A Rhetorical Analysis Of Rickwarrens Preaching Religion Essay Example

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Rickwarrens Preaching Religion Essay Example A Rhetorical Analysis Of Rickwarrens Preaching Religion Essay A Rhetorical Analysis Of Rickwarrens Preaching Religion Essay where he began composing books. He co-wrote two books, A The Victory Scripture Memory SeriesA and Twelve Dynamic Bible Study Methods for Laity, with Billie Hanks, Jr. and Wayne Watts ; and a Doctor of MinistryA grade[ 4 ]fromA Fuller Theological SeminaryA in Pasadena, California.[ 5 ] His Influencers As mentioned earlier Warren s household were Southern Baptist churchs and doubtless played a important function in determining him. In the Fall of 1971 Warren was influenced by a book entitled The Key to Triumphant Living written by Jack R. Taylor, a Baptist curate and conference talker from Texas.[ 6 ]Criswell in his preface for The Purpose Driven Church writes that God could non hold given me a more darling and effectual son in the ministry than Rick Warren. Rick Warren had high respects for W. A. Criswell and so in 1974, when he was a 19-year-old pupil at California Baptist skipped out on categories with his friend and drove 350 stat mis to go to the California Baptist Convention in San Francisco. Warren stood in line to agitate custodies with Criswell: When my bend eventually arrived, something unexpected happened. Criswell looked at me with sort, loving eyes and said, rather decidedly, Young adult male, I feel led to put custodies on you and pray for you! He placed his cust odies on my caput and prayed: Father, I ask that you give this immature preacher a dual part of your Spirit. [ 7 ]Rick read tonss of books on supplication by Edward McKendree Bounds, a celebrated civil war revivalist. An American missionary to India Donald McGavran s profile, inspired Rick to seek for principles-biblical, cultural and leading rules that produce healthy, turning churches.[ 8 ]James T. Draper, John Bisango, Billy Graham, direction specializer Peter Drucker were besides among those who greatly influenced Warren.[ 9 ] His Influence Rick Warren is ranked figure three and is a model and guru for the immature draw a bead oning sermonizers of today.[ 10 ]Rick Warren is besides recognized as a planetary strategian, theologian, and altruist. He s been frequently named America s most influential religious leader A andA America s Pastor. Fortune magazine described him as secular America s favourite evangelical Christian.[ 11 ]Warren claims that he had been busy practising the penetrations he learned at Saddleback and had to wait for 20 old ages to compose and portion them in the book The Purpose-Driven Church, which has become one of the most popular Christian books of recent old ages.[ 12 ]The Purpose Driven Life has been translated into 20 one languages and twenty million transcripts sold. The Purpose Driven Church is listed in 100 Christian Books that changed the twentieth Century. [ 13 ] He is besides the writer of The Purpose of Christmas, Personal Bible Study Methods, God s Answers to Life s Difficult Questions, God s Power to alter Your Life.[ 14 ]Alan Wolfe, a celebrated Boston College political scientist, one time referred to Warren as non merely the best sermonizer, but merely the best public talker I have of all time heard.[ 15 ]President-elect Barack Obama chose Rick Warren though many opposed to present the supplication at his startup.[ 16 ]White house sought his advice on how to detect the first day of remembrance of 9/11.[ 17 ]So much is said about Warren, what has made him to be what he is and likely the best tool to measure may be Aristotle s agencies of persuasion. Aristotle s Triad of Communication Theory Possibly if one can conceive of human history as a wall a major part or block or possibly the indispensable brick would be and will be effectual communicating or rhetorical discourse. In fact, the procedure of communicating was of import in the history of communicating, world has inflated communicating by communications.[ 18 ]Burke and Ornstein in their article titled, Communication and Faith in the Middle Ages, concur that by that the church had control over all people in all affairs. The influence of Greek reached its tallness in the 8th century of which Aristotle was one.[ 19 ] Harmonizing to a narrative, Plato gave Aristotle the nick name The Reader. Aristotle was the first to learn rhetoric at the academy.[ 20 ]He was besides the first individual to acknowledge clearly that rhetoric as an art of communicating was impersonal and could be used positively every bit good as negatively. He wanted the talkers to acknowledge how the heads of the hearers work, and in the procedure one comes to an apprehension of who they are, why and what they do.[ 21 ]So what is rhetoric and what is its connexion to sermon? To reply in simple words rhetoric is the survey of the art or scientific discipline of utilizing words efficaciously in composing or speech production.[ 22 ]Jerry Vines a dynamic SBC sermonizer defined rhetoric as the art of utilizing words efficaciously in talking to act upon or carry others.[ 23 ]Quintilian a first century Roman speechmaker defined Rhetoric as a good adult male prophesying good. [ 24 ] A Brief overview of Aristotle s Rhetoric Aristotle wrote Rhetoric to react to Plato Phaedrus and to promote his readers to heighten the accomplishment of address, though it was non meant for publication.[ 25 ]However it is one of the beginnings kind after on the subject of address. His treatise is divided into three books called the officia oratoris the responsibilities of the speechmaker.[ 26 ]Aristotle s Rhetoric is likely the oldest on the topic and in Book I and II,[ 27 ]Aristotle defines rhetoric as the module of detecting all the available agencies of persuasion. [ 28 ]There are three agencies of persuasion, foremost those ensuing from character ethos of the talker, 2nd those derived from the emotion poignancy and the 3rd derived from true statement Son. He farther discusses deliberative Rhetoric, Epideictic Rhetoric and Judicial Rhetoric.[ 29 ]Book 2, trades with persuasion derived from the Character of the talker and from Appeal to the emotions of the hearer and a treatment of Logical statement. Finally book 3 trad es with Style and Arrangement.[ 30 ] Logos, Ethos and Pathos Harmonizing to Aristotle, the cogent evidence of the statement is grounded in logical, ethical and emotional entreaty, the three agencies of persuasion. Exerting these three entreaties will do the speaker/preacher in a topographic point where he can actuate the hearers to action.[ 31 ]Our ultimate purpose as sermonizers of the Good intelligence is to carry all peoples to go good and godly. Logos relates to the rational statement or rational content of communicating.[ 32 ]Aristotle discusses Sons in Book 1, chapter 2. Alan of Lille in his The Art of Preaching says: Preaching is an unfastened and public direction in religion and behaviour, whose intent is the forming of work forces ; it derives from the way of ground and from the fountain caput of the governments which is Holy Scripture.[ 33 ] The sermonizer as a rhetor has must turn out that his statement is true and earn credibleness. Credibility must be established to the place where the hearer s trust is in its extremum and the hearer agreed upon the fact that the statement is applicable and relevant.[ 34 ]As sermonizers we hold to the Scripture as the footing for our religion and truth on which the Gospel message is shared and built. In most of the instances in a peculiar fold which is chiefly a truster crowd there would be no demand to turn out genuineness and dependability.[ 35 ]However a sermonizer must stay must stay faithful to the text and present it with unity and lucidity. In simple footings as a sermonizer 1 must turn out that he is persevering in analyzing the word of God and prepared to prophesy the Word of God in season and out of season. Harmonizing to traditional position Aristotle divides logical entreaties into enthymeme, maxim, and illustration. [ 36 ] Enthymeme[ 37 ] Enthymeme is a signifier of deductive statement or logical thinking and is besides called the rhetorical syllogism. A common position is that the enthymeme s footing is on likely, non certain, and the full idea of logical thinking may be shortened.[ 38 ]In prophesying the usage of deductive logical thinking is critical step of Son since it does non appeal straight to the hearers understanding but to the human sense of ground. Deductive logical thinking will assist the hearer to easy hold trust in the sermonizer and the truth presented. Maxim[ 39 ] A logical entreaty to a axiom may mention to admiting authorization or supply a sort of premiss for enthymemes.[ 40 ]Preachers could utilize pictures, film cartridge holders from intelligence channels which can be of some authorization. This is done so that those non experts in a peculiar field will be able understand what is communicated. Example[ 41 ] The Logical entreaty to illustration is inductive concluding. Inductive logical thinking occurs when the cogent evidence is based on a case in point, anterior instances. The purpose of inductive logical thinking is to do the statement clear and more persuasive.[ 42 ]In sermon, Jesus used inductive logical thinking by stating fables so that the hearer will be persuaded. Ethos drives persuasion based on the credibility of the talker. Aristotle discusses Ethos in Book II, chapter 12 through 17 of the Rhetoric.[ 43 ]Ethical entreaty is artistic in that the sermonizer supplies his place of credibleness ; ethical entreaty is one which deals with sermonizers credibleness as the one showing the message.[ 44 ]In other words it refers to character, normally the moral character of a individual, either the talker or the hearer.[ 45 ]Interestingly ethical entreaty is non-scientific in nature and is hence more nonreversible than the logical entreaty, however, it is no manner less influential in the procedure of persuasion.[ 46 ]Luntz in his work, skilfully writes, By all agencies, show do nt tellaˆÂ ¦reveal your personalityaˆÂ ¦be the message instead than narrating it, but above all, be reliable. [ 47 ]The worthiness of sermonizer to be believed is carried within the ethical entreaty. We tend to believe people whom we respect and one of the jobs of d ebate is to project an feeling to the hearer that you are person deserving listening to.[ 48 ] Virtue Aristotle defines virtuousness as the ability to bring forth and good. [ 49 ]When a strong character or virtuousness is tagged with the sermonizer by the hearer, so the message will be accepted as virtuous.[ 50 ]Aristotle lists nine virtuousnesss in book I: Justice, bravery, self-denial, liberalness, munificence, impressiveness, prudence, wisdom, and gradualness.[ 51 ] Wisdom Wisdom has been capable to assorted readings: good sense, practical wisdom, expertness, and intelligence. The sermonizer must cognize a great trade to be successful, a show of cognition and expertness on a topic may go an of import factor in persuasion.[ 52 ] Good will Aristotle interestingly compares friendliness with good will in the Rhetoric. A sermonizer must portion the best advice out of good will as a friend would care and portion for a friend of his. As preacher one must wish good for the hearers who may be in a hard state of affairs and so surely goodwill creates more credibleness and therefore a higher grade of persuasion.[ 53 ] Pathos is derived from the emotional facet of the sermonizer and the message and the consequence of persuasion this has on the hearer. This cogent evidence is discussed in Book II, chapters 1 through 11.[ 54 ]Emotional entreaty presents the affectional impact of the message on the sermonizer and translates to the emotional responses from the hearers. Ethical entreaty influences both the emotions every bit good as the mind of the hearers. A hearer is convicted of his/her province against the Word of God and persuaded toward an action by the hearer.