A Guide to Disability Definitions & Terminologies
General Guidelines
The following information is meant only as an overall introduction to categories of disability. It is not all comprehensive. Each child is first an individual with individual needs. Not all children fit all the descriptors of their disability category, not will they be educated in the same way. Talk in depth with your child’s pediatrician to learn the best way to support your child’s holistic development.
Always remember:
Children with a disability are children, first and foremost, and have the same rights to protection as any other child
Use child-first language. Your child is not his or her disability. Do not refer to your child as the ‘disabled child’ or ‘the autistic child”. Learn to see your child first.
Visible Disability
Deaf/Blind
This term refers to concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and educational needs that the student cannot be accommodated in programs solely for children with one impairment.
General characteristics include:
Language and speech delay
Misunderstanding information that is presented
Difficulty with abstract concepts
May tire easily
Needs assistance traveling
General support strategies may include:
Using three-dimensional visuals
Speaking clearly
Face the child when speaking
Get attention before speaking
Sighted guide
Adaptive materials
Hearing Impairment/Blindness
This term refers to impairment in hearing, permanent or fluctuating, which adversely affects a child’s educational performance.
General characteristics include:
Language and speech delay
Misunderstanding information that is presented
Difficulty with abstract concepts
May tire easily
Travel assistance may be necessary
General teaching strategies may include:
Visuals
Speaking clearly
Face the child when speaking
Get attention before speaking
Seat child close to speaker
Sign language instruction
Physical Disability
The term physical disabilities is broad and covers a range of disabilities and health issues, including both congenital and acquired disabilities. These includes conditions such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, traumatic brain injury, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, spinal chord injury, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and systic fibrosis. Within that range are other physical disabilities or impairments that interfere with a child’s ability to attain the same developmental milestones as his or her age-mates. The number of students with physical disabilities is expected to grow as medical advances continue to reduce mortality rates for infants and children.
Some strategies to help incorporate include the following:
Arrange the room so that everyone can move around easily.
Have students with difficulty speaking (as is the case with cerebral palsy) use an alternative presentation format in place of oral reporting.
Talk to your child about what he or she likes to do and can do.
Identify the child’s strengths.
Orthopedic Impairment (OI)
This refers to a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects the child’s educational performance.
The term includes impairments caused by congenital anomaly (e.g. club foot, absence of a limb), impairments caused by disease (poliomyelitis, bone tuberculosis, etc.) and impairments form other causes (e.g. cerebral palsy, amputations).
General characteristics include:
Hard to control limbs
Involuntary movements
May need assistance with daily living skills
General teaching strategies may include:
Remove or accommodate for physical barriers
Teach for independence
Speech to them at their physical level
Encourage participation
Functional curriculum
Visual Impairments/Blindness (VI)
Visual impairments, including blindness, mean impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely affects a child’s educational performance.The term includes both partial sight and blindness.
General characteristics include:
Comprehensive visual evaluation by a qualified optometrist or ophthalmologist
Visual acuity is 20/200 or less in the better eye with correction
General teaching strategies may include:
Large print, Braille, or magnification equipment
Environmental consistency
Mobility training
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
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 the child’s educational performance.
The term includes 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, psychological behavior, physical functions,
information processing, and speech. The term does not include brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative or brain injuries induced by birth trauma.
General characteristics include:
Brain injury/head injury
Neuropsychological assessment
Impairments in one or more of the above listed area
Difficulty with social competence
Difficulty acquiring and maintaining skills
General teaching strategies may include:
Direct social skills instruction
Repetition
Consistency
Respect
Invisible Disabilities
Autism
Autism is a developmental disability which significantly effects verbal or non-verbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before the age of three, which adversely affects a child’s educational performance. The term does not apply if the child’s performance is adversely affected primarily due to an emotional disturbance.
General characteristics include:
Difficulty with social interactions
Engaging in repetitive activities
Resistance to changes in routine
Unusual responses to the environment
Varying levels of intelligence
General strategies may include:
Highly structured, predictable routines
Consistency
Visual
Social stories
Task analysis
Sensory integration
Social skills training
Generalize instruction to all environments
Emotional/Behavioural Disorders (EBD)
This refers to a condition in which a student exhibits one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects their educational performance: an inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors, an inability to maintain interpersonal relationships, inappropriate behaviors or feelings under normal circumstances, a general pervasive mood of depression, and a tendency to develop
physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or social problems.
The term includes schizophrenia, but does not apply to children who are maladjusted or who present with conduct disorders. Students who experience problems in everyday living and/or those who develop transient symptoms due to specific crisis are not considered to be emotionally disturbed.
General characteristics include:
Inappropriate types of behavior and feelings
May seek attention through aggression
Non-compliance
Trouble getting or keeping friends
Resistant to authority
General teaching strategies may include:
Consistency
Never physically restrain (unless trained and guided by a supervising teacher)
Don’t take it personally, they student may not be able to voluntarily control his/her behavior
Teach appropriate behavior
Use humor
Don’t hold grudges
Show respect to the student
Other Health Impairment (OHI)
This terms means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to educational environment. It must be due to chronic or acute medical problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder, asperger syndrome. (This list is not all inclusive.)
General characteristics include:
Medical condition diagnosed by a physician
Comprehensive evaluation from a licensed individual
Condition results in limited strength, vitality or alertness
General teaching strategies may include:
Sensory integration
Shortening assignments/work periods
Breaks
Organizational systems
Specific Learning Disability (LD)
This refers to a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, which manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do math.
The term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, dyslexia, and aphasia. It does not include learning problems that are the result of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
General characteristics include:
Average to above average intelligence
Distractibility
Low self-esteem
Easily frustrated
General teaching strategies may include:
Teach compensation strategies
Allow extra time
Teach from student strengths
Concrete instruction
Intellectual Disability (ID)
This term refers to a significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning that exists concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects the child’s educational performance.
General characteristics include:
Take more time and repetition to learn
Immaturity
Delay in adaptive skills
General teaching strategies may include:
Concrete instruction
Extended practice opportunities
Visual modeling
Teach to independence
Multiple Disabilities (MD)
This term means concomitant impairments (such as intellectual disability-blindness, intellectual disability-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the combination of which causes severe educational needs that the child cannot be accommodated in programs solely for one impairment. This term does not include deaf/blindness.
General characteristics may include:
Low cognitive ability
Requiring assistance in daily living activities
Primarily non-academic
General teaching strategies may include:
Respect each student’s dignity
Learn how they communicate and use it
Teach from current skill level
Repeat and drill
Generalize instruction to all environments
Communication Disorder
This refers to a communication disorder in sound production such as stuttering or impaired articulation that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.
General characteristics include:
Difficulty understanding the student
Reluctant to speak
General teaching strategies may include:
Allowing for extended time to respond
Ignoring minor instances
Direct instruction in sound production
Language Impairment
This refers to a communication disorder related to general language concepts that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.
General characteristics include:
Short sentence length
Limited vocabulary
Difficulty expressing thoughts
Difficulty understanding directions
General teaching strategies may include:
Modeling good language at or slightly above the student’s level
Not talking for the student
Allowing extended time
Direct instruction in language concepts
Young Child with a Developmental Delay (YCDD)
This category is for children ages 3-5 (not kindergarten eligible) who are experiencing developmental delays as measured in one or more of the following areas: social/ emotional, cognition, language, or adaptive skills.
General characteristics include:
General delay in one or more of the above mentioned areas
Developmental immaturity
Delayed social interaction skills
General teaching strategies may include:
Developmentally based instruction
Social skills training
Consistency
