How Can We Really ‘Tell’ if a Student Has a Disability?
Amy K. Noggle, Ph.D., Towson University, Department of Special Education, College of Education, Maryland, USA
Patricia Rice Doran, Ed.D., Towson University, Department of Special Education, College of Education, Maryland, USA
Solange Lopes-Murphy, Ph.D., Department of Special Education, Language and Literacy, The College of New Jersey, New Jersey, USA
In this section, we aim to address the concerns of K-12 school professionals in their assessment of multilingual students for special education services. The guiding question below is adapted from questions received from educators and education professionals. If you have questions you would like to be addressed in our future newsletter issues, please send those to the co-editors at [email protected]. We will do our best to address them.
- How can we really 'tell' if a student has a disability vs. language acquisition needs only?
This question is one that likely warrants a complete textbook, and perhaps years-long longitudinal studies of great magnitude. However, in the short-term, and because so many in the field are faced with this question frequently, we pose some helpful ‘act-now’ strategies followed by a student vignette. Finally, we offer a sampling of data on the current landscape of English Learners (ELs) and Multilingual Learners (MLs) and the intersection of disability.
Act Now Ideas: How Can We Tell if it’s a Disability?
Do you have access to/knowledge of the child’s full medical history? As an example, knowing if a child was exposed to alcohol in utero and may therefore have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome - or FAS - may offer a great deal of clarity as your team tries to decide why an 8 year-old child is having difficulty recalling 5 sequential steps from a text. Context is important. (Disclaimer: we know that multiple barriers exist when trying to obtain records from prior schools - especially said schools are out of the county. Additionally, we are well aware that some students may have never been in school at all prior to entering the U.S.)
What do you know about the child’s culture? Is formal education highly valued? Does learning “look” the same in the child’s culture and in your school system? If it is not, a student’s lack of persistence or motivation could be inherent to the cultural nuances and not because the task at hand is too hard. While this scenario certainly puts teachers in a precarious position, developing rapport with students and going the extra mile to find motivators may help.
What do you know about the student’s family? In considering this question, consider developmental norms, which may be closely tied in to the student’s culture, mentioned above. Is the student experiencing family separation or family stress? Who are the family members and important adults in the student’s life? Does the student have siblings, and if so, do those siblings have similar strengths and needs? (The answer to this question may not be determinative of disability per se, but may be helpful in guiding school personnel to consider students’ background, environment, funds of knowledge, and developmental and family history.)
Has language dominance been established? Consider a 7 year-old child from Belgium whose family speaks French. The team may make assumptions that French is the dominant language when in reality it is English because the child has lived in the U.S. since they were two years old. A home language survey may help ascertain language dominance/language preference. It is critical to know which language is strongest before forging ahead with testing; this approach applies to daily learning materials as well.
How is the child responding to Response to Intervention (RTI) and other supports? While there is no magic formula, nor is there no specific timeline for when we make the call (see question #1), we do need to consider how a student is responding and progressing. 1 The child is asked to put pictures representing the story in order; the teacher hopes that this will progress into sequencing rebuses from the story, followed by rebus/word pairings. Eventually, the teacher guides the student to write short phrases to represent the steps in the story using sentence starters that also contain rebuses. Is there a positive trajectory with these small gradual demands, or does the progress seem static? At the same time, WiDA data will be updated at least annually. Multiple data sources will allow us to see where true progress is evidencing itself and where the acquisition of new knowledge seems to be stalling. As such, we rely on subjective but informed and professional opinion.
A Case in Point
Isabella. Isabella (name and details changed) is a three year-old student who recently emigrated from Mexico. She has been identified by Child Find (under Part B of IDEIA) as a student with a Developmental Delay. On a speech and language assessment, she demonstrated at least a 25% delay in both expressive and receptive language. As her teacher, I immediately noticed that when I asked her to ‘sit down please’ she stared at me as if confused. When I instead said ‘Sientense por favor’ she smiled and sat right down. I immediately thought ‘No way does this child have a delay…it’s a function of her lack of exposure to English!” I quickly ran to our SLP to tell her of my ‘aha moment.’ We took some time to review her assessment materials (I had not been a part of her assessment team; I was on the receiving team). As we looked closely at Isabella’s test results, the SLP showed me that one of our county SLPs (fluent in Spanish) assessed Bella in both Spanish and English. Using both the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody (TVIP), the SLP was able to show me that Bella seemed to understand just as much in English and she understood in Spanish. She demonstrated a 30% delay in English comprehension and a comparable 26% delay in Spanish. So while English was slightly more impacted, she still showed a delay in her native language. I soon realized that my ‘aha’ moment was based on one isolated snapshot when I asked her to follow a one-step direction. Though she seemed to respond quickly to my direction in Spanish, it’s notable that following a one-step command is on par with 18-month milestones (cdc.gov). Bella was 39 months old during this scenario.
