Journal Reflection

By Author: Sherry Roberts
Total Articles: 77
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The use of Developmental Delay (DD) as a label is per the rationale of providing the needed service without stigmatizing a child. It is, however, true that the generic label DD has created a wide range of issues such as under and over-identification. Others are eligibility criteria, problems arising from norm-referenced instruments and loss of placing services because a child cannot be in a specific disability category. These are the issues under the discussion by Hadadian and Koch (2009) in their article, issues in labeling young children with disability. The authors extensively discuss each of these issues and show the present concerns facing the labeling of children with disabilities. It is unfortunate that there is no meaningful consistency among states in eligibility criteria to determine a child in need of special services. Other states use informed team consensus while others use developmental age. Under and over-identification of labeling children with DD results from the financial strains that are forcing states to narrow down their DD definition. Thus, many children are left out from early intervention services.
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... Categorical eligibility for special education has other problems not mentioned by the others. These additional problems include the lack of a link between categorical labels and teacher training programs. There is a tremendous categorical eligibility criterion within states. Another challenge arises from the assumption that a child automatically fits the disability category and that special education is the right action. The authors have, however, well-discussed challenges involving a lot of children being left out because they do not fit any disability categories and the overrepresentation of children. There is also the concern of over-representation of children from a specific ethnic and racial minority groups falling under disabilities categories. The authors do not present the problem.

Reference
Hadadian A., and Koch, K (2009) Issues in Labeling Young Children with Developmental Delay: Whose Responsibility is it? Childhood Special Education Journal, 5(2), 187-199.

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