The symptoms can range from mild to severe to profound.

Clear and specific instructions. 
It can be helpful to give clear and specific instructions about the task or behavior expected, and how much time they have to work in.

Visual instructions. Visual instructions about a task or behavior may help support some students. Consider demonstrating the task/behaviour, or asking another student to demonstrate. You could also use a visual schedule, poster or video to outline or model the task

Some students may find it easier if they can use gestures. Some may need to point to the correct answer instead of talking. Hence, coming with some classroom sign language can be beneficial. 

Give brief prompts immediately before each activity. 
It can be helpful to remind students what they should focus on in that activity. This gives them a sense of purpose and direction. 

Encouragement and correction. 
Giving positive feedback and correction immediately when children are learning a task or behaviour is shown to reinforce positive behaviour. This can be reduced gradually as they build their capability and the tasks can be gradually made more challenging depending on their age.

Post a clear and predictable daily schedule (Volmer, 1995). Both typical students and those with developmental disabilities crave structure and predictability in their school day. Special needs children, though, can sometimes react more strongly than their non-disabled peers when faced with an unexpected change in their daily schedule. When creating daily schedules, it should  match the schedule format to the child's skill level:

Provide structured opportunities for student to participate in social interactions (Koegel, Kiegel, & Carter, 1999; Volmer, 1995). Children with disabilities are sometimes excluded from social interactions with their typical peers. While there are a number of reasons why identified students may not be fully included in social groups, you can take steps to foster relationships between special-needs and typical children:

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What are Cognitive Developmental Delays - The Warren Center | Non-profit organization in Richardson, Texas. (2021, October 7). Retrieved June 20, 2022, from The Warren Center | Non-profit organization in Richardson, Texas website: https://thewarrencenter.org/help-information/cognitive/what-are-cognitive-developmental-delays/

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Signs and Symptoms of a Cognitive Disorder. (2022). Retrieved June 20, 2022, from Brainbalancecenters.com website: https://www.brainbalancecenters.com/blog/signs-of-cognitive-disorders

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(Duffy, 2021)

Peers:

(Students Who Are Blind/Low Vision, n.d.) & (Masoodi, n.d.)

Caretakers/Support Services

(Willings, 2016)

·  It occurs when a sudden trauma causes damage to the brain. 

·  TBI can result when the head suddenly and violently hits an object or when an object pierces the skull and enters brain tissue.  

Symptoms

· Vary from mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the extent of the damage to the brain. 

· Someone with a mild TBI may remain conscious or may experience a loss of consciousness for a few seconds or minutes. 

Other symptoms of mild TBI include:
         
•Lightheadedness
•Dizziness
•Blurred vision
•Tired eyes, confusion and headaches. 
•Ringing in the ears 
•Bad taste in the mouth
•Fatigue or lethargy
•A change in sleep patterns
•Behavioral or mood changes
•Trouble with memory, concentration, attention, or thinking.  
•A person with a moderate or severe TBI may show these same symptoms, but may also have:
•A headache that gets worse or does not go away
•Repeated vomiting or nausea
•Convulsions or seizures
•An inability to awaken from sleep.
•Dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes.
•Slurred speech
•Weakness or numbness in the extremities
•Loss of co-ordination
•Increased confusion, restlessness or agitation.

Penetrating Brain Injury 

· A penetrating injury to the brain occurs when a sharp object like a knife or bullet enters the brain and forces bones, skin, hair, and brain tissue into the brain and outside the brain with the exit wound. 

·  Low-velocity objects traveling through the brain will ricochet through the brain and cause even more damage; if the object goes through and through the brain, it is called a “perforating injury” in which there is more shearing and stretching of brain tissue. 

· The overall firearm-related death rate is 91 percent if someone is shot in the head.  Firearms have become the main cause of death from traumatic injury to the brain.

· Penetrating head injuries are often called Open Head Injuries and are serious injuries involving a puncture to the skull.   

· The person is often so covered in blood that the doctor has difficulty defining where the open injury is. 

· The brain has no nerve endings so that the patient may not recognize that they’ve sustained an open brain injury.  

· For example, a man in China went for four years without realizing that he had the blade of a knife stuck in his head following a fight with either a robber or a construction worker.  He had a toothache, and a dental x-ray revealed his open brain injury.  

There can be several types of accidents that can cause an open head injury, the possibilities include: 

· Automobile accidents

· Workplace accidents

· Sports injuries

· Gunshot wounds 

· Knife wounds.  

· Screwdrivers can cause open head injuries.

· If the object enters the skull in one place but exits in another place, it’s called a “perforating open head injury.”   

· When there is an open head injury, bone fragments can enter the brain and further damage it. There is a high risk of dirt contamination or infection in the brain.  

· There can also be an intracranial hematoma inside the brain. 

