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Essay on Disabilities Education Act
The definition in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the most commonly used in the field of education. It first appeared in the initial version of the law in 1975 and then in the reauthorization in 1990, as well as in its most recent reauthorization in 1997 (Fleischer, Doris Z. and Zames, Frieda., 1998).
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act incorporated many of the provisions won in earlier cases and through legislation. The law's key points are summarized:
- All children with disabilities must be educated.
- Education must be provided in the least restrictive placement.
- Education must be individualized and appropriate to the child's unique needs.
- It must be provided at no cost to parents.
- Procedural protections are required to ensure that the requirements are met (such as parental notification, participation, consent, or possible hearing). (Maddox, Sam. 1998)
This definition guides educational practice and has two parts, the first of which reads:
The term specific learning disability means those children who have a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which disorder may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as perceptual handicaps, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term does not include a learning problem which is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor handicaps, of mental retardation, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage (Cole, B. S., Christ, C. C., & Light, T.R. 1995).
Notice that this definition uses the term basic psychological processes. This term is not in common use today. When used, it refers to cognitive abilities presumed to underlie learning, like memory, auditory perception, visual perception, spoken language, and thinking................
