Introduction

Competency 1 of the Ohio Field 060 exam addresses the Characteristics of Students with Disabilities. This competency falls within the Students with Disabilities domain, which accounts for approximately 20% of the total exam. To succeed on this portion of the exam, you must demonstrate two interconnected bodies of knowledge: first, an understanding of typical and atypical human growth and development across the cognitive, speech and language, social and emotional, and physical domains; and second, a thorough knowledge of the types and characteristics of the major disability categories, including how students with disabilities are both similar to and different from their peers without disabilities.

This study guide teaches each concept with a definition, an explanation of its significance, and a practical classroom example so you can both understand the content and apply it on exam day. The guide is organized into three major parts: typical developmental milestones, atypical development and warning signs, and the specific disability categories you are expected to know.

Part 1: Typical Human Growth and Development

Before you can identify atypical development, you must understand what typical development looks like. Human development is generally described across four interrelated domains: cognitive, speech and language, social and emotional, and physical. While each domain is described separately below, it is important to remember that they influence one another. A delay in one domain can affect progress in other domains. For example, a speech delay can hinder social development because a child who cannot communicate effectively may struggle to form peer relationships.

Cognitive Development

Cognitive development refers to the progressive growth of mental processes such as thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, memory, and the ability to form abstract concepts. It follows a broadly predictable sequence from infancy through adolescence, though the rate at which individual children progress varies.

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development remains the most widely referenced framework in education. Piaget proposed four stages:

Sensorimotor stage (birth to about age 2): Infants learn about the world through physical interactions — reaching, grasping, mouthing, and manipulating objects. A major milestone of this stage is object permanence, the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight. Before this milestone, an infant who watches a toy get covered by a blanket will not search for it; after acquiring object permanence, the infant will actively look under the blanket.
Preoperational stage (about ages 2 to 7): Children develop the ability to use symbols, including words and images, to represent objects and ideas. They engage in pretend play and begin using language rapidly. However, thinking at this stage is still egocentric — children have difficulty seeing situations from perspectives other than their own — and they have not yet mastered conservation, the understanding that a quantity remains the same despite changes in the shape or arrangement of objects. A classic example: a child in this stage will say a tall, thin glass holds more water than a short, wide glass, even when both contain the same amount.
Concrete operational stage (about ages 7 to 11): Children begin to think logically about concrete events. They master conservation, understand reversibility, and can classify objects into categories and arrange them in a logical series. However, their reasoning is still tied to tangible, real-world experiences. They struggle with hypothetical or abstract problems.
Formal operational stage (about age 12 and older): Adolescents develop the ability to think abstractly, reason hypothetically, and engage in systematic problem-solving. They can consider multiple variables simultaneously and think about possibilities that have not yet occurred.

Classroom Application: A first-grade teacher who understands the preoperational stage will use concrete manipulatives rather than abstract symbols to teach early math concepts. A middle-school teacher who understands formal operations will design activities that ask students to generate hypotheses and test them, because students at this stage are cognitively ready for that kind of reasoning.

Speech and Language Development

Speech and language development encompasses the acquisition of both expressive communication — producing spoken or written language — and receptive communication — understanding language that is heard or read. Speech refers specifically to the physical production of sounds, while language is the broader system of symbols, grammar, and meaning used for communication.

Typical milestones follow a general pattern:

Birth to 12 months: Infants progress from crying and cooing to babbling. By around 12 months, most children produce their first recognizable words and can follow simple verbal instructions accompanied by gestures.
Ages 1 to 3: Vocabulary expands rapidly. Children move from single words to two-word combinations and then to simple sentences. By age 3, most children can be understood by familiar adults about 75% of the time and use language to ask questions, label objects, and express needs.
Ages 3 to 5: Sentence complexity increases. Children begin using grammatically correct sentences with conjunctions, prepositions, and past-tense forms. They can tell simple stories and participate in conversations, taking turns speaking and listening.
Ages 5 to 8: Children refine articulation, develop more sophisticated vocabulary, and begin understanding figurative language. They learn to read and write, connecting spoken language skills to written forms.
Ages 8 and older: Students develop more advanced comprehension, including the ability to understand sarcasm, irony, and metaphor. Written language becomes increasingly complex and differentiated from spoken language.

Classroom Application: A kindergarten teacher who notices a five-year-old speaking primarily in two-word phrases should flag this as a potential concern, because typical development at this age includes multi-word sentences with grammatical complexity. Early referral to a speech-language pathologist can lead to timely intervention.

