WHO ARE EXCEPTIONAL

CHILDREN OR CHILDREN AND

YOUTH WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
ERWIN VINCENT ADMIT
 Children and youth who have one or more of the
conditions mentioned in the vignettes in Chapter 1,
among others, are called exceptional children.
 The term exceptional children and youth covers
those with mental retardation, giftedness and
talents, learning disabilities, emotional and
behavioral disorders, communication disorders,
deafness, blindness and low vision, physical
disabilities, health impairments and severe
disabilities
 These are children and youth who experience
difficulties in learning the basic education curriculum
and need a modified or functional curriculum, as
well as those whose performance is so superior that
they need a differentiated special education
curriculum to help them attain their full potential.
FOUR POINTS OF VIEW
1. SPECIAL EDUCATION IS A LEGISLATIVELY
GOVERNED ENTERPRISE
The point of view is expressed in the legal bases of
special education that are discussed in Chapter 1.
Article IV, Section 1 and Section 5, Article XIII, Section
11 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution guarantee that
the State shall protect and promote the rights of all
citizens to quality education at all levels and shall
take appropriate steps to make such education
available to all.
 R.A 7277 The Magna Carta for Disabled Persons
provides for the rehabilitation, self-development
and self-reliance of disabled persons and their
integration into mainstream society.
2. SPECIAL EDUCATION IS A PART OF COUNTRY’S
EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
Special education is a part of the Department
of Educations basic education program. With its
modest historical beginning in 1907, special
education is now a major part of the basic
education program in elementary and secondary
schools. The Special Education Division of the
Bureau of Elementary Education formulates policies,
plans and programs, develops standards of
programs and services.
3. SPECIAL EDUCATION IS TEACHING CHILDREN
WITH SPECIAL NEEDS IN THE LEAST RESTRICTIVE
ENVIRONMENT
In the final analysis, teaching is what special
education is all about. From this perspective, special
education is defined in terms of the who, what, how
and where of its implementation.
 WHO: The exceptional children or the children and
youth with special education needs are the most
important persons in special education. Then there
are school administrators, the special education
teachers, the regular teachers. The interdisciplinary
teams of professionals such as the guidance
counselors, the school psychologists and etc.
 WHAT: Every exceptional children needs access to a
differentiated and modified curricular program to
enable him/her to learn the skills and competencies
in the basic education curriculum.
 HOW: Children with mental retardation are taught
adaptive skills and basic academic content that are
suitable to their mental ability.
 WHERE: There are several educational placements
for these children. The most preferred is inclusive
education where they are mainstreamed in regular
classes. Other types of educational placements are
special schools, residential schools, self-contained
classes, home-bound and hospital instruction.
4. SPECIAL EDUCATION IS PURPOSEFUL
INTERVENTION
Intervention prevents, eliminates and/or
overcomes the obstacles that might keep an
individual with disabilities from learning, from full
and active participation in school activities and from
engaging in social and leisure activities.
CATEGORIES OF CHILDREN
AT RISK
 Children with established risk are those with cerebral
palsy, Down syndrome, and other conditions that
started during pregnancy. Children with biological
risk are those who are born prematurely, underweight
at birth, whose mother contracted diabetes or rubella
during the first trimester of pregnancy, or who had
bacteria infections like meningitis and HIV.
 Environmental risk result from extreme poverty, child
abuse, absence of adequate shelter and medical
care, parental substance abuse, limited opportunities
for nurturance and social stimulation
MENTAL RETARDATION
 Refers to substantial limitations in present
functioning. It is characterized by significantly sub-
average intellectual functioning, existing
concurrently with related limitations in two or more
of the following applicable adaptive skills areas:
communication, self-care, home living, social skills,
community use, self direction, health and safety,
functional academics, leisure and work.
 Mental retardation manifests before age 18.
GIFTEDNESS AND TALENT
 Refers to high performance in intellectual, creative
or artistic areas, unusual leadership capacity and
excellence in the specific academic field (US
Government).
