Understanding Disabilities & Development

Introduction to Disabilities

• "Disability" should not be interchanged with "handicap" or "handicapped;" doing so is inappropriate.
• "Handicap" refers to a problem encountered when a disabled person interacts with people, events, and their environment.
• A disability may pose a handicap in one environment but not in another.

Fears and Knowledge

• Some fear disabled people, leading to avoidance or rejection.
• Knowledge dispels the fear of the unknown
• Continuous efforts are needed to combat fear through education and understanding.

Definition of Developmental Disabilities

• Developmental disabilities encompass conditions causing physical, learning, language, or behavioral impairment.
• These disabilities result in substantial functional limitations, manifest in childhood, persist throughout life.
• They usually appear before 22 and are likely lifelong.
• Most are diagnosed when a child reaches school age; diagnosis usually occurs in patients under nine years old.

Occurrence of Disability

• Disabilities can manifest at three levels: impairment in body function/structure, limitation in activity, and restriction in participation
• Early support for parents and child development helps minimize limitations and promotes social inclusion.

Cognitive Disabilities

• Cognitive disabilities affect thought processes and comprehension, including intellectual disability, learning disabilities, Asperger's, and brain injury
• Processing information may take longer for those with cognitive impairment.

Physical and Other Developmental Disabilities

• Some are purely physical, like congenital deafness or visual impairment, and are not intellectual disabilities.
• Others can stem from cerebral palsy, epilepsy, or autism, possibly including intellectual disabilities.

Noticing Communication Disorders

• Developmental disabilities are often noticeable when children struggle with communication.
• Difficulty understanding simple sentences or naming common objects can indicate a developmental disability
• Symptoms persist as they age, affecting abstract comprehension and expression.

Types of Developmental Disabilities

• Main categories include nervous system, sensory-related, metabolic, and degenerative disabilities
• Varying disabilities may limit functions of particular organs or body systems

Nervous System Disabilities

• Nervous system disabilities are birth defects impacting brain, spinal cord, and nervous system functionality.
• They can impact learning, intelligence, behavior, speech, language, convulsions, and movements

Sensory-Related Disabilities

• Sensory disabilities impact gathering information
• They restrict seeing and hearing capabilities
• These disabilities can cause voice problems, rhythm and timing issues in speech, and can cause stuttering
• Autism spectrum disorder is a lifelong developmental disability that is also a sensory disability.

Metabolic Disabilities

• Metabolic disabilities stem from genetic conditions causing metabolism problems due to defective genes and enzyme deficiencies
• Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an example
• Each metabolic disorder has hundreds of different symptoms, treatments, and prognoses

Degenerative Disabilities

• Degenerative disorders might not be detected until loss of function is displayed when the person grows older
• These disorders can present with a variety of physical, mental, and sensory issues

Newborn Screening

• Newborns with metabolic disorders often appear healthy at birth.
• Republic Act 9288 mandates health practitioners to inform parents about newborn screening,
• Testing can identify congenital, genetic, and metabolic disorders that can lead to mental retardation or death if untreated

Action When Test is Positive

• Parents are immediately informed if a baby tests positive for any disorder
• Further tests confirm the diagnosis and can lead to treatment and care to correct the disability and facilitate normal life

Effects of Disabilities

• Severity ranges from mild with ability to perform tasks with minimal support, to severe, which require a complex support system
• Children may have single or multiple disabilities
• The interaction between health conditions or impairments along with environmental and personal factors affect development

Biological Factors and Vulnerability

• Vulnerability is the organism's susceptibility to being injured or altered by a traumatic incident such as teratogens, cell division mutation, etc
• Abnormal prenatal development causes developmental disabilities, making the baby vulnerable to injuries and risks through all stages of pregnancy

Prenatal Developmental Biological Disabilities

• Examples include chromosomal abnormalities (Down syndrome), genetic causes (sickle cell disease), and Rh-incompatibility
• Rh incompatibility arises when an Rh-positive father conceives a child with an Rh-negative mother
• The mother's blood forms antibodies against the "foreign" positive Rh factor.
• This can cause hemolysis of red blood cells (RBCs), resulting in anything from mild anemia to cerebral palsy, deafness, mental retardation, heart failure, or even death

The Birth Process

• Physical trauma or mechanical injury during birth can harm the brain and intellectual functioning
• Precipitous births and breech births can cause abnormal pressure and injury to the brain which leads to hemorrhaging and damage
• Anoxia/asphyxia in breech deliveries deprives the infant of oxygen, leading to severe brain injury

Postnatal Risks

• Injuries, childhood infections, and severe malnutrition can all have affects on physical and mental development after birth

Environmental Factors

• Can adversely affect child development prenatally, natally and postnatally
• Examples include nutritional deficiencies of both mother and child during pregnancy and infection
• Folate deficiency can cause neural tube defects such as spina bifida
• Infections include Zika virus, meningitis, and measles
• Exposure to toxins during pregnancy, like alcohol/drugs, or environmental toxins such as lead.