[ 55 ] Emotion of the Speaker/Preacher The primary status of emotional entreaty sets the usage of emotion. A sermonizer uses his emotions as a cardinal beginning to carry his hearers to action. Emotional entreaties, are used to carry. Language pick affects the audience s emotional response, and emotional entreaty can efficaciously be used to heighten an statement.[ 56 ] A presentation of emotion coupled with passion for the message exhibits the value of the content of the message and therefore renders the message more persuasive and therefore as a sermonizer one plays the function of construing the temper or emotional province which the sermonizer induces to light within the hearers.[ 57 ] Emotion of the Listener/Audience The response of the hearer is really much connected to the emotions of the sermonizer and is hence critical for persuasion. A good sermon should lend to the redemption of both those who deliver the message and the hearers.[ 58 ]It is the duty of the sermonizer to elicit equal emotional response from the hearers after analysing the hearers which may or may non be contributing.[ 59 ]The response is measured by the emotional impact that the message has created immediately every bit good as in long tally. It is really of import to observe that success of persuasion must be evaluated in relation to where the hearer was or stood to get down with.[ 60 ]However, the response of strong belief may or may non be apparent during the act of sermon, but will be displayed in the action on the portion of the hearer to be good and godly. An analysis of one of Warren s written beginnings which is popular and ten most current discourses preached by Warren at the Saddleback church will be followed. Warren s intent for the Purpose Driven Church Warren s intent or his end is spelled out in the purpose statement that Saddleback and Warren wrote together: To convey people to Jesus and rank in his household, develop them to go more similar Christ in their adulthood, fit them for their ministry in the church and life mission in the universe, in order to amplify God s name. [ 61 ]Warren nevertheless believes that this is Christ s design for the cosmopolitan church and the intent of the church is to carry through the Great Commission and the Great Command.[ 62 ]Warren states, Until you know what your church exists for, you have no foundation, no motive, and no way for ministry. [ 63 ] An Overview of The Purpose Driven Church[ 64 ] Warren carves out five alone rules which are cosmopolitan and of import in nature. First, he gives a short sum-up of his life and ministry and negotiations about the myths that people in churches have about church. Second, he answers the inquiry of how a church can go purpose goaded. Third, he talks about evangelism and making out to the lost. Fourthly, explains what Jesus did to pull people to Himself. Last, he shows how to prolong, beef up a church and maintain it traveling. Warren here uses a surfboarder metaphor and encourages his readers to acknowledge God s autonomous manus in all affair of constructing a church particularly in its growing. He says, We are populating in the most exciting clip in the history of the churchaˆÂ ¦ , and if a church is non turning so it is deceasing. Warren draws his readers attending by utilizing pick words stating that church wellness will go more attending seeking than church wellness. In order to for the church to turn healthy at that place must Bible survey and persevering making of what the Bible says in footings of loving and populating a Jesus lauding life. Warren concurs that the Great Commandment and Great Commission have intents and they are summarized as follows, worship, discipleship, ministry, family and evangelism. In portion two he points that truth entirely should steer a purpose goaded church, but frequently times programmes and construction hinders making the doomed. Warren believes that the New Testament churches are the best illustrations for a healthy growing and individuality. As Aristotle points out that the church s intent is to construct, enlighten and promote God s people. The same is pointed here by Warren, the church exists to enlighten or educate God s people. Warren in chapter 18 Teachs against the myths of religious adulthood, he poses inquiries like, How does religious growing go on? How do we go spiritually mature in Christ? He answers the inquiry by citing, the Five degrees of Learning, which are cognition, strong belief, position, accomplishments and character. When a church fulfills the five intents it will be a church that will convey glorification to God. Analysis of Purpose Driven Church and Ten most current Sermons based on Ethos, Pathos and Logos Questions Logical Entreaty The inquiry to be asked refering the major class of logical persuasive entreaty was: Was it persuasive plenty to see from the content communicated that it was credible? Has he adequately argued his instance to where the hearers are persuaded that the instance he presented is true? The rating was scored high in persuasion if at the terminal of the message the sermonizer logically defended the place asserted in the message. A lower mark of persuasion was rendered if there was uncertainty that the sermonizer efficaciously argued his instance based upon logical, and more specifically sound scriptural logical thinking. Deductive Reasoning: The inquiry asked in mention to the sub-measure component of deductive logical thinking, which falls under the major class of logical entreaty, was How strongly was the content communicated through deductive logical thinking? In sing this inquiry with regard to the discourse, an appraisal made to see what extent of the statement unfolded from a major premiss to a minor 1. Did the sermonizer construct his attention consistently as to appeal to the fold s principle and sense of concluding? Out of the bulk of discourses analyzed Warren could non show good exegesis of the text, but focused more on the demand based inquiries that he answered. The series was Decade of Destiny which began on 10/10/2010. Warren besides did non travel through a transition but referred to several Bibles. But still Warren was able to show his ability to set up the statements by traveling from the major theological point of the text to the homiletic application. Warren besides is skilled in utilizing memorable phrases and catchy phrases, God chose to give you the SHAPE you are in, he uses an acronym and makes it memorable, religious gifts, bosom, ability, personalities and experiences. In his discourse titled, Making the most of your head, he shared an acronym, THINK-Test every idea, Helmet your caput from evil ideas, Imagine great ideas, Nourish a godly head, Keep on larning. Of class in this discourse the Scripture poetry he started with was 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, but he barely touched on it or exegete the transition. He scores 3 on 6 in this class. Inductive Reasoning The enquiry used to measure the logical entreaty sub-measure of inductive logical thinking was, How strongly was the content communicated through inductive logical thinking? Contemplating this inquiry involved sing how good the sermonizer used illustration, imagination and illustrations to convey his statement. Warren s usage of deductive logical thinking was enhanced through his adept usage of linguistic communication. He was able to link good with the younger coevals particularly when he employed modern-day linguistic communication. He besides did link with senior folks as in one of his sermon, he bragged about the wisdom that seniors had and he in fact asked them to stand and honour them. He besides used short film cartridge holders to exemplify to formalize his content. He had a picture cartridge holder in three of his discourses that were analyzed. Warren is a great narrative Teller and used this accomplishment to reason his content. Warren besides has the ability to light thoughts through narrative portraitures. Overall Warren s logical entreaty and credibility is apparent in his usage of both deductive and inductive logical thinking. However, he did non make a good expounding of the Scripture but did a superficial touched one or two points but used the Bible to reply the inquiry originating in the head of the hearer. So his overall-Logical entreaty was 3 of 6. Ethical Entreaty The major class of ethical persuasive entreaty beacons the inquiry to the judge: Was at that place adequate persuasion that the sermonizer was believable? This component relates straight to the feeling the sermonizer left upon me with regard to his ain unity as an authorization on the subject presented. The ethical entreaty was considered extremely persuasive if there was influence toward persuasion because the unity of the sermonizer was echt and that he was pityingly interested in my improvement as a receiver of the message. A lessened persuasive mark was given in the event when there was strong belief that the message was more self-seeking to the sermonizer than it was to the enlightening the hearer. Fictional character The inquiry of the ethical entreaty sub-measure of character was, How strong of an influence was the sermonizer s character on his credibleness? In other words, did the sermonizer look to be a virtuous adult male every bit good as one whose life is being conformed into the character of Christ? Warren exhibited assurance about himself and presented himself as a adult male of credibleness and virtuousness. Several cases he was honorable and crystalline particularly when he confessed before get downing his discourse titled, God s prescription for wellness that he had been a victim of gluttony and how everything felicity or sorrow was tied to nutrient. Warren is compared to Billy Graham and his life manner has attracted even Barack Obama to take to make the inaugural supplication on the installing of his president ship. Warren portrays to be low and virtuous in his personality which helped him link good with the hearers. Intelligence Under the major class of ethical entreaty, the inquiry with regard to the sub-measure of intelligence was, How strong of an influence was the sermonizer s lever of intelligence on his credibleness? This inquiry seeks to mensurate if the sermonizer demonstrated a sufficient cognition of the stuff every bit good as an appropriate sum of aptitude as it relates to his statement. Warren s prophesying particularly his consciousness on general subject is applaudable. He is articulate and deliberate in his sermon. His books though critiqued has become the largest selling book in America. His six books and other brochures show his intelligence. Good will The enquiry made refering the sub-measure of good will within the class of ethical entreaty was, How strongly did the sermonizer demonstrate good will and benevolence for the audience? This inquiry takes into consideration the grade to which the sermonizer developed a sense of friendly relationship with the fold and showed the echt involvement for their wellbeing. Warren exhibited a sense of benevolence for the wellbeing of the hearer. He seemed sincere in his desire to better the lives of his hearers both now and everlastingly. In fact the current series Decade of Destiny reveals it and every discourse he started he connected with his hearers stating that as their curate he is committed to assist them win in the following 10 old ages in all domains, spiritually, emotionally, financially, physically, relationally in their calling, household and separately. Warren seems to hold built a lovingness and friendly relationship with his hearers. Warren s over all ethical entreaty is really persuasive, his strong character and virtuousness is discernible and the hearers are convinced that he is a adult male of unity and honestness. In the discourse titled, The Life that God blesses he makes a remark Short cuts are short sighted, do it the right ways, neer acquire into the trap. He makes another remark, Dare to different than your civilization. Warren s ethical entreaty is strengthened by the grounds of his readiness and intellect displayed in the bringing of his messages. The overall mark for the class of ethical entreaty, the mark is 5 of 6. Emotional Entreaty The inquiry to be asked environing the premier class of emotional persuasive entreaty was, Were the hearers persuaded emotionally to react to the message