LDA 

Beware the IQ Score 

 

By Matt Cohen 

 

 For over a hundred years, researchers, educators and others have debated about the factors that contribute to human intelligence.  It has been generally believed that a person's intelligence was primarily innate, that is that it was based on their genetic makeup and under most circumstances would remain constant.  Intelligence might decline due to severe illness or neurological trauma affecting the brain.  It might be subject to some positive influence through early interventions such as Headstart.   However, for most people, one's intellectual ability would remain relatively the same throughout their healthy life.    This belief has had an enormous impact on educational policy.   Formal and informal tracking systems in regular education and programming and placement strategies for many children with disabilities have been heavily influenced by the belief that one intellectual potential was essentially constant and not significantly related to one' s education, upbringing, enrichment experiences and other external factors.    The possibility that one's intellectual ability or potential could be positively or negatively influenced by the quality and intensity of education and other positive or negative environmental experiences should dramatically change our commitment to providing more intensive and sustained educational experiences for all children, rather than assuming that the intellectual  cake is baked by adolescence, if not earlier  In addition, the belief that intellectual ability was constant  gave measuring a person's intelligence n special importance, as it appeared that it was not only possible to assess a person's intellectual functioning at a particular point in time, but that, barring neurological damage, that assessment was likely to be predictive of the person's intellectual performance from childhood onward.   In other words, your intellectual ability, whether high or low, was essentially thought to be pre-determined.  

 

Remember that one's native intelligence or intellectual ability does not equal one's performance.   As well, IQ tests purportedly measure intellectual ability or potential, where academic achievement tests are intended to measure what a person has learned.   A person can have high intellectual ability and perform poorly academically.   This can occur due to the presence of a learning disability, poor teaching, lack of motivation or many other factors.   The converse was generally believed to not occur- one could not generally function academically higher than one's intellectual potential.   The growing recognition that a person's intellectual ability can be influenced by their academic experience, positively or negatively, undermines some of the key assumptions about how we educate people and how we structure curriculum and resources for education.   If a person's intellectual ability can be substantially improved with higher quality teaching and can be negatively impacted by poor teaching (and other environmental factors), it raises the stakes enormously in relation to the need to provide "the best" or at least "much better" education, as opposed to the minimally adequate education that we often currently provide.  Read On....  

Supreme Court Issues Ruling Potentially Restricting Use of Student Admissions to Police Liason Officers

 

Illinois Insurance Code Recently Amended 

 

by Matt Cohen and Jen Runge

 

Effective August 18, 2011, the Illinois Insurance Code (215 ILCS 5/1) has been amended regarding the provision of benefits to persons with mental, emotional, nervous, and substance abuse disorders.

 

Section 370c of the Illinois Insurance Code calls for insurers amending, delivering, issuing, or renewing group insurance policies to provide coverage for "reasonable and necessary treatment and services for mental, emotional or nervous disorders"* (emphasis added).   Since this recent amendment, such provisions have remained the same; however, there are some changes. Such insurers are now required to abide by the mental health parity requirements. These requirements ensure that the mental health services covered in this section do not receive more limitations or more restrictive benefits than other hospital/medical benefits in a particular policy.

 

The new amendment also calls for persons with substance abuse disorders to be included in the previously-listed categories of mental, emotional, and nervous disorders who are able to choose a licensed provider up to coverage limits (so long as the treated condition is covered by the insurance policy).   Furthermore, added to the list of providers a person falling under this statute may select include: licensed speech-language pathologists, licensed programs for substance abuse, and licensed professionals for substance abuse.  

 

If you are interested in reading the entire text of the act, please visit   http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=097-0437 

 

*To be clear, this act does not apply to the "serious mental illnesses" as laid out in subsection (b)(2) of the statute, including schizophrenia, paranoid and psychotic disorders, bipolar disorders, major depressive disorders, schizoaffective disorders, pervasive developmental disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, childhood/adolescent depression, panic disorders, PTSD, anorexia, and bulimia.

Welcome to Our Newest Associate - Naoshi Cummings

Upcoming Presentations 

 

November 11, 2011 1:30-3:00 p.m.

Matt Cohen

If You Don't Ask, It May Not Go Well - the Right to Test and College Accommodations for Students with ADHD Under the ADA and Section 504 

23rd Annual CHADD International Conference on ADHD  November 10-12, 2011

Disney's Contemporary Resort, Orlando, Florida

for further information visit their website at

http://www.chadd.org/Content/CHADD/Conferences_Training/Annual_Conference/default.htm

 

 

 

November 30, 2011 - Webinar 8:00-9:00 p.m.
Matt Cohen
Legal Rights Regarding Disaibilities, ADA, etc.
ADDA - Attention Deficit Disorder Association

  

 

February 22-25, 2012
Matt Cohen
 Learning Disability Association of America 49th International Conference

1. to be announced - speaking to the State Presidents
 
2. Wednesday, February 22  1:30-2:30 p.m.
Evaluation & Eligibility for Students with Suspected learning Disabilities:The Impact of RTI and How to Cope with It. 
 

3. Thursday, February 23   10:15-12:30 p.m.
Accessing Adequate Documentation for Accomodation Requests in Adult Education, Postsecondary and Work Environments.
 

4. Thursday, February 23  1:45 - 3:00 p.m.

Transition Planning: A New Approach to the IEP Process/New Opportunities for Students with LD and Related Disorders
 

5. Friday, February 24  4:00 - 5:15 p.m.

I Have a Kid Who.........

  

49th Annual LDA International Conference  February 22-25, 2012
Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL  60605
to register,visit www.LDAAmerica.org/conference/index.asp 

 

  

 

If you are looking for further information or would like Matt to speak at your
parent group, support group, organization, conference or convention
or to do staff trainings, please contact Tami at tami.kuipers@gmail.com
312-419-0252 or 312-735-7441.

Disability Related Events, Conferences or Services 

 

CHADD 23rd Annual International Conference
November 10-12, 2011
Orland,o FL
 www.chadd.org

 

 

LDA 49th Annual International Conference

February 22-25
Hilton Chicago, IL 

http://www.ldaamerica.org    

 

 

JJ's List: An on-line Disability Awareness Directory where potential customers with disabilities find disability-aware businesses.  Check out www.jjslist.com 

Matt Cohen is a founding partner in the Chicago law firm of Monahan and Cohen.