Children with Special Needs

1. Children with Special Needs Chapter 23 Page 618

2. Children differ in rate, pattern and degree of their growth • Developmental milestones are generally attained within each stage • Typical development – most children attain them within the same stage

3. Special Needs • Special needs differs from most children • Delays are often caused by disability or disorder • Differ in seeing, hearing, motor skills, speech, thinking and social behaviors

4. Developmental Differences are seen between Children with Special Needs & other Children • 1) child can have special needs in one area or more than one area • 2)skills may be accelerated or delayed in rate of appearance or may not follow the typical pattern of development

5. 3) test results report the degree of a talent or problem • Descriptive words use: • Borderline– talent is just above average or a mild problem • Profound – talent as extreme or a problem as severe

6. 4) problem (not talent) may be described as chronic or correctable • Chronic – problem may exist for a long time, perhaps a lifetime • Correctable –problem may be overcome with appropriate support

7. Children are More Alike Than Different • All children have same basic needs • Physical care, adults to rely on, and love • Special needs require care that differs or exceeds the care required by other children • Special needs follow the same pattern of development

8. Children with special needs may develop at a different rate than other children • Speed of development may be different

9. Gifted or Talented Children • Develop faster or achieve higher degrees of development than most

10. Some special needs noted at birth (physical disabilities • Impairments, disabilities and disorders may take some time to become apparent

11. IQ –intelligence quotient – measure how quickly a person can learn, how able a person is to reason using words and number and how easily a person can find solutions to a problem

12. Tests are more accurate when given to only one person at a time • More accurate when given in middle childhood or later • More accurate when children have the ability to remember, reason, comprehend, respond verbally, make patterns and work puzzles

13. Children with Gifts and Talents • Show high performance in one or more: • General mental ability • Specific academic aptitude • Creative or productive thinking • leadership ability • High skill in visual or performing arts • High psychomotor ability

14. statistics • 16 of 100 children are above average • 3 of 16 are gifted • Why gifted? • Runs in families • environment

15. Children with Physical Disabilities • Limitation of a person’s body or its function • Limited mobility, missing limbs, bone, joint, and muscle disease, damage to brain or nervous system

16. May need special aids; • Artificial limbs, walkers, crutches, braces or wheelchairs

17. Visually Impaired • Problems with seeing • Some can be corrected with eyeglasses • Some severe; • legally blind (level of vision loss that make them eligible to receive certain services

18. Signs of vision loss; • Squinting, holding objects close to the face, and rubbing the eyes often • Having poor distance judgment • Missing steps • Bumping into objects • Self stimulation play ( rocking movements & noises)

19. Hearing Loss • Signs: • Unresponsive to sounds • Making speech sounds incorrectly • Major delays in talking • Use their sense of touch more than other children

20. Children with Speech Disorders • Speak in ways that draw attention • Not easily understood • Cause the speaker to have a poor self-concept

21. Speech Impaired Problems • Articulation • Use one sound for another • Leave out sounds • Voice problem • Too high or too low pitch • Too quiet, nasal, husky • Rhythm problems • Repeat sounds and unable to get speech out • Speak rapidly

22. Children with speech problems can get help from : • Speech pathologist – professional trained to evaluate and treat speech problems

23. Children with Mental Disabilities • Defined as: • Having intellectual abilities that, when compared with others of the same age, are a year or more delayed • Mild to profound • Causes include: • Gene disorders, prenatal and birth problems, injuries or infections to the brain after birth

24. Many Share the Following Signs: • Delays in motor skills • Smaller vocabulary and shorter sentence length • Grasp of simple but not complex ideas • Avoidance of difficult tasks

25. Short attention spans • More than average fondness for repetition • Difficulty making decisions

26. Because the brain is involved: • Needs to be diagnosed and treated early in life • Windows of opportunity for brain wiring close rather early in life

27. Need specialized teachers • Must use innovated methods to break skills down into steps the children can practice

28. Learning Disabilities • Problems in one or more areas of spoken or written language, math, and spatial orientation • Spatial orientation – ability to see relationships between object in space

29. Dyslexia – learning disability that affects a person’s ability to read, write and spell Reverse words & letters More boys than girls ??find an activity Developmental dyscalculia – affects a child’s mathematical ability Involves math not reading

30. Causes of Learning Disabilities • Physical problems • Prenatal problems – lack of oxygen • Problems during birth • Accidents, high fevers, and breathing or nutritional problems after birth

31. Used to be it was recognized at school • Now it is recognized earlier • Greater awareness made better help available

32. Children with Behavioral Disorders • Pattern of problems that surfaces in a person’s behavior • Marked by extreme behavior • Causes: • Severe and constant stress • Brain injuries

33. Aggressive behavior – an outward behavioral disorder • Name-call, fight and bully • Withdrawn behavior – occurs when children do not relate well with others • Resist change, panic when change occurs, poor self concept

34. ADHD – lack of attention and hyperactivity Hard to diagnose Based on observation Childhood anxiety & depression ADD – lack of attention Hard to diagnose Based on observation Childhood anxiety & depression Two Related Disorders Dealing with Paying Attention

35. Boys more affected to attention disorders • Some say 10% have it • While others say it is more like 1% to 3%

36. Techniques to Help With Attention Disorders • Restricting stimuli (fewer items to see or hear) • Establishing and adhering to a routine • Giving short, clear instructions • Using praise and rewards

37. Providing experiences that are challenging but manageable • Offering physical activities • Watching diet, especial food coloring • Giving medications to calm hyperactivity

38. Medications • Given without observations has flaws: • 1) First treatment tried • 2) Medications have side effects • 3) Frustrated adults may view drugs as a way to control children who have high energy levels but don’t really need medication

39. Help For Children with Special Needs • Identify child with special needs • May be noticed at birth or later in life • May take parents time to adjust to the news

40. How Many Children Have Special Needs? • 1 child in 10 has special needs • 3.5 % have speech disorders • 3 to 45% have learning disabilities • State laws pay a role • States differ in definitions

41. What Kinds of Help Are Needed? • Require extra help • Brain research shows help needs to be early and intensive • Laws require public schools to education special needs from ages 3 to 17 • Require an IEP –individualized education plan

42. IEP • Suited for the child • Placement agreements • Inclusion – full time placement in a regular classroom • Parents, teachers, case workers meet to discuss child and plan