and the courier? In another sense, was the message delivered with passion by the sermonizer and did it stir up positive sentiments and responses within the hearer? The emotional persuasion was given a higher mark if it was observed that the emotion within the sermonizer while the statement was being relayed and the hearer was moved to action or strong belief by the message. A lower ranking was given if there was no motion to action or contemplation ignited from the hearer. Further diminution in marking was awarded if the sermonizer appeared to be monotone and unattached emotionally to his ain message. Emotion of the Speaker The inquiry asked refering the emotion of the emotion of the talker as it relates to emotional entreaty was, How strong did the sermonizer show emotions that connected with the hearer? In other words how passionate was the sermonizer as he was pass oning the message? Since emotions are contagious and surely effects the people around. Warren s emotion was clear as he presented his message. His voice transition was good, except he was sort giving a image that he was glued to the dais. He expressed his emotion through wit and laughter, for case, in the discourse, God s prescription for wellness He says, I love pasta and that is my drug by pick and that is the ground they call me, Pasta Rick. The emotion of the sermonizer was strong through the message and so the mark is 5 of 6. Emotion of the Audience In relation to the emotion of the audience, as a sub-measure of the ethical entreaty class the inquiry to be posed is, How strong did the hearer emotionally respond to the sermonizer? Was there grounds of connexion points from the talker with the hearer? Warren has the gift of painting his images in the heads of his hearers by utilizing emotional phrases or narratives. He brings in strong emotional contrast that forces the hearer to pay attending. He controls contrast by utilizing present tense and active verbs, it seems he brings the scriptural text to life and challenges his hearer with verbs that are lively yet obliging to set the truth to work. Some illustrations are: Stop anticipating anyone or anything else to be your savior, You merely halt life in denial and face world. He besides uses brief analogies life, religion is like a musculus. The audience acknowledged with laughter and mockery to show that they were with him. There were minutes of co

Spanish Words for Home

Spanish Words for Home Although the differences between the English words house and home are very roughly similar to the differences between Spanish casa and hogar, respectively, hogar is far from the only way that home can be translated. In fact, the concept of home can be translated dozens of ways into Spanish, depending (as usual) on the context. Key Takeaways: Spanish Words for Home In broad terms, the differences between hogar and casa are similar to the differences between home and house, respectively, with the latter terms putting more emphasis on the building rather than the feelings it evokes.Despite their differences, hogar and casa are often interchangeable when referring to a place where someone lives.House and home as adjectives can often be translated as casero or hogareà ±o. Hogar vs. Casa The reverse is also true, but to a much lesser extent: While hogar nearly always refers to a building in which people live, it can also refer to a fireplace (it is derived from the Latin word focus, which meant hearth or fireplace), a lobby or similar place where people gather, or to a family that lives together. When home does refer to a building where people live, usually hogar or casa can be used, with the latter sometimes placing more emphasis on the building itself: Our home is located in the heart of the Bellemont neighborhood. Nuestra casa est situada en el corazà ³n del Barrio Bellemont.Our home will be celebrating with your arrival. Con tu llegada nuestro hogar est de fiesta.We can build your home in Chile. Podemos construir tu casa en Chile.My mothers home is the perfect place for the children. La casa de mi madre es el sitio perfecto para los nià ±os.The country has prohibited there being statues in a Muslim home. El paà ­s ha prohibido que en un hogar musulmn haya estatuas. To refer to institutional residences, hogar typically is used (although casa isnt unheard of): The entry of a loved one into a home for the elderly or similar institution can be a traumatic experience. La entrada de un ser querido en un hogar de ancianos o institucià ³n semejante puede ser una experiencia traumtica.The Farmworker Youth Home is an alternative for child care. El Hogar Juvenil Campesino es una alternativa para dar atencià ³n al nià ±o. At home can usually be translated as en casa, while to go home is to go a casa: Im not at home. No estoy en casa.We are going home at 9. Vamos a casa a las nueve. Adjective Forms for 'House' and 'Home' The singular masculine adjective forms of casa and hogar are casero and hogareà ±o: Many choose to feed their pets homemade food. Muchos optan por alimentar a sus mascotas con comida casera.The nine-bedroom mansion includes a home theater with 12 seats. La mansià ³n de nueve habitaciones incluye un teatro casero con doce asientos.  His early home life was not the type that can produce a completely trustworthy person. Su vida hogareà ±a temprana no fue del tipo que pueda producir una persona completamente confiable.Nicotine is highly toxic for the most common house pets. La nicotina es altamente tà ³xica para las mascotas hogareà ±as ms comunes. Other Types of 'Home' When home refers to the center or original place, various translations can be used: Just as Hollywood is the home of movies, Nashville is the home of country music. Asà ­ como Hollywood es el centro de las pelà ­culas, Nashville es el centro de la mà ºsica country.Greetings from Idaho, home of delicious potatoes. Saludos desde Idaho, la tierra de las papas riquà ­simas.Wendys is the home of the square hamburger. Wendys es el creador de la hamburguesa cuadrada. In Internet usage, the home page is usually the pgina principal or pgina inicial. A link to the home page may be labeled Inicio, although sometimes the loanword home is used as well. In recreation, home has various meanings: A home game is typically un juego en casa, while the home team is often el equipo local.In baseball, the home plate can be la goma, el hogar, or el plato, among other terms. El jonrà ³n (obviously derived from the English phrase) is universally used for home run.In board games and some athletic contests, where reaching home is the goal of the game, it can be known as la meta or el final, among other terms. The most common term for homeless is sin hogar, although sin casa is used, as is, less rarely, sin vivienda. Homeless people can be known as los sinhogares.

Social Implications of Information Technology Essay

Social Implications of Information Technology - Essay Example Economically it has changed the way of doing business and improved communication between partners; culturally it has reduced the differences between cultures and improved intercultural communication; politically it provides people with a new type of access to important information, while politicians obtain a new powerful type of lever to affect the voters; and socially it has influenced the communication and learning patters, and created absolutely new systems of relationship between people. Such extensive and diverse influence makes the new informational technologies one of the key forces that shape the present-day society and affect being of virtually each human being. The recent shift towards intensive use of computer technology in educational practices has already become so powerful that computer-mediated learning is no more perceived as something new. Whether computer laboratories in the primary schools or Internet-equipped computer facilities in the high school, computers have turned into unalienable part of students' life. The tremendous growth of technology has had large and serious impact on virtually every aspect of educational and learning practices. One of the consequences of the remarkable technological surge was the rapid development of computer-mediated distance learning at the higher education level. The beginning of the third millennium was marked by intensive growth. Institutions of higher education continued to further develop distance learning offerings targeting the populations of working adults who otherwise have limited access to higher education (Smart, and Cappel, 2006; Liaw and Huang, 2002). The online enrollment estimations made in the late 1990s have been exceeded and continues to grow at amazingly high rates. Thus, the number of online students reached 2.6 million in the fall of 2004 (Allen and Seaman, 2004). Despite the tremendous success of distance technology-mediated learning (this term covers not only fully online courses, but also various blended approaches that integrate online components into traditional classes), experts suggests that it still remains at an early stage of development and has huge poten tial to grow further (Smart, and Cappel, 2006). Computers are exceptionally useful for students at any level. Simple word-processing software turns students into independent publishers of ideas and opinions, helps them to eliminate the feeling of isolation, weigh their thoughts and ideas against thought and ideas of other people, while more advanced interactive software make it possible for them to practice the inquiry-based learning (Papert, 1996). This significant advantage of the computer technology is especially important in educational institution of higher learning, where the role of teacher is less important and students learns more on his own. Traditionally, European and American universities and colleges found themselves under constant pressure to control the costs while improving the quality of instruction, focusing on customer needs, and reacting to the competitive challenges (Horgan, 1998: 1). Higher education professionals used to perceive distance learning as the major tool in addressing the challenges while maintaining cost-effectiveness of universities (Dibiase, 2000). The distance learnin

Identity Theft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Identity Theft - Essay Example In the given paper we will consider the Identity Theft as one of topic related to the ethics in computing, will examine the nature of the given problem, methods of its investigation and prevention. Information explosion, supported by this period of easy credit, has resulted in the expansion of a crime that is fed by the inability of consumers to trace who has access to their private information and how it is protected. This crime is called identity theft and it refers to the act of stealing victims’ personal information such as name, birth date, Social Security number, credit card number, passport, address, with the aim of impersonating them typically for one’s own financial gain by gaining access to their finances or with an aim of framing the clients’ for a crime. (United States Department of Justice, 2006). It can also be used to facilitate illegal immigration, unauthorized phone or utility services’ use, terrorism, espionage or a permanent change of identity, to obtain medical treatment, or for evading criminal prosecution. Identity theft is sometimes also referred to as â€Å"identity fraud† since the criminal personates rather than dele tes the victim’s identity. It is usually used to refer to credit card fraud, mortgage fraud and other kinds of financial frauds. Identity theft occurs in different ways, ranging from negligent sharing of personal information, to deliberate theft of wallets, mail, purses or digital information. For instance, in public places brigands engage in "shoulder surfing" observing you from a close location as you punch in your phone card or credit card number or listen in on your dialogue with somebody if you dictate your credit card number over the telephone. Inside your home, thieves may get information from your personal computer while you are on-line and they are secretly sitting in their own houses. Outside your home, thieves filch your mail, recycling, or garbage.

