High Incidence Disabilities
The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) defines an intellectual disability (ID) as a form of disability “…characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills” (Bowman & Plourde, 2012, p. 789). In most instances, ID commences before a person reaches the age of 18.
There are many different types of IDs, which are generally categorized as cognitive, genetic, developmental as well as emotional (Wishart, 2007). This section illuminates a genetic-type ID known as the Down’s syndrome.
Extant literature demonstrates that Down’s syndrome is the most widespread disability identified at birth, not mentioning that it is the single principal cause of severe ID (Wishart, 2007).
Owing to complexity of the disability, most children with Down’s syndrome still experience major challenges in accomplishing many basic childhood and intellectual skills. Notably, it has been established that Down’s syndrome impacts learning by advancing cognitive impairment, thus compromising socio-cognitive development.
Consequently, individuals with the disability learn more slowly and experience challenges with complex reasoning, in large part due to low capacity to gain, express and organize information (Wishart, 2007). This in effect implies that individuals with Down’s syndrome usually encounter learning difficulties when compared to the general population, but definitely they do have the capacity to learn.
Stakeholders have developed numerous programs to support students with Down’s syndrome, but one of the programs that has been found to pay greater dividends is exposing them to individually tailored, family-centered programs that will enable the learning and comprehension of content at their own pace (Wishart, 2007). They may be exposed to an inclusive setting, but should be allowed to learn at their own pace.
Pedagical Strategies for Learning Disabilities
The intervention selected from the website is the learning strategy instruction. Available web-based literature demonstrates that “…learning strategy instruction focuses on making students more active learners by teaching them how to learn and how to use what they have learned to solve problems and be successful” (Center for Research on Learning, 2012).
In the context of disability, it is important to mention that this model is beneficial to students with learning disabilities as it involves teaching them how to approach tasks and use knowledge to complete learning tasks (CALM Guide to Implementation, 2002).
The learning strategy instruction is divided into three strands of skills, with the first one addressing how students with learning disabilities acquire information. This strand includes strategies for learning how to rephrase important information, using pictorial cues to enhance understanding and remembering, as well as identifying incomprehensible words in the text.
The next thread assists learners to study information once they acquire it, and includes approaches for generating mnemonics and other apparatuses to support memorization or remembrance of critical content, as well as approaches for learning novel expressions in classroom contexts.
The third strand assists learners to express themselves, and includes strategies to assist in completing sentences and paragraphs, scrutinizing their work for defects and, with assurance, approaching and taking examinations (Center for Research on Learning, 2012).
In examples, teachers may guide students with learning disabilities toward independent learning by employing visual cues to introduce new concepts, direct the learners’ attention to significant elements, and stimulate the learner’s background knowledge before commencing a new topic. Another example would be to engage the learners in drawing pictures of the words they would like to memorize.
References
Bowman, S.L., & Plourde, L.A. (2012). Andragogy for teen and young adult learners with intellectual disabilities: Learning, independence and best practices. Education, 132(4), 789-798.
CALM Guide to Implementation. (2002). Differentiating instruction for students with learning disabilities. Retrieved from https://www.alberta.ca/education.aspx
Center for Research on Learning. (2012). Learning strategies. University of Kansas. Retrieved from http://kucrl.ku.edu/
Wishart, J.G. (2007). Socio-cognitive understanding: A strength or weakness in Down’s syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 51(12), 996-1005.