Development and Characteristics of Learners with Disabilities
What this domain tests
This domain tests how disabilities are defined, how they affect development and learning, and how teams distinguish similar-looking needs.
Core rules
- IDEA categories (13): autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, emotional disturbance, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment (OHI), specific learning disability (SLD), speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairment including blindness. Developmental delay is an optional category for ages 3-9.
- SLD is the largest category and includes dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia; it excludes learning problems caused primarily by lack of instruction or limited English proficiency.
- Intellectual disability requires significantly subaverage intellectual functioning plus adaptive-behavior deficits, with onset during the developmental period.
- Autism involves persistent social-communication deficits and restricted, repetitive behavior; cognitive ability varies widely.
- ED requires a marked, long-lasting pattern adversely affecting performance and is not explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
Worked example
A second grader reads slowly, guesses at words, and has average oral language and cognition. The team suspects dyslexia. Dyslexia is not a separate IDEA category; it is usually served as SLD. The evaluation must document a processing deficit and insufficient response to intervention, and rule out vision/hearing problems, lack of appropriate instruction, and English-learner status.
Traps
- Assuming low achievement alone means intellectual disability.
- Equating autism with intellectual disability.
- Relying on an IQ-achievement discrepancy alone.
- Ignoring adaptive behavior when considering intellectual disability.
- Labeling trauma- or culture-related behavior as ED without ruling out other causes.