The Impact Of Satisfaction And Image On Loyalty Essay Example for Free

The Impact Of Satisfaction And Image On Loyalty Essay The research was undertaken by three eminent scholars with strong qualifications in the field of customer services and business; two of them having attained the rank of professor and the other a doctor working as a research fellow. Their background suggests that the research was of a high quality and followed the laid down procedures for a doctoral thesis or research paper. It was directed at examining the relationship between image and satisfaction to customer loyalty. Current literature on the subject has been inconclusive on the impact of satisfaction on loyalty without considering the effect of image on the same. This research aimed to fill this void. By addressing the subject matter and testing it using hypotheses, the researchers adopted qualitative and quantitative research methods and were able to come up with a general statement that image impacts loyalty from an emotive rather than a cognitive point of view. Entrepreneurs are concerned at how they can retain their market share and the methods they can adopt to increase the number of clients that patronize their outlets. A lot of emphasis has been placed on the importance of customer service in ensuring repeat clients and new customers (Anderson et al. 1994:54). For the most part it has been true that customers who have been well treated and had all their concerns attended to in a timely manner are likely to return to the establishment for further business. However customer satisfaction has not been able to explain why clientele appear to shift loyalties to new outlets or to competitors despite receiving excellent services (Chi Qu, 2007). This phenomenon suggests that there are other factors that influence customers in making their final decisions on which places to patronize. This research has addressed this issue by studying the effect of image as a predictor of customer loyalty. Abraham Maslow developed his hierarchy of needs theory which posited that man graduates from satisfying the basic needs to the pinnacle of the pyramid where self actualization is achieved. Self actualization has little to do with physical aspects and more to do with personal feelings and perceptions of self. Thus as a pointer to what influences customer loyalty, the researchers picked on a good factor to base their study on. Nonetheless in this era of global recession other factors like price should have been included in their study so as to compare the overall effect of price differentials to customer loyalty. The rise of budget airlines like Easy Jet or the popularity of supermarket chains such as Wall mart are primarily due to the fair prices they charge in comparison to other stores (Fredericks and Salter, 1995:30). Thus in limiting themselves to image and customer satisfactions the researchers left out an important factor that may change the overall results of the study. By confining their study to ski resorts the researchers have narrowed the application of their research findings in that the nature of studies in ski resorts find little relevance to other areas of business. To begin with ski resorts are a feature of areas that experience a certain type of climate and appeal to people who are accustomed to that kind of weather (Matzler et al. , 2007). Those living in warmer climates may patronize tourist attractions not necessarily because of image but because of the available attractions (Bigne? t al. , 2001:609). Some of the most famous tourist destinations in the world do not have excellent facilities but offer the clientele a once in a life time experience such as the wildebeest migration that occurs across the Masai Mara in Kenya (Kenya safari holidays, 2008). Secondly, most customers going to ski resorts do so because they want to ski. This restricts the research applicability to this kind of pastime as opposed to providing a general observation that can be useful to all types of businesses. The researchers made good use of available literature as a starting point to base their study. Most of the material they researched on was from primary sources in journals and a few books. Primary sources are vital in that they provide firsthand information about the subject matter from the author’s perspective. The problem with relying too much on such material is the obvious bias that most authors have in expounding their views. Secondary sources help to balance the overall picture by presenting alternative views and critiques of works done by other researchers. Sample population numbers were high enough to give a truly representative result of the study. With over 6,000 respondents to the online survey, the study was able to capture enough data to satisfy the research needs. The issue of enticing the respondents by offering attractive prizes could raise ethical questions and may have influenced the respondents to respond in a certain fashion. Respondents may have filled out the survey hoping that their responses reflected the expected outcome and thus improved their chances of winning the prizes. In adopting a multi-attribute approach in studying the effects of image on loyalty, the researchers were able to investigate a number of parameters that affect people’s perceptions. Despite the holistic nature of this approach, the use of Likert scale tools to determine the respondents’ views can be misleading as the results are highly subjective with one respondent rating a certain parameter differently from another irrespective of a general consensus on the nature of the service being offered or the factor being tested (Homburg and Giering, 2001:55). The hypotheses postulated by the researchers fail to include the possibility that there could be other more important factors that impact customer loyalty (Mittal and Kamakura, 2001:137). Such aspects include proximity of a resort to the client’s domicile, prices charged by the outlet, complimentary services offered as an incentive, and the nature of the ski terrain that may encourage amateurs or more experienced skiers to patronize the resort (Fakeye and Crompton, 1991:11). A fourth hypothesis should have been included to addresses these issues and could have been structured as follows; H4: Apart from image and loyalty there are other factors that significantly determine customer loyalty. Null hypothesis: Image and loyalty are the only factors that determine customer loyalty Respondents to the survey were not determined by the researchers and as such their study could not have investigated other aspects of the sample population like the differences in loyalty based on ethnic identities or gender. Any results based on the nationalities or gender of the respondents may not correctly reflect the true picture without purposely setting out to research such aspects. The research findings more or less confirmed the researchers’ thesis and added to the available literature on the subject. An interesting outcome was that the influence of image was more of an emotive response than a cognitive one (Kandampully and Suhartanto, 2000:349) This will assist entrepreneurs to develop the emotive image factors like patriotic themes or domestic settings that will make the customers feel that they are quite at home, though away from home (Gallarza et al. , 2001:62). However, the study is incomplete because it fails to address other factors that impact loyalty and it does not investigate the responses by respondents with different backgrounds to establish whether the findings are universal or ethnic specific. By focusing on ski resorts, the study is severely limited in its application as the findings in that industry may not be relevant to other business models or geographical destinations. This research is invaluable as a tool to improve to improve market share and annual incomes for ski resort outlets. By maintaining good customer service and working on developing the emotive image of the establishment, the management is bound to see an increase rise in customer loyalty (Eskildsen et al. , 2004:862). Its findings should be compiled in a simple format for the ski resort operators to understand and apply in their daily operations. The researchers may want to add on a caveat that the image and loyalty are not the only factors responsible for customer loyalty and that further studies may be required to identify other issues that may be influential. In summary, the research has been able to investigate the relationship between image, customer satisfaction and loyalty within the scope of the researchers outline. Despite the research failing to examine all aspects that impact customer loyalty, this should not invalidate their study but rather open up other opportunities for other researchers to take up the challenge to provide such answers. Further studies on the same subject matter should be structured to provide a general theory that will apply to all types of businesses.

Personal Narrative- Christmas Cookies Essay -- Personal Narrative

Personal Narrative- Christmas Cookies Although I have grown up to be entirely inept at the art of cooking, as to make even the most wretched chef ridicule my sad baking attempts, my childhood would have indicated otherwise; I was always on the countertop next to my mother’s cooking bowl, adding and mixing ingredients that would doubtlessly create a delicious food. When I was younger, cooking came intrinsically with the holiday season, which made that time of year the prime occasion for me to unite with ounces and ounces of satin dark chocolate, various other messy and gooey ingredients, numerous cooking utensils, and the assistance of my mother to cook what would soon be an edible masterpiece. The most memorable of the holiday works of art were our Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, which my mother and I first made when I was about six and are now made annually. I remember the deceitful character of the recipe the most from the first time I made Chocolate Crinkles. Being young, I didn’t understand the nature of unsweetened chocolate; it looked and smelled just like any other chocolate...

Curriculum Access for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities

NCAC Curriculum Access for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities: The Promise of Universal Design for Learning This report was written with support from the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC), a cooperative agreement between CAST and the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Cooperative Agreement No. H324H990004. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the U. S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, and no official endorsement by the Department should be inferred. ———————————————— Curriculum Access for Students with Low-Incidence Disabilities: The Promise of Universal Design for Learning Written by Richard M. Jackson, Director of Practice and CAST’s Liaison to Boston College for the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum â €”———————————————- Edited by Valerie Hendricks ————————————————- This report addresses the following questions: * What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? * What are low-incidence disabilities? Why are schools and communities particularly challenged in serving students with low-incidence disabilities? * What are the needs of students with low-incidence disabilities? * What curricula and instructional practices are currently used with students with low-incidence disabilities? * What planning models are in use for students with low-incidence disabilities? * How can IEPs ensure greater access to the general curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities? * What approaches exist for enabling students with low-incidence disabilities to participate in state- and district-level assessment systems? How can the UDL framework increase access to the general curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities? Acknowledgements When one completes a writing project of this size and effort, there are many to recognize and thank. Foremost is CAST’s Valerie Hendricks, whose editing skills remain unparalleled. Valerie’s critical review, suggested reorganizations, and detailed edits in the final stages of the writing proved enormously helpful, contributing greatly to the overall quality of the work.I am also indebted to Kelly Harper and Lisa White, OSEP-supported research assistants based at Boston College, for their careful and extensive library research and literature summaries. Additionally, I want to recognize and thank other Boston College research assistants who helped with earlier editing and reference checking. They include Xiaoxia Chen, Jennifer Hawthorne and Randall Lahann. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to Chuck Hitchcock, NCAC’s project director at CAST, and David Rose, NCAC’s principal investigator at CAST, for their patience, encouragement, and commitment in seeing this project through to completion.Table of Contents Introductionvi Overviewviii I. What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? 1 Origins of Universal Design1 Universal Design in Architecture2 Universal Design in Education4 Universal Design for Learning (UDL)5 II. What are low-incidence disabilities? 9 Alternative Systems for Classification9 A Focus on Incidence9 III. Why are schools and communities particularly challenged in serving students with low-incidence disabilities?†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 12Insufficient Numbers12 Finding the Le ast Restrictive Environment13 IV. What are the needs of students with low-incidence disabilities? 15 Special Education is Not a Place15 Categories and Characteristics15 Addressing Intense and Complex Needs16 Clusters of Low-Incidence Disabilities17 Blind/Low Vision18 Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing19 Deaf-Blind22 Significant Developmental Delay23 Significant Physical and Multiple Disabilities25 Autistic Spectrum28 Considering Generic Needs29 V. What curricula and instructional practices are currently use with students with low- incidence disabilities?