The brain is a complex organ.  Each portion of the brain has different functions. 
A person’s symptoms of brain damage will vary depending on the location of the damage.

General symptoms include:

 

Damage to this part of the brain can lead to difficulty concentrating, personality changes, and impulsivity.

Damage to the temporal lobe can affect some, or all, of these.

Damage here can affect your hearing, taste, and more.

Damage to the occipital lobe can result in a loss of sight, or visual disturbances. Injuries to the brain stem can be very serious and life threatening. 


The brain stem, located in the back bottom portion of the head, is responsible for: 


· Breathing

· Heart rate

· Sleeping cycles

How the disability impacts the student and how it impacts their peers/families: 

Traumatic brain injuries can happen in any number of ways:

Anytime a person’s head is struck by an object (or their head strikes an object), a TBI can result. It can can happen in the following ways: 

· in a slip and fall

· A bike accident

· A car, truck or bus accident

· While playing sports

· in a workplace incident

· During a violent assault. 

Approximately 1.7 million people suffer traumatic brain injuries in a given year.  

While the severity of a TBI can vary greatly, even mild TBIs can have lasting effects on both the victim and his or her loved ones. 

The first concern after an accident is how the victim is doing. 

If a person has suffered any type of brain injury, they should seek medical care immediately — and seek compensation for their injuries wherever possible.  

However, one aspect of TBIs that many people overlook is how it can affect the people closest to the victim — their family and friends. 

How families are impacted 

Traumatic brain injuries often require long-term medical care and rehabilitation.  

They may require hospitalization

Ongoing care at a rehab facility

Specialized medical equipment at home

Round-the-clock care from medical professionals.

Even if medical care is being provided by professional staff, family members often fall into the role of caregivers for their injured spouse, sibling, parent, child, or another loved one. 

This can be a heavy burden on a family as they struggle to meet ongoing responsibilities of their own on top of taking care of a loved one who has been hurt.  

Think of it this way: a wife whose husband has suffered a TBI now has to take care of her own responsibilities, such as work and childcare, in addition to those of her husband, who is now not able to take of his share of the family workload.  

This may mean being the only parent to take the kids to sports games and practices, to and from school, or taking them to the doctor.  

It often means being the only adult doing basic household chores—including mowing the grass, shopping for and cooking food, doing the laundry, and more. 

It can be a tremendous physical burden on a family member.

But beyond the actual physical necessities, in the aftermath of a TBI, many family members find themselves coping with emotional or mental health issues.  

Many victims of TBIs suffer from depression or other mental health issues that can impact the entire family. 

This can increase the difficulty of caring for a loved one who may be:

· The family members may themselves be mourning the loss of the person that they once knew and the life that they used to live.  

· On top of helping their loved one recover from their injury, this can be incredibly difficult.

· The family may also be struggling financially after a traumatic brain injury. 

· The victim may never be able to work again and the medical expenses involved in caring for a person with a TBI can be significant (including therapies, special equipment, appointments, surgeries, and mental health care).  

· Family members may be unable to work (or to work full-time) to care for the victim, adding further strain to the family’s finances. 

· Understand how a TBI impacts the entire family is crucial to getting the fullest possible recovery in a lawsuit for an accident involving a brain injury. 

· It often isn’t enough to simply get medical coverage or lost wages for the person who was hurt; it may require seeking additional damages to help the family navigate the situation for years to come.  

· That is why it is so important to seek out an attorney who has specific experience in handling personal injury cases involving traumatic brain injuries, one who understands how a TBI can impact an entire family physically, mentally and financially.  

Strategies and accommodations for learners with penetrative brain injury 

· Students with traumatic brain injuries are becoming increasingly more prevalent. 

· Brain injury can result from two types of trauma 

o external events, such as closed head trauma or an object penetrating the brain; or internal events, such as cerebral vascular accidents, tumors, ingestion of toxic substances, hypoxia, or infections of the brain. 

o These students often exhibit one or more of the following symptoms: short-term memory problems, serious attention deficits, behavior problems, problems of judgment, and serious anxiety attacks. 

 

· Strategies that can be used with learners/students who have traumatic brain injuries. 

· Changes in symptoms and conditions can happen at any time, this may require changes in accommodations and education programs – herein are a few strategies that may be appropriate

· Teachers may use the following:

· Demonstrating new tasks and provide examples, charts and other graphic cues where possible to show ideas  and concepts

· State instructions clearly – go over each step and make sure learners understand the instructions. 

· Paraphrase information to help with recall

· Review and summarize often

· Repeat all key points 

· Provide enough time for task completion – learners with TBI often need extra time to process information and complete tasks and to respond to verbal cues and questions. 

· Encourage the use of schedule , checklists  and notebooks to assist in organizing daily information. 

· Break assignments into smaller parts break complex tasks down into steps. 

· Be prepared for reduced stamina and increased fatigue.

