Health and Physical Disabilities
Aly Mathis
Definitions!
Physical Disabilities: a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a child’s educational performance (must be both parts). Ex: torn ACL, paralyzed, etc. Interferences: the student may need to use a wheelchair which could be difficult to move around the classroom.
Health Disabilities: person had limited strength, vitality or alertness, disability is due to criteria or acute health problems, and affects educational performance adversely. Ex: ADHD, diabetes, epilepsy, etc. Interferences: for example with diabetes, if a student needs to get insulin injected, they will need to leave class and go to the nurse to receive it having them miss some class.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ewjFw9FoDc
This is a video of what it feels like to have asthma.
Classroom Accommodations!
1. A student can have two sets of school books so they can keep a set at home and a set at school. This avoids the hassle of transporting books (scoliosis, muscular dystrophy, etc.)
https://www.classzone.com/cz/find_state.htm
2. The use of assistive technology to aid in allowing the student to either communicate or receive communication, taking notes through a recorder, use of a large monitor or magnification software for large print, talking calendar for vision impaired students, book holders and page turners, etc.
http://www.augsburg.edu/class/groves/assistivetechnology/everyone/notetaking/
3. Allowing medications to be left at school so there isn’t an issue in case of an emergency *under the specific school’s 504 plan, a student may be able to waive all district attendance requirements and a student can be assigned a home tutor.
At Home Accommodations!
1. Meetings with the student’s teachers so the parents are up to date with what their child is doing and if they need help with any homework the parents are available.
2. Have a list of the students phone numbers in case there was any class missed for a medical reason they can find out through another student.
3. Keep all materials used in the class at home so the student/child feels comfortable and familiar.
Helpful Websites!
http://specialed.about.com/od/physicaldisabilities/p/wheelchair.htm
This website will help teachers accommodate their classroom better for students that are in a wheelchair.
http://www.health.state.mn.us/asthma/documents/teachers.pdf
This article was extremely helpful. I have asthma and knowing a teacher knows all of this is very comforting.
Helpful App!
“Penultimate” is the name of the app I thought would work well in a classroom for anyone with any type of disability. If a student needs to leave the classroom they can record notes on here and even write their own notes, or use they keyboard-whichever is easier for the student.