Timothy E. Jackson
SPE -226 Educating the Exceptional Learner
February 23, 2011
Professor Rebekah McCarthy
This essay is entitled Educating Special Needs Students, the author will discuss and several important issues, which will be the following; the defining of Mental Retardation a term the author despises, Autism, Severe Disabilities and Multiple Disabilities, also their causes, and the impact of these disabilities have on the education of students with Mental Retardation. In addition to the above mentioned, the essay will identify areas of curriculum, necessary for students with severe disabilities and will explain why. Addressed also will be the following; using the authors’ local school district, Las Vegas Nevada, an investigation into the policies, procedures, and programs for the education, of students with Mental Retardation, Autism, and or Severe Multiple Disabilities. Lastly, an explanation of how these policies, programs, and procedures, either address or ignore the area of curriculum, the author has listed within the content of the essay.
According to the Association for Retarded Citizens or (AAMR), Mental Retardation is defined as; a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. Though its causes can be attributed to a variable amount of many things, here are just a few of known caused medical factors; Genetic conditions, which have been the results from abnormalities of genes inherited from one or both parents, errors when genes combine, or from other disorders of the genes caused during pregnancy by infections, overexposure to x-rays and other factors. Problems during pregnancy, some of these problems, in the opinion of the author, are definitely avoidable such as; the use of alcohol or drugs by the pregnant mother which can cause mental