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Perceptions and Expectations of Youth With Disabilities  (NLTS2)
NCSER 2007-3006
September 2007

Table 6.  Youth with disabilities' feelings of competence, by disability category

Competence Learning disability Speech/ language impairment Mental retardation Emotional disturbance Hearing impairment Visual impairment Orthopedic impairment Other health impairment Autism Traumatic brain injury Multiple disabilities Deaf-blindness
Percent / standard error
Percentage reporting how much the following statements are "like you:"                        
Tell peers how you feel when they upset you                        
Very much like you 58.1 48.0 45.7 56.7 47.7 65.8 52.2 51.4 34.4 60.3 50.7 48.9
(4.22) (4.45) (5.85) (4.62) (6.14) (6.00) (5.75) (4.74) (7.00) (8.81) (7.45) (9.12)
A little like you 32.6 39.4 32.0 23.0 42.1 25.9 36.6 35.8 46.6 32.5 31.0 38.6
(4.01) (4.35) (5.47) (3.92) (6.07) (5.54) (5.54) (4.54) (7.35) (8.43) (6.90) (8.88)
Not at all like you 9.3 12.5 22.3 20.4 10.2 8.3 11.2 12.8 19.0 7.1 18.3 12.5
(2.48) (2.95) (4.89) (3.76) (3.72) (3.49) (3.63) (3.17) (5.78) (4.62) (5.77) (6.03)
Can get school staff and adults to listen to you                        
Very much like you 66.7 57.5 61.6 65.5 60.4 70.3 67.7 60.3 56.1 69.1 63.6 73.1
(4.01) (4.40) (5.68) (4.40) (6.02) (5.77) (5.38) (4.59) (7.31) (8.32) (7.10) (8.00)
A little like you 29.3 36.3 30.9 27.7 30.9 25.7 29.5 34.5 36.4 26.5 26.7 18.6
(3.88) (4.28) (5.39) (4.14) (5.69) (5.52) (5.25) (4.46) (7.09) (7.95) (6.53) (7.02)
Not at all like you 4.1 6.2 7.5 6.8 8.7 3.9 2.8 5.3 7.5 4.4 9.7 8.3
(1.69) (2.15) (3.07) (2.33) (3.47) (2.44) (1.90) (2.10) (3.88) (3.69) (4.37) (4.98)
Know how to get information you need                        
Very much like you 63.5 61.6 57.4 74.3 63.6 77.4 60.0 61.2 63.2 66.6 60.7 66.7
(4.09) (4.33) (5.76) (4.05) (5.91) (5.32) (5.63) (4.58) (7.11) (8.49) (7.34) (8.51)
A little like you 33.4 33.6 32.9 22.5 33.3 21.6 36.3 34.8 32.2 27.5 31.1 33.3
(4.01) (4.20) (5.48) (3.87) (5.79) (5.23) (5.52) (4.48) (6.89) (8.04) (6.96) (8.51)
Not at all like you 3.1 4.8 9.7 3.1 3.1 1.0 3.7 4.0 4.6 5.9 8.1 #
(1.47) (1.90) (3.45) (1.61) (2.13) (1.27) (2.17) (1.84) (3.09) (4.24) (4.10)  
Tell professionals their opinions on services provided                        
Often 33.3 23.0 48.6 31.5 25.7 23.6 23.0 30.7 23.2 35.7 18.5
(9.83) (9.85) (16.42) (10.22) (8.90) (8.03) (7.92) (8.14) (9.41) (15.28) (9.45)  
Sometimes 33.0 45.2 29.0 33.3 47.7 50.6 47.9 38.9 34.8 33.2 54.6
(9.81) (11.65) (14.91) (10.37) (10.18) (9.46) (9.40) (8.61) (10.62) (15.02) (12.12)  
Hardly ever 33.7 31.9 22.4 35.1 26.6 25.9 29.1 30.4 42.1 31.1 26.8
(9.86) (10.91) (13.70) (10.50) (9.00) (8.29) (8.55) (8.12) (11.01) (14.77) (10.78)  
Responses for items with fewer than 30 respondents are not reported.
# Rounds to zero.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Special Education Research, National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2), Wave 2 youth telephone interview/mail survey, 2003.

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