EDU 221 Children With Exceptionalities

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Chapter 8
Learning and Behavior Disorders

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• History of ADHD
– It has been studied for the last 50 years.
– It was originally thought to be brain damage.
– The APA finally decided there were two
categories:
• ADD
• ADHD
– There are three patterns of behavior.

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(continued)
• Predominantly hyperactive-impulsive
– No inattention
• Predominantly inattentive
– Often called ADD
– No hyperactive-impulsive behavior
• Combined
– Inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(continued)
• Current attempts at defining ADHD
– It must be a clinical diagnosis that involves parent and
teacher input.
– It must manifest before age seven.
– Characteristics must occur in multiple settings.
– Characteristics must be maladaptive for the child’s
age.
– It must effect the child’s academic performance.
– It cannot be a temporary response to a situation.

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(continued)
• Causes and prevalence of ADHD
– There is no known absolute cause.
– Possible causes are genetics; one or more
parents is also hyperactive.
– Maternal smoking or drug use during
pregnancy may be a factor.

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(continued)
• Disorders that sometimes accompany
ADHD
– Learning disabilities
– Oppositional Defiant Disorder
– Conduct Disorder
– Bipolar Disorder

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(continued)
• Intervention strategies
– Medication and behavior management
combined seems to be the best approach.
– Medication
• Ritalin is the most common.
• It helps a child control impulsivity and pay attention
in class.
• It can cause sleep disorders, weight loss, and
increased blood pressure.
• Parents and teacher rely on the medicine to fix the
behaviors.

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(continued)
– Special diet
• The Feingold diet is one tried method.
• Parents feed the child additive- and dye-free foods
to lessen hyperactive behaviors.
• Nutrition is key, but eliminating foods does not
solve the problem.

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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(continued)
– Behavior management
• Reward positive behaviors.
• Evaluate the environment for behavior-causing
areas and correct.
• Plan developmentally appropriate activities for all
children.

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Learning Disabilities
• What is a learning disability?
– A disorder in one or more of the basic
psychological processes involved in
understanding or in using language, spoken
or written, which may manifest itself in the
imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, write,
spell, or do mathematical calculations

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
• It states clearly that a learning disability is
not the result of:
– visual, hearing, or motor handicaps.
– mental retardation.
– emotional disturbance.
– environmental, cultural, or economic
disadvantage.
– second language learning.

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
• Non disadvantaged ruling
– This excludes children who live in
environmental or economic disadvantage
from being labeled learning disabled.
• Academic ruling
– The definition states that there should be
difficulty in reading, writing, spelling, and
mathematical calculations. At what age?

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
– Areas that children may show signs of future
learning disabilities:
• Perinatal stress
• Genetic or environmental conditions
• Developmental milestones
• Attention and behavior

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
• Predicting learning disabilities
– Observation of child
– Matching observation to performance
measures
– Caution: Children can develop skills in a
range; looking for deviations from the range is
a sign of possible learning disability.

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
• Prerequisite skills
– These are skills needed to enter school.
– Often children with learning disabilities lack
these necessary skills to be successful in
school.

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
– Examples
• Sensorimotor difficulties (gross motor)
– Imperfect body control
– Poor balance
– Uncertain bilateral and cross-lateral movements
– Inability to cross body midline
– Faulty spatial orientation
• Sensorimotor difficulties (fine motor)
– Problems in buttoning, lacing, snapping, cutting, pasting,
and stringing beads
– Perseveration

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
– Cognitive disorders
• Trouble organizing
• Abstract thought is difficult
• Poor memory
• Problems with generalizing information

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
– Visual and auditory perception problems
• Visual discrimination
• Visual orientation
• Visual memory
• Visual tracking
• Visual-motor integration
• Auditory perception problems

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
– Language deviations
• Receptive language
• Expressive language
– Social skills deficits
• Bullying
• Withdrawn
• Aggressive
• Overdependent

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
• Response to intervention
– This allows a teacher to intervene with a child
without there being a required discrepancy
between ability and achievement.
– Tiered approach
• Screening and group interventions
• Target and short-term interventions
• Intensive instruction

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Learning Disabilities (continued)
• Program considerations
– All children will show signs of learning
disabilities at one time or another.
– Children need environments that are positive
and developmentally appropriate.
– Schedules need to be consistent.
– Tasks need to be broken down into smaller
chunks of information.

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Behavior Disorders
• Behavior is extreme, chronic, and
unacceptable.
• Experts who work with these children
prefer the term behaviorally disordered
because it places the focus on the
observable aspect of the children’s
problems: the behavior that is causing
problems in school and at home.

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Behavior Disorders (continued)
• The term emotional or behavioral disorder
means a disability characterized by
behavioral or emotional responses in
school so different from appropriate age,
cultural, or ethnic norms that they
adversely affect educational performance.

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Behavior Disorders (continued)
• Emotional and behavioral disorders can
co-exist with other disabilities.

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Behavior Disorders (continued)
• This category may include children or
youths with schizophrenic disorders,
affective disorders, anxiety disorder, or
other sustained disorders of conduct or
adjustment when they adversely affect
educational performance in accordance
with section (I) (Forness & Knitzer, 1992,
p. 13).

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Behavior Disorders (continued)
• Severe depression
– This is categorized by low self-esteem, poor
school performance, lack of friends, inability
to cope with daily routines.
– Some children with depression have parents
who suffer from depression.

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Behavior Disorders (continued)
• Anxiety
– People who experience excessive fear, worry,
or uneasiness.
– Some fears may even become phobias.
– Fears are normal, but when taken to the
extreme, they can cause multiple maladaptive
behaviors.

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Pervasive Developmental Disorders/
Autism Spectrum Disorders
– Usually present by age three
– Abnormal social interaction
– Impaired communication
– Peculiar interests and behaviors

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Pervasive Developmental Disorders/
Autism Spectrum Disorders (continued)
• Autism
– Early sign is not wanting to be cuddled or
held.
– Rarely making eye contact.
– Treating people like inanimate objects.
– Rigid requirements of sameness are typical.
– Self-stimulating behaviors like spinning,
rocking, and head banging are common.

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Pervasive Developmental Disorders/
Autism Spectrum Disorders (continued)
• Problems that may accompany ASD
– Fragile X syndrome, sensory problems,
mental retardation, and tuberous sclerosis
sensory problems
– Acute sense of touch with regards to clothing
– Oblivious to pain

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Childhood Onset Schizophrenia
• Major characteristics are tantrums and
bizarre behaviors or postures.
• Rejection and withdrawal from social
contacts.
• Mood swings are unpredictable.
• They use language to talk to self, and it is
rather difficult to decode.

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Other Forms of ASD
• Rett’s disorder
– Present in females
– Results in the loss of motor skills,
predominantly the hands
– Speech also halts

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Other Forms of ASD (continued)
• Asperger’s disorder
– Lack of social skills
– Difficulty in social relationships
– Poor concentration
– Restricted interests
– Normal IQ
– Normal language development

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Intervention
• Applied behavior analysis
– Intensive one-on-one interactions for over 40
hours a week
– Predictable routines
– Effective instructional strategies
– Appropriate curricular content

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Intervention (continued)
• Dietary intervention
– Removal of dyes and glutens
• Chelation
– Removal of metals from the child’s blood

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Eating and Elimination Disorders
• Pica
– The craving of nonfood items
• Soiling and wetting
– Persistent wetting may be a sign of an
infection.
– Child may have an intestinal virus.
– Diabetics have trouble with bladder control.
– Strange bathrooms may cause an undue
stress on a child.