Exceptional Learners: An Introduction to Special Education, 14th edition

Published by Pearson (January 12, 2018) © 2019

  • Daniel P Hallahan University of Virginia
  • James M. Kauffman University of Virginia
  • Paige C. Pullen University of Florida

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For introduction to special education courses.
An up-to-date introduction to the characteristics of exceptional learners and their educationExceptional Learners: An Introduction to Special Education focuses on exceptional learners and classroom practices, as well as the psychological, sociological, and medical aspects of disabilities and giftedness.
Based on the authors’ premise that professionals working with exceptional learners need to develop not only a solid base of knowledge, but also a healthy attitude toward their work and the people whom they serve, this book is designed to reach the heart as well as the mind. It asks both general and special educators to challenge themselves to acquire a solid understanding of current theory, research, and practice in special education, and to develop an ever more sensitive understanding of exceptional learners and their families.   
The 14th Edition includes the new definitions of Specific Learning Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) from the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5, along with expanded coverage of topics like Universal Design for Learning, Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS).
Also available with MyLab Education
MyLab™ is the teaching and learning platform that empowers you to reach every student. By combining trusted author content with digital tools and a flexible platform, MyLab personalizes the learning experience and improves results for each student. MyLab Education helps teacher candidates bridge the gap between theory and practice–better preparing them for success in their future classrooms. Learn more about MyLab Education.
A persistent, insightful focus on students with special needs and on their families and educators
  • Misconceptions About Exceptional Learners: Myths and Facts begin each chapter. These debunk common myths about students with exceptionalities and help readers see and understand more clearly the students with whom they will be working.
  • Peer Connections, based on interviews with individuals with a disability between the ages of 18-25, give students a better understanding of exceptionality as they read about the lives of exceptional learners who are young adults.
  • Success Stories: Special Educators at Work help readers understand the knowledge, skills, and dispositions special educators should possess when they enter the field.
Grounded in current research and research-based practices
  • UPDATED: Features new definitions of Specific Learning Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, and Autism Spectrum Disorders, from the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5.
  • EXPANDED: Revised coverage of special education in the context of the Common Core State Standards Initiative provides readers with an understanding of the interconnection between general and special education (Ch. 2).
Also available with MyLab Education MyLab™ is the teaching and learning platform that empowers you to reach every student. By combining trusted author content with digital tools and a flexible platform, MyLab personalizes the learning experience and improves results for each student. MyLab Education helps teacher candidates bridge the gap between theory and practice—better preparing them for success in their future classrooms. Learn more about MyLab Education.
  • Deliver trusted content: You deserve teaching materials that meet your own high standards for your course. That’s why we partner with highly respected authors to develop interactive content and course-specific resources that you can trust–and that keep your students engaged.
    • Video Examples in the MyLab eText use real classroom footage to illustrate or expand on key chapter concepts, helping students better understand course content. Interviews from the authors and experts in the field further describe current approaches to teaching students with special needs
    • IRIS Center Resources (http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu), including challenge-based interactive modules, case study units, and podcasts that provide research-validated information about working with students in inclusive settings, are integrated throughout the MyLab.
  • Empower each learner: Each student learns at a different pace. Personalized learning pinpoints the precise areas where each student needs practice, giving all students the support they need–when and where they need it–to be successful.
    • Application Exercises challenge learners to reflect on and to apply what they have learned. Each scaffolded exercise provides immediate feedback in the form of model responses written by experts.
    • Self-Check Quizzes throughout the eText help students assess how well they have mastered content. These self-grading multiple-choice quizzes provide immediate feedback on whether questions have been answered correctly or incorrectly, as well as rationales.
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Check out the preface for a complete list of features and what's new in this edition.

Grounded in current research and research-based practices
  • Features new definitions of Specific Learning Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, and Autism Spectrum Disorders, from the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5.
  • Revised coverage of special education in the context of the Common Core State Standards Initiative provides readers with an understanding of the interconnection between general and special education (Ch. 2).
  • Chapter-by-chapter changes include:
    • More emphasis on abilities, rather than disabilities, of students in special education (Ch. 1)
    • Updated percentages of students of various ethnic groups receiving special education (Ch. 3)
    • Greater emphasis on the importance of family resiliency in the face of having a child with a disability (Ch. 4)
    • A more succinct explanation of the critical role of systematic instruction for students with intellectual disabilities (Ch. 5)
    • An expanded and more in-depth discussion of literacy instruction and learning disabilities; expanded discussion on identification of students with learning disabilities, including strengths and weaknesses in cognitive processing (Ch. 6)
    • More emphasis on the importance of executive functioning and behavioral inhibition (Ch. 7)
    • The importance of neuronal underconnectivity between the front and back of the brain in people with autism spectrum disorders (Ch. 9)
    • Updated information on how sign language evolves naturally among people who are deaf, further demonstrating that sign language is a bona fide language (Ch. 11)
    • Expanded coverage of traumatic brain injury, especially in the context of sports injuries (Ch. 13)
    • Research linking spina bifida and learning disabilities (Ch. 14)
    • The inherent difficulties of defining giftedness in a multicultural society (Ch. 15)
Also available with MyLab Education MyLab™ is the teaching and learning platform that empowers you to reach every student. By combining trusted author content with digital tools and a flexible platform, MyLab personalizes the learning experience and improves results for each student. MyLab Education helps teacher candidates bridge the gap between theory and practice–better preparing them for success in their future classrooms. Learn more about MyLab Education.
  • Video Examples in the MyLab eText use real classroom footage to illustrate or expand on key chapter concepts, helping students better understand course content. Interviews from the authors and experts in the field further describe current approaches to teaching students with special needs
  • IRIS Center Resources (http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu), including challenge-based interactive modules, case study units, and podcasts that provide research-validated information about working with students in inclusive settings, are integrated throughout the MyLab.
  • Application Exercises challenge learners to reflect on and to apply what they have learned. Each scaffolded exercise provides immediate feedback in the form of model responses written by experts.
  • Self-Check Quizzes throughout the eText help students assess how well they have mastered content. These self-grading multiple-choice quizzes provide immediate feedback on whether questions have been answered correctly or incorrectly, as well as rationales.

