hearing loss will affect an individual’s ability to acquire
and transmit language through speech. The degree of hearing loss
(mild, moderate, severe or profound) will affect the method of communication
that the student uses. Some students will rely on residual hearing
and lip reading; however, only 30 to 40 percent of spoken English
may be understood through lip reading. Some students will use some combination
of speech, sign language and finger spelling to communicate.
Many
students who use hearing aids effectively in quiet environments have a
difficult time following information presented in large college classrooms. In the classroom, the instructor’s voice is
competing with background noise, room echo, and distance. Therefore,
the intelligibility of the instructor’s voice is degraded by the
poor room acoustics as well as the hearing loss. Most Assistive
Listening Device (ALD) system use a microphone/transmitter positioned
close to the instructor’s mouth to send the instructor’s
voice through the air or by cable to the receiver worn by the
student. ALDs can provide clear sound over distances, eliminate echoes,
and reduce surrounding noises.
The main form of communication
in the adult deaf community is American Sign Language (ASL). ASL is a visual language with its
own grammar and syntax that does not reflect the syntax of English. As
a result, many students who are deaf may not have mastered the syntax
of their “second language”—English. While instructors
should not overlook errors in written or spoken communications, they
should realize that the student’s difficulty is similar to that
experienced by students for whom English is a second language. In
the classroom, students who are deaf may perform better on
exams that are translated into sign language.
Students who are
deaf may require accommodations in the classroom, including note taking,
copies of instructor’s notes, and sign
language interpretation. Interpreters neither add nor delete from
any interaction that takes place. Everything that is voiced is
interpreted into sign language and everything signed by the
student is voiced.
Visual Impairments
A
person is legally blind if visual acuity cannot be corrected to 20/200
in the better eye or if the field of vision is limited to a narrow angle,
usually less than 20 degrees. Since over 75%
of all legally blind individuals have some usable vision, the term “blindness” should
be reserved for complete loss of sight.
Whatever the degree of impairment, individuals who
are visually impaired should be expected to participate fully
in classroom, such as discussions and group work. To record
notes, some use such devices as laptop computers or computerized
braillers. They may confront limitations in laboratory
classes, field work, and internships, but with planning and
adaptive equipment their difficulties can be minimized.
Mobility Impairments
This
term refers to a broad range of disabilities that may cause students
to rely upon assistive devices such as wheelchairs, crutches, canes
or artificial limbs. Disabilities affecting mobility can
result from spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis,
cerebral palsy, and other disabling conditions. Stairs, heavy
doors, lack of elevators and narrow walkways may present barriers. Many
students with mobility impairments may also have impaired eye-hand coordination,
decreased physical stamina or decreased writing ability due to weakness
or paralysis. A student with mobility impairment may be unable
to sit in one position for a sustained length of time.
Psychiatric Impairments
Psychiatric
disabilities may include bipolar illness, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders,
major depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and other conditions
defined in the (DSM-IV) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders. The greatest difficulty for many students with psychiatric
disabilities is dealing with misconceptions about their disorders, many
of which can be effectively controlled with treatment. Like those with
other disabilities, their impairments may be hidden with little or no
effect on their learning. Unlike others, however,
their emotional disturbances may manifest themselves in negative behavior
ranging from indifference to disruptiveness. Such conduct makes
it hard to remember that they have as little control over their
disabilities as do individuals with physical disabilities.
Some
individuals who are undergoing psychological/psychiatric treatment take
prescription medication to help control disturbing feelings, ideas, and
behavior. This medication may have undesirable side
effects such as drowsiness and disorientation.
Depression
Among
the most common psychological impairments is depression. The condition may be temporary, in response to inordinate
pressures at school, on the job or at home. It may manifest
as a pathological sense of hopelessness, which may provoke
threats or attempts at suicide. It may appear as apathy,
disinterest, inattention, impaired concentration, irritability,
fatigue or other physical symptoms resulting from changes in
eating, sleeping or other living patterns.
Anxiety
Anxiety
is prevalent among individuals who have psychological impairments and
may be the transient reaction to stress. Mild
anxiety may promote learning and improve performance. Severe
anxiety, however, may reduce concentration, distort perception, and
weaken the learning process. Anxiety may manifest itself as withdrawal,
constant talking, complaining, joking, crying, fantasizing, or extreme
fear, sometimes to the point of panic. Physical symptoms might
include episodes of light headedness or hyperventilation.
Speech/Language Impairments
Speech
impairments range from problems with articulation to fluency or vocal
strength. They include difficulties in vocal projection,
as in chronic hoarseness or esophageal speech following laryngectomy. Other
speakers may demonstrate fluency problems, as in stuttering (stammering). Articulation
or speech sound errors may be acquired as a result of neurological
disease, stroke, or may accompany developmental disabilities such as
cerebral palsy, cleft palate or significant hearing impairment.
Individuals
who cannot utilize the vocal channel to communicate effectively may be
aided by use of augmentative and assistive communication devices, such
as communication boards or speech synthesizers. These
devices typically convey information at a rate slower than
that of vocal interaction and the listener should accommodate this slower
pace of interaction. Individuals with less severe articulation disorders
may have slower and less intelligible speech.
Stuttering
(stammering) is a neurologically-based speech production disorder. A person who stutters may take longer to convey a spoken
message. As with many other speech conditions, stuttering symptoms
are aggravated by the anxiety inherent in oral communication in a group. Stuttering
is widely perceived to be the result of shyness and anxiety. In
actuality, anxiety is often the result of the speaker’s negative
past experiences with listener reactions to the stuttering. Some
individuals who stutter or have other oral communication impairments
do not have concerns about classroom presentations; others
do.
Other Disabilities
Numerous
other impairments fall under the umbrella of Section 504 and the ADA
but do not fit under the categories already discussed. Such
disabilities as heart conditions, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, asthma,
diabetes, respiratory disorders, chemical-sensitivities, seizure disorders,
cancer, kidney problems, Tourette’s Syndrome, severe chronic pain,
and other conditions may affect student’s performance in class
and on tests by significantly impairing their energy levels, memory,
mobility, speech, vision or muscular coordination. In some cases,
the degree of impairment may be transitory. In other instances,
chronic conditions may degenerate, and the student’s needs may
require re-evaluation.
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