Social and Emotional Development

Social and emotional development involves the growing ability to form relationships, understand and regulate emotions, develop empathy, and navigate social situations. Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development provides a helpful framework for understanding the primary social-emotional tasks at different ages.

Key milestones and Erikson's stages relevant to school-age children include:

Trust vs. Mistrust (infancy): Infants learn whether the world is safe and predictable based on whether caregivers consistently meet their needs. Secure attachment in this stage lays the foundation for future relationships.
Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (toddlerhood): Toddlers assert independence by making choices, exploring, and doing things on their own. When supported, they develop a sense of autonomy; when excessively restricted or punished, they develop shame and self-doubt.
Initiative vs. Guilt (preschool, ages 3–5): Children begin to initiate activities, make plans, and take on leadership roles in play. Encouragement supports initiative; excessive criticism produces guilt about taking action.
Industry vs. Inferiority (elementary school, ages 6–11): Children develop a sense of competence through academic achievement, mastering new skills, and receiving recognition for their efforts. Failure to achieve or receive positive feedback can lead to feelings of inferiority.
Identity vs. Role Confusion (adolescence): Adolescents explore who they are, including their values, beliefs, and future goals. Successful exploration leads to a stable sense of identity; difficulty with this exploration leads to confusion about one's role in the world.

In addition to Erikson's framework, typical social-emotional development includes growing perspective-taking ability, understanding that others have different thoughts and feelings, and increasing capacity for self-regulation, the ability to manage emotional responses and behaviors in ways that are appropriate for the situation.

Classroom Application: An elementary teacher who understands the Industry vs. Inferiority stage will emphasize effort-based praise and create opportunities for every student to experience mastery. A teacher who notices a fourth-grader repeatedly withdrawing from group activities may recognize this as a sign of developing inferiority feelings and provide structured support to help the child experience success.

Physical Development

Physical development includes changes in body size, proportions, motor abilities, and overall health. It is divided into two subcategories: gross motor development, which involves large muscle groups and whole-body movements such as walking, running, jumping, and throwing; and fine motor development, which involves small muscle groups and precise movements such as writing, cutting with scissors, buttoning clothing, and manipulating small objects.

Typical physical milestones include:

Infancy and toddlerhood: Sitting, crawling, standing, walking. Fine motor skills progress from grasping to holding a crayon with a fist grip.
Preschool (ages 3–5): Running, climbing, pedaling a tricycle. Fine motor skills include using scissors, drawing shapes, and beginning to form letters.
Early elementary (ages 5–8): Improved coordination and balance, skipping, throwing and catching with accuracy. Fine motor skills become precise enough for legible handwriting and tying shoelaces.
Later childhood (ages 8–12): Increased strength, speed, and endurance. Coordination becomes refined enough for organized sports. Fine motor skills support fluent writing and detailed craft work.
Adolescence: Puberty brings rapid changes in height, weight, and body composition. Motor skills continue to refine, and there is wide variation in the timing of these changes among individuals.

Classroom Application: A kindergarten teacher who expects all students to write neatly on standard-ruled paper may not be accounting for the normal variation in fine motor development at age five. Providing wider-ruled paper and thick pencils accommodates children whose fine motor skills are still developing within the typical range.

Part 2: Atypical Development and Identifying Concerns

Atypical development refers to developmental patterns that diverge significantly from the expected trajectory in timing, sequence, or quality. Atypical development can manifest as a delay, meaning the child follows the typical sequence but at a slower rate; a regression, meaning the child loses previously acquired skills; or a qualitative difference, meaning the child's behavior or skill looks fundamentally different from what is expected rather than simply being slower.

It is critical to understand that a single missed milestone does not necessarily indicate a disability. Children develop at individual rates, and there is a wide range of what is considered typical. However, when delays or differences are persistent, occur across multiple domains, and interfere with the child's functioning in daily life or school, further evaluation is warranted.

Red Flags Across Developmental Domains

Cognitive: Persistent difficulty understanding cause and effect, significant trouble with problem-solving compared to same-age peers, inability to retain information despite repeated instruction, or marked difficulty with age-appropriate abstract thinking.
Speech and Language: No single words by 16 months, no two-word phrases by age 2, loss of previously acquired speech, persistent difficulty being understood by age 4, or significant difficulty following multi-step directions by school age.
Social and Emotional: Lack of interest in other children, inability to engage in reciprocal play by age 3, extreme difficulty managing transitions, persistent aggression or self-injurious behavior, or withdrawal from social interactions well beyond typical shyness.
Physical: Not walking by 18 months, persistent difficulty with tasks that peers manage easily, loss of previously acquired motor skills, unusually low muscle tone or high muscle tone, or significant asymmetry in movement patterns.

