Abstract:

For more than two decades there has been a concerted effort in the field of Special Education to move beyond a deficit driven model to identify students with disabilities, and the language used to describe these individuals, to communicate a more realistic/strength-based view of these individuals. To this end, initiatives that promote person-first language, identifying the child before the disability, are now the common practice when introducing an individual with a disability. Community and university programs serving individuals with disabilities have changed their titles from Disability Services/Centers to Ability Services/Centers and professional journals in the field of Special Education have changed their titles to eliminate the use of antiquated terms like mental retardation and looking at disabilities rather than disorders. In this study, candidates in a Masters of Special Education Program (N=855), were asked to list characteristics they would use to describe individuals identified with either a learning disability, emotional/behavioral disability, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit disorder or gifted/talented. Responses were categorized as being either positive/strengths, neutral, or negative/deficits. Results indicate that characteristics used to describe individuals with disabilities were predominately viewed as negative/deficits in all areas except gifted/talented, where the responses were predominately positive/strengths. A qualitative analysis of the candidate responses to a follow-up question related to their responses revealed a number of themes that may serve to inform teacher education in special education.

Keywords:

Special education, labels.