Children with Special Needs

Children with Special Needs

children have tunnel vision, which means they can see things directly in front of them but cannot see anything on either side without turning the head. Others may have clear peripheral vision but cannot see what is just in front of them

A child with impaired vision usually benefits from those activities that develop motor coordination and involve interaction with other children Activities that are especially helpful to vision-impaired pre schoolers are balancing and body movement exercises, games that in volve holding hands or following directions, or sharing and singing games with finger play that combine music and words with actions When they start school children who have less severe vision impair ments and handicaps often do well in a regular classroom that makes use of special equipment, modifications in lighting and print size, and curriculum adaptations that emphasize listening skills.

Many behavior and learning problems arise from metabolic disorders or orthopedic handicaps that affect a child's energy level or interfere with his processes of growth and development. These conditions are not contagious and may have no cffeet at all on the child's general mental abilities: children who have them often are able to participate in a regular classroom with special resources

Malfunctions of the thyroid gland, for example can have a great influence on a youngster's moody and on his ability to concentrate. Aflicted children may be leilarjeic because of suively low levels of hormone production or they may be restless and irritable because of S too much hormone production e ccur with hypogly cemia, an abnormally low blooding test that can be corrected through dietary changes

Learning problems may also be present with cerebral palsy, an ortho pedic handicap that interferes with muscle functioning Some children with cerebral palsy suffer from abnormal reflexes that position their bodies into certain ores when they move, making reaching and postures exploring difficult. In man n many cases, children with cerebral palsy are of normal intelligence, but they have muscle-related speech problems that make it hard to evaluate their cog cognitive abilities

The effects of other serious chrönic illnesses, such as asthma, diabe- tes cystic fibrosis, epilepsy or severe anemia, vary from child to child. Some children with these health problems are not usually handi capped by them in day-to-day functioning: in other cases, such illnesses require special attention on a regular basis. These children may need modified classroom activities or home or hospital-based education programs. It is important that parents and teachers broaden the experi ences of the children and help them see that the illness is only a small part of their lives.

Mental retardation refers specifically to children whose intelligence and other areas of development are below normal in relation to that of their peers. These children are classified by degrees of retardation as retarded. Many mentally retarded chil- dren can in fact learn a great deal, even though they learn more slowly than other children. Mildly retarded children may be good at activities involving move

ment but have trouble speaking, remembering, following directions and coordinating their eyes and hands. With extra help, they can learn most of the activities that take place in a preschool classroom. Model ately retarded children are physically clumsier and lag still farther be: hind in most areas of development. In order for them to learn, activities must be broken down into small parts and practiced one segment at a time. During the early years, the aim of a training program is to help the youngsters achieve normal developmental skills or, if this is not possi ble to find ways to compensate for the lack of these skills. As children progress, some of them may move on to conventional classrooms, where the youngsters will still be provided with individual attention. Severely or profoundly retarded children can seldom be taught in a regular preschool classroom. Some never learn to speak, but they can be taught to communicate orally or with signs.

A mild or moderate retardation may not be apparent at an early age, but careful observation of a child's activities reveal that she is slower than other children to learn new activities, complete a task or acquire social skills. Great care must be taken in evaluation, however, not to mistake physical or mental immaturity for retardation. And some children have been misdiagnosed as mentally retarded when they were simply ethnically different or economically disadvantaged.

For some retarded children, the negative expectations of parents and others provide the greatest handicap. As infants, these children need the same kind of affection and attention that other babies get: They need to be held and smiled and cooed at just like other children, even though their response to this tection may be more limited. They should have, as all children tould a program of daily activities to stim ulate learning accompanied by a sense of positive expectations from other family members problems For most children, occasional emotional turmoil is part of growing up. Difficult behavior may be a more stressful stage of normal development, and parents may simply have to wait for their children to grow out of fears, negativism or excessive clinging. For other children, psychologi cal conditions are clearly blocking development and professional help is required. For example, severe anxiety can interfere with memory and concentration and reduce achievement; overly aggressive children may become a threat to other children and fail to develop social skills. Special services are needed for the more serious types of emotional problems - including behavior that is dangerously aggressive or self destructive, severely withdrawn or excessively hyperactive, anxious, depressed or phobic. Professionals handle most of these situations by counseling the child and by teaching parents effective methods of meet ing his learning needs at home. ::