Classroom Application: A second-grade teacher observes that a student cannot follow two-step verbal directions, struggles to retell a simple story, and has significant difficulty interacting with peers during recess. These concerns across the speech-language and social-emotional domains suggest the teacher should document observations and initiate a referral for evaluation.

Developmental Delay vs. Developmental Disability

A developmental delay means a child has not reached milestones within the expected age range but may catch up with appropriate intervention. The term is most commonly used for children under age nine and acknowledges that early identification and intervention can significantly change a child's trajectory.

A developmental disability, by contrast, is a chronic condition that is typically lifelong and significantly limits functioning in major life activities. Developmental disabilities include conditions such as intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, and autism spectrum disorder. While intervention can improve functioning, the underlying condition persists.

Classroom Application: A preschool teacher working with a child who has a speech delay may provide enriched language experiences and small-group intervention; with support, the child's speech may catch up to the typical range. A teacher working with a child who has an intellectual disability recognizes that intensive, individualized instruction will be needed throughout the child's education, and goals will be adjusted based on the child's individual rate of progress.

Part 3: Types and Characteristics of Disabilities

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act identifies thirteen disability categories under which students may qualify for special education services. As a special education teacher, you must understand the defining characteristics of each category, how the disability affects learning and development, and how students with disabilities compare to their peers without disabilities. The following sections cover the major categories you are expected to know for this exam.

Specific Learning Disability

A specific learning disability is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written, that may manifest as difficulty with reading, writing, listening, speaking, mathematical calculation, or reasoning. It is the most prevalent disability category in schools, accounting for roughly one-third of all students receiving special education services.

Specific learning disabilities are neurological in origin and are not the result of inadequate instruction, intellectual disability, sensory impairment, or environmental disadvantage. The most commonly encountered specific learning disabilities include:

Dyslexia: A condition primarily affecting the ability to decode written words, recognize words by sight, and spell accurately. Students with dyslexia typically have difficulty with phonological processing — the ability to identify and manipulate the sounds within spoken words — which makes sounding out unfamiliar words extremely challenging.
Dysgraphia: A condition that affects handwriting, spelling, and the ability to organize thoughts in written form. Students may produce illegible handwriting, write extremely slowly, or struggle to translate their ideas into coherent written text, even when they can express those ideas verbally.
Dyscalculia: A condition affecting the ability to understand numbers, learn math facts, and perform mathematical calculations. Students may struggle with number sense, have difficulty memorizing multiplication tables, or be unable to understand place value concepts that their peers grasp readily.

A key characteristic of specific learning disabilities is the discrepancy between ability and achievement: students typically have average or above-average intelligence but perform significantly below expectations in one or more specific academic areas.

Classroom Application: A teacher working with a student diagnosed with dyslexia might provide audiobook versions of reading assignments, teach explicitly using a structured literacy approach with systematic phonics, and allow the student to demonstrate comprehension through oral presentations rather than written reports.

Intellectual Disability

An intellectual disability is characterized by significantly below-average general cognitive functioning, typically defined as an IQ score approximately two standard deviations below the mean, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior — the collection of conceptual, social, and practical skills that people use to function in everyday life. Both criteria must be present, and the condition must originate during the developmental period.

Intellectual disabilities range in severity:

Mild: Students can learn academic skills up to approximately the sixth-grade level and often develop adequate social and communication skills. With appropriate support, many adults with mild intellectual disabilities live independently and hold employment.
Moderate: Students can learn functional academic skills such as sight-word reading, basic money skills, and telling time. They benefit from structured community-based instruction and may live semi-independently with ongoing support.
Severe and Profound: Students require intensive support across all areas of daily living. Instruction focuses on communication, self-care, safety, and functional routines.

Adaptive behavior is assessed in three domains: conceptual skills such as reading, math, and time management; social skills such as interpersonal relationships, following rules, and self-esteem; and practical skills such as personal care, transportation, and job responsibilities.

Classroom Application: A teacher supporting a student with a moderate intellectual disability in a math lesson might focus on functional math — such as counting money, reading a clock, and measuring ingredients for a recipe — rather than grade-level abstract math concepts. The teacher pairs direct instruction with hands-on practice and provides repeated opportunities to rehearse each skill in authentic contexts.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent challenges in two core areas: social communication and social interaction, and restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities. The term "spectrum" reflects the wide range of severity and presentation — some individuals require substantial support in daily life, while others function independently but may still experience difficulty with social nuance.