Check out the preface for a complete list of features and what's new in this edition.

Brief Contents

  1. Exceptionality and Special Education
  2. Current Practices for Meeting the Needs of Exceptional Learners
  3. Multicultural and Bilingual Aspects of Special Education
  4. Parents and Families
  5. Learners with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
  6. Learners with Learning Disabilities
  7. Learners with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
  8. Learners with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders
  9. Learners with Autism Spectrum Disorders
  10. Learners with Communication Disorders
  11. Learners Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
  12. Learners with Blindness or Low Vision
  13. Learners with Low-Incidence, Multiple, and Severe Disabilities
  14. Learners with Physical Disabilities and Other Health Impairments
  15. Learners with Special Gifts and Talents

Glossary

References

Name Index

Subject Index

Daniel P. Hallahan, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Virginia. At UVA, Hallahan served as a department chair (twice), director of doctoral studies, and elected representative (four three-year terms) to UVA’s faculty senate. He held three endowed professorships, including the UVA Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship. He received the UVA Outstanding Teaching Award and the Virginia State Council of Higher Education Outstanding Faculty Award. Hallahan was inaugural editor of Exceptionality and currently reviews for Exceptional Children, Learning Disability Quarterly, The Journal of Special Education, and Exceptionality. He is a past president of the Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). In 2000 he received the CEC Career Research Award. Hallahan’s expertise covers a broad spectrum—learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, intellectual disabilities, blindness, deafness. Much of his early scholarship focused on cognitive strategy training for students with learning disabilities and ADHD. Most recently, he has focused on the need for more individualized, intensive special education instruction for students with disabilities. Hallahan is author of over 100 articles, over 40 chapters, and is coauthor or coeditor of 18 books, including Handbook of Special Education (2nd ed.) (with J. M. Kauffman & P. C. Pullen, Routledge, 2017) and Special Education: What It Is and Why We Need It (2nd ed.) (with J. M. Kauffman, P. C. Pullen, & J. Badar, Routledge, 2018). Some of his books have been translated into German, Spanish, Korean, and Arabic. Hallahan has taught thousands of pre-service and in-service teachers in the introductory course in special education, characteristics of students with learning disabilities, and characteristics of students with intellectual disabilities, as well as hundreds of Ph.D. students in research seminars.
James M. Kauffman, Ed.D., is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Virginia. He is a past president of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) and the recipient of several awards, including the 1994 Research Award of the Council for Exceptional Children, the 2006 award of the Society for Applied Behavior Analysis for Presentation of Behavior Analysis in the Mass Media, and the 2011 Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Kansas School of Education. His primary research interests are emotional and behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, and the history of and policy in special education. He has published over 100 articles in refereed journals, authored or coauthored dozens of book chapters, and is author, coauthor, or coeditor of more than 20 books, including Characteristics of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders of Children and Youth (10th ed.) (with Timothy J. Landrum, Pearson, 2013), Handbook of Special Education (2nd ed.) (with J. M. Kauffman & P. C. Pullen, Routledge, 2017), and Special Education: What It Is and Why We Need It (2nd ed.) (with J. M. Kauffman, P. C. Pullen, & J. Badar, Routledge, 2018). In his career, Kauffman has taught thousands of pre-service and in-service teachers in courses on emotional and behavioral disorders and behavior management, as well as hundreds of Ph.D. students in doctoral seminars.
Paige Cullen Pullen, Ph.D., is the Literacy Initiatives Manager at the Lastinger Center for Learning and a Research Professor in the School of Special Education, School Psychology, and Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida. Prior to her position at the University of Florida, Pullen held a joint appointment in University of Virginia’s Department of Pediatrics and the Curry School of Education. Before earning her doctorate at the University of Florida in 2000, she had 12 years of K–12 teaching experience in general and special education. She has served as the Principal Investigator of federal and foundation-funded projects, has coauthored several books, including Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities, and Students with Learning Disabilities (with Cecil D. Mercer, Pearson, 2009; 2011), and has published numerous book chapters, peer-reviewed articles, and presented papers focused on evidence-based reading instruction for students with disabilities. Pullen is Executive Editor of Exceptionality: A Special Education Journal (Taylor & Francis). Pullen’s research focuses on early language and literacy development and interventions to prevent reading disability for vulnerable populations (e.g., cultural differences, poverty, rural living environments), as well as the educational outcomes of children with developmental disabilities and those with chronic medical conditions. Pullen currently conducts reading research and professional development in Zambia and Botswana, Africa, as well as in the USA. She is the recipient of the prestigious UVA Seven Society’s Excellence in Mentoring Award—2011 and the Curry School Foundation’s Most Outstanding Professor Award. Pullen has taught thousands of pre-service and in-service teachers in the introductory course in special education and language and literacy intervention for students with disabilities.

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