Exceptional Psychology (L1-L2)

• Exceptionality


  The study of differences and similarities in exceptional children
• Special education


  Specially designed instruction that meets the unusual needs of an exceptional student and that might require special materials, teaching techniques, or equipment and/or facilities
• Categories of children and youth with special needs

  • Intellectual disabilities
  • Learning or attention disabilities
  • Emotional or behavioral disorders
  • Physical disabilities
  • Disorders of communication
  • Autism
  • Traumatic brain injury
  • Impaired hearing
  • Impaired sight
  • Special gifts or talents
• The most important characteristics of exceptional learners are their abilities, not their disabilities
• Exceptional learners are those who require special education and related services if they are to realize their full human potential
• There are high-incidence disabilities (learning disabilities, communication disorders, emotional disturbance, mild intellectual disabilities) and low-incidence disabilities (low vision, blindness, deafness, deaf-blindness, severe intellectual disabilities)
• There are about 1.6 million Filipino children with disabilities
• 232,975 learners with disabilities or learning exceptionalities were mainstreamed in regular classes
• There are 898 SPED Centers in the Philippines, 683 public and 215 private
• Foundation of present-day special education


  • Individualized instruction
  • Carefully sequenced educational tasks
  • Emphasis on stimulation and awakening of the child's senses
  • Meticulous arrangement of the child's environment
  • Immediate reward for correct performance
  • Tutoring in functional skills
  • Belief that every child should be educated to the greatest extent possible
• Normalization


  Participation of people with disabilities in normal life
• Deinstitutionalization


  Moving people out of institutions and back into closer contact with the community
• Inclusion / Integration


  Inclusion of exceptional learners in ordinary classrooms with their nonexceptional peers
• Republic Act 11650 (2022) states that no learner shall be denied admission based on their disability, and requires assistive devices, facilities and infrastructure in the admission process, and other forms of reasonable accommodation
• SPED (Special Education) Centers are being transformed into Inclusive Learning Resource Centers (ILRCs)
• Professionals involved in meeting the needs of people with disabilities

  • Psychologists
  • Social Services Professionals
  • Educators
• Exceptional learners


  Students who require special education services
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)


  Provides free and appropriate public education (FAPE), evaluation and identification of exceptional learners, individualized education program (IEP), education in the least restrictive environment (LRE)

  
• Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)

  All identified students with disabilities are entitled to a free and appropriate public education to meet their unique needs at no cost to the parents
• FAPE


  • Specially designed instruction and related services
  • Individually designed
  • Educational benefit
• Evaluation and Identification


  1. Prereferral team (PRT)

  2. Response to Intervention (RTI)
• The fundamental way society chooses to describe human differences

  Labeling
• Referral, Assessment, Planning, & Placement Process

  1. Phase 1: Initiating the referral

  2. Phase 2: Assessing student eligibility and educational need

  3. Phase 3: Developing the IEP

  4. Phase 4: Determining the LRE

  
• Individualized Education Program (IEP)


  Written framework for delivering a free and appropriate education to every eligible child with a disability
• IEP


  • Present levels of academic achievement and functional performance
  • Measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals
  • Related services and supplementary aids
  • Appropriate accommodations
• Inability to do something, a diminished capacity to perform in a specific way.

  Disability
• Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)


  Most enabling environment
• A subset of inability

  Disability
• LRE Continuum


  • General education only
  • General education class with consultation / co-teaching
  • Resource teacher
  • Self-contained class
  • Special day schools
  • Hospital or homebound instruction
  • Residential school
• Disadvantage imposed on people

  Handicap
• Implementing Inclusive Teaching Practices

  • Collaborative consultation
  • Cooperative teaching and other team arrangements
  • Curricula and instructional strategies
  • Instructional accommodations and adaptations
  • Training general education teachers to accommodate diversity
• Teachers' Roles in Providing Special Education

  • Instructing students with learning problems
  • Managing serious behavior problems
  • Evaluating technological advances
  • Knowing special education law
• Integration of People with Disabilities into the Larger Society

  • Self-determination – the right to make one's own decisions about important aspects of one's life, including where to work and live, with whom to become friends, and what education to pursue
  • Universal design for learning (UDL) – serves the general purpose of making learning accessible to more students in inclusionary programs
  • Use of new technologies – if the technology allows people with disabilities to do something they couldn't do without it, then the technology is in their best interest
• Most important characteristics of exceptional learners are their ___

  Abilities
• Those who require special education and related services

  Exceptional Learners
• Why exceptional learners require special education?


  To realize their full human potential.
• Educational Definition of Exceptional Learners


  Intellectual disabilities. Learning or attention abilities. Emotion or behavioral disorders. Physical abilities. Disorders of communication. Autism. Traumatic brain injury. Impaired hearing or sight. Special gifts or talents.
• Learning disabilities, communication (speech and language) disorders, emotional disturbance, and mild intellectual disabilities.

  High-Incidence disabilities
• Low vision and blindness, deafness, deaf-blindness, and severe intellectual disabilities.

  Low-incidence disabilities
• Specially design instruction that meets the unusual needs of a student that might require special materials.

  Special Education.