 Giftedness refers to the traits of above average
general abilities, high level task commitment and
creativity (Renzulli 1978)
SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY
 Means a disorder in one or more of the basic
psychological processes involved in understanding
or in in using language, spoken or written, which
may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen,
think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do
mathematical calculations.
EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL
DISORDERS
 Means a conditions exhibiting one or more of the
following characteristics over a long period of time
and marked degree, which adversely affects
educational performance
 An inability to learn which cannot be explained by
intellectual, sensory and health factors
 An inability to build or maintain satisfactory
interpersonal relationship with peers and teachers
 Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under
normal circumstances
 A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or
depression
 A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears
associated with personal or school problems.
HEARING IMPAIRMENT
 Is a generic term that includes hearing disabilities
ranging from mild to profound, thus encompassing
children who are deaf and those who are hard of
hearing.
VISUAL IMPAIRMENT
 Display a wide range of visual disabilities- from
total blindness to relatively good residual
(remaining) vision. There is a visual restriction of
sufficient severity that it interferes with normal
progress in regular educational program without
modifications (Scholl, 1986, cited in Heward 2003)
PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENTS
 May be orthopedic impairments that involves the
skeletal system- the bones, joints, limbs and
associated muscles. Or may be neurological
impairments that involve the nervous system
affecting the ability to move, use, feel, or control
certain parts of the body.
 Health impairments include chronic illness that is
they are present over long periods and tend not get
better or disappear.
SEVERE DISABILITIES
 Generally encompass individuals with severe and
profound disabilities in intellectual, physical and
social functioning. Because of the intensity of their
physical, mental or emotional problem or
combination of such problems, they need highly
specialized educational, social, psychological and
medical services beyond those which are
traditionally offered by regular and special
education programs in order to maximize their
potential for useful and meaningful participation in
society and for self-fulfillment.
IS IT CORRECT TO
USE DISABILITY
CATEGORY
LABELS
 First point of view frowns on labeling these children
as disabled person. Use of disability labels calls
attention to the disability itself and overlooks the
more important and positive characteristics of the
person.
 These negative labels cause the “spread
phenomenon” to permeate the mind of the able-
bodied person.
 Second and less popular point of view is that it is
necessary to use workable disability category
labels in order to describe the exceptional learning
needs for a systematic provision of special
education services.
PROS AND
POSSIBLE BENEFITS
OF LABELING
 Categories can relate diagnosis to specific types of
education and treatment
 Labeling may lead to “protection” response in which
children are more accepting of the atypical
behavior by peer with disabilities than they would
be if that same behavior were entitled by child
without disabilities
 Labeling helps professionals communicate with one
another and classify and assess research findings
 Funding of special education program is often
based on specific categories of exceptionality
 Labels enable disability-specific advocacy groups
to promote specific programs and to spur legislative
action
 Labeling helps make exceptional children’s special
needs more visible to the public
POSSIBLE DISADVANTAGE
 Because of labeling usually focus on disability,
impairment and performance deficits, some people
may think only in terms of what the individual
cannot do instead of what he or she can or might
be able to learn to do.
 Labels that describe a child’s performance deficit
often mistakenly acquire the role of explanatory
constructs. For example “Sherry acts that way
because she is emotionally disturbed”
 Labels may cause others to hold low expectations
for and to different treat a child on the basis of the
label, which result to a “self-fulfilling prophecy”
 A labeled child may develop poor self-concept
 Labels may lead peers to reject or redicule the
labeled child
 Labels often provide a basis for keeping children
out of the regular classroom
 IDEA (INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION
ACT
 6 PRINCIPLES
 ZERO REJECT
 NONDICRIMINATORY TESTING
 APPROPRIATE EDUCATION
 LEAST RESTRICTIVE ENVIRONMENT
 DUE PROCESS
 PARENT PARTICIPATION