· Allow learners to tape record lectures. 

· Assist learners in obtaining a note taker. 

· Have learners sit in front of the class – it helps with attention, concentration and minimized distractions. 

 
References


1. Traumatic Brain Injury | National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. (n.d.). National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/disorders/traumatic-brain-injury

2. Penetrating Brain Injury. (n.d.). National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.autoaccident.com/penetrating-brain-injury.html

 

3. Penetrating Brain Injury. (n.d.-b). Autoaccident.Com. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.autoaccident.com/penetrating-brain-injury.html

 

4. Nall, R. M. (2021, December 14). Brain Damage: What You Need to Know. Healthline. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.healthline.com/health/brain-damage#symptoms

 

5. Parker, L. H. (2017, July 19). How Traumatic Brain Injuries Can Affect The Whole Family. Law Offices of Larry H. Parker. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.larryhparker.com/how-traumatic-brain-injuries-can-affect-the-whole-family/

 

6. Traumatic Brain Injuries -- Teaching Strategies. (n.d.). Walter State Community College. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.ws.edu/student-services/disability/teaching/brain.shtm

 
7. Teaching Strategies for Deaf or Hearing-Impaired Students. Retrieved from https://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/CETL/resources/teaching-strategies-for-deaf-or-hearing-impaired-s.aspx

8. Brain Injury and the Educational Impact. (2022, May 12). Vimeo. Retrieved June 17, 2022, from https://vimeo.com/527968213?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=132593217

9. Harris, M. J. (2014, February 1). Part III: Best Practices for Teaching Students with TBI. YouTube. Retrieved June 17, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XETNMmVfKm8   

 

The American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual for ADHD, the DSM-V, lists nine symptoms of inattentive ADHD.

In a child or adolescent, at least six of these must be present and must significantly disrupt a patient’s life in order to merit a diagnosis.

After age 17, only five symptoms must be present to warrant a diagnosis of ADHD.

Help Build Organizational Skills:

Another suggestion was to have a buddy take notes.  I personally believe that this should be temporary as a student needs to move toward independence and accountability.  Also, over time, some "buddies" tend to get frustrated with long term assistance for a friend that "depends" too much on them.  

Giving Instructions:

Assessments:

Managing Behavior

- Weekly (monthly) 1 page checklist for all goals

- Journal that includes time on task, distractors

- Graded Worksheets, Assessments

- Videos translated into data

- EBL tool data

- Timed Tested Sessions

Jeanette Laugier
Brett Zinck

Niamh Lonergan

Andrew Nelson

Nikolai Kawabata Jessen-Petersen

Faith Chikukwa

Medicine or surgery can often fix this type of hearing loss.

Causes of Conductive Hearing Loss

This type of hearing loss can be caused by the following:

A problem with how the outer or middle ear is formed. Some people are born without an outer ear. Some may have a deformed ear canal or have a problem with the bones in their middle ear .

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Your ear is made up of three parts— the outer, the middle and the inner ear. Sensorineural hearing loss, or SNHL, happens after inner ear damage. Problems with the nerve pathways from your inner ear to your brain can also cause SNHL. Soft sounds may be hard to hear. Even louder sounds may be unclear or may sound muffled.

This is the most common type of permanent hearing loss. Most of the time, medicine or surgery cannot fix SNHL. Hearing aids may help you hear.

This type of hearing loss can be caused by the following things:

Sometimes, a conductive hearing loss happens at the same time as a sensorineural hearing loss, or SNHL. This means that there may be damage in the outer or middle and inner ear or nerve pathway to the brain. This is a mixed hearing loss.

Anything that causes a conductive hearing loss or SNHL can lead to a mixed hearing loss. An example would be if you have a hearing loss because you work around loud noises and you have fluid in your middle ear. The two together might make your hearing worse than it would be with only one problem.

·       Difficulty understanding words, especially against background noise or in a crowd

·       Trouble hearing consonants

·       Frequently asking others to speak more slowly, clearly and loudly

·       Needing to turn up the volume of the television or radio

·       Withdrawal from conversations

·       Fewer educational and job opportunities due to impaired communication

·       Social withdrawal due to reduced access to services and difficulties communicating with others

·       Emotional problems caused by a drop in self-esteem and confidence.

Students who are hearing impaired lose access to a great deal of information from the conversations surrounding them every day. Many words sound the same to them, so they’re forced to use a great deal of effort to try to distinguish what’s being said around them, in addition to conversations directed to them.

The extra listening effort is required constantly, and can quickly lead to fatigue for the child. Some additional factors that contribute to listening effort fatigue include:

Ensure you are facing the classroom when you speak, not the whiteboard. Good lighting is also a must so they can see you clearly.

Speak normally and clearly, emphasizing keywords. Repeat and rephrase when necessary.

