Individuals With Learning Disabilities

In these cases, schools which consider children with articulation errors, language problems, and fluency disorders possess communication disorder are legally correct. The reason to this argument is because the definition of learning disability provided in the Federal Register of December 1977 incorporates these characteristics outlined above rendering the children disabled (Levine, 2009). According to the definition the articulation errors, language problems, and fluency disorders are represented in the statement which describes learning disability to be a disorder that is manifested through faulty listening, speaking, reading, writing, spelling or incorrect mathematical calculations. The adoption of the definition into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has provided pivotal support to the schools which consider the problems (articulation errors, language problems, and fluency disorder) outlined above to be enough to rule out a child with learning disability (Gargiulo, 2015, Ch. 6).
The above criteria, even though legally represented in modern versions of learning disability definitions, it is not substantial enough to rely on to facilitate and pull out children out of regular kindergarten and first-grade classes to seek guidance from a speech therapist. A more rich definition was adopted in 1986 by the Learning Disability Association of America, but it was seen to emphasize more on similar aspects associated with learning disability as the earlier definition put into the paper in federal register (Gargiulo, 2015, Ch.

11). In this enriched definition, learning disabilities are considered to be chronic conditions of most probable neurological disorders. These disorders are involved in interfering with development, integration, and demonstration of both verbal and non-verbal abilities in different individuals.
There are many more descriptive characteristics that I can consider before settling on a conclusion that a child possesses learning disability. The characteristics settled upon by professionals through years of studies have not been proposed to be used independently to judge and render an individual disabled. What I can concentrate on the most is the problems associated with attention, information processing, and memory capacities. The activity and questions posed would thereby assist me in coming up with a final decision. Most individuals have problems in articulating ideas, and if used solely to weigh learning disability it can become a difficult task to identify the few who manage the challenge. Some individuals have content with them but face difficulties when delivering the same to an audience.
I would concentrate on asking questions that directly connect to the topic of discussion. It would be the only way I can use to learn about the memory and information processing ability of the affected parties. The person to whom to ask in order to obtain these answers from are the teacher and also a speech/ language therapist from which I greatly rely on in settling on my final conclusion.
The questions would include: to the teacher: “What methods do you use in the classroom to assist those children portraying speech and fluency disorders?” and to the speech therapist: “Do you believe that removing a child with articulation problems from regular kindergarten or first grade classrooms to work with a speech therapist, is the best move especially for the child?” Their answers would, of course, assist in creating a basis for developing a decision.
The understanding of good communication, language and speech enable the human being to make their needs known. The needs range from dislikes to likes and in the construction of relationships (Levine, 2009). They are crucial to every child as they assist in learning and reading in school. The development of communication, language and skills begin way before formal education where children learn how to talk, play, listen and understand. Inequalities begin at ages of three to five years of age.
B.1 To determine whether Bobby is slow as his parents claims or he is just intellectually disabled (which is manifested by the fact that he is lagging behind his chronological age and grade peers both academic-wise and in social skills), I can consider various characteristics for verification such as reading, written language, spoken language, memory, metacognition, and attributions. Considering reading characteristic, in this case, will help to find out whether Bobby is able to recognize and comprehend written words. Most individuals who are intellectually disabled cannot read effectively and experience difficulties in reading comprehensions. Under written language characteristic, most individuals who are associated with learning disabilities portray problems in spelling common words, handwriting as well as composing easy constructively (Gargiulo, 2015, Ch. 7). Bobby will undertake a simple task of putting down on a paper a piece of written material to help find out his level of learning ability.
On the other hand, individuals with learning disabilities express difficulties in remembering academic information and external information regarding their social life and co-curriculum activities. This characteristic about memory will be of major concern to look into in order to categorize Bobby accurately based on his ability to keep information in mind and use it to make a conclusion at some point. Metacognition property verification will involve determining whether Bobby is able to monitor his performance and also show whether he has the knowledge to know his thinking process (Levine, 2009). In this case, Bobby will be offered a task where he will be required to identify the requirements of importance in order to obtain successful results. Under metacognition, Bobby will be tested on how good he can perform the whole task as well as how best he can monitor, evaluate and adjust his performance for a final quality task. Attributions are believes of an individual that dictate their failure or success to a given assignment (Gargiulo, 2015, Ch. 7). Bobby will be closely monitored to find out his level of seriousness in anticipating for success rather than failure.
B 2. Curriculum- based measurement can be effectively employed to learn more about Bobby. In this case, Bobby can be assessed frequently weekly to determine his progress in performance towards meeting the set objectives by the school curriculum. When Bobby performance is frequently sampled, it will provide reliable information about the effectiveness of the teaching mechanism put in place and may be used as a reference to introduce new strategies in teaching (Gargiulo, 2015, Ch. 6). This method is effective in determining the learning ability of an individual and is good in providing a chance to help improve the performance of a disabled child.
Another legal way of assessing Bobby to help in improving his performance is through portfolio assessment where the best-performed tasks are put in records to show the efforts, progress, and peak achievements attained by him. Using the portfolio the instructor can correctly identify where to concentrate on and the strategy that they may require to use to improve his performance in general (Gargiulo, 2015, Ch. 11).
B. 3. As an instructor I have to avoid taking Bobby through cognitive training and special learning instructions as well as subjecting him to learning strategies for now since he is not fully verified to be categorized in any of the two categories; as intellectually disabled or as a slow learner. Putting him through these can kill his morale and induce stress in him if he is not disabled (Swanson, & Harris, 2013).
C. 1 Jared is portraying learning disability by expressing major characteristics associated with the same. The fact that Jared reads saw for was manifests a disorder in concentration. This lack of attention results in word recognition error, in this case, he is substituting words and letters in comprehension with others. The major problems discussed about Jared reveal his difficulty in reading comprehension. For instance, his ability to solve arithmetic problems mentally as opposed to written problems is a clear indication of the challenge he has in reading.
Jared portrays short memory through his tendency to misplace books and pencils and cannot recall where he last kept them. Similarly, by erasing almost everything he writes shows how short-lived his memory is that he cannot transfer correct information from another source accurately. Miscellaneous symptoms illustrated through stomach ache claims he makes now and then are a good manifestation of his problem in reading comprehension.
C 2. Jared should be subjected to multiple tasks which require total concentration to improve his attention to avoid problems associated with word omissions and insertions during comprehension reading. Jared should be provided with written tasks with close monitoring to ensure he is fully assisted to improve his performance on written tasks. Short-lived memory manifested through Jared’s misplacement of pencils and books can be rectified through the frequent introduction of tasks that require meditation and ensure use of open-ended quizzes to test his memory (Levine, 2009). Miscellaneous symptoms of stomachache claims can be solved by engaging Jared closely in class work and giving strict instructions where necessary.

References
Gargiulo, R. M., (2015). Special education in contemporary society5e: individuals with intellectual disability. Thousand Oaks, CA, SAGE Publications, Inc.
Levine, MD. (2009). Differences in learning and neurodevelopment function in school-age children. In WB Carey et al., eds., Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics, 4th ed., pp. 535-546. Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier.
Swanson, H. L., & Harris, K. R. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of learning disabilities. Guilford Press.