In this article, a detailed explanation has been provided on the Children with Special needs or Diverse needs such as Impairment, Disability, Handicap, gifted and talented, Mental Retardation, etc., and the definition, meaning, characteristics, nature, and the educational adaptation regarding all of these issues.
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| Exceptional children |
Children With Diverse Needs
We know that the world is full of diversities and individual differences. Most of the children possess average abilities, capacities, and potentialities with regard to their growing and development in one or the other dimensions of the personality.
Individual differences are natural, no two children are identical, but many of the children deviate too much from the expected range of the normal or average possession of the one or the other traits of their personality so much that their needs become special. These children are in need of special care, attention, and measures for adequate adjustment.
These groups of children are termed as 'exceptional children or children with special needs. Children with special or diverse needs are found to suffer from extremes or excesses. The term exceptional in fact means rare' or 'unusual'.
These children are markedly above average or below average traits and characteristics that make them fundamentally different from the general or average population of children These children begin to show signs of their exceptionality from their birth or during their developmental stages. It is important to note here that these exceptional children can be categorized into two categories.
(a) Fortunats are gifted, creative, talented, who possess capacities and potentialities in abundance in one or the other field of life.
And the (b) Unfortunate are, called disabled, they are found to suffer a lot from one or the other deficits, deficiencies, and inadequacies with regard to their potentialities, growth, and development.
Therefore, these children are labeled as exceptionally superior, or inferior, capable, or in-capable in one or the other aspect of personality development. The needs of such children are very special as they deviate significantly from other average children of their age and grade.
Concept of Impairment, Disability, and Handicap
These terms have been widely used, defined, and distinguished by a number of scholars, writers, and some well-known organizations. ln one publication entitled "The International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicap" WHO (1980) has defined these terms as follows-
Impairment Meaning
Impairment is defined as a psychological or physiological, structural, fundamental, and deficit.
Disability Meaning
Disability is defined as the functional deficit that some persons experience as a result of impairment.
Handicap Meaning
Handicap is defined as the disadvantage a person with disability experiences in various societal settings as a result of that disability (e.g. people who cannot walk may be defined access to particular places).
These terms can be understood in a more specific way in the light of the guidelines provided by WHO-
Impairment Definition
Impairment in its simple meaning denotes or represents a sort of disturbance or abnormality in the structure and functioning of our body systems including the psyche. In this manner, it represents many types of loss deficit or deficiency, and at the psychic or organic level for an individual (e.g. paralysis of speech, loss of a limb, muscles, disturbance in one's vision or legs, or hearing system, disturbance and structural abnormalities in one's neurological system, brain, spinal cord, etc.)
Disability Definition
Disability is used to mean the loss of function that a person experiences because of the impairment. It limits his ability to perform certain tasks.
Types Of Impairment
There are two types of impairment-
i) Hearing or vision impairment may result in one's loss of function with respect to the use of his visionary or hearing system.
(ii) Orthopedic or motor impairment may hinder one's functions with regards to a person's walking and other motor functioning. Where impairment results in a certain type of disability, the disability in its own turn way gives birth to a specific condition known as a handicap. In reality, a handicap stands for a disadvantage imposed on a person on account of his or her disability.
Causes of hearing Impairment
Some disturbance in the structural composition and functioning of the ears may cause hearing impairment. This impairment may bring disability in terms of loss of hearing power. incapacity or inability in terms of hearing sounds then may turn one into orally handicapped, i.e experiencing problems in interacting with the situations demanding hearing ability on one's part. In this way, the term handicap usually refers to functional or environmental demands placed upon an individual with a disability in a given situation.
Nature and characteristics of children with sensory impairment
Meaning of visual impairment
Visual impairment is a hazard that is related to our visual activity. The person whose visual acuity is less than 6/60 after glass Correction may be termed as visually impaired. But this term does not include normal or near-normal vision. This term rather refers to those people whose visual acuity is so defective (less than 6/60 after correction) in the school in the society or at home.
Categorization of Visually Impaired
For the purpose of convenience, we can classify visually impaired children into four categories
i) Profoundly Impaired: They are totally blind people having zero acuity in both eyes.
ii) Severely Impaired: They are partially blind people whose visual acuity in the better eye is less than 6/60 after maximum correction. They can read only the second letter on the visual acuity test board (Snellen chart) by their better eye.
iii) Moderately Impaired: Their impairment is not very serious. They have visual acuity between 6/24-6/60. They can do and everything if proper help is given to them.
iv) Mildly Impaired: Such a visual problem is very general in nature. This does not disturb the person in any way in doing any visual task. Such people have a little less than normal activity, i.e. 6/9-6/12. They generally do not have any restrictions in the visual field. People after the age of 45 generally suffer from this problem.
