Gladys L. Benerd School of Education

Educational Resources for Parents/Teachers of Students with Developmental Disabilities

The term developmental disability refers to a severe and chronic disability that is attributable to a mental or physical impairment that begins before an individual reaches adulthood. These disabilities include:

Mental Retardation
Mental Retardation is characterized by significantly sub average general intellectual functioning (i.e., an IQ of approximately 70 or below) with concurrent deficits or impairments in adaptive functioning.

Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral Palsy includes two types of motor dysfunction: (1) nonprogressive lesion or disorder in the brain occurring during intrauterine life or the perinatal period and characterized by paralysis, spasticity, or abnormal control of movement or posture, such as poor coordination or lack of balance, which is manifest prior to two or three years of age, and (2) other significant motor dysfunction appearing prior to age 18.

Autism
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder with multiple causes or origins. It is defined as a syndrome causing gross and sustained impairment in social interaction and communication with restricted and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities that appear prior to the age of three. Specific symptoms may include impaired awareness of others, lack of social or emotional reciprocity, failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level, delay or absence of spoken language and abnormal nonverbal communication, stereotyped and repetitive language, idiosyncratic language, impaired imaginative play, insistence on sameness (e.g., nonfunctional routines or rituals), and stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms.

Epilepsy
Epilepsy is defined as recurrent, unprovoked seizures.

Other Developmental Disabilities:
Other Developmental Disabilities are those handicapping conditions similar to mental retardation that require treatment (i.e., care and management) similar to that required by individuals with mental retardation. This does not include handicapping conditions that are solely psychiatric or physical in nature. The handicapping conditions must occur before age 18, result in a substantial handicap, be likely to continue indefinitely, and involve brain damage or dysfunction. Examples of conditions might include intracranial neoplasms, degenerative brain disease or brain damage associated with accidents.

Early Intervention Services:
Families whose infants or toddlers have or are at risk for developmental delay or disability can receive an "Early Start" in the State of California.

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IDEA's Definitions of disability terms: (as relates to educational services, pulled from the website: www.idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/,root,regs,300,A,300%252E8,c,)
(1) Autism:
(i) Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, that adversely affects a child's 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.
(ii) Autism does not apply if a child's educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance, as defined in paragraph (c)(4) of this section.
(iii) A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be identified as having autism if the criteria in paragraph (c)(1)(i) of this section are satisfied.
(2) Deaf-blindness:
concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.
(3) Deafness:
a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
(4) Emotional disturbance:
(i) Emotional disturbance means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child's educational performance:
(A) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
(B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.
(C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
(D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
(E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
(ii) Emotional disturbance includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance under paragraph (c)(4)(i) of this section.
(5) Hearing impairment:
an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness in this section.
(6) Mental retardation:
significantly sub average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
(7) Multiple disabilities:
concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness or mental retardation-orthopedic impairment), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. Multiple disabilities does not include deaf-blindness.
(8) Orthopedic impairment:
a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by a congenital anomaly, impairments caused by disease (e.g., poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis), and impairments from other causes (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).
(9) Other health impairment:
having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that--
(i) 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
(ii) Adversely affects a child's educational performance.
(10) Specific learning disability:
(i) General. Specific learning disability means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological rocesses involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in the 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.
(ii) Disorders not included. Specific learning disability 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.
(11) Speech or language impairment:
means a communication disorder, such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
(12) Traumatic brain injury:
an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech. Traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
(13) Visual impairment:
including blindness means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child's educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
What is special education?
Special education means, "educational programming designed specifically for the individual." It can really help your child do better in school. If your school-aged child qualifies for special education, they will have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) designed just for them. (www.kidshealth.org/parent/growth/learning/iep.html)
* Here is a helpful overview of the special education process (http://www.ldonline.org/article/6362).
* Find out all about the process on this comprehensive page from the US Department of Education. (www.ed.gov/parents/needs/speced/iepguide/index.html) You can also download the information in Word or PDF format.
* Help your child take part in making their own IEP (www.nichcy.org/stuguid.asp#set1) with these two resources from NICHCY: A Student's Guide to the IEP and Helping Students Develop Their IEP.

How does growing up in an exceptional family affect siblings of kids with special health or developmental needs?
* Quick tips (www.autism.org/sibling/sibling2.html) for parents of kids with special needs taken from the book Siblings Without Rivalry
* Developmental considerations, tips, and warning signs (www.autism.org/sibling/sibneeds.html)
* Being the brother or sister of a kid with special needs has its upside, too! Siblings have opportunities to develop wonderful traits like insight, tolerance, and loyalty (www.autism.org/sibling/opportun.html)
* The National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities (NICHCY) News Digest #11 ("Children with Disabilities: Understanding Sibling Issues" www.nichcy.org/pubs/outprint/nd11.pdf) delves into issues of siblings of children with special needs. This lengthy digest features several interesting articles, different points of view, suggestions for parents, and reviews research findings. It's available in text-only (17 pages) and PDF (12 pages) versions.
* The Sibling Support Project (http://www.siblingsupport.org/) is a national program for brothers and sisters of people with special health and developmental needs. The Project's main goal is to promote peer support and education programs for brothers and sisters of people with special needs. They create books and newsletters to raise awareness, and conduct workshops. The website has a great list of books and other resources for children and adults. You can also find local events for siblings of special-needs kids. They also run a listserv just for kids, called SibKids.

Additional Websites:
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs' (OSEP's) IDEA website (www.idea.ed.gov): This site was created to provide a "one-stop shop" for resources related to IDEA and its implementing regulations, released on August 3, 2006. It is a "living" website and will change and grow as resources and information become available. The site provides searchable versions of IDEA and the regulations, access to cross-referenced content from other laws (e.g., the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), etc.), video clips on selected topics, topic briefs on selected regulations, links to OSEP's Technical Assistance and Dissemination (TA&D) Network and a Q&A Corner where you can submit questions, and a variety of other information sources.
Department of Developmental Services (www.dds.cahwnet.gov): this site contains information regarding different types of disabilities, laws and regulations, state-operated developmental centers and community facilities, 21 nonprofit regional centers (the regional centers serve as a local resource to help find and access the services and supports available to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families). It also contains information about different types of services available and who is eligible for services. This is a very comprehensive site focusing on a variety of disabilities and services.
National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities: (www.nichcy.org) NICHCY stands for the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. They claim to serve as the nations central source of information on:
disabilities in infants, toddlers, children, and youth,
IDEA, which is the law authorizing special education,
No Child Left Behind (as it relates to children with disabilities), and
research-based information on effective educational practices.
You can navigate this site in English or Spanish.

Finding Help for Young Children with Disabilities (Birth-5) (http://www.nichcy.org/pubs/parent/pa2txt.htm): If you are concerned about your child's development or suspect that your child may have special needs, this Parent's Guide can help. It's designed to help you get started learning what your child may need and finding professionals and other families who can help along the way. The guide is a bit technical-it offers the nuts and bolts to building support systems for your child and your family.
Are you concerned about a young child's development?
The Reason For Concern Brochure (www.dds.ca.gov/EarlyStart/Home.cfm) can help you see if your child's development is like that of other children the same age.

Are you looking for a directory of service providers?
The Early Start Central Directory of Early Intervention Resources (www.dds.ca.gov/EarlyStart/Home.cfm) is a comprehensive resource for parents, family members, service providers, and members of the public that provides information on the early intervention resources available in California by county.