Common characteristics include:

Social communication differences: Difficulty with back-and-forth conversation, reduced use of or response to nonverbal cues such as eye contact and gestures, and challenges with understanding and maintaining relationships.
Restricted and repetitive behaviors: Stereotyped motor movements, insistence on sameness and rigid adherence to routines, intensely focused interests, and heightened or diminished sensitivity to sensory input such as sound, light, texture, or temperature.

Many students with autism are visual learners who respond well to predictable routines, visual schedules, and explicit instruction in social skills. Sensory sensitivities may require environmental adjustments, such as reducing fluorescent lighting, providing noise-canceling headphones, or creating a quiet area where the student can decompress when overwhelmed.

Classroom Application: A teacher preparing a student with autism for a schedule change — such as a fire drill or a substitute teacher — provides advance notice using a visual schedule and a social story that describes what will happen, why it will happen, and what the student can do if they feel anxious. This proactive approach reduces the likelihood of a behavioral crisis.

Emotional and Behavioral Disorder

An emotional and behavioral disorder, referred to in federal law as "emotional disturbance," describes a condition in which a student exhibits one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects educational performance: an inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders may present with externalizing behaviors, such as aggression, defiance, disruptiveness, and noncompliance, or with internalizing behaviors, such as anxiety, social withdrawal, depression, and excessive fearfulness. Some students exhibit both. Because internalizing behaviors are quieter and less disruptive, these students are often underidentified and may not receive services as quickly as students whose behaviors are more visible.

Classroom Application: A teacher working with a student who has an emotional and behavioral disorder implements a positive behavior support plan that includes clearly defined expectations, frequent positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior, pre-teaching of social skills, and a private signal the student can use to request a break when feeling overwhelmed. The teacher avoids power struggles and uses de-escalation techniques when the student becomes agitated.

Speech or Language Impairment

A speech or language impairment is a communication disorder that adversely affects a student's educational performance. Speech impairments involve the production of sounds and the flow and rhythm of speech, while language impairments involve the ability to understand or use the rule systems of language — its sounds, word meanings, word order, and social use.

The major types of speech and language impairments include:

Articulation disorder: Difficulty producing specific speech sounds correctly, such as substituting one sound for another, omitting sounds, or distorting sounds. A child who says "wabbit" instead of "rabbit" demonstrates an articulation error.
Fluency disorder: An interruption in the natural flow of speech, most commonly stuttering. Stuttering involves repetitions of sounds or syllables, prolongations of sounds, and blocks where no sound is produced despite the speaker's effort.
Voice disorder: An abnormality in the pitch, loudness, or quality of the voice, such as chronic hoarseness, a voice that is too high or too low for the speaker's age and gender, or nasal resonance problems.
Receptive language disorder: Difficulty understanding spoken language, including following directions, understanding questions, and comprehending complex sentences.
Expressive language disorder: Difficulty using language to communicate, including limited vocabulary, trouble forming grammatically correct sentences, and difficulty organizing thoughts into coherent narratives.
Pragmatic language disorder: Difficulty with the social use of language, including understanding conversational rules such as turn-taking, staying on topic, adjusting language for different listeners, and interpreting non-literal language such as idioms and sarcasm.

Classroom Application: A teacher supporting a student with an expressive language disorder gives the student extra wait time to formulate responses, provides sentence starters and vocabulary banks for writing assignments, and uses graphic organizers to help the student plan and organize spoken and written communication.

Orthopedic and Physical Impairments

An orthopedic impairment is a severe physical condition that adversely affects educational performance. This category includes impairments caused by congenital anomalies, disease, and other causes. The most commonly encountered conditions include:

Cerebral palsy: A group of neurological disorders affecting body movement, balance, and posture caused by damage to the developing brain, most often before birth. Cerebral palsy can affect one limb, one side of the body, or the entire body. It may be accompanied by intellectual disability, seizures, and speech difficulties, though many individuals with cerebral palsy have typical cognitive abilities.
Spina bifida: A condition in which the spinal column does not close completely during fetal development, potentially resulting in paralysis or weakness below the affected area, loss of sensation, and difficulties with bladder and bowel control.
Muscular dystrophy: A group of inherited disorders characterized by progressive muscle weakness and degeneration. Students with muscular dystrophy may initially walk independently but gradually lose mobility as the condition progresses.

