DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.   Term Paper ID:20692 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Argues for multidisciplinary approach. Education, medical aspects, family planning, work, socialization.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Argues for multidisciplinary approach. Education, medical aspects, family planning, work, socialization. Paper Introduction: A Social, Multidisciplinary View of Developmental Disabilities Few tasks are as demanding as the professional need to determine the nature of a child or adult who is having difficulty functioning in the school or home environment. Physicians and educators find that people may fail in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons, and the individual diagnostician faces quite a formidable task in determining the facts in even the simplest of cases (Wodrich & Joy, 1986, p. 1). It is the purpose of this paper to discuss in a general way the interdisciplinary approach to developmental disabilities and to provide a social perspective on the difficulties of persons who fail to thrive in the demands of their lives. Historically, the concept of mental retardation arose out of a social need, the need for wealthy families to protect their Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The transition from school to work has oftenbeen a challenge for students with learning disabilities, and one researchstudy found that students who attended vocational-technical programs inschool tended to have a higher rate of employment after graduation.Unfortunately, the jobs available for learning disabled individuals oftendid not match up with their areas of training or interest. InEngland, the King's Act of 1324 proclaimed that individuals who could notmanage their own affairs were designated as "idiots," a legal term, andtheir property was held by the Crown until later assumed by heirs (Wodrich& Joy, 1986, p. The specifics of the deficits in adaptivebehavior may include low intelligence test scores, adaptive delays, andlack of personal independence or social responsibility that would beexpected of someone in his age group and culture (Wodrich & Joy, 1986, p.4). B. L., & Joy, J. P., & Matson, J. NewYork: PMA Publishing Corporation.Kirk, S. (1992, September). Adults with learning disabilities face formidable challenges, and thecost to society is quite high. Along with the recognition of the need for education and prevention,various programs have emerged which assist adolescents and adults withdevelopmental disabilities. The only long-term solution to this societal challenge ofdisabled persons is the education of prospective parents and prevention ofsuch births. Typically, moststudents after two years since graduation worked at near minimum wage leveljobs and most of their occupations were unrelated to their training andskills. xi). G., & Price, L. A Social, Multidisciplinary View of Developmental Disabilities Few tasks are as demanding as the professional need to determine thenature of a child or adult who is having difficulty functioning in theschool or home environment. L. Developmental disabilities:Delivery of medical care for children and adults. This approach may include genetic counseling, medicalhistories, and the elimination of addictions and dysfunctions before thepregnancy occurs. The programs which seem the most effective in their efforts to helpdisabled adults are those which teach them awareness of their ownlimitations and capabilities, social skills, and one-on-one job training.Some such workers find that they learn best with audio demonstrations orvideotape instruction. Modern readers may find those terms offensive, but it is important torecognize that, at first, they were not used in a pejorative sense. Probably in past generations, many such individuals were left to dieor were absorbed into communities and extended families with no specialdesignation or provision. Historically, the concept of mental retardation arose out of a socialneed, the need for wealthy families to protect their property rights. Personal knowledge of the specific attributes of a particulardisability seems to empower the disabled individual. StevenCoker, M.D., states flatly that mental retardation is not treatable (1989,p. Developmental delay and mental retardation. Instead of simplyfeeling inferior, helpless, and different, he may learn that he hasdifficulty with sequencing and remembering spoken directions. Genetic counseling is helpful for young families whosepast generations show various diseases that might be preventable with theproper knowledge and attention. (1989). 1 4). (1993). Many professionals in the field believe that the single mostimportant factor in adjustment to the demands of adult living is skill inday-to-day relating to others on a social basis at work and in the homeenvironment. