AAID Autism Multiple Disorders
Rose Francis
November 27, 2012
SPE 226

There are many different kinds of developmental disabilities. The American Association On Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities create an outline of what is to be considered an intellectual disability. Their intellect has to considerably limit their ability to properly express the appropriate social behavior while also limiting their adaptive skills within the community and interaction with others. The disability has to be identified before the person is of the age of 18. It also There are also different approaches which should be looked into when classifying a person with intellectual disabilities. Medical professionals have to rate the imparity on a scale indicating if it is mild, moderate, severe, or profound. Without these classifications the proper educational support plan cannot be put into place. The classification also helps with what kind of support the individual will need at home outside of the school setting. About 10% of children in the United States between the ages of 6 through 21 have some kind of intellectual disabilities label. The characteristics which are considered to be intellectually disabled would be having memory or learning deficiencies, troubles with memory recall, or apply abstract thought. These students also have trouble controlling their behavior also known as self-regulation. Their adaptive skills are also hard to apply to real life situations being able to use coping skills when interacting in social situations or taking care of their own personal needs. To helps students with these types of disabilities one must find their motivation and what they are willing to work for. This can help close the gap most of them have in reading and math. Compared to other children who are of the same age, their reading comprehension and reading mechanics do not measure up the same. This is because these students are not able to process the information on the same level of efficiency as other students. They eventually learn helplessness because they do not possess the motivation seeing other students are grasping the concept and yet they are. Speech problems are very common among intellectually disabled children. Some have articulation problems whereas others stutter. If a child has a mild disability with no genetic reason, most of the time there are no physical signs whereas if they have a genetic predisposition condition there are physical signs of a disability. The causes for these disabilities vary by disability. For many of the mild disabilities have many possible multiple causes however most of the time it is unknown. The cause of the moderate conditions usually has sociocultural influences, or genetic predisposition that has been passed on throughout their family’s history. Early interventions for these children are essential to start the learning and adaptive process to help them grow and development in a nurturing environment. Early intervention programs work on student’s communication skills, their peer interactions, and how they will be ready to absorb formal instruction once they enter a structured atmosphere such as preschool or elementary school. The areas which are addressed and developed are motor skills, self-help skills, peer interaction, verbal communication, and academic skills. These areas are necessary so the student is able to become more independent as a person so they are able to participate in community events and use these skills in their adult years to be able to hold down a job once they are of age. Once students who have intellectual disabilities receive early interventions most are able to be placed in classrooms which support inclusion. They will benefit because they are able to learn from their nondisabled peers what is socially acceptable and what is not. This usually happens on an unconscious level. Also the nondisabled students become more empathetic to the needs of these students and try to support them in any way they can.
The diagnosis of autism is made because there is usually identified as a child having difficulty in four developmental areas which are language, social skills, behavior, and thought processing skills. There are six identifying characteristics which indicate children are on the autism spectrum which are when they are babies they are unresponsive to their parents love, when they get older they play with themselves. They usually exhibit echolalia which they mimic what they have heard. These children practice repetitive behavior which is self-soothing to them. If their routine is thrown off they become irrational and hard to console. Most of these children have hard time processing information.
There have been two theories which doctors believe autism spectrum disorders can be derived from psychoanalytic which unconsciously avoids conflict receding into them which causes high anxiety levels in these individuals. The other theory comes from a biological view which a neurological cause is from genetics and not learned behavior. Treatments for these disorders use different approaches. For psychoanalytic doctors focus more on finding a cause of the emotional repression which is usually caused by family relationships and use medication to aid in the therapy. For the behavioral approach focuses on showing the child which behaviors are appropriate in which type of situations are choses when in an educational setting. The Association for Severe Handicaps also known as TASH uses three criteria when describing individuals are severe. The look at how they interact with their community, the classification can come at any age, and they will need support services throughout their lifetime.
The Individuals Disabilities Education Act regards multiple disabilities as having more than one disability such as an intellectual and or orthopedic impairment. When there is a dual diagnosis most special education programs do not have the proper support to accommodate them. Most of the time it is the lack of training and supports it takes to deal with a person who has emotionally behavior and intellectually delays. Most programs can do either or, but few have the staff who can handle both. In my classroom, I will remember these children will not benefit from regular classroom instruction they will need to be engaged in a way which they can interact with curriculum especially in reading and math. I will remember to diversify each lesson taking into consideration most of these students will have significant speech problems. Aside from their intellectual deficiency they will also have physical ones as well, so patience will be a must. When assessing my students I will focus on the positive and build their strengths to build an “I can” attitude helping them become self-motivated when struggling in areas they are not so strong in. Some assessments I will use are functional, ecological and authentic assessments. For those students who cannot participate in the state standard testing which is required, I will make sure they have the accommodations in place to have an alternate assessment in its place. I will work closely with the family and the student to provide all services and interventions necessary. I will also keep up to date on new trainings and skill which can benefit me for my personal teaching styles but also my students for getting the extra piece they may need.

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