POLANGUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Polangui, Albay

MODULE 6:
LEARNING
WITH
EXCEPTIONALITIES

I. LEARNING OUTCOMES

After this module, the students must have:

1. Describe the basic categories of exceptional learners.

2. Define and distinguish the terms disability and handicap.
3. Demonstrate "people first" language when referring to exceptional learners and advocate for its use.

II. CONTENT DISCUSSION OR ABSTRACTION

A. INTRODUCTION:

One significant factor that highlights individual differences and diversity in learning is the presence
of exceptionalities. We commonly refer to learners with exceptionalities as persons who are different in
some way from the "normal" or "average". The term "exceptional learners" includes those with special needs
related to cognitive abilities, behavior, social functioning, physical and sensory impairments, emotional
disturbances, and giftedness. Most of these learners require a lot of understanding and patience as well as
special education and related services if they are to reach their full potential of development.

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 POLANGUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Polangui, Albay

B. ABSTRACTION

From the movie you watched you saw the challenges that confront a person with special needs.
The person's adjustment entails the support of the people around him. As a future teacher, you would
probably encounter learners with special needs, more so if special education is your major. It is therefore
necessary that you have both the right information and proper attitude in dealing with special learners. This
will help you perform your task to facilitate learning. Let us begin by differentiating the words disability and
handicap.

Disability. A disability is a measurable impairment or limitation that "interferes with a person's

ability, for example, to walk, lift, hear, or learn. It may refer to a physical, sensory, or mental condition"
(Schiefelbusch Institute, 1996). The word disability has become the more accepted term, having replaced
the word handicap in federal laws in the US, one of which is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA). IDEA is the law that provides comprehensive service and support for exceptional learners. Our very
own 1987 Philippine Constitution, Article XIV, Sec. 2, uses the word "disabled" in paragraph (5) "Provide
adult citizens, the disabled, and out-of-school youth with training...

Handicap. The word handicap does not have the same meaning as disability. A, handicap is a
disadvantage that occurs as a result of a disability or impairment. The degree of disadvantage (or the extent
of the handicap) o en dependent on the adjustment made by both the person and his environment.
Therefore, the extent to which a disability handicaps an individual can vary greatly. Two persons may have
the same disability but not the same degree of being handicapped. For example, they both have a hearing
impairment, one knows sign language and can read lips while the other cannot. The first individual would
not have as much handicap as the second one. Another example, two persons who move around on a
wheel chair, the one studying in a school campus with wheelchair accessibility in all areas would be less
handicapped than one in a school without wheel chair accessibility.

CATEGORIES OF EXCEPTIONALITIES

There are different ways of presenting categories of exceptionalities. Special education

practitioners would have varying terms and categories. For this short introduction of categories, we are
basing it on the categories found in Omrod's Educational Psychology (2000).

Specific Cognitive or Academic Difficulties

Learning Disabilities. Learning disabilities involve difficulties in specific cognitive processes like
perception, language, memory or metacognition that are not due to other disabilities like mental retardation,

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 POLANGUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Polangui, Albay

emotional or behavioral disorders, or sensory impairments. Examples of learning disabilities include

dyscalculia (number. operations) and dysgraphia (writing).

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. AMID is manifested in either or both of these: (1) difficulty
in focusing and maintaining attention and (2) recurrent hyperactive and impulsive behavior.

Speech and Communication Disorders. There is difficulty in spoken language including voice
disorders, inability to produce the sounds... correctly, stuttering, difficulty in spoken language
comprehension that significantly hamper classroom performance.

Social/Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties

Autism. Autism is a condition manifested by different levels of im impaired social interaction and
communication, repetitive behaviors and limited interests. Individuals with autism usually have an intense
need for routine and a predictable environment.

Mental Retardation. Mental retardation refers to significant sub-average intelligence and deficits in
adaptive behavior. There is difficulty in managing activities of daily living and in conducting themselves
appropriately in social situations.

Emotional/Conduct Disorders. This involves the presence of emotional states like depression and
aggression over a considerable amount of time that they notably disturb learning and performance in school.

Physical Disabilities and Health Impairments

Physical and health impairments. This involves physical or medical conditions (usually long-term)
including one or more of these: (1) limited energy and strength, (2) reduced mental alertness, and/or (3) little
muscle control.

Severe and Multiple Disabilities. This refers to the presence of two or more different types of
disability, at times at a profound level, The combination of disabilities makes it necessary to make specific
adaptations and have more specialized educational programs.

Sensory Impairments

Visual Impairments. These are conditions when there is malfunction of the eyes or optic nerves
that prevent normal vision even with corrective lenses.

Hearing Impairments. These involve malfunction of the ear or auditory nerves that hinder
perception of sounds within the frequency range of normal speech.

Giftedness

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 POLANGUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Polangui, Albay

Giftedness. This involves a significantly high level of cognitive development. There is unusually
high ability or aptitude in one or more of these aspects: intellectual ability, aptitude in academic subjects,
creativity, visual or performing arts or leadership.

PEOPLE-FIRST LANGUAGE

What is People-First Language? Just as the term would imply, this language trend involves putting
the person first, not the disability (e.g., a person with a disability, not a disabled person). Thus, people-first
language tells us what conditions people have, not what they are (Schiefelbusch Institute, 1996). This is
similar to saying "person with AIDS, rather than "AIDS victim". Other suggestions for referring to those with
disabilities include:

 avoiding generic labels (people with mental retardation is preferable to the mentally retarded);
 emphasizing abilities, not limitations (for instance, uses a wheelchair is preferable to confined
to a wheelchair);
 avoiding euphemisms (such as physically-challenged) which are regarded as condescending
and avoid the real issues that result from a disability; and
 avoiding implying illness or suffering (had polio is preferable to is a polio victim, and has
multiple sclerosis is preferable to suffers from multiple sclerosis) (Department of Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2000; Schiefelbusch Institute, 1996).

Using people-first language and applying the guidelines above will remind you to have a more
respectful and accepting attitude toward learners with exceptionalities. The presence of impairments
requires them to exert more effort to do things that others like us find quite easy to do. They are learners
who may turn to you for assistance. Beginning with the right attitude, one of compassion (not of pity nor
ridicule), will make you a more effective teacher, one with the hand and the heart who call facilitate their
learning and adjustment.

III. LEARNER’S EXPERIENCES OR ACTIVITIES/EXERCISES

A.
1. By means of a graphic organizer present the basic categories of exceptional learners and describe
each category briefly.
2. How do handicap and disability differ?
3. Revise the following sentences to adhere to the people-first language and the other guidelines given in
this Module.
a. I attended a seminar about teaching disabled children.
b. That classroom was designed for the deaf and blind.
c. I like to read books about the handicapped.
d. When she was suffering from a spinal cord injury, in a car accident, she became a paraplegic and
was confined to a wheelchair.
e. He is behaving like that because he is abnormal.

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 POLANGUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Polangui, Albay

B. Complete the statement to come up with a short essay: From the module LEARNING WITH
EXCEPTIONALITIES, I realized that…

IV. ASSESSMENT/REFLECTION TOOLS

1. Essay
2. Reflection
3. Rubrics

V. MATERIALS/REFERENCE LINKS

a. Book:
Facilitating Learning: A Metacognitive Process
- Maria Rita D. Lucas, Ph.D.
- Brenda B. Corpuz, Ph.D.
b. Internet

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