Genetic and Environmental Interactions

• Environmental factors greatly increase impairment severity in children with genetic developmental disabilities, or produce comorbid conditions
• Ex: Phenylketonuria causes intellectual disability only if foods containing phenylalanine are consumed

Causes and Risk Factors

• Causes vs. risk factors. Risk factors exacerbate the likelihood of a developmental disability, but are not the underlying cause.
• Ex: A chromosomal abnormality CAUSES Down Syndrome; increased maternal age is a RISK FACTOR

Social Determinants as Risk Factors

• Clear evidence exists regarding social determinants of health
• Lower socioeconomic backgrounds increase risk of poor health and disability due to difficulty accessing healthcare, infections and malnutrition
• Environmental risks contribute to a higher prevalence of developmental disabilities in low- and middle-income countries
• Social determinants can increase the risk of environmental causes.

Lesson 3 Main Factors

Factors are identified that affect developmental disabilities, how these factors affect persons with developmental disabilities, and how to prevent the factors

• People are exposed to lots of chemicals in food, clothes, housing, furniture etc.
• Chemicals may damage the central nervous system which can impact developmental disabilities.
• Evidence is based on studies of groups of people accidentally exposed or subjected to levels beyond what is considered safe and acceptable.

Children and Chemicals

• Children's exposure to harmful chemicals is an issue that needs to be minimized
• Exposure may cause intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs)
• Causes of ASDs are unknown
• Factors that make children more likely to develop ASDs include environmental, biologic, and genetic factors

Risk Factors for Autism

• Risk factors include parental age at conception, prenatal exposure to air pollution or pesticides, maternal obesity/diabetes/immune disorders, prematurity or low birth weight, and birth difficulties causing oxygen deprivation

Gene Interactions

• Early-life exposure to air pollution increased risk for autism
• Mothers living near freeways and traffic-related pollution during the third trimester of pregnancy had double the risk of a child with autism
• Children having a mutation in a gene called MET and combined with high levels of exposure to air pollution may have increased risk for autism

Toxin Intereactions

• Environmental toxins can be lead and mercury, crossing the placenta affect brain structures forming
• Toxins associated with ASD, include thalidomide, pitocin, prenatal exposure to drugs (cocaine/alcohol)
• MMR vaccine is highly contentious trigger
• Maternal factors- A mother's immune system, metabolic conditions, during pregnancy may be linked with higher autism risk for her children

Mercury levels

• Fish consumption can increase mercury, however dietary exposure to mercury do not found to contribute to cause autism
• Children with autism were found to have same blood mercury levels to those without
• Autistic children were low on essential life metals like manganese and zinc but harmful metal during specific
• Altered zinc-copper cycles (regulate metal metabolism in body), are disrupted in ASD

Insecticides

• Maternal exposure to insecticides during early pregnancy was associated with higher risk of autism in their children
• Contaminants, such as Bisphenol A, phthalates, flame retardants, and polychlorinated biphenyls do affect early brain development and are being studied to see if they play a role in autism

Lesson 4 and Intellectual Disabilities

• Throughout history intellectual disabilities have been defined differently

Intellectual Disabilities- Essential features

• Deficits in General Mental Abilities can refer to the inability to effectively reason, problem-solve, plan, learn, and understand,
• Deficits in Adaptive Functioning can mean a person cannot meet standards of social independence.
• Adaptive reasoning is composed of three domains.

Adaptive Domains

• Conceptual (Academic) Domain-Competence in memory, language, reading, writing, math reasoning
• Social Domain- Awareness of others' thoughts, feelings, and experiences
• Practical Domain- Involves learning and self-management across life settings

Diagnosing Intelectual Disabilities

• Adaptive deficits present during childhood or adolescence
• Difficulties present or limitations began after this development, the correct diagnosis will change
• Understanding the level of severity and specifying the domains would help educators plan for intervention for learners with disabilities

Levels of Intellectual disability

• DSM-5 has an overview to help determine how adaptive functioning is affected at differing levels of severity
• There is the "Degrees of intellectual disability" which can be defined as mild, moderate, severe and profound intellectual disability.
• DSM-5 does use do use quantifiable "IQ" ranges to classify a patient, like in educable mental retardation (EMR) trainable mental retardation (TMR), severe and profound mental retardation (SPMR)

Lesson 5: Genetic Syndromes

• A genetic syndrome describes error of morphogenesis, there is a change that ultimately deranges gene expression
• Multiple malformations are often observed because a syndrome is defined as the coexistence of a small but variable number of "hallmark" abnormalities.

Fragile X Syndrome

• Fragile X syndrome is a genetic condition causing an array of developmental problems
• Including both learning disabilities and cognitive impairment.
• Usually, males are more severely affected by this disorder than females
• They may have attention deficit disorder (ADD), which includes an impaired ability to maintain attention and difficulty focusing on specific tasks

Physical Symptoms

• Physical features include a long and narrow face, large ears, a prominent jaw and forehead
• Unusually flexible fingers and enlarged testicles (macroorchidism)
• In addition infants are irritable and may face normal motor milestones due to sensory integration problems and defensive tactility

Treatment

• Intervention from medical professionals is a necessity.
• Patients can be mainstreamed with proper care, support and vocational intervention

Down Syndrome Genetics and Physical Traits

• Downs Syndrome, also called Trisomy 21, is a chromosomal condition with extra genetic material.
• Causes delays in the way they develop both mentally and physically but tend to have the same physical features overall
• Includes a flat facial profile, small ears, and protruding tongue
• More repetition is needed due to the effect sensorimotor development.

