Unit-V: Children with Special Needs (6 hrs)
5.1 Concept of Children with Special Needs
A child with special needs is a youth who has been
determined to require specific care, attention, and
accommodations that other children do not.
children who have a:
developmental disability
mental retardation
emotional disturbance
sensory or motor impairment
chronic illness
These children requires specialized programs,
interventions, or facilities
Characteristics of children with special
needs:
Some physical organs do not work properly.
Poor social skills.
Memory deficiency.
Poor eye contact.
Excessive talking.
Learning issues.
Poor reading fluency.
Delayed speech.
Difficulty organizing written and spoken language.
Constantly interrupting conversations.
5.2 Major types of children with special needs
(Children with learning disabilities, emotionally
disturbed children, gifted children, mentally
challenged children)
i. Physical disability
ii. Visual impairment
iii. Hearing impairment
iv. Intellectual disability
v. Learning disability
vi. Emotional and behavior disorders
vii. Autism spectrum disorder
viii. Speech and language impairment
ix. Deaf and blind disabilities
x. Multiple disability
xi. Gifted and talented children
1. Learning Disability
Provision of education for all in the Constitution of
Nepal-2072
Article 31. Right relating to education:
(1) Every citizen shall have the right of access to basic
education.
(2) Every citizen shall have the right to get compulsory
and free education up to the basic level and free
education up to the secondary level from the State.
(3) The citizens with disabilities and the economically
indigent citizens shall have the right to get free higher
education in accordance with law.
(4) The visually impaired citizens shall have the right to
get free education through brail script and the citizens
with hearing or speaking impairment, to get free
education through sign language, in accordance with
law.
(5) Every Nepalese community residing in Nepal shall
have the right to get education in its mother tongue
and, for that purpose, to open and operate schools and
educational institutes, in accordance with law.
Current status of education for special need children
in Nepal:
33 Schools
23 Integrated schools
380 Resources classes
Types of learning disability are not included in
Human Rights for Persons with Disabilities Act,
2074 (2017).
According to the Learning Disabilities Association of
Canada (January 30, 2002 Re-endorsed on March 2,
2015):
Learning Disabilities refer to a number of disorders
which may affect the acquisition, organization,
retention, understanding or use of verbal or nonverbal
information.
These disorders affect learning in individuals who
otherwise demonstrate at least average abilities
essential for thinking and/or reasoning.
Learning disabilities are distinct from global
intellectual deficiency.
Learning disabilities result from impairments in one
or more processes related to perceiving, thinking,
remembering or learning.
These include, but are not limited to:
language processing;
phonological processing;
visual spatial processing;
processing speed;
memory and attention;
and executive functions (e.g. planning and decision-
making).
Learning disabilities range in severity and may
interfere with the acquisition and use of one or more
of the following:
oral language (e.g. listening, speaking, understanding);
reading (e.g. decoding, phonetic knowledge, word
recognition, comprehension);
written language (e.g. spelling and written expression);
and
mathematics (e.g. computation, problem solving).
Learning disability is a permanent disorder that
affects a person's ability to acquire, retain, or express
information.
It can make difficult to learn, understand, or do
things, and can impact a person's academic or social
development.
Difficulties in learning to children with learning
disability:
i. Dyslexia: Difficulty in reading
ii. Dysgraphia: Difficulty in writing
iii. Dyscalculia: Difficulty in mathematical skills
iv. Dysorthogrophia: Difficulty in spelling
v. Auditory processing disorder: Difficulty in hearing.
2. Emotionally Disturbed Children
This type of disability is categorized as Emotional
and Behavioral Disorder at present.
In Human Rights for Persons with Disabilities
Act, 2074, this type of disability is categorized as
Psychosocial Disability.
Emotional disturbance is an inability to build or
maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with
peers or family.
It is often described as a general pervasive mood of
unhappiness or depression. Individuals with
emotional disorders exhibit inappropriate behavior or
feelings under normal circumstances.
Emotional disturbance is a condition that, for a long
period of time and to a large degree, affects a child's
ability to learn and succeed, both educationally and
interpersonally.
Emotionally disturbed children have:
an inappropriate behavior or feelings in normal
circumstances,
a general mood of unhappiness of depression,
an inability to learn,
a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears
associated with personal/school problems.
In United States, 10% children experience emotional
disturbance. They require treatment and appropriate
mental health care.
Person of different ages experience this order in
varying degrees.
18-25 years: 9.7%
26-46 years: 6.9%
50 and above: 3.4%
Causes of Emotional Disorder:
Family environment:
Chronic stress in home
Authoritarian style of parenting
Disinterested, distant parents
Negative interactions in home.
Diet:
unhealthy eating patterns
strong association between a poor diet and emotional
disorder.
Other factors:
Brain disorder
Hereditary stress
Trauma, etc.
Symptoms of emotionally disturbed children:
Hyperactivity,
aggression (animal, human),
self injurious behavior,
difficulty in learning,
poor coping skills,
withdrawal with social events due to excessive fear and
anxiety.