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.Kozloff, M. 3). (1991, September). In the19th and early 2 th century various definitions of mental retardationarose. It is important to note that the disease concept has been applied todevelopmental disabilities in a way that indicates that there is a commonetiology, when in fact that is not the case. The medical profession, with its disease and scientific orientation,has tended to center in on the causes of developmental delays. If parents are to havechildren without disabilities, the effort does need to begin beforeconception. Vocational-technical programs: Follow-up of students with learning disabilities. A., Gallagher, J. Public Law No. S. Idiocy was assumed to becongenital and permanent, and "lunacy" was a term used to indicate mentalconditions that were assumed to be transient. The common denominatorbetween the two limitations was deficient mental ability. 1 3) Behavioral medicine has arisen as a medical specialty which concernsitself with application of knowledge and techniques which prevent,diagnose, treat, and rehabilitate individuals with developmental delays.Such specialties as psychosis, neurosis, and substance abuse may beincluded in behavioral medical approaches to developmental disabilities ifphysical disorders are the final result of such influences (Barrett &Matson, 1987, p. D., & Handleman, J. 5). Intervention in School and Clinic, 28 (1), 6-2 .Shapiro, E. Conditions that wereoriginally considered strictly medical have now found themselves in thedomain of educational legislation. Philadelphia: Grune & Stratton.Powers, M. All that can be done is to determine the origins and decide whatto do to manage the results. It is the purposeof this paper to discuss in a general way the interdisciplinary approach todevelopmental disabilities and to provide a social perspective on thedifficulties of persons who fail to thrive in the demands of their lives. Head trauma is a significant cause of mentalretardation, and the public needs to be informed of proper safetyprecautions for infants as well as rubella immunization, proper nutrition,and prenatal care. Developmental disabilities: Alife-span perspective. He advocates taking a medical history to findout whether the mother used alcohol, took medications during the pregnancy,or was exposed to toxins or infections. (Eds.) (1987). This finding raises serious questions about the nature and purposeof vocational-technical training for learning disabled students (Shapiro &Lentz, 1991, p. Such laws provide for a systematic flow of actions from theinitial referral through the multidisciplinary evaluation team meeting,during which the parents are invited to participate in classification anddocumentation of needs from all points of view (Matson & Marchetti, 1988,p. Educatingexceptional children. (1984). The National Alliance of Business citedthat in 1988 $532 billion was spent nation-wide in programs which attemptto economically and socially support learning disabled individuals as theylearn employment skills (Ryan & Price, 1992, p. Interdisciplinary work with developmentally delayed individuals isrelatively new in this society, and there remain many difficult unresolvedquestions and challenges. He favors a practical approach tohelping parents face the realities of caring for a retarded child, mainlyto protect them from spending a large amount of money on time-consumingmultiple therapies (Coker, 1989, p. A. In these joint commitments,parents, schools, churches, private groups, and medical practitioners allcooperate toward the mutual goal of protection for the children yet to beborn (Rubin & Crocker, 1989, p. Cohen says that such labelsas dyslexia should be replaced with labels that place the responsibilityback on the accountability of the school to teach all children--"dyspedogogia" instead of dyslexia (Wodrich & Joy, 1986, p. Exceptional Children, pp. Professionals from various specific perspectives are learning tocooperate and learn each others languages in order to provide amultidisciplinary approach to the care and education of eachdevelopmentally disabled person. Productive interaction with students,children, and clients: Things are not so good in a lot of homes,classrooms, and treatment facilities. Chicken pox, for instance,is caused by a specific virus, and the physical signs follow a predictablecourse. S., & Lentz, F. Others need a work companion to help them breakdown a task into smaller, more manageable segments. 1 3). ReferencesBarrett, R. E. This type of approachto working with learning disabilities or mental retardation provides ascientific measurement of motor, physiologic, cognitive, and biochemicalindices and a great deal of information from controlled researchexperiments (Barret & Matson, 1987, p. (1988). Philadelphia: Lea& Febiger.Ryan, A. Adults with LD in the199 s. 4). Behavioral assessment ofsevere developmental disabilities. Brookes Publishing Co.----------------------- 11 94-142 at the federallevel calls for education and treatment in the "least restrictive"environment. Physicians and educators find that people mayfail in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons, and the individualdiagnostician faces quite a formidable task in determining the facts ineven the simplest of cases (Wodrich & Joy, 1986, p. This population needs to be aware of the dramatic effects ofmaternal alcohol ingestion, smoking, radiation exposure, and lead ingestion(Coker, 1989, p. 47-59.Wodrich, D. Baltimore: Paul H. Family planning services are a component in the effort to assure thesimple fact that children are born when they are wanted. In 1896 Morgan recognized a difficulty hecalled "word blindness" in one of his patients, a condition that todaywould probably be termed dyslexia. J., & Anastasiow, N. Inability to meet life's demands was the firstattribute in the concept of mental retardation. 