If you are organizing a group activity, help students who lip-read by positioning the group in a circle so that the deaf learner can see all the other participants as they speak.
2. Provide written handouts & visual aids

Deaf learners who are lip-reading, watching an interpreter or using a hearing aid may find it difficult to take notes from a whiteboard at the same time. So your deaf students don’t miss anything important, make all information and announcements from class available as a written handout.

Visual aids and learning materials are a great way to support deaf learners but it’s important not to rush through visual content, particularly when you are speaking at the same time.

Give your deaf learners time to look at the visual content and take it in before you start speaking. They need time to switch between the visual and the auditory.

3.Show captioned or interpreted video
If you are using video as part of your class teaching, try to find captioned or sign language interpreted options. If these aren’t available, consider how else to engage your deaf student with the learning material in the video.

The most important thing for teachers is to be as inclusive as possible every step along the deaf learners’ journey.

4. Reduce background noise
For students who use a hearing aid, it helps if you reduce the amount of background noise in the room. Easier said than done in some noisy classrooms! Besides managing student behavior, however, think of other ways you can limit background noise in the room. Can you close the windows and doors, for example?

Clearly repeating questions or responses from other students in the class will help your deaf learners understand what their classmates are saying.

You want your deaf and hard-of-hearing students to feel included in your class conversations. Ask them how they will feel most comfortable participating in class discussions.

 5. Use available resources
You could consider learning sign language and encourage other class members to learn sign language too. Additionally, you can use the technology available to assist deaf learners.

For example, if possible, allow deaf students to record the lesson with live remote captioning, or provide a recording of the lesson yourself so that a transcript can be made available later.

Some hearing aids have a transmitter and receiver system with a clip-on microphone for the speaker so find out if this equipment might be useful to your deaf student.

Send your students copies of your teaching notes and any visual aids you used in the lesson. Wherever you can, make use of resources like peer tutoring, special educators, interpreters, notetakers, therapy services and teacher aides.

 6. Check-in with your deaf students 
Make sure your deaf students know that you are there for them and adjust your teaching strategies according to whatever they feel comfortable with.

Respecting their choices is important. You want to help empower them to be the best learners they can be. Before, during and after a lesson check that they have understood what you are teaching and repeat anything they ask you to repeat.

According to the deaf health charity, Sign Health, deaf children are 30% to 50% more likely to experience mental health challenges, compared to hearing children. If your deaf student is experiencing challenges to their mental health, it is important as their teacher that you know how you can help.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2009). Sensorineural Hearing Loss. Asha.org. https://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Sensorineural-Hearing-Loss/

Better Health Channel. (2012). Hearing loss - how it affects people. Vic.gov.au. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/hearing-loss-how-it-affects-people

 

How are the terms deaf, deafened, hard of hearing, and hearing impaired typically used? | DO-IT. (2019). Washington.edu. https://www.washington.edu/doit/how-are-terms-deaf-deafened-hard-hearing-and-hearing-impaired-typically-used

 

Mayo Clinic. (2019, May 10). Hearing loss - Symptoms and causes. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hearing-loss/symptoms-causes/syc-20373072

Mixed Hearing Loss. (2009). Asha.org. https://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Mixed-Hearing-Loss/

 

7 Teaching Strategies to Empower Deaf Students | Deaf Unity. (n.d.). Deafunity.org. https://deafunity.org/article_interview/7-teaching-strategies-to-empower-deaf-students/

 

 

I think this document would have been extremely useful in my first year of teaching when I had a basic understanding of many of these disabilities. I think the section I would have found the most useful is the various teaching strategies suggested to use on students with these disabilities. During my first year of teaching, I was placed in a school where there was no learning support of any kind and I remember one student in particular who had ADHD, however at the time I did not know it was that. I believe if I had this document at hand, it could have been extremely helpful to me and all the other teachers at my school as we could have understood the disability more and implemented the suggested teaching strategies to help the student meet the learning objectives at that time.

I also think this document is going to be extremely useful in the future. Each disability contains plenty of information about the cause, the impact on students and teaching strategies. I think, in the future, I will be able to use this as an aid if I think a student has one of these disabilities. I will be able to look at disability and the symptoms and try and understand which disorder he or she has and then implement different strategies to help the student. 

I also like how there are a lot of informative videos embedded in this resource. I really enjoy listening to informative videos commuting to work, it is a great way to refresh your memory. In the future I will be able to watch the embedded videos on my way to work or on the way home.  This will ensure I continue to have a clear understanding of each disability. 

Teaching has got to be one of the most creative, innovative jobs out there. There simply isn’t  a one size fits all approach to teaching. That is why a document like this can be extremely helpful. It is important we adapt our teaching methods according to whatever the students’ needs and this type of resource can help us do just that.

Building organization skills

Giving instructions

Completing tests and assignments

Managing behavior