Definitions of Visual Impairment
Encyclopedia of Special Education All those people are visually impaired who deviate from the norm even after using the glasses.
Functional Blindness: It varies according to the purpose it is intended to serve like travel vision, shadow vision, near vision, distance vision, educational blindness, Occupational blindness, and so on. Children under this category do not require Braille for learning (reading or writing) but they need only large print to read.
American Medical Association (1976): Blindness is central visual acuity of 20/200 (feet) or less in the better eye with corrective glasses or central visual acuity do not more than 20/200 (feet) if there is a visual field defect in which the peripheral field is contracted to such on the extent that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends on the angular distance that is not greater than 20 degrees in the better eye.
v) Moderately Impaired: Their impairment is not very serious. They have visual acuity between 6/24-6/60. They can do and everything if proper help is given to them.
vi) Mildly Impaired: Such a visual problem is very general in nature. This does not disturb the person in any way in doing any visual task. Such people have a little less than normal activity, i.e. 6/9-6/12. They generally do not have any restrictions in the visual field. People after the age of 45 generally suffer from this problem.
Definitions
Encyclopedia of Special Education: All those people are visually impaired who deviate from the norm even after using the glasses.
Nature & characteristics of Visually Impaired child
General characteristics of visually impaired child
Some thinkers one of the opinions that due to lack of vision or due to lack of vision or due to poor vision they are endorsed with greater capacities in the remaining sensory areas by nature. T his idea is generally held by those who believe that nature does not discriminate against anyone on any ground. Researches, however, done in the field, do not endorse this notion. On the contrary, there is evidence that they may be deficient in other areas also up to some extent but capacities for focal and sustained attention may be better developed among visually impaired people than in the case of sighted normal ones.
Cognitive characteristics of visually impaired child
i) Cognition is largely a matter of the development of concepts and concepts in more than 50% of cases are learned through visual means. Thus, visually impaired children may have poor cognitive power in general. They will not be intellectually poor in any way but when they are tested through an intelligence test, they are very likely to perform below the average.
ii) Many visual items in intelligence tests require seeing the stimuli before responding. They cannot be explained by a reader or writer by using Braille. In such cases, blind children will definitely perform poorly. Thus we see that visual impairment produces hindrance in the course of cognitive development.
il) They have to count on auditory or tactual abilities in order to get information that is very limited in its value and nature, i.e. we cannot have all the information by touch on hearing.
Educational Characteristics of visually impaired child
i) As far as absolutely blinds are concerned, touch and audition the two important sources of information for them, i.e. they learn through tactual and auditory perceptions. Lack of vision produces a significant defect in the conceptual development of special relations for the child. Tactual and auditory perceptions are also adopted by them for discriminating objects.
ii) Learning based on touch and audition is limited due to the limited nature of experience.
iii) As far as partially blinds are concerned they bring hands under their visual guidance in the very first year of life through the use of vision is restricted to few meters only. They do not have a visual experience of those objects which are either very far from them or very small in size, e.g. they cannot read a book of fewer than 12 points in size of letters without using magnifying glasses and constant use of such glasses will exert strain on their eyes. Once they read a book, they bring it very close to their eyes.
iv) Due to their limited range of experiences, they learn in parts rather than in whole by using their tactual perceptions. They have to rely more on their memory and hearing power in order to learn & retain the material because they cannot easily repeat it by reading.
vi) Informations obtained by normal children through incidental or unintended learning through observation may be unavailable for severely impaired children
Physical Characteristics of visually impaired child
1)In terms of size and appearance, people with impaired Vision do not differ from normal people though their health may be somewhat poor due to less mobility.
ii) Their motor skills are also found poor due to poor mobility power. Mobility is the ability to move in the environment safely and efficiently. Due to limited mobility (exercise), they are prone to viral and infectious diseases.
u) Perceptual and non-perceptual both factors are involved in mobility. Delayed development of locomotor behavior is seen due to inefficiency or poor efficiency of perceptual factors. Since it is very difficult for them to see either distant or near objects due to the problem of vision, they take less interest in moving from one place to another.
iv) They differ from the normal in terms of physical strength due to lack of exercise of the body parts while doing different types of works.
