SPED 110

Classroom Management

Unit II: Characterist

ics of Learners

with Mild to Moderate

Disabilities

1. Cognitive Characteri

stics

A. Cognitive Theory and Approaches to

Mild Disabilities• In order to

understand the difficulties with mild disabilities have in school learning environments, it is helpful to first consider the process by which most people process the information embedded in environmental stimuli.

• Theories and framework for

explaining cognitive

functioning are generally derived from

three premises:

• Learning is an active process that requires active participation of the individual.

• Learning results in lasting changes within the learner’s knowledge base: learning is inferred to have occurred when stable changes in behaviors are noted.

• The manner by which brain handles incoming stimuli in relation to previous learning determines the effectiveness of the new learning.

Learning may also be conceptualiz

ed as the process of “coming to

understand”.

The learner acquires three

types of understandings or knowledge:

• Declarative knowledge

• Procedural knowledge

• Conditional knowledge

The following assumptions

from the basis of the

discussion of the cognitive

characteristics of children and youth and their

effect on the learning process:

• Learning results when a student effectively relates a new learning to previous learning.

• Learners are active participants in and ultimately responsible for their own learning.

• The methods individuals use to organize and integrate information are critical to their success in learning.

cont...

• Learning is a holistic act: while it is possible to study the components of successful learning, any interventions must consider the whole learning act.

B. Theoretical Approaches

to Cognitive

Functioning

Behaviorism • Learning is

occurring when the individual forms an association between a particular environmental stimulus and a pleasant or punishing event.

• Pleasant outcomes result in new learned behaviors; unpleasant events or that receive no reinforcement are ignored or rejected.

Constructivism

• Focused on the way children develop or “construct” knowledge from the experiences provided by the environment.

• Learning is more complicated than a series of simple stimulus-response sequences.

Information Processing

• Based on the premise that cognition is a highly interactive process, and it assumes that individuals interpret all newly received sensory input with respect to what they already know.

Models of Cognitive

Functioning generally are composed of three primary components or

functions:• Structural components

• Strategic control components

• Executive control functions

2. Perceptual Characteri

stics

A. Perception• The ability to

process stimuli meaningfully, to organize and interpret sensory stimuli.

• It is the field of study that concerns itself with the ability to make judgements about and attach meaning to incoming stimuli, primarily by assigning new stimuli to a category with similar elements.

B. Theoretical Foundation

s of Perception

• Perception is one of the strategic control processes in the cognitive process.

• It is the strategic process by which sensory stimuli are transformed into meaningful representations, using the process of scanning, selecting, attending and categorizing.

• It is the capturing of stimuli and the matching of those stimuli with relevant representations in long-term memory, thereby giving the stimuli meaning.

• It allows individuals to integrate stimuli meaningfully into their existing cognitive structures.

• It is viewed as an active and constructive process, differing significantly from simple vision or hearing.

• It is not a simple reflective action whereby the visual or auditory stimuli elicit a behavioral response.

• It involves the organization of incoming stimuli, accomplished by the individual’s internal cognitive processes.

• It is described as coding, as the process of translating sensory input into a representational form that can be manipulated in a person’s working memory and stored in long-term memory.

C. Language Functions

1. Listening • Is the receptive

language process used to derive meaning from language received auditorily.

• It requires that the individuals be able to attend to the message, select the main ideas, and then recall and relate the ideas to one another and to concepts stored in long-term memory.

Three Types of Listening:

• Appreciative Listening

• Attentive Listening

• Critical or Evaluative Listening

2. Speaking

• Is the expensive language process used to encode thoughts so that they can be communicated orally to others.

Speaking involves:

• Accurately making speech sounds

• Speaking fluently, and using a quality of voice that contributes to and does not obscure the message

• Using adequate vocabulary, syntax, meaning, and social language skills that support the communicative purpose.

3. Reading • Is the receptive

language process that utilizes both visual and auditory abilities to derive meaning from the language symbols found in written text.

• It is an interactive process between the reader and the text for the purpose of deriving meaning.

In order to read effectively and

efficiently, the reader must be able to:

• Decode the graphic symbols to determine their morphemic referent

• Infer meaning from the combinations of words using syntactic and semantic clues

• Perform these decoding and inference functions fluently enough to make this a feasible way to get information

4. Writing • Is the process of

encoding thought into graphemic symbols, or phonograms, so that communication can occur across time and space.

• To be effective, the writer must be able to write in an accurate mechanical form that does not detract from the communication.

Written expression is composed of

skills in:

• Handwriting• Spelling• Composition

D. Common

Language Characteri

stics of Learners with Mild

Disabilities

• Difficulty in auditory reception and perception

• Difficulty with verbal expression

• Difficulty with word retrieval in spoken language

• Problems in social conversation

• Incomplete sentences or thoughts

• Difficulty comprehending what has been read

• Difficulty in written expression

4. Academic Learning

Characteristics

A. What is Learning?

• Learning is the process by which experience and practice result in a stable change in the learner’s behavior that is not explained simply by maturation, growth or aging. It is the process of going from “not knowing” to “knowing”.

B. Stages of Learning

• Acquisition, including reversion

• Proficiency• Maintenance• Generalization• Adaptation

Fin.

Report by:Candice Camille A.

Santiago