Students with orthopedic impairments frequently require modifications to the physical environment, such as accessible furniture, ramps, and adapted equipment. Assistive technology — devices or systems that help individuals perform tasks they would otherwise be unable to do — may include adapted keyboards, voice-activated software, power wheelchairs, and specialized writing tools.

Classroom Application: A teacher in a classroom that includes a student who uses a wheelchair ensures that all areas of the room, including learning centers and the classroom library, are accessible. During science lab activities, the teacher adjusts the height of the workstation and provides adapted tools so the student can participate fully alongside peers.

Sensory Impairments: Visual and Hearing

Sensory impairments affect a student's ability to receive and process information through sight or hearing. These are divided into two subcategories.

Visual impairment including blindness ranges from low vision, in which a student has significant visual limitation but retains some usable sight, to total blindness. Students with visual impairments may need materials in large print, Braille, or audio format. They often require orientation and mobility training to navigate their environment safely and instruction in the use of assistive technology such as screen readers and refreshable Braille displays.

Deafness and hearing impairment ranges from mild hearing loss, which may cause a student to miss certain speech sounds, to profound deafness. Students who are deaf or hard of hearing may use hearing aids, cochlear implants, sign language, cued speech, or a combination of communication methods. The impact on language development depends on the degree of hearing loss, the age of onset, and the timeliness and type of intervention received.

A student who is deaf-blind has both visual and hearing impairments. The combination creates unique educational needs that cannot be adequately addressed by programs designed for students with either impairment alone.

Classroom Application: A teacher with a student who has a hearing impairment uses a classroom amplification system, faces the student when speaking so the student can lip-read, provides written instructions alongside verbal ones, and seats the student where visual access to the teacher and interpreter is unobstructed.

Traumatic Brain Injury

A traumatic brain injury is an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional impairment or psychosocial challenges that adversely affect educational performance. Common causes include falls, motor vehicle accidents, sports injuries, and abuse. Traumatic brain injury is distinguished from other disabilities by its acquired nature — the student was developing typically before the injury occurred.

The effects of traumatic brain injury vary enormously depending on the location and severity of the injury. Common consequences include:

Difficulty with attention, concentration, and memory
Slower processing speed
Impaired executive functioning, including planning, organizing, and initiating tasks
Personality changes, including increased irritability, impulsivity, or emotional lability
Physical effects such as fatigue, headaches, and motor impairments

Recovery from traumatic brain injury is unpredictable. Some students make significant gains in the first year following injury, while others experience lingering cognitive and behavioral changes. Educational needs may shift over time, requiring frequent reassessment and IEP revision.

Classroom Application: A teacher supporting a student who is returning to school after a brain injury provides shortened assignments, additional time for task completion, written checklists for multi-step procedures, and frequent check-ins. The teacher maintains close communication with the school psychologist and rehabilitation team to adjust supports as the student's recovery progresses.

Other Health Impairment

Other health impairment is a broad category that covers chronic or acute health conditions that limit a student's strength, vitality, or alertness — including heightened alertness to environmental stimuli — to a degree that adversely affects educational performance. The most common condition qualifying under this category is attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, but it also includes conditions such as epilepsy, asthma, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, heart conditions, and Tourette syndrome.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by persistent patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that interfere with functioning across multiple settings. There are three presentations:

Predominantly inattentive: Difficulty sustaining attention, following through on tasks, organizing activities, and avoiding distractibility.
Predominantly hyperactive-impulsive: Excessive fidgeting, difficulty remaining seated, excessive talking, and difficulty waiting turns.
Combined presentation: Features of both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity.

Classroom Application: A teacher working with a student who has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder structures the environment to minimize distractions, breaks long tasks into shorter segments, uses visual timers so the student can see how much time remains, provides frequent movement breaks, and seats the student near the teacher for easier redirection. Positive reinforcement of on-task behavior is more effective than punishing off-task behavior.

Multiple Disabilities

Multiple disabilities refers to the simultaneous occurrence of two or more disabling conditions, the combination of which creates educational needs so significant that they cannot be adequately addressed in a program designed for any one of the conditions alone. A common example is a student who has both an intellectual disability and a physical impairment. The defining feature of this category is not merely the presence of two conditions but rather that their interaction produces needs that are qualitatively different from what either condition would produce independently.

Students with multiple disabilities typically require highly individualized programming, extensive related services such as physical therapy and occupational therapy and speech-language therapy, and adapted materials and assistive technology across all environments.