Behavioral Characteristics of visually impaired child
i) Since they do not perceive intensive visual stimulation, they are motivated to make up for the deficiency by increasing the stimulation available from other sources. This is called stereotype behavior. This behavior is also caused by social deprivation and neglect. In the educational setting, such behavior interferes with the child's attentiveness to educational activities which in turn, leads to poor learning and hence backwardness. Non-academic skills affected by visual impairment are social skills, affective understanding, and non-verbal (body language) behavior.
ii) Social skills are necessary for overall success in life. If the chance of social interaction is dim, social skills will be retarded. Similarly, much non-verbal body language such as looking, nodding, smiling, shaking hands, etc. is less developed in these children because they do not receive stimuli from others due to lack of vision or poor vision.
iii) They are very irritative in nature. The reason 1s that they are badly treated on ridiculed by others and in response they adopt the same attitude towards others. They possessed very poor self-confidence due to their disability. Due to this reason, they try to avoid people and situations. Their withdrawing nature further makes them poor in confidence.
iv) Legally blinds look at the objects from a very close distance as they have less than 10% visual activity.
Social Development and Adjustment of visually impaired child
i) They are ridiculed and devalued by normal children and thus they begin to develop an inferiority complex which leads to maladjustment in the school and neighborhood.
ii) They can participate in many play activities like swimming, dancing, wrestling, etc. Partially blind people can participate in all the athlete activities without difficulty and can increase their social development.
iii) Process of socialization will be low in the case of absolutely blind children as it much depends on the response to others. Since Visually handicapped children in society, they are either neglected or rejected in society, they have less chance of socialization.
Iv) Even a small amount of vision is helpful for social development. So, partially blinds do not lag behind the normal in social development and adjustment,
Communication Abilities of visually impaired child
i) They have difficulty in reading. They need either large print of the books or Braille. They use recorded materials and readers for reading. Many Visually impaired children use magnifying glasses, contact lens and telescopes in order to perform better on reading.
ii) Writing and its speed is not very much affected in these children. Even a small amount of vision i.e. 3/60 visual acuity is helpful in developing this skill and applying the skill in real-life situations.
iii) Their communication may be poor in the initial periods of their lives but after 18 they were found to be almost normal in communication skills.
iv) They prefer oral to written communication and do not like to read or write too much.
Signs of Visual Impairment
- Frequent experience of watery eyes
- Regular red and inflamed eyes
- Irregular eye movements
- Difficulty in moving around the classroom
- Difficulty in reading letterS of small points
- Difficulty in reading the book from a normal distance
- Difficulty in identifying small details in pictures
- Complaint of dizziness after reading a passage
- Tilting head or squinting eyes for better focus
- Using one eye more than the other while doing any visual work
- Frequent eye infection
- Blurred vision
- Sitting in the first row persistently for seeing blackboard works
- Putting hands on one eye while reading something
Educational adaptation of the visually impaired child
We will discuss here the educational adaptation of blinds and partially blinds separately.
Educational adaptation of blinds
Braille, tape recorder, embossed and relief map, graphs, guide dogs, typing material, and typewritten.
i) Specially constructed schools with plane floors and lawns.
ii) Fully covered electric appliances.
iii) Audio recording room and record players in the required number.
iv) Special playground.
v) Teachers experts in Braille reading and writing.
vi) Resource room for medical examination.
vii) Music and dance rooms for training them in these fields.
vii) Workshop for producing materials.
ix) Integration with normal children through co-curricular activities.
1st the greatest single curricular modification for blinds. This technique was developed by Louis Braille of France, in 1929. He was a blind student who became a teacher of a blind school in pairs.
In order to develop reading and skills among them, Braille, When writing is taught on Braille, it is written by hand using a special slate and stylus. Writing is made by punching Toles with the stylus in a paper inserted between two metal strips. Since the material is written on the underside of the paper, so it is written in reverse form. A good Braille typist can type 40-60 words per minute. The teaching of Braille skills generally starts from class VIth and oral teaching is done up to the primary level.
Tape recorders and record players are generally used for reproducing the taught materials. It supplements Braille reading because all materials can not be presented on Braille. Recordings are generally done at the speed of fewer than 150 words per minute so that blinds can easily understand them.
At the primary stage, only mental mathematics is used i.e. all mathematical calculations are done orally. From junior level onwards the use of calculators, slides, rules, protectors, etc. is allowed along with the Braille books available on different tonics. They are also taught to Construct geometric designs through clay modeling and sheets of paper.
In order to make the child, self-dependent adequate mobility is necessary. When they have learned all these things, they can move about the environment, find the objects, locate the places, and interact with others. Blinds are also trained to use guide dogs to move in the environment freely. Mobility is also harnessed by motivating them through psychological techniques. It is necessary because they generally lack motivation for walking. They are taught by the psychologist that there is nothing to be afraid of moving and it increases self-experiences as well.
In order to increase mobility further, they are trained to be sensitive to the pressure of air when any object comes in front of them. The pressure of air changes when the object is removed from its way. Once they are trained enough in this respect, they are least likely to collides with any object and they will have mastery of the environment in the process.
