Holly
01-19-2008, 05:38 AM
Overview
To meet the physical, social, emotional and academic goals of children with Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus, specific needs must be weighed and considered through testing and evaluation, class placement, education services, social and emotional adjustment.
The Value of Testing
All children have abilities, some of which are better than others. Unfortunately, children with physical disabilities are often labeled based on their disability rather than by their strengths or skills and need additional assistance to identify their educational abilities.
Required by state and federal guidelines, evaluations provide basic information about children's intelligence, achievement levels, and occasionally social and general functioning. Some psychological evaluations test for language, learning disabilities and social/emotional functioning.
Key Findings
Research linking the physical aspects of Spina Bifida with hydrocephalus to intelligence and learning demonstrate that children with Spina Bifida with hydrocephalus possess:
Average IQs, often with significantly higher verbal than nonverbal skills resulting in greater reading and spelling skills and much lower math skills.
Poor perceptual-motor (non-verbal) abilities that affect their eye-hand coordination, which can create problems with handwriting and other motor activities
The higher that the lesion is on spinal cord is affected, the greater the possibility that intelligence and motor skills will be lower. More severe hydrocephalus is associated with lower intelligence scores.Children or adolescents with Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus may have problems with memory, comprehension, attention, impulsivity, sequencing, organization and reasoning-areas that could emerge as problems as their school experiences become more complicated.
The Importance of Evaluation, Placement, Homework and Parents
Even if children are performing well in regular classroom work, they should have psychological or neuropsychological testing to identify specific strengths and potential weaknesses and accurately place children with Spina Bifida in school. Parents, along with educators and health professionals, can request their children with Spina Bifida constructindividual education programs (IEP) to reflect special education services.
Studies show that teachers rate children with Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus as hard-working as other children. However, motivation in school can become an issue to those children who are overly dependent on parents. For children with relatively poor motor skills, homework can become an obstacle to academic performance. Fortunately, calculators and computers can help to ameliorate problems with math and written work.
Children diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) face additional problems in paying attention or being easily distracted from their work. Medication, as a possible intervention, can help and the improvement in attention and concentration is obvious.
Above all, it is important that teachers, parents and health professionals all focus on the children with Spina Bifida/hydrocephalus. Nothing should take precedent over the students' best interests.
SOURCE (http://www.spinabifidaassociation.org/site/c.liKWL7PLLrF/b.2700265/k.BA94/Educational_Issues.htm)
To meet the physical, social, emotional and academic goals of children with Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus, specific needs must be weighed and considered through testing and evaluation, class placement, education services, social and emotional adjustment.
The Value of Testing
All children have abilities, some of which are better than others. Unfortunately, children with physical disabilities are often labeled based on their disability rather than by their strengths or skills and need additional assistance to identify their educational abilities.
Required by state and federal guidelines, evaluations provide basic information about children's intelligence, achievement levels, and occasionally social and general functioning. Some psychological evaluations test for language, learning disabilities and social/emotional functioning.
Key Findings
Research linking the physical aspects of Spina Bifida with hydrocephalus to intelligence and learning demonstrate that children with Spina Bifida with hydrocephalus possess:
Average IQs, often with significantly higher verbal than nonverbal skills resulting in greater reading and spelling skills and much lower math skills.
Poor perceptual-motor (non-verbal) abilities that affect their eye-hand coordination, which can create problems with handwriting and other motor activities
The higher that the lesion is on spinal cord is affected, the greater the possibility that intelligence and motor skills will be lower. More severe hydrocephalus is associated with lower intelligence scores.Children or adolescents with Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus may have problems with memory, comprehension, attention, impulsivity, sequencing, organization and reasoning-areas that could emerge as problems as their school experiences become more complicated.
The Importance of Evaluation, Placement, Homework and Parents
Even if children are performing well in regular classroom work, they should have psychological or neuropsychological testing to identify specific strengths and potential weaknesses and accurately place children with Spina Bifida in school. Parents, along with educators and health professionals, can request their children with Spina Bifida constructindividual education programs (IEP) to reflect special education services.
Studies show that teachers rate children with Spina Bifida and hydrocephalus as hard-working as other children. However, motivation in school can become an issue to those children who are overly dependent on parents. For children with relatively poor motor skills, homework can become an obstacle to academic performance. Fortunately, calculators and computers can help to ameliorate problems with math and written work.
Children diagnosed with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) face additional problems in paying attention or being easily distracted from their work. Medication, as a possible intervention, can help and the improvement in attention and concentration is obvious.
Above all, it is important that teachers, parents and health professionals all focus on the children with Spina Bifida/hydrocephalus. Nothing should take precedent over the students' best interests.
SOURCE (http://www.spinabifidaassociation.org/site/c.liKWL7PLLrF/b.2700265/k.BA94/Educational_Issues.htm)