Classroom Application: A teacher working with a student who has both an intellectual disability and cerebral palsy collaborates with a team that includes a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, a speech-language pathologist, and the student's family to design an integrated program that addresses communication, mobility, self-care, and functional academic skills within a cohesive daily routine.

Part 4: Similarities and Differences Among Students With and Without Disabilities

A central theme in special education is that students with disabilities are more like their peers without disabilities than they are different. Every student — with or without a disability — needs meaningful relationships, a sense of belonging, opportunities to learn and grow, and recognition of their individual strengths. Students with disabilities experience the same developmental stages, social-emotional needs, and motivational drives as their peers. They have interests, talents, cultural identities, and personalities that cannot be reduced to their disability label.

At the same time, important differences exist that require specialized knowledge and intervention. Students with disabilities may learn at a different pace, require different instructional strategies, or need accommodations and modifications to access the general education curriculum. Some require related services such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, or counseling. Others require assistive technology, environmental modifications, or alternative assessment methods.

Key Principles

Person-first thinking: A student is not "an autistic child" or "a disabled student" — the student is a person first who happens to have autism or a disability. This framing ensures that the disability does not define the individual.
Heterogeneity within categories: Two students with the same disability label can have vastly different profiles of strengths and needs. A label provides a starting point for understanding potential characteristics, but individualized assessment and observation reveal the student's actual profile.
Strengths-based approach: Effective special education identifies and builds on what a student can do, rather than focusing exclusively on deficits. A student with dyslexia may have exceptional verbal reasoning skills. A student with autism may have remarkable attention to detail and deep content knowledge in an area of interest.
Continuum of severity: Most disability categories encompass a range from mild to severe. The impact on learning, social functioning, and daily living varies accordingly, and educational planning must reflect the student's individual position on this continuum.
Co-occurring conditions: Many students have more than one condition. A student with a learning disability may also have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A student with autism may also have anxiety. Understanding the interaction between co-occurring conditions is essential for effective programming.

Inclusive Education and Access

The least restrictive environment principle requires that students with disabilities be educated with their nondisabled peers to the greatest extent appropriate, with supplementary aids and services as needed. This means the general education classroom is the starting point for placement decisions, and removal from that setting occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability prevents satisfactory education with supports.

Inclusion is not merely physical placement. Meaningful inclusion means the student has genuine access to the curriculum, participates in classroom activities, interacts socially with peers, and makes progress toward individualized goals. Achieving this requires collaboration between general and special education teachers, related service providers, and families.

Classroom Application: A fourth-grade general education teacher and a special education teacher co-teach a science lesson. The special education teacher pre-teaches key vocabulary to students with disabilities before the lesson, provides graphic organizers during the lesson, and checks for understanding frequently. All students, with and without disabilities, participate in the same investigation, though some use adapted materials.

Key Takeaways

Typical human development follows a broadly predictable sequence across the cognitive, speech and language, social and emotional, and physical domains, but individual children progress at different rates within that sequence.
Atypical development may present as a delay, a regression, or a qualitative difference from the expected pattern. Persistent concerns across multiple domains warrant further evaluation.
Specific learning disability is the most prevalent disability category and is characterized by a discrepancy between intellectual ability and academic achievement in areas such as reading, writing, or mathematics.
Intellectual disability requires both significantly below-average cognitive functioning and concurrent deficits in adaptive behavior across conceptual, social, and practical skill areas.
Autism spectrum disorder is defined by challenges in social communication and interaction combined with restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities, with wide variation in severity.
Emotional and behavioral disorders include both externalizing behaviors such as aggression and defiance and internalizing behaviors such as anxiety and depression; internalizing behaviors are frequently underidentified.
Speech or language impairments encompass articulation disorders, fluency disorders, voice disorders, and receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language difficulties.
Traumatic brain injury is distinguished from other disabilities by its acquired nature, and its effects are highly variable depending on the location and severity of the injury.
Other health impairment is a broad category covering chronic and acute health conditions, with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder being the most common qualifying condition.
Students with disabilities are more similar to their peers without disabilities than they are different — effective special education builds on individual strengths while providing the specialized supports each student needs.
The least restrictive environment principle requires educating students with disabilities alongside their nondisabled peers to the greatest extent appropriate, with supplementary aids and services.

Free Ohio Dual Middle Childhood Special Education (4–9) (060) Study Guide

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Free Study Guide - Lesson 1