3. Mentally Challenged Children
Mentally challenged children are children with intellectual
disability (ID) (previously known as mental retardation and
ID after 2002), which is a term used to describe people with
below-average intelligence or mental ability.
Mental retardation is a neurodevelopmental condition that
affects one's ability to learn and perform daily activities.
They can learn new skills, but more slowly.
ID can be diagnosed by using tests and assessments
(Intelligence and adaptive behavior tests, Laboratory
testing of blood and urine, Genetic counseling, and
Imaging tests).
Symptoms of Mental Challenged/retarded
Children:
Difficulty in speaking
Late to learn movement, walking, dressing and self-
feeding
Delaying achieving intellectual milestones
Poor judgement
Delayed motor skills
Aggressive behavior
Hard to remember things
Poor problem-solving and expressing emotions skills.
Causes of Mental Retardation:
Complications during pregnancy
Illness/infection affecting brain development during a
young age
Genetic factors
Environmental factors
Malnutrition
Down syndrome
Head injury
Premature birth
4. Gifted Children
Child who is naturally endowed with a high degree of
general mental ability or extraordinary ability in a
specific sphere of activity or knowledge.
Gifted children are defined as those who demonstrate
an advanced ability or potential in one or more specific
areas when compared to others of the same age,
experience or environment.
In most countries the prevailing definition is an
intelligence quotient (IQ) of 130 or above.
The need for gifted and talented education was first
recognized in the late nineteenth century shortly after
the development of intelligence testing. The first gifted
school was opened in Worcester, Massachusetts in the
early 1900s.
While most schools require students to be in the top
97% percentile of same age peers to be considered for
gifted and talented services, the definition of gifted
varies by state and district.
Giftedness is not considered a disability, although some
gifted students may also have learning disabilities such
as dyslexia, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD), or autism disorder.
These students are known as twice-exceptional students
(also known as 2e children or students).
I.Q. of a Gifted Child:
115-130: Mildly gifted
130-145: Moderately gifted
145-160: Highly gifted
160 or above: Profoundly gifted
Characteristics of gifted children:
High level of intensity
Ability to recognize more options
Sophisticated language and thought process
Perfectionist
Enjoy learning, rapid learner
Perseverance
Depth of perception
Dislikes or practicing something they already know
Keen sense of observation and extra ordinary memory
Higher level of sensitivity
5.3 Characteristics of Children with
Special Needs
1. Psychological characteristics
Poor self-concept
Weak intelligence and I.Q.
Difficult to identify disability
2. Educational characteristics
Indifferent to learning and other school activities
More interest towards concrete matter rather
than abstract
Weak in hearing, reading, writing, etc.
Low achievement
Limited vocabulary and writing skills
Require special support in regular classroom
High dropout rate in comparison to other students
3. Social characteristics
Feeling difficulty in interaction with others
Demonstrating behavioral problems
Weak in performance working places
Need support in social/community activities
5.4 Individual Differences and its Educational
Implications
Person to person differences in various aspects: ability,
behavior, habit, nature, development, interest,
personality, color, race, occupation/profession, need, etc.
Individual differences refers to the variations or
distinctions between people in terms of their
psychological characteristics, such as personality traits,
abilities, interests, values, and cognitive processes,
which ultimately make each person unique.
It's the study of how people differ from one another in
various aspects of their mental and behavioral makeup.
According to the dictionary of C.V. Good (1959):
i. Individual variations or deviations concerning single or
several characteristics are known as individual
differences.
ii. Those differences that, in their totality, distinguish
one individual from another is known as an
individual difference.
According to Dictionary of Teaching and Learning
(2011): Individual difference is unique characteristics
of individuals that have an impact of how they learn.
Types of Individual Differences:
1. Physical differences
2. Mental differences
3. Motor ability differences
4. Differences in achievement
5. Emotional differences
6. Differences in interests and aptitudes
7. Differences in attitudes, beliefs and opinions
8. Learning differences
9. Differences in social and moral development
Causes of individual differences:
1. Heredity
46 (23 pairs) chromosomes
30,000-1,20,000 genes
2. Environment
The environment is everything that affects the
individual except his genes (Boring, Langfield & Weld,
1961)
Environment covers all the outside factors that have
acted on the individual since he began life (Woodworth
and Marquis, 1948).
Distribution of individual differences
School adjustment to individual differences
Proper knowledge of the individual's potentialities
Ability grouping
Adjusting the curriculum
Selection of appropriate methods
Adopting special programmes for individualizing
instruction
The Dalton Laboratory Plan: Developed in 1920s for
secondary level students, school is taken as house and
teaching-learning environment is created by suggestions,
advises, gatherings, etc.
The Winnetka Plan: Developed by Carleton Washburne in
1919, used in Illinois (USA), learning in self-pacing.
The Project Method: Producer's project, consumer's project,
problem project and drill project, individualized learning.
Educational Implications of Individual
Differences:
i. For parents
ii. For teachers
iii. For learners
iv. For curriculum developers
