DESCRIPTION OF DISABILITIES

 

 

Autism

Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are repetitive and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory stimulation. The term does not apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance.

Behavior/Emotional Disorder

Behavior/Emotional Disorder means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance: a) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; b) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; c) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; d) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; e) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. The term includes schizophrenia. It does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.

Blind/Visually Impaired

Blind/Visually Impaired, including blindness, means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes both partial sight and blindness.

The above definitions were taken from the federal regulations—34CFR Parts 300 and 303, Section 300.7.

Deafness

Deafness means a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Hearing Impairment

Hearing Impairment means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance but that is not included under the definition of deafness.

Deaf/Blind

Deaf/Blind means concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for children with deafness or children with blindness.

Developmental Delay

Developmental Delay means one or more disabilities as defined in this Section for children aged 3-5 experiencing delay in at least one of the following domains: physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social and emotional development, or adaptive development.

Mental Impairment

Mental Impairment means significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Multiple Impairments

Multiple Impairments means concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-blindness, mental retardation-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for one of the impairments. The term does not include deaf-blindness.

Orthopedic Impairment

Orthopedic Impairment means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g., clubfoot, absence of some member, etc.), impairments caused by disease (e.g., cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures).

Other Health Impaired

Other Health Impaired means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment that a) is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, emophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, or sickle cell anemia; and b) adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

Specific Learning Disabilities

Specific Learning Disabilities means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing or motor disabilities, of mental retardation, of motional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.

Speech/Language Impairments

Speech/Language Impairments means a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Listed below are related sites for speech-language:

  Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association: http://www.ishail.org
  American Speech-Language-Hearing Association: http://www.asha.org
  Kidsource Online: http://kidsource.com

Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury means an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; psychosocial functions; information processing; and speech. The term does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma.

 

 

 

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Last Updated 05/27/08