58). 93). This type of methodical consideration is a dramatic departure fromtreatment in earlier generations which may have consisted of setting asideall the special children into a special, separate class, or even forbiddingthem to attend the public schools at all. L., & Marchett, A. Specific counseling techniqueshave arisen to enable families and teachers to cope with the demands ofhandling special children (Kozloff, 1988), and many types of programs nowfocus on prevention instead of treatment or remediation. Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press, Inc.Coker, S. 478). 1). The economics of a society copingwith the care and education of disabled individuals is far from perfect,and it seems logically that the most promise lies in the area ofprevention. 17). 7). However, as life spans lengthen and the medicalprofession becomes sophisticated, life is preserved for a larger number ofindividuals who might not have survived in the past. J. Job shadowing (veryclose emotional and practical support) and frequent evaluation helpsdevelopmentally delayed adults learn to function on the job so that theymight become financially and socially self-sufficient (Ryan & Price, 1992,p. 12). Thomas, Publisher.Matson, J. Community health plays a large role in providing educational programsfor young persons who may be at risk for pregnancy or planning to havechildren. 15). Although education legislation has taken largestrides in the direction of availability for all, regardless of the type oflimitation, many schools simply are unable to comply, and individualteachers may feel overwhelmed with the extra work involved as specialeducation students are mainstreamed. According to Wodrich and Joy, the need to label and categorize suchindividuals arises from the inability for schools to provide for them.Especially in the case of learning disabilities, one could say that theschool has failed to teach and provide for the child, so a label isconstructed to make the school look innocent. However, as with any evolving discipline in anyfield, the conceptual and methodological boundaries have not been uniformlyestablished within the field of behavioral medicine. 98). This trend, valuinglife for itself, even if the individual has quite demanding difficulties,brings along with it the need for professional expertise of many varieties--psychologists, special educators, audiologists, speech pathologists,occupational therapists, pediatricians, psychiatrists, family therapists,and neurologists. It was not until the late 19th century that learning disabilitieswere recognized as separate from and different from mental retardation.Mental retardation indicated differences between and among individuals, butlearning disabilities was a term for people who had uneven development ofabilities within themselves. Rockville, Maryland: An AspenPublication.Rubin, L., & Crocker, A. Multidisciplinary assessment ofchildren with learning disabilities and mental retardation. E. Environmental risks known to affect infant well-beingmay include low socioeconomic conditions, the age of the parents, themental health of parents, the presence or absence of abuse of variouskinds, level of nutrition and the previous history of pregnancies (Kirk,Gallagher, & Anastasiow, 1993, p. Earlyidentification of children at risk and child abuse surveillance help catchdifficulties at an early stage. Springfield, Illinois: CharlesC. Advances in developmentaldisorders, Volume 1. (1989). However, mental retardation and learning disabilities may becaused by a variety of factors, and the outcome may be influenced by anumber of variables. Family life education programs areessential to teach parents how to cope with the opportunities andresponsibilities of parenthood in a positive way, so that developmentaldisabilities do not occur in the first place. Such an approach requires that specificbehaviors are targeted, the variables are controlled, a treatment plan isdeveloped, and an evaluation determines the on-going success of theintervention (Powers & Handleman, 1984, p. The professionals in many fields are shifting their attention to thewhole new area of preconceptual care and education. Quite simply, individuals who fail to meet environmental demandsare termed mentally retarded. (1988). Part of the shift in society's view of those with developmentaldisorders reveals itself in a wider, more complex range of servicesavailable to families with such concerns. A personwith this limitation learns to use a tape recorder or asks a note-taker toaccompany him to classes or job training (Ryan & Price, 1992, p. C. (1986). The term "transition"is one that has come into being in connection with the effort to keepdevelopmentally delayed individuals in school at least until high schoolgraduation. 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