Praxis 5354 cheat sheet

IDEA Part B covers ages 3–21 and requires FAPE, LRE, an IEP, and procedural safeguards; Part C covers infants and toddlers (birth–3) through an IFSP.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act bars disability discrimination in federally funded programs; eligibility turns on a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, and no IEP is required.

Timeline rule: the initial evaluation must be completed within 60 days of parental consent (or the state-established timeline), and the IEP must be developed within 30 days after the eligibility determination.

IDEA's 13 categories: autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, specific learning disability, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairment including blindness (developmental delay is a state-option category for young children).

Stay-put: while a due process complaint is pending, the student remains in the current educational placement unless the parties agree otherwise.

A disciplinary change of placement exceeding 10 cumulative school days triggers a manifestation determination review; weapons, illegal drugs, or serious bodily injury allow a 45-school-day interim alternative educational setting.

Transition planning, including measurable postsecondary goals and transition services, must begin no later than age 16 (younger if state law requires), and the student must be invited to the IEP meeting.

FERPA: parents may inspect and review education records within 45 days of a request and may seek amendment; written consent is required for disclosure except for specified exceptions.

Child Find requires districts to identify, locate, and evaluate all children suspected of disabilities, including private-school, homeless, and highly mobile children.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2), preoperational (2–7), concrete operational (7–11), formal operational (11+); conservation and reversibility emerge in the concrete operational stage.

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development is the gap between independent performance and performance with adult or peer support; scaffolding is faded as competence increases.

Intellectual disability requires significantly subaverage intellectual functioning (about 70–75 or below) plus concurrent deficits in adaptive behavior, with onset before age 18.

Specific learning disability requires a processing deficit that affects academic achievement; states may identify SLD using RTI data, a severe discrepancy, or a pattern of strengths and weaknesses.

ADHD is most often served under Other Health Impairment when it adversely affects educational performance; core deficits involve working memory, behavioral inhibition, and planning.

Autism eligibility requires deficits in social communication and social interaction plus restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, which may include atypical sensory responses.

Emotional disturbance requires one or more marked characteristics (inability to learn unexplained by other factors, relationship problems, inappropriate behavior, depression, physical fears) over a long period that adversely affect performance.

Language milestones: cooing around 2 months, babbling around 6 months, first words around 12 months, about 50 words by 18 months, and two-word combinations around 24 months.

Conductive hearing loss involves the outer or middle ear and is often medically treatable; sensorineural loss involves the cochlea or auditory nerve, is usually permanent, and most affects speech and language development.

Required IEP components: present levels of academic achievement and functional performance, measurable annual goals, a statement of how progress is measured and reported, special education and related services, accommodations, LRE justification, and transition services by age 16.

Accommodation changes how a student accesses content (extended time, read-aloud, preferential seating); modification changes what is taught or the performance standard (reduced items, below-grade content).

Explicit instruction sequence: review of prior learning, teacher modeling (I do), guided practice (we do), independent practice (you do), then cumulative review.

Task analysis breaks a complex skill into teachable steps; chaining is forward, backward, or total task, with backward chaining used when the terminal step is most reinforcing.

Prompt hierarchies run least-to-most intrusive (natural cue, verbal, gesture, model, physical) or most-to-least with systematic fading; least-to-most promotes independence.

ABA contingency: antecedent–behavior–consequence; reinforcement increases behavior and punishment decreases it; continuous reinforcement speeds acquisition while variable-ratio schedules resist extinction.

A functional behavioral assessment identifies the function of behavior (attention, escape, access to tangibles, automatic/sensory) and drives a behavior intervention plan built on antecedent changes and replacement behaviors.

UDL provides multiple means of representation, multiple means of engagement, and multiple means of action and expression; co-teaching models include one teach/one observe, one teach/one assist, parallel, station, alternative, and team teaching.

PBIS is a three-tier framework: Tier 1 universal supports for all students, Tier 2 targeted small-group supports, and Tier 3 intensive individualized supports, each guided by behavioral data.

Standard score scale: mean 100, standard deviation 15; the range 85–115 (±1 SD) contains about 68% of the norm group and 70–130 (±2 SD) about 95%.

Other score scales: T-score mean 50 with SD 10, z-score mean 0 with SD 1, stanines 1–9 with a mean of 5, and percentile rank equal to the percentage of the norm group scoring at or below the score.

SEM = SD × √(1 − reliability); a 95% confidence interval is the obtained score plus or minus 1.96 SEM.

Reliability types are test-retest, alternate form, internal consistency, and inter-rater; validity types are content, criterion-related, and construct.

Curriculum-based measurement uses brief, standardized, repeatedly administered probes (words read correctly per minute, correct writing sequences, digits correct) for screening and progress monitoring.

Progress-monitoring decision rules: several consecutive data points below the aim line indicate instruction must be changed; consecutive points above indicate the goal should be raised; compare trend-line slope with aim-line slope.

MTSS/RTI tiers: Tier 1 is core instruction for all, Tier 2 is targeted small-group intervention, Tier 3 is intensive individualized intervention, and movement between tiers is based on data plus fidelity of implementation.

Behavioral recording methods: event/frequency counts discrete responses, duration measures time engaged, latency measures time to onset, and interval/time sampling estimates occurrence within intervals.

Nondiscriminatory assessment requires administration in the child's native language or mode of communication, use of multiple measures, and tests validated for the purpose and population for which they are used.