†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 1 Curriculum and Instructional Practices31 Toward a Definition of Curriculum33 Facing the Challenge of Curriculum Access35 Blending General and Specialized Curriculum37 Blind/Low Vision38 Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing42 Teaching Approaches43 Inclusion of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students45 Deaf-Blind49 Communication50 Orientation and Mobility50 Individualized Education51 Transition51 Inclusion in Family51 Teaching Strategies and Content Mod ifications51 Significant Developmental Delay52 Curriculum54 Instructional Adaptations56 Significant Physical and Multiple Disabilities60Autistic Spectrum61 Sensory-Motor Therapy63 Communication Therapy64 Social Skills Training64 Applied Behavior Analysis65 Multi-Treatment Programs65 VI. What planning models are in use for students with low-incidence disabilities? 67 The Evolution of the Individualized Education Plan (IEP)67 Person-Centered Planning69 Group Action Planning (GAP)69 Making Action Plans (MAPs)70 Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope (PATH)71 Circle of Friends73 Collaborative Planning and the General Curriculum74 Planning in the Context of the General Curriculum76 VII.How can IEPs ensure greater access to the general curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities?†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 78 Expanding Roles and Functions of IEP Team Members78 Origins of the IEP79 Purpose of the IEP80 Limitations of the IEP82 IDEA ’97 Challenges for the IEP82 Addre ssing the General Curriculum with the IEP85 VIII. What approaches exist for enabling students with low-incidence disabilities to participate state- and district-level assessment systems? 91 The Role of Assessment in Standards-Based Reform91 Broad-Scale Assessment Systems92Standards-Based Assessment and Students with Disabilities93 Participation of Students with Disabilities in Assessment and Accountability Systems94 Changes in Assessment Systems for Students with Disabilities96 Accommodations98 Modifications99 Alternate Assessment Systems99 Massachusetts Alternate Assessment102 Issues Remaining with Alternate Assessment108 IX. How can the UDL framework increase access to the general curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 113 Universal Design Revisited114 UDL and the Curriculum116 UDL Components117 Goals119 Methods120 Materials121The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)123 Assessment124 Curriculum Flexibility for Students wit h Low-Incidence Disabilities125 References129 Appendices145 Appendix A: Tips for Universally Designed Teaching145 Appendix B: Principles of Universal Design for Instruction (UDI)147 Appendix C: Design Principles for Lesson Adaptations148 Appendix D: Expanded Core Curriculum for Blind/Low Vision Students149 Appendix E: Six Core Principles153 Appendix F: Alaska’s State Recommendations154 Appendix G: Six Guidelines for Inclusive Programs155 Appendix H: Alternate Assessment Approaches157Appendix I: Five Best-Practice Steps for States158 Introduction Twenty years ago, the publication of A Nation At Risk instigated two decades of educational reform in the United States. Yet improving our educational system remains a national priority. Today, various school reform efforts brought about by enabling legislation and funding streams are converging on the goal of providing a single high-quality education for all of America’s students. Expectations of excellence and equal access, a s well as a focus on outcomes, are driving the effort to â€Å"leave no child behind. The goal of much of this reform work is to ensure that children of color, children living in poverty, children learning English as a second language, and children with disabilities encounter no barriers as they receive the best education possible in order to become independent, productive, and participating members of the communities in which they will live as adults. Once, the â€Å"factory† model of schooling in America viewed all children as mere â€Å"raw material† to be measured and then either mainstreamed or side-tracked, with children disadvantaged by color, poverty, language, or disability automatically winding up outside the mainstream.This system of sorting and then tracking children institutionalized inequality and denial of opportunity. Reform efforts of today are directed toward eliminating this ad hoc marginalization of groups of children, such as those listed above, w ho are viewed as â€Å"at risk† in America’s schools. Reforming education, improving schools, and raising student achievement are noble and socially just pursuits, but by what means are these lofty goals to be accomplished?Many of the diagnostic and prescriptive approaches of the past have resulted in practices where presumably the least capable receive significantly less curricula. An alternative approach to understanding student learning difficulties becomes available when assessments are applied to a school itself, or, more particularly, to a school’s curriculum, instead of to students. Measurement can then proceed with the following questions: How accessible and user-friendly is the curriculum? To what extent does the curriculum permit multiple entry and exit points?To what degree does the curriculum allow for wide participation? How accurately and fairly does the curriculum assess student progress? In order to make a single high-quality public school educat ion available to all, the curriculum itself must be examined. The typical lecture-and-textbook curriculum, made accessible only to those who could demonstrably benefit from it, implies that any failure to grasp the material calls for the student him- or herself to be examined for flaws, as has traditionally been the case.Failure to examine the curriculum and to consider modifications to it presents a crucial question: are the problems confronting public schools today rooted in the students or in the curriculum? In the following pages, we take the position that the challenge of educating students with disabilities or students who are not achieving rests with the curriculum, not with the student. In particular, we posit that the problem resides within the static presentation of typical curriculum, which is unresponsive to the many and varied ways in which individual learners differ.In order to begin addressing not the deficits of students but rather the barriers erected for them by tr aditional curriculum, a framework is required for examining the curriculum as it is and for suggesting ways in which it may be made most accessible to all students. One such framework is Universal Design for Learning (UDL) (Rose & Meyer, 2002). UDL takes a trifold approach to assessing curriculum as it examines, first, the ways in which content can be represented; second, the means by which students can respond; and third, the conditions under which students can engage in the learning process.UDL anticipates an increasingly digitized information source for curriculum, which allows a UDL framework to guide the development of future digital media, delivery mechanisms, and technology tools for use in education. Today, an object as static as a textbook can be transformed in seemingly limitless ways when presented digitally (such as audio, CD-ROM, HTML). As schools become more inclusive and democratic institutions, and as technology develops exponentially, unprecedented opportunities lie ahead for all students to reach high standards in their learning and to experience a high quality of life in adulthood.In the discussion that follows, we present practices that hold promise for increasing access to the general education curriculum for our nation’s most vulnerable populations of students with disabilities. It is the general curriculum that prepares children to take on independent, responsible, and productive roles as adults. The general curriculum—delivered through publicly-funded schools (and therefore by or through democratic institutions)—affords a central opportunity for all to pursue the American dream.For students who are blind, deaf, multiply disabled, or significantly developmentally delayed, equal opportunity to pursue that dream is out of reach without advances in how we prepare and employ our teaching force, how we set policy that raises standards and expectations without discrimination, and, above all, how we deliver a curriculum tha t is flexible and widely accessible for all learners. Equal access to the general curriculum implies that all students have the right to strive for the same educational goals.Equal opportunity implies that accommodations are in place to remove or minimize the impact of disability on authentic performance, thus leveling the playing field. Equal opportunity also implies that modifications to entry points to and benchmarks of the curriculum can be made so that students with disabilities are enabled to make progress to the maximum possible extent. The central question at hand is how communities and state and local education authorities organize to provide the best education possible for students with low-incidence disabilities.One answer is that public education, equally afforded to all, can be accomplished through collaboration among stakeholders, including families, educators (both special and general), administrators, and policy-makers. We will demonstrate how adherence to a UDL fram ework for curriculum reform can yield a flexible and accessible curriculum for all students, including those with disabilities. Overview When Congress reauthorized the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1997 (IDEA ’97), conditions were set for profound change in the ways disability is viewed in the broader context of schools and society.Originally, in the mid-1970s, Congress acted to ensure that no child, regardless of extent of disability, could be denied a free, appropriate, and public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment. At that time, an â€Å"appropriate† education meant a special education—one that would be individually designed to address the needs that result from disability. Now, more than thirty years later, the law states that no child may be denied access to the general education curriculum—specifically, that curriculum which schools and school districts make available to all non-disabled students (IDEA ’04) .Currently, the general curriculum consists of core subject areas plus varying elective subject options. Broad frameworks for core content areas are more or less determined by individual states, which also set requisite standards for grade advancement and graduation. In the larger, national effort to reform education in general, students with disabilities are not to be denied access to the same opportunities afforded their non-disabled schoolmates.In this way, Congress seeks to align opportunities for students with disabilities with those available to the non-disabled student population. Using broad-scale assessment systems, states now measure the extent to which all students, and the schools they attend, achieve intended outcomes. There is less emphasis on analyzing the discrepancy between what schools actually provide and what they intend to provide (inputs) in favor of greater focus on results as measured by standards attainment (outputs). Better results for schools presumably le ad to better adult outcomes for students.Just as schools are held accountable for student learning through standards testing, so too will schools be held accountable for supports and services they provide for students with disabilities in order to allow them to access the general curriculum. Accordingly, students with disabilities are now compelled by IDEA ‘97 and subsequent amendments to participate in all state- and district-level assessment systems. Today, the touchstone of special education law remains the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP), which is a document detailing the range and intensity of services and supports intended for each eligible student with a disability.Unlike in the past, however, the IEP now formalizes the collaborative relationship between general and special education and also aligns the general curriculum with specially-designed instruction and other support structures necessary for enabling access to the curriculum. Some support structures relate to how instruction accommodates a student’s disability without altering standards (e. g. , extra time allotted for task completion, Braille in place of print).Other supports may involve curriculum modifications that adjust performance levels or entry points but continue to address standards’ content domain or framework. Accommodations or modifications stipulated in an IEP to adjust instruction or adapt curriculum for a student also apply to the administration of state- and district-level assessments. For students with significant developmental delays, accommodations alone may be neither sufficient nor appropriate. Alternatively, states and districts may employ alternate assessments to ascertain the extent to which students meet goals delineated on their IEPs.Alternate assessments in these cases are modifications of state standards, but they nonetheless follow the broad frameworks identified for each state’s core knowledge areas. Alternate assessment procedures can be authentic and performance-based. In frequent use are portfolios, evaluated according to rubrics that reveal the depth to which students meet standards. Alternate assessment procedures are labor intensive both to design and to carry out. Scoring by state authorities is also laborious and time-consuming.Presumably, however, the use of alternate assessments is limited to 1–3% of school-aged children, thus minimizing the extent of onerous time and effort. Moreover, time spent by teachers in initially documenting alternate assessments is well invested, as procedures become more routine over time with an IEP’s implementation. To many, this adherence to states’ curriculum standards for students with significant developmental delays appears unrealistic, but, clearly, Congress’ intent in IDEA ’97 and IDEA ’04 is