How Downs affects Social Interactions

• Do not display the ability to efficiently play even though they appear sociable and affectionate
• Requires prompting grasp normal behaviors
• Often delayed at continuing to occur over a prolonged period
• Can receive input from different number of sources
• The medical professionals are helpful, parents should not neglect following up

Prader-Willi Syndrome Genetics and Traits

• It's a multifaceted genetic condition affecting many parts of the body
• Those with Prader-Willi syndrome typically have mild to moderate intellectual impairment and learning disabilities
• Common behavioral problems include temper outbursts, stubbornness, and compulsive behavior such as picking at the skin
• Other problems include mildy distinct facal features and possible genital mutations

Prader-Willi Syndrome Treatment

• Cognitive strength and weaknesses eval is condcuted to test for compulsive disorder/ problems by medical professionals
• Most children with Prader-Willi syndrome require either placement in special educational/ normal setting

Children with Fetal Alchohol Syndrome Traits

• They share small eye openings, a thin upper lip, and a smooth philtrum
• Problems include poor growth, birth defects, seizures, and poor social skills
• They Also Have, learning difficulties and controlling behavior They may have difficulty in adapting to a new environment or routine which cause outburst as the individual grows older

Treating individuals with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

• Providing a learning environment that is more conducive to success for the child with the syndrome is essential
• Classroom strategies can also vary from teacher to teacher
• It is not uncommon for older individuals to develop feelings of depression/ suidal thoughts as they grow up

Defining Physical disability

Physical disability is a condition that interferes with a child's mobility, physical capacity, stamina, or dexterity.

• Examples include Poliomyelitis, Congenital abnormalities, Cerebral palsy and Spina bifida and fractures/Burns
• Often stems stem from accidents.
• Other Health impairments include Asthma, HIV/AIDS, sickle cell disease, epilepsy, cancer diseases.
• Should be able to challenge the students but make instruction academically Where do the students receive services and accommodations used/Curriculum and goals Which Methods of instruction provide learners with effective opportunities Also make sure to make sure school and family are on same page

What Does Physical Impairment Do?

Person can be born with/ acquire after life through accident, injury, illness, or side effects of medical treatment these are examples

• Spina Bifida/Muscular dystrophy/Spinal cord Injury
• Traumatic brain Injury/Limb deficiency/Arthritis
• Marfan Syndrome/Polio/Club foot
• Other Health Impairment/Cardiopulmonary Condition
• Acquired Immune deficiency Syndrome/Cooley's Anemia

Teamwork against physical impairents- The Approach

Must be made in order to determine what all can be used in the everyday for curriculum, and make sure environment is up to the job

• Also make sure to set the goals for where students would like to be.
• Also need to ensure that the staff and learner, come to a common understanding.

Curriculum and Goals

• Can often be the same curriculum as other students
• Also must consider if child must be under constant care

Lesson 7 and Learning disabilities Defined

• Is a term used by educational and legal systems. For medical personnel, they use term specific learning disorder for their diagnosis
• Learning disability is a neurodevelopmental disorder that begins during school age- problems in reading words,
• The condition has no cure, and is affected by a person's life from school, work, life etc.
• They occur in a variety of overlapping factors to their origin

Three Foundational Aspects of Learning

Problems in aspects- reading/writing/math -Learning disability

• Problems with learning achievement or behaviors
• Causes by neurological aspects. Other researches say gene transfer neurological or infection.

Dsm -5 on Diagnosing

diagnosed the presence learning disability or specific learning disorder

• states that a learning disorder/disability can only be diagnosed after formal education starts/arises during the elementary school years. Manifestation

Examples of Symptoms to Learn and Understand

• A child with Learning may Lack of interest in playing games with language sounds
• A child in Kindergartern may be unable to recognize and write letters
• A child in middles grades, may mispronounce/ skip part of long multi words

Types of Learning Disabilities

Dysgraphia is a term used to describe difficulties puts thoughts into physical word/number problems- this includes the ability to remember and use.

• This also inclues to be fluent in memory
• Dyscalculia is a term used to describe difficulties with math, which may lead to not wanting to do the activity.

How severe is it?

• It is variable from level or Mild to Moderate. Mild will be less trouble learning and reading what you are told
• moderate level is intervals of what one is doing is needed to be fully committed
• In cases where where there may be little to no improvement, then to go with learning difficulties.

Educational Approaches

• Explicit/Cognitive instructinos
• Which promotes an improvement of the skills being needed
• The other skill used is Multisensory approach- which is a combination of two or more senses to express information.

Skills needed and Inclusion

Which is to help the teacher assist with taking notes, help child to do tests and prepare

• This gives the student is given time to reflect.