Sunday, December 1, 2019

Special Education Pt.2 Module 4: Medical Conditions and Terminology

The following information is from John Hopkin’s University, Office of Student Disabilities. If you want to read more information, please go to:
http://web.jhu.edu/disabilities/faculty/types_of_disabilities/index.html.
Physical Disabilities
A variety of physical disabilities results from congenital conditions, accidents, or progressive neuromuscular diseases. These disabilities may include conditions such as spinal cord injury (paraplegia or quadriplegia), cerebral palsy, spina bifida, amputation, muscular dystrophy, cardiac conditions, cystic fibrosis, paralysis, polio/post polio, and stroke.
Medical Disabilities
Other disabilities include conditions affecting one or more of the body's systems. These include respiratory, immunological, neurological, and circulatory systems.
Examples:
  • Cancer
  • Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
  • Epilepsy/Seizure Disorder
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Lupus Erythmatosis
  • Multiple Sclerosis
  • Chemical Dependency
  • Diabetes
  • Epstein Barr virus
  • HIV + AIDS
  • Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
  • Renal Disease
Blindness/Low Vision
The following terms are used in an educational context to describe students with visual disabilities: 
  • "Blind" students learn via Braille or other nonvisual media.
  • "Legally blind" indicates that a student has less than 20/20 vision in the more functional eye or a very limited field of vision (20 degrees at its widest point).
  • "Low vision" refers to a severe vision loss in distance and near vision.  Students use a combination of vision and other senses to learn, and they may require adaptations in lighting or the print size, and, in some cases, Braille.
Brain Injuries
Brain injury may occur in many ways. Traumatic brain injury typically results from accidents; however, insufficient oxygen, stroke, poisoning, or infection may also cause brain injury. Brain injury is one of the fastest growing types of disabilities, especially in the age range of 15 to 28 years.
Characteristics:
Highly individual; brain injuries can affect students very differently. Depending on the area(s) of the brain affected by the injury, a student may demonstrate difficulties with:
  • Organizing thoughts, cause-effect relationships, and problem solving
  • Processing information and word retrieval
  • Generalizing and integrating skills
  • Social interactions
  • Short-term memory
  • Balance or coordination
  • Communication and speech
Deaf/Hard of Hearing
Students who are deaf or hard of hearing require different accommodations depending on several factors, including the degree of hearing loss, the age of onset, and the type of language or communication system they use. They may use a variety of communication methods, including lip reading, cued speech, signed English and/or American Sign Language.
Characteristics:
Deaf or hard of hearing students may:
  • be skilled lip readers, but many are not; only 30 to 40 percent of spoken English is distinguishable on the mouth and lips under the best of conditions
  • also have difficulties with speech, reading and writing skills, given the close relationship between language development and hearing
  • use speech, lip reading, hearing aids and/or amplification systems to enhance oral communication
  • be members of a distinct linguistic and cultural group; as a cultural group, they may have their own values, social norms and traditions
  • use American Sign Language as their first language, with English as their second language
Speech and Language Disabilities
Speech and language disabilities may result from hearing loss, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, and/or physical conditions. There may be a range of difficulties from problems with articulation or voice strength to complete absence of voice. Included are difficulties in projection, fluency problems, such as stuttering and stammering, and in articulating particular words or terms.
Required Reading: NONE 
There is no required reading for this module. 
Once you choose a topic to focus on, look at the following website - Canadian Assistive Technology - Disability Resources listed by Province   

Module Task: 
Choose a physical disability or medical condition from the list above.  Research and find on YouTube two videos that best explain your choice.  
Students with physical disabilities pose unique challenges to classroom teachers.  Your task this week is to find videos that would help classroom teachers understand the nature of physical disabilities or medical conditions.
  • Choose two of the physical disabilities or medical conditions listed above. 
  • You are to find two instructional videos (one for each disability/condition) that you think would be appropriate to show your colleagues at work. The videos should not be too short (less than five minutes) but not be excessively long either (20 minutes or more).
  • Briefly outline for your classmates the nature of the two disabilities or medical conditions, and how the videos would help classroom teachers.
  • Post your outline and URL links to your classmates. 
  • Read all posts and watch at least two of your classmates’ videos and comment on them along with responding to colleagues who reply to your original post.
Post the URL's for your videos along with your outline
Read all posts made by your colleagues
~ Respond to at least TWO of your classmates' posts
________________________________________________________________________________

Medical Condition #1: Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a crippling physical disorder that is psychological on the basis that it is believed to be caused by a "rewiring" or misinterpretation (amplification) of the outside stimuli of a person's body. This disorder all in all, limits a person from day to day reliability. It is difficult to know what or when the pain will occur. It is commonly referred to as "chronic pain" and over exhaustion that can come from even the most limited amounts of movements.

The video I have selected is a blog video by a youtuber named Katy who goes by "invisibleI" which talks about the 5 tips to support someone with Fibromyalgia. The most difficult part about being a teacher who has a student with this disorder is being accommodating and understanding in regards to the completion of course work and presence in class. It sounds bad to say, but until its experienced a teacher really doesn't understand how difficult it really is to support a student who physically can't be present for support.

Although it is uncommon for children, they are susceptible. Likeliness for diagnosis of Fibromyalgia is going to come as a person gets older. Most teachers may not experience having a child with this disorder in their class, but for those that do, this video may help provide different lines of communication between the teacher and the student.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IMSu1P06jg

Medical Condition #2: MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity)

MCS-Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is generally a physical disorder that people experience around specific chemicals. It originates or comes from hypersensitivity to products that contain specific chemicals. Symptoms range from Mild to Severe. 

The video I have selected is one that begins off a bit ambiguous and needs to be taken in stride; at first the viewer may not take the disorder seriously, but after the symptoms are explained and seeing faces of those who feel the disorder-it makes it more tangible and real. It becomes more understandable that this is a disorder, people experience it and it does impact a person's life to a great length-especially if that person is originally a socially adept person.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-1b7quKgVU

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