to remove barriers that historically limit access to the same curriculum taught to non-disabled students.This amounts to a zero-rejec t from the general curriculum so that all students must participate in and make progress within the general curriculum to the maximum extent feasible. If one conceives of the general curriculum as the vehicle through which all students can achieve adult outcomes—outcomes understood in a broad sense as independence, participation, and productivity—then, in a just and democratic society, opportunity cannot be denied for students with disabilities.In the discussion that follows, we examine practices intended to improve access to the general curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities. For many reasons, this population presents unique and daunting challenges for all committed to meeting IDEA ’97’s mandates. We follow a question-and-answer format in order to address key issues and to arrive at basic understandings concerning students with low-incidence disabilities. Since much of this report refers to a UDL framework, UDL will be defined.Low-incide nce disabilities are then contrasted with high-incidence disabilities to uncover some distinguishing characteristics of this population. Next, particular challenges confronting schools and communities that endeavor to serve these students and their families are examined. We then concentrate on identifying the needs of students with low-incidence disabilities. We also present disability-related needs that are unique to a particular category of specific disability and other, more generic needs that cut across categories.The reason for this is the fact that IDEA retains the use of specific disability categories for eligibility determination and classification. Over the past few decades, however, both professional literature and actual practice have supported alternative approaches for defining and classifying students with low-incidence disabilities. Thus, in order to provide students with low-incidence disabilities with appropriate and effective services, supports, and ancillary aids, it is necessary to examine alternative frameworks, differing from those traditionally in place, for understanding needs.Specialized curricula and instructional practices that hold particular promise for students with low-incidence disabilities are presented. Just as it is important to understand need from multiple perspectives, so too must curriculum and instructional practices be understood as meeting both unique as well as shared needs among students with low-incidence disabilities. We focus on curricula and practices that are highly specialized as well as those that address more typically shared needs.Because IDEA requires access to the general education curriculum for all students, it is necessary to examine ways in which specialized curricula and instructional practices can support or otherwise connect with broader approaches for improved access, participation, and progress for students with disabilities. Curriculum is highly complex. Historically, it has been examined through many different lenses. The complicated nature of curriculum theory and practice makes it difficult to envision innovative ways of making it accessible for students with disabilities.Thus, we will also examine and attempt to demystify some of that complexity. Instructional practices presented in the context of our discussion are intended to bring an effective focus to eliminating or reducing curriculum needs associated with low-incidence disabilities. As with the consideration of need, curricular options and instructional practices can also be both highly specialized to a specific disability and highly generic across disabilities. For example, approaches for engaging students who are blind or deaf can be quite unique to those disabilities, given the varieties of existing communication modes.Other approaches can be quite generic, involving, for example, applied behavior analysis or systematic instruction. After grounding in student need, curriculum, and instructional techniques, we e xamine models for collaborative planning. Students with low-incidence disabilities require services and supports beyond the classroom. These may intensify at various transition points throughout a life span and broaden out to include an array of community agencies. We examine the IEP in turn as a tool for pulling services together in support of access to the general curriculum.We then focus on approaches for enabling students with low-incidence disabilities to participate in state- and district-level assessment systems. Finally, we conclude with a consideration of how access to the general curriculum can be improved for students with low-incidence disabilities through the application of principles of universal design. I. What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? A major premise of this report is that access to the curriculum for students with low-incidence disabilities is greatly enhanced by universal design.Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a particular framework that appli es to education. More specifically, UDL is an approach that can guide curriculum reform. A universally-designed curriculum includes multiple means of representation (to allow various ways of acquiring information and knowledge), multiple means of expression (to allow alternatives for demonstrating knowledge), and multiple means of engagement (to challenge appropriately, to motivate, and to allow learners to express and participate in their interests). A number of current contrasting approaches to universal design will be described.We conclude with an explanation of UDL. This will allow the reader to keep UDL in mind while progressing through subsequent sections until UDL solutions for curriculum access are more closely examined in our conclusion. Origins of Universal Design Architecture reveals the extent to which humankind can establish dominion over the natural environment by harnessing resources that it has to offer. Architectural design can be subjected to all manner of criteria , including beauty, convenience, utility, durability, safety, and even exclusivity.Only in recent times has the criterion of exclusivity been successfully challenged. As populations grew, built environments afforded travel and facilitated commerce. The need for standards in architectural design became apparent as built environments became interconnected. Architects needed to consider the preferences and capabilities of those who would access built environments. In more recent times, users of built environments were living longer and, therefore, functioning with less mobility and stamina. Notions of democracy and community were transforming views of belonging and participation.During the 1960s, social movements that began in Europe around such concepts as normalization, deinstitutionalization, and communitization were beginning to have a profound impact upon those who would advocate for the disabled in the United States. Thus, the needs of people who would potentially access the buil t environment were beginning to be understood as complex and diverse. Universal Design in Architecture The passage of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 essentially outlawed discrimination on the basis of disability.So far-reaching was this piece of federal legislation that it took nearly three years for a beleaguered Congress to write the regulations that would ostensibly remove architectural barriers from all publicly supported buildings and properties. During this era, universal design in architecture was born. Like the dream of building inclusive communities for all to enjoy equally, universal design is an ideal with a process to ensure maximum participation for all. The challenge of removing physical barriers and retrofitting solutions to barriers proved to be a costly and cumbersome process, often yielding unsatisfactory results.Universal design sought to embed solutions into features at the design level—features that would benefit all, not merely accommodate the few. Curb cuts intended for wheelchair users, for example, were also found to be helpful for users of baby strollers, shopping carts, skateboardes, among others. In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) extended the prohibition against discrimination on the basis of disability to the private sector, requiring all entities doing business with the public to make every reasonable accommodation in providing access.Accessibility standards, while necessary for guidance and compliance monitoring, can appear onerous or threatening in light of the fact that they are government regulations, particularly when coupled with the public’s misperceptions regarding disability. Universal design, as envisioned by Ron Mace and his colleagues at North Carolina State University’s Center for Universal Design, was intended to promote the design of products and environments that would appeal to all. North Carolina State’s Principles of Universal Design are listed below in bri ef form (without associated guidelines). PRINCIPLE ONE: Equitable Use The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities. PRINCIPLE TWO: Flexibility in Use The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities. PRINCIPLE THREE: Simple and Intuitive Use Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user’s experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level. PRINCIPLE FOUR: Perceptible Information The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user’s sensory abilities.PRINCIPLE FIVE: Tolerance for Error The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions. PRINCIPLE SIX: Low Physical Effort The design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue. PRINCIPLE SEVEN: Size and Space for Approach and Use Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use, regardless of user’s body size, posture, or mobility. † Principles of Universal Design, version 2. 0 (Center for Universal Design, North Carolina, 1997).Application of these principles has established a framework for developing design standards in architecture, as well as for creating consumer products, that permit the greatest degree of access and usability for the widest possible range of individuals. Today, millions of Americans with disabilities enjoy access to buildings, restaurants, movie theatres, sporting events, transit properties, walkways, commercial vehicles, and bank teller machines—to name only a few venues that were once inaccessible to them.Wheelchair users, once limited to home instruction or restricted to special school buildings, now attend their neighborhood schools alongside their non-disabled agemates. However, although physical access to classrooms and other education facilities is an important first step toward educational equity for the disabled, it is not sufficient to ensure that all students with disabilities have equal access to the general curriculum or enjoy comparable opportunity to derive benefit from what school curriculum has to offer.Additional changes in the classroom environment and in the curriculum itself are also required in order for full equity to be achieved. Universal Design in Education Universal design in architecture recognized the importance of building environments that were more in line with the needs of an aging population and the requirements of those persons with disabilities who were being welcomed into the general community during the 1970s.In the 1980s, attention was brought to bear on the rapidly increasing diversity of America’s students through the publication of A Nation At Risk, a report presented to the U. S. Department of Education by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. According to this report, our nation’s schools—particularly in urban centers—appeared ill-equipped to prepare a diverse population to compete successfully in an increasingly global economy. The findings of the Commission spurred a wave of reform initiatives ith enabling legislation aimed at raising standards and outcomes for our nation’s most under-served students. More recent federal legislation, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1997; 2004), seeks to build one education for all students, improve teacher quality, align curriculum with standards, measure outcomes at multiple points, and hold schools accountable for student performance.For no child to be excluded from—or left behind by—the general curriculum, the curriculum itself must be examined and re-designed from a fresh perspective, much in the same way that buildings, environments, and products were critically examined by the original advocates of universal design in architecture resulting in im portant and lasting changes in building standards. Colleagues at the University of Connecticut’s National Center on Postsecondary Education and Disabilities have developed a set of principles building upon and extending the principles originated at North Carolina State’s Center for Universal Design.Note that their educational design principles are essentially the same as those outlined by North Carolina State for architectural and product design (with the addition of principles 8 and 9—community of learners; instructional climate). Their new principles address more educational constructivist perspectives regarding communities of learners and a climate of high expectations and social interaction. Together, these principles set a framework for what Scott, McGuire, and Shaw (2001) call Universal Design for Instruction (UDI).Application of these principles allows postsecondary institutions in particular to dramatically widen the accessibility of course offerings by designing accommodations into course structures rather than retrofitting a series of educational work-arounds to try and meet the specialized needs of individual students after course materials have been prepared. UDI principles are listed and defined in Appendix B. