About the Forum||Journals||FPP Online||Contributor Information||Board Members||Order Forms||Contact||

Forum on Public Policy Online

Spring 2009 edition (Posted September 2009)

|| Back to Forum on Public Policy Online||Fall 2006 || Winter 2007 || Spring 2007 || Summer 2007 || Spring 2008 || Summer 2008||

Ethics ||Food ||Learning Disabilities|| Terrorism||Social Justice||Pedagogy||Children||

Learning Disabilities

• Toward A Model Of Promoting Literacy For Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder In The General Education Classroom
  Robin LaBarbera and Ivannia Soto-Hinman
• Conundrum of Autism: A Review of its Causes and Significant Impact on the Education of a School age Child
  Cosmas U. Nwokeafor, Professor, Interim Dean of Graduate School, Bowie State University

Toward A Model Of Promoting Literacy For Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder In The General Education Classroom
Robin LaBarbera and Ivannia Soto-Hinman

Abstract
A significant number of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) who attend partially or fully integrated classrooms in the United States in increasing numbers, show distinctive difficulties in reading comprehension and difficulty acquiring the foundational oral language skills necessary for reading development. In this paper we describe a Student Shadowing Project in which preservice teachers observed and reported on opportunities for students with special needs to participate and engage in classroom literacy practices.  Results revealed that students with ASD were given few opportunities to actively engage in classroom dialogue and academic language (defined here as the language of school, testing, and textbooks) production.  Given that gaining meaning from print is largely dependent on a child’s proficiency in language, we suggest that teachers increasingly include students with ASD in whole-class and small-group interactions, to facilitate the development of language skills which may in turn lead to reading comprehension improvements.

Conundrum of Autism: A Review of its Causes and Significant Impact on the Education of a School age Child
Cosmas U. Nwokeafor, Professor, Interim Dean of Graduate School, Bowie State University

Abstract
Autism is a brain development disorder that is characterized by impaired social interaction, communication, restricted and repetitive behavior which starts before a child is three years old.  As a result of the outcome of set of signs such as restricted and repetitive behaviors, autism distinguishes itself from milder Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The latter is a pervasive developmental disorder. For instance, an autistic child finds it very difficult to focus and concentrate in the classroom. According to  MayoClinics research outcome, autism is one of a group of serious developmental problems encountered by children of a given age. It adversely impacts their mode of focus, communications and interactions with other children of their age and adults.  According to genetic literature as documented by scholars of genetics, autism has a strong genetic basis which is considered complex. In view of series of genetic research outcomes, it is unclear whether ASD is clearly explained by multigene interactions or mainly by rare mutations. National Institute of Neurological Disorders  and Stroke (NINDS) as well as Autism Research Institute (ARI) have invested time and resources over the years in an attempt to conduct clinical research on what might be the remote causes of autism. The findings of their research work published in various medical and disease control journals have gone a long way to stress the lack of causes and significant impact of the ailment to children of school age. In an attempt to address the impact of autism as a dilemma in the learning process of a school age child, this paper argued that autism as a brain development disorder could significantly affect both the developmental process and learning ability of a school age child.