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Education can be defined as the process of learning and developing as a result of schooling and other experiences. Special education is a group of services designed to meet the unique needs of students identified as having a disability. It involves adapting curriculum to meet needs. Students usually are targeted to receive special education because they exhibit cognitive, behavioral, communication, sensory, or physical differences from their peers.

Currently schools define disabilities according to the guidelines and regulations established by their state. Ten percent of the population can be identified with a disability. Not all students with disabilities require special education services. Students whose achievement in classroom academics is not commensurate with their abilities in academic areas may be considered as having specific learning disabilities even though they are progressing from grade to grade.

Types of Disabilities

Mild intellectual disability/mental retardation is defined by IDEA as significantly sub average general intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child's educational performance (Colarusso & O'Rourke, 1999). Significantly sub-average intellectual functioning is defined as two or more standard deviations from the numerical mean (average) of an individualized intelligence test ( Colarusso & O'Rourke, 1999). For example, most intelligence tests have a mean of 100 with a standard deviation of 15. Students who score between two and three standard deviations below the mean (55-70) could be considered for eligibility as having mild mental retardation. Standard deviations above the mean are considered when assessing a student's need for gifted programs. Mental retardation, Learning disabilities, and traumatic brain injury are all examples of disabilities caused by severe cognitive deficits. Specific learning disability (SLD) means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written language that may affect a student's ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical calculations (Colarusso & O'Rourke, 1999).

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) refers to an injury to the brain caused by an external physical force. The injuries typically fall into two categories. A closed head injury occurs when the trauma doesn't cause a puncture to the skull. An example of a closed head injury would be your head hitting the windshield during a car accident, or when an infant is shaken violently. An open head injury causes some type of puncture to the skull such as a gunshot wound. The injury results in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment, or both, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. The injuries may affect such areas as cognition, memory, language, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, speech, psychosocial behavior, information processing and physical functions (CoLarusso & O'Rourke, 1999).

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