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Calls for critically examining curriculum from a universal design perspective have come from many quarters (King-Sears, 2001; Hitchcock, 2001;Nolet & McLaughlin, 2000; Pugach & Warger, 2001; Rose & Meyer, 2002; Turnbull, et al. , 2002; Wehmeyer, et al. , 2002). The principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as put forth by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST, Inc. ) were first presented in an Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Topical Brief (Orkwis & McLane, 1998). Currently, typically taught curriculum in schools is a â€Å"one-size-fits-all† curriculum, best exemplified by the ubiquitous textbook.It generally lacks flexibility in how it presents inf ormation to students, how it permits students to respond, and how it engages students in the learning process. In order for typical textbooks and other curriculum materials to become accessible to many disabled students, they must undergo numerous time-consuming transformations and interpretations, to the extent that the student’s participation in classroom activities is often fragmented or delayed.Several projects supporting universal design and access approaches to the general curriculum were reviewed in Research Connections (Danielson, 1999), a bi-annual review of OSEP-sponsored research on topics in special education. Prominently featured were projects underway at CAST to create a universally designed early literacy curriculum (Scholastic’s WiggleWorks) and a universally designed document processor (CAST’s eReader).Also featured in the review was a framework advanced by the University of Oregon’s National Center for Improving the Tools of Education (N CITE) for designing the ‘architecture’ of effective instructional practices (Kameenui & Simmons, 1999). (Their design principles for lesson adaptations are available as Appendix C. ) CAST’s work is important because it demonstrates how flexible and malleable curriculum can be with the use of digital media and digital technology tools following a UDL framework.The NCITE’s work on the architecture of instruction is important because it draws upon the current knowledge base regarding effective instructional practices and illustrates how instruction can be tailored to learners depending on the degree of explicitness required. Over the years, many proposals have emerged to counter the old factory model approach to mass education begun in the 19th century with graded education.Approaches to individualized, personalized, or otherwise differentiated instruction have made enormous contributions to thinking about teaching and learning processes. What might distingui sh UDL from other efforts to improve instruction in general—or other perspectives on universal design in particular—is that UDL establishes a framework for curricular reform in education (Rose & Meyer, 2002) yet also recognizes the need to maintain a balance between curriculum and instructional practice (Hitchcock, 2001).Moreover, a UDL framework provides a perspective for collaborative teams of special and general education personnel to provide access to the general curriculum while addressing disability-specific needs in multi-level or inclusive classroom situations (Jackson & Harper, 2002). While UDL anticipates the coming digital curriculum with its inherent potential for flexibility and built-in options, it is not wholly reliant upon technology. UDL can ensure accessibility with new media and technology tools, but it depends upon the application of evidenced-based teaching practices to yield desired results (Hitchcock, 2002).To achieve these results, a UDL framewo rk relies upon three guiding principles—multiple means of representation, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement—for the development of flexible teaching approaches and curriculum resources. These principles emanate from analyzation of available research on the brain and new conceptualizations of how neuroscience informs our appreciation of learning and knowing (Rose & Meyer, 2000).Areas in the brain that contribute to learning can be grouped roughly into three interconnected networks, each with a fundamental role in learning: (a) â€Å"recognition† networks, specialized to receive and analyze information (the â€Å"what† of learning); (b) â€Å"strategic† networks, specialized to plan and execute actions (the â€Å"how† of learning); and (c) â€Å"affective† networks, specialized to evaluate and set priorities (the â€Å"why† of learning) (Rose & Meyer, 2002).New insights into neurological systems worki ng within these three regions of the brain connected with learning has led to the formulation of the three guiding principles of UDL: 1. To support diverse recognition networks, provide multiple, flexible methods of presentation. For example, when introducing students to a new concept or unit, a teacher may provide multiple structures to present that information, such as a lecture, a digitized text, an activity-based exploration, a demonstration. 2. To support diverse strategic networks, provide multiple, flexible methods of expression and apprenticeship.For example, when a teacher requests student responses to demonstrate understanding and knowledge, he or she could provide a range of tools that allow students to respond in various formats, such as in writing, orally, with a slide show, with a video, with a drawing. 3. To support diverse affective networks, provide multiple, flexible options for engagement. Allow students to select an area of interest within a topic or concept to r esearch or study. For example, allow students to select one of the natural resources in a geographic area under study to research rather than assigning resources (Rose & Meyer, 2002).UDL also establishes a framework for providing access to, participation in, and progress within the general curriculum as first mandated by IDEA ’97. Hitchcock, Meyer, Rose, and Jackson (2002) have defined four main components of the general curriculum: 1. goals and milestones for instruction (often in the form of a scope and sequence), 2. media and materials to be used by students, 3. specific instructional methods (often described in a teacher’s edition), and means of assessment to measure student progress.Each component can be transformed for accessibility and participation by all students by adherence to the principles of UDL. UDL offers new ways to think about teaching and learning. Students with sensory challenges, for example, require curriculum that contains alternative approaches for presenting information. Students with motor challenges, on the other hand, may require curriculum that provides alternative ways of expressing what they know and can do, while students along the autism spectrum may require curriculum that contains alternative ways to become engaged in or connected with the learning process.Broadly stated learning goals may allow students who are cognitively challenged to enter the curriculum at points where appropriate levels of challenge and support can yield both tangible and measurable results. Methods and materials with designed-in supports may permit wider access and greater participation in the general curriculum by all students, including those with disabilities. Instructionally embedded assessments may provide more immediate feedback and more frequent data points for progress monitoring and instructional decision-making.These are some of the promises of UDL. II. What are low-incidence disabilities? Alternative Systems for Classification Students with disabilities can be classified in many ways. IDEA ’97 continues to recognize disabilities in the form of more or less discrete diagnostic categories, such as mental retardation, specific learning disabilities, or emotional disturbance. Other approaches to classification include categorizing disabled individuals by degree of severity of their needs, or by how atypical an individual may be when compared to a norm.Still other approaches may emphasize the level of intensity of supports necessary for an individual to function optimally in home, school, community, and work settings. Each of these approaches has advantages and disadvantages. The categorical approach taken by IDEA may emphasize learner characteristics for each disability, but, in so doing, it could also foster a self-fulfilling prophecy in which all members of a group sharing a categorical label, in a sense, become that label.A severity approach may emphasize developmental milestones at the expense of i gnoring strengths in functional skills. An intensity approach may meaningfully focus on levels of needed support, but, at the same time, limit opportunities for an individual to move to a less restrictive setting. None of these systems of classifying individuals with disabilities are either entirely satisfactory or entirely lacking in merit.For educators, it is important to be aware that several systems of categorizing students with disabilities exist simultaneously, because eligibility criteria, placement alternatives, intervention strategies, and teaching credentials may all vary substantially from school to school, depending on which system of classification is currently being employed. A Focus on Incidence When the issue at hand for students with disabilities centers on the provision of services in local schools, the availability of qualified personnel and the technical sophistication of necessary resources must be carefully considered.In order to provide students with disabilit ies with a free and appropriate public education, it is useful to classify learners in terms of incidence, or how many students with any particular disability or combination of disabilities reside in a community. Under such a system, students with the most commonly-seen disabilities may be more appropriately served by local public schools while students with relatively rare disabilities may not find adequate resources or highly qualified personnel.High-incidence disabilities include— * communication disorders (speech and language impairments) * specific learning disabilities (including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD]) * mild/moderate mental retardation * emotional or behavioral disorders Low-incidence disabilities include— * blindness * low vision * deafness * hard-of-hearing * deaf-blindness * significant developmental delay * complex health issues * serious physical impairment * multiple disability * autismNone of the disabilities listed under low-inc idence disabilities generally exceed 1% of the school-aged population at any given time. The relative rarity of students with these disabilities in public schools often poses significant challenges for local schools struggling to meet their needs. Since they encounter these students so infrequently, most local schools have little if any knowledge of how to best educate these students, of what technologies are available to assist them, and of how to obtain needed and appropriate support services from outside agencies.All students with low-incidence disabilities thus experience a commonality: they are difficult to serve in current local public school programs. III. Why are schools and communities particularly challenged in serving students with low-incidence disabilities? Insufficient Numbers Students with low-incidence disabilities are difficult to serve in today’s public schools because none of the low-incidence categories alone can form a group large enough to warrant the pr esence of full-time, school-based, and highly specialized personnel, except in the largest of big-city school districts.Therefore, students with low-incidence disabilities are more likely to be served in less inclusive settings (such as in special classes, separate schools, and residential facilities) than are students with high-incidence disabilities. Local schools that do attempt to provide maximum inclusion most often support these efforts through the use of itinerant personnel, usually teachers/consultants who travel from school to school as needed, often crossing district lines to serve the needs of their students.Each variety of low-incidence disability brings its own unique challenges to a local school system. When intensive, specialized instruction is required, such as the learning of Braille for blind students or American Sign Language (ASL) for the deaf, teacher consultation models of intervention can prove woefully inadequate for the delivery of specially-designed and car efully-targeted intensive instruction.Similarly, when faced with students who present with complex healthcare needs, local schools frequently lack the capacity to respond appropriately to medical emergencies or to provide required routine intensive care. Each group of students with a low-incidence disability has its own set of specialized needs, requiring specialized supports and specially-trained personnel to maximize their educational opportunities. While some generic support services are of use to nearly all students, most are specialized to one group.For example, a deaf or autistic child is unlikely to need to learn Braille, while a blind student will not need the level of constant medical support that a quadriplegic child or one under medical treatment for leukemia is likely to require. The low-incidence nature of these disabilities also makes it extremely challenging to maintain an adequate supply of qualified professionals to serve them. The skills and knowledge sets of these professionals are highly technical, requiring a significant commitment of time and effort to acquire through professional preparation, typically at university centers.Yet the caseloads of these professionals are small and likely to change in composition from year to year. Further added to this supply challenge is the paucity of university-based, professional preparation programs to prepare sufficient numbers of practitioners to adequately serve these students. Moreover, administrative supervision and mentoring of new inductees to the field are frequently inadequate. These professionals are mostly isolated from colleagues, limiting their opportunity for collaboration and shared growth.Opportunities for targeted professional development may be extremely limited. In sum, it is difficult to attract qualified individuals into these fields to begin with and perhaps even more difficult to