Definitions of Disability Categories as Defined in 200.1 (zz) – Student with a Disability

Effects and component characteristics of the Disability

Autism
Defined as: a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.

Other characteristics often associated with autism are:

Each of the disorders on the autism spectrum is a neurological disorder that affects a child’s ability to communicate, understand language, play, and relate to others. They share some or all of the following characteristics, which can vary from mild to severe: engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences (e.g., loud noises, bright lights, certain textures of food or fabrics)
Communication problems (for example, nonverbal; limited range of topics in speech; echolalia or repeating words/phrases, etc…)
Difficulty relating to people, things, and events; limited social skills
Playing with toys and objects in unusual ways; repetitive play
Difficulty adjusting to changes in routine or to familiar surroundings; and
Repetitive body movements or behaviors

Deafness
Defined as: a hearing impairment that is so severe that the student is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that adversely affects a student’s educational performance.

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing vary widely in terms of the cause and the degree of hearing loss, the age of onset of hearing loss, educational background, language and communication methods, and how individual members within the community feel about their hearing loss.
Across the United States, several languages and communication forms are used commonly by students who are deaf or hard of hearing, including American Sign Language (ASL), communication systems for visually encoding English such as Manually Coded English (MCE), Cued Speech, speech reading, total communication, and bilingual-bicultural approaches. In addition, some students use residual hearing and hearing devices, or may have surgically placed cochlear implants which receive signals from an external device which stimulates electrodes in the cochlea. Children with cochlear implants who were born with severe to profound hearing loss are not as likely to achieve the kind of proficiency in spoken language as their hearing peers, but can focus on developing skills that enable them to take full advantage of the sound they are able to access .

Deaf-Blindness
Defined as: concomitant hearing and visual impairments, the combination of which causes such severe communication and other developmental and education needs that they cannot be accommodated in special education programs solely for students with deafness or students with blindness.
The National Consortium on Deaf-Blindness observes that the “key feature of deaf-blindness is that the combination of losses limits access to auditory and visual information.” [3] This can severely limit an individual’s natural opportunities to learn and communicate with others.

Emotional Disturbance
Defined as: a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a student’s educational performance:

i. An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; ii. An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; iii. Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; iv. A generally pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or
v. A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

The term includes Schizophrenia. The term does not apply to students who are