Since the mobility of these children is generally restricted which hampers their physical growth and causes ill health. These problems of blinds can be minimized by motivating them to do more and more physical exercise. They are also given the chance to running, wrestle, and brisk walking on field tracks, and these activities are made a punctual part of their daily life.
Vocational training for blinds
In order to make them self-reliant and help them earn their living, vocational training for these children is a must. They can be taught any of the following vocational skills to earn their livelihood in the future.
i) Stenography through Braille
ii) Chair and cot canning
ii) Weaving carpets
iv) Typewriting
V)Teaching in elementary or higher classes
vi) Music training
Behaviour training for blinds
They also have some behavior and adjustment problems so, their behavior needs to be modified by using behavior therapy and verbal counseling.
Curricular adaptation for blind children
The curriculum for these children does not differ much from the sighted children. Modification is done only in those areas where they face special problems like the conceptualization of abstract and distant concrete materials and higher mathematics. They take more interest in literature music and philosophy, so these subjects are stressed more in the total curriculum. They can also have specialization in the areas of social studies also.
Educational adaptation of partial blinds
They face fewer problems in the areas of education and training than blind children. Following the intervention, procedures are adopted for them.
Training of sight-saving Techniques for blind children
They should use their other sense organs more than their vision that is already damaged because of the following reasons.
i) Visual acuity 6/60 (10% vision) is not a much amount of vision that will last long. In such a situation, these semi-blind children should use their vision as little as possible and they should take the help of classroom teaching, radio, and tape recorders instead of book reading.
ii) These children find it very difficult to read letters of less than 12 points in print and books are generally printed in 10 points. Thus, if they read these books by bringing them closer to their eyes, it will put a heavy strain on their eyes and damage them very soon.
Due to these reasons, they should rely more on their auditory organ rather than visual organ.
Teaching materials for blind children
These children need the following teaching materials in the school
- Tape recorders
- Talking books
- Radio
- Books printed in large size of the letter, i.e. more than 12 points in size
- Magnifying glass to read the small print
- Telescope to see distant objects
Administrative arrangements in the class and in the school for blind children
Following administrative arrangements are required in the school system to make them suitable for these children.
i) Their vision is so weak that they can not see the words written on the blackboard even if they sit in the first row of the class. So small-sized classes comprising of 10-12 students are suitable for them. In this arrangement, students will sit very close to the blackboard and the teacher will write letters in a bigger size than normal. The gap between the students and the blackboard should not be more than two feet.
ii) In the case of mathematics or Science even the above arrangement will not work. The size of the class will have to reduce further.
iii) Audio recording facility should also be there in the class to record the lectures of teachers. This will reduce the dependence of these children on books and save their vision.
iv) Books of large prints should be specially prepared for them so that they can easily read them.
v) Distracting glare to vision should be reduced as much as possible.
vi) Regular eye check-ups for these students are also necessary to ensure whether glasses and other visual aids are functioning properly.
Methods of teaching for blind children
Adaptive methods of teaching suitable to these children areas follow-
i) The teacher should are auditory cues while referencing the objects in the class during the presentation of the lesson.
ii) While presenting visually dependent materials, the teacher should verbalize written information describing pictures and narrating non-verbal sequences in videotapes also, i.e. he should speak while writing something on the blackboard.
iii) The teacher should use complete sentences to provide additional context.
iv) The teacher should train the students to keep the instructional materials at the same place so that they can locate them easily.
v) The teacher should spell difficult words also in the class.
vi) Direct instruction is most suitable for them.
vii) The teacher should sketch the diagrams and figures in held lines, to enable the students to see them poorly.
Curricular modification for blind children
They need no modification in the curriculum up to class 7th the only charge in the instructional procedure is enough. They can be taught each and every subject in the class up to high school except the higher levels of physics, chemistry, and biology. They cannot study these subjects because these subjects cannot be understood without practical and partially blind children can not carry out practical. With the exception of these subjects they can excel in each and every discipline but they can take special interest in literature, social sciences, music, philosophy, and psychology, hence, these subjects should be given more weightage in the curriculum.
Vocational training for blind children
It is as essential for them as for the blinds to enable them to earn their living. They can be trained in those areas which require less visual functioning or visual power of short distance. In spite of that, they are not supposed to reach the level where normal can reach i.e. their academic performance will always be somewhat lower than normal children
Use of optical character recognition (OCR) for blind children
Visually impaired children use a computer-based scanning device e.g. Kurz veil personal Reader. This device converts printed words into synthetic speech Advanced techniques have now been introduced in using this type of device. This OCR is suitable for the blind also.
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