nurture, support, and retain them once employed. Finding the Least Restrictive Environment Often, the least restrictive environment for students with low-incidence-disabilities cannot be found in their local public school.While IEP teams must presume that a student is to be placed in the public school closest to her or his home, a team may be compelled by assessment findings to urge placement in a specialized setting where highly-trained personnel and appropriate technologies can be concentrated and unique needs can be appropriately targeted for intensive instruction. Although students with low-incidence disabilities are required to have access to the general education curriculum, that requirement does not state that the only way in which such a condition may be met is in a full-inclusion setting in a general education classroom.An IEP team may determine that an alternative and highly specialized setting is the most appropriate, and therefore least restrictive, placement available for meeting the specific needs resulting from a student’s disability(ies), particularly if thei r local public school is not sufficiently equipped to provide a safe and successful educational experience for that student. Thus, in many cases of students with low-incidence disabilities, the true path toward greatest access to the general education curriculum may be pursued more appropriately in a separate setting (for example, in a school for the deaf or a residential school for the blind).However, in some cases, appropriate program planning for students with low-incidence disabilities in local public schools is possible and may be the preferred placement according to the IEP team, which includes the student and the student’s family. Adequate provision for these students in inclusive settings requires broad community engagement and significant systems change. Collaboration and commitment among stakeholders at the local, state, and federal levels are necessary to effect such change.With thoughtful and appropriate approaches to planning, such as those to be described, willi ng communities can amass the supports necessary to ensure high-quality educational services for even those students with the most significant cognitive disabilities or complex healthcare needs. IV. What are the needs of students with low-incidence disabilities? Special Education is Not a Place With the enactment of IDEA ’97, special education is no longer considered a place but rather a network of services and supports designed to enable students to derive full benefit from a public school education (Heumann & Hehir, 1997).As stated earlier, this does not mean that students with disabilities cannot be appropriately served in specialized settings. Rather, the intent of the law is to emphasize that â€Å"placement† or location of services is the last decision an IEP team makes during a team assessment and planning process. In earlier times, a disability-specific label itself would dictate placement, and that placement would define the treatment or nature of interventions for students. Today’s approaches use comprehensive and holistic assessments to reveal the extent of need in suspected areas of risk associated with a student’s disability.Their team then determines the setting in which needed services can best be provided, selecting from a continuum or array of placement options ranging from full inclusion in a general education classroom to residency in a hospital setting (Drasgow, Yell, & Robinson, 2001). An IEP team always starts with the presumption that a student will be placed in the same setting in which he or she would be educated if disability were not an issue, namely, a regular public school classroom (Turnbull & Turnbull, 1998).Thus, in order to place a student in a less inclusive setting, this starting presumption must be rebutted by assessment data before such a placement outside a general education setting can be made. Categories and Characteristics IDEA designates categories of disability with which specific learner ch aracteristics have been associated in the special education knowledge base (Hallihan & Kaufman, 2002; Hardman, et al. , 2002; Heward, 2003; Turnbull, et al. , 2002).These characteristics are correlates of particular disabilities and not necessarily connected with a particular disability—that is to say, they are characteristics that are commonly found in students with these particular disabilities, but for which there are often exceptions, such as cases where a student has a particular disability but not one or more of its expected associated characteristics or behaviors. â€Å"Learned helplessness,† for example, is associated with specific learning disabilities, but not all students with learning disabilities have acquired this psychological adaptation.Rather, they are at risk for acquiring learned helplessness. While there are often litanies of learner characteristics described as unique or disability-specific, the extent to which these areas of risk are observed in a n individual student can vary widely. Careful assessment and observation of an individual student and his or her needs must be undertaken to document actual need for initial intervention and not merely expected need. Such an assessment establishes a baseline of educational need(s) against which progress can be measured.Students with disabilities often become â€Å"handicapped†Ã¢â‚¬â€unnecessarily or unfairly restricted—not by their disabilities in and of themselves, but by the environment in which they live, learn, and relate. Consequently, extent of need cannot adequately be assessed without consideration of broader contexts in which an individual lives. This context includes family, community, and the local public school which would be a student’s default placement location.Thus, a team’s determination of the least restrictive and most appropriate environment for a student must take all these factors into consideration when judging the capacity or prep aredness of home, community, and local school to support and nurture a student in areas of assessed need and in assuring a student access to the general curriculum. It is imperative that any set of disability-specific needs not serve to stereotype a student, to lower expectations for a student, or to contribute to negative self-fulfilling prophecies for a student.So-called unique or disability-specific needs should be taken only as possible areas of risk for IEP teams to investigate, not inevitable features automatically conjoined to a specific disability in question. Addressing Intense and Complex Needs Identified needs of students with low-incidence disabilities are frequently complex and multiple (Browder, 2001). Addressing severe and complex needs of students is challenging for family, school, and broader community.Since the ultimate goal of education is community inclusion and high quality of life, an appropriate education must contain opportunities for each individual to achie ve independence, enjoy community participation, and increase productive and rewarding work to the maximum extent possible. Most children identified by IDEA categories as having low-incidence disabilities possess sensory, motor, or neurological deficits, and, consequently, they are typically identified and managed early in their lives through a medical model.Families of infants and toddlers with established risks receive early intervention services, most generally under the auspices of state departments of public health. Such services prepare a family and their local community to understand and cope with the impact of a child’s disability on their lives. Such services also prepare a family to actively participate in the planning and decision-making processes that accompany transitional events throughout the child’s life. Thus, early intervention and early childhood education can be effective in preventing or minimizing many long-term and predictable consequences of disa bility.Because of the possibility of mitigating many of the consequences of disability early on in a child’s life, possibly to the point where a disability essentially vanishes, IDEA encourages states to withhold disability categorization until age nine. The more generic term developmental delay is used instead, to avoid the stereotyping and lowered expectations that follow disability-specific labeling. However, states still have the option of using, for example, the terms â€Å"blind† or â€Å"deaf† if preferred.According to IDEA ’97),decisions made about a child with a disability must be informed by â€Å"persons knowledgeable about the disability† or by â€Å"qualified professionals. † States must â€Å"qualify† professionals through certification or licensure. Thus, for blind students to receive specially-designed instruction in Braille literacy, deaf students in ASL, and motor-impaired students in augmentative communication, stat es must ensure that an adequate supply of appropriately prepared professionals is available to support such students in educational programs.The need for the specialized knowledge and skills possessed by these professionals is often cited as a basis for retaining IDEA’s system of categorical labeling, as well as states’ systems for categorical teacher certification (Hallihan & Kaufman, 2002). Clusters of Low-Incidence Disabilities Hereafter, low-incidence disabilities are defined and described under the following headings: * Blind/Low Vision * Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing * Deaf-Blind * Significant Developmental Delay * Significant Physical and Multiple Disability * Autistic SpectrumNote that some of these headings do not match with IDEA’s current categories, being more general. Where appropriate, legal categorical definitions are quoted from IDEA ’97 in the text so that readers will note congruence with federal law. Blind/Low Vision According to IDEA ’97, Visual impairment 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. Authority: 20 U. S. C. 1401(3)(A) and (B); 1401(26)Historically, students with visual impairment have been referred to as blind, visually handicapped, visually disabled, visually impaired, partially sighted, partially blind, visually limited, or sight impaired. To understand the needs of students with visual impairments, the following factors must be taken into account: age at onset of visual impairment, degree of impairment, site of impairment, prognosis for improvement or degeneration in condition, day-to-day stability of condition, individual tolerance for visual fatigue, nd the extent and complexity of any co-existing additional impairments. Blind children are particularly challenged in understanding and moving about in physical space (Blasch, Wiener, & Welch, 1997). Withou t opportunity to directly observe space during locomotion, blind children have difficulty mentally representing and manipulating spatial concepts. They are also challenged in obtaining, manipulating, and producing many types of information, such as text, graphics, facial expressions, and gestural cues (Swensen, 1999).Achieving self-esteem is also difficult for blind children since self-awareness in the social context of school is often affected by such factors as social isolation, low expectations, and over-protection (Tuttle & Tuttle, 1996). Classroom instruction typically exploits the visual/motor channel of communication and relies upon social mediation for student achievement. Because blind students cannot partake of the visual channel of communication and are often socially isolated, they generally have limited opportunities for incidental learning.This places them at a disadvantage when attempting to participate in classroom activities. Often gaps exist in concept development, making it difficult for classroom teachers to activate prior knowledge, or leading them to make false assumptions in regard to the fundamental understanding these students have of the world around them. Moreover, the need for Braille as a necessary alternative to print creates a challenge for general education classroom teachers to provide invaluable corrective feedback, as very few general education classroom teachers can read and write Braille.Lack of eye contact and the impossibility of visually-based social recognition can have a profound impact on a blind student’s opportunity to form meaningful and cooperative relationships with peers. Such barriers must be carefully examined and skillfully addressed by practitioners in order to provide genuine and valid access to the general curriculum for blind students. Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing According to IDEA ’97, Deafness means a hearing impairment that is so severe that [a] child is impaired in processing linguistic informat ion through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.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 in this section. Authority: 20 U. S. C. 1401(3)(A) and (B); 1401(26) Needs of children who are hearing impaired must take into account factors such as age at onset of disability (in particular, pre-lingual vs. post-lingual deafness), audiometric hearing status (particularly in speech range with amplification), type of hearing loss (conductive, sensorineural, mixed, central) and possible presence of concomitant disabilities.The needs of children who are deaf and children who are hard-of-hearing must be understood as quite distinct when considering communication use. The native language of deaf children is American Sign Language (ASL), but children who are hard-of-hea ring may understand speech with amplification and may not identify with members of Deaf culture. Severity of hearing loss is measured by decibels (dB) or units of loudness. A hearing loss between 15 and 20 dB is considered slight. A person with a hearing loss of 60 dB has difficulty hearing conversational speech without amplification.An individual with a hearing loss of 100 dB is not able to hear a power lawnmower without amplification (Kirk, Gallagher, & Anastasiow, 2000). Children and adults with hearing disabilities characteristically confront significant issues with regard to social and intellectual development, speech and language development, and edu