Bella’s story is a cautionary tale of sorts. In many of our early education programs (including Head Start, PreK, Part B preschool programs and privatized childcare), we all do our best to provide extra scaffolding and support. We may throw in a few picture communication symbols (PCS); we may label our toy bins with photos of the toys that belong in said bin; we may pride ourselves on knowing a few key phrases in a child’s native language. All of these attempts are rooted in good intentions and universality (see Universal Design for Learning - UDL - CAST, 2018). We may see small progresses, which are undoubtedly important, yet if we relegate our perception of a child’s development to a simple snapshot scenario, we are likely not getting the whole picture. In Bella’s case, she was identified early. However, imagine a scenario where she hadn’t been identified and was still attending her traditional child care/preschool. Teachers (like me) became so excited to see Bella’s response to a Spanish command; this ability may have sent a false signal of sorts, causing teachers to think that she was perfectly ‘fine.’ Isabella was later (approximately age 8) diagnosed with a Specific Learning Disability (SLD). I applaud my SLP at the time for picking up on her early warning signs, for assessing her in both languages, and for affording Bella the chance to benefit from early intervention.
A Picture of ELs and MLs in Special Education
Historically, students of certain races and cultures have been over-identified (and therefore overrepresented in special education). “Children of African-American background, for example, are more than twice as likely to be identified as having an emotional or behavioral disorder, a phenomenon which research attributes both to implicit teacher bias and to poorly developed understanding, on the part of educators, of variables that may differ across cultural groups, such as eye contact, vocal volume, and physical proximity” (Rice Doran & Noggle, 2019, p. 94)
During the 2014-2015 school year, the U.S. Department of Education found that among English learners (ELs) with disabilities, nearly 50 percent had a specific learning disability, compared to nearly 38 percent of students with disabilities who are not ELs (USDOE, 2017). In the spring of 2018, the Office of English Language Acquisition (2020) found that ELs were more likely than non-ELs to be served for specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, or intellectual disabilities (12.3, 2.0, 0.5 percentage points higher, respectively.)
By the fall of 2020, 800,600 ELs were identified as Students with Disabilities (SWD), representing 16.1 percent of the total EL enrollment. In comparison, SWD made up 14.5 percent of total public school (K12) enrollment in 2020–21 (NCES, 2023). It is critical to highlight that the fall of 2020 reflected a mid-pandemic return to school after many jurisdictions had been closed the spring prior. Nonetheless, data showed that for the majority of grade levels, the percentage of K12 students who were ELs was higher in fall 2020 than just before the pandemic in fall 2019. However, the percentage of ELs was lower in fall 2020 than in fall 2019 in kindergarten and grades 1, 2, 5, and 9 (NCES, 2023). It is not surprising that the greatest difference was found among kindergarteners, many of whom missed a significant amount of preschool the spring prior, if they were even enrolled in preschool at all.
The notable difference among kindergartners, pandemical differences aside, begs the question: Are we doing enough to intervene early? Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) makes provisions for infants and toddlers (Birth to age 3) with disabilities; Part B of IDEA (sec. 619) mandates services for children ages 3 to 5 who qualify as a student with a disability; and other federally funded preschool programs such as Head Start and PreK have provisions in place to serve certain populations of children. As an example, Head Start must allocate at least 10% of its enrollment for students with disabilities as per the Economic Opportunity Act Amendments of 1972.
Although a notable overrepresentation of MLs in special education exists, it is also critical to note that pockets of students exist who are likely under-identified. Despite the targeted attempts in the United States to identify students early for possible disability, an inordinate number of children continue to arrive on the first day of kindergarten with suspected delays. But are such delays legitimate (disability) – or have students whose native language is not English simply not had exposure to our language demands (EL/ML)? With early intervention, multiple data sources and team collaboration, all children in our school systems will be better served and more readily identified for appropriate services.
References
CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org
Centers for Disease Control (CDC, 2024). Important milestones: Your child by 18 months. Retrieved 4/23/24 from https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-18mo.html
National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). English Learners in Public Schools. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved [date], from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgf.
Rice Doran, P. & Noggle, A. K. (2019). Universal supports for English learners at risk. In P. R. Doran & A.K. Noggle (Eds.) Supporting English learners with exceptional needs (pp. 79-96). Alexandria, VA: TESOL Press.
U.S. Department of Education, "Number and percent of children ages 3 through 5 and students ages 6 through 21 served under IDEA, Part B, by LEP status and state.)," 2014–15. Downloaded August 3, 2017 from https://www2.ed.gov/programs/osepidea/618-data/static-tables/2014-2015/part-b/child-count-and-educational-environment/1415-bchildcountandedenvironment-4.xlsx.
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), "Local Education Agency (School District) Universe Survey Data," 2014–15. Downloaded April 10, 2017 from https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/pubagency.asp.
U.S. Department of Education, EDFacts Data Warehouse (EDW), 2014–15. LEA File C141, LEP Enrolled. Retrieved April 18, 2024.