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What qualifies a person with special needs?

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Understanding Special Needs

Heredity and environment influence the
special needs in individuals.
• Hereditary factors include the genetic
history and make-up of a person.
• Environmental factors affect the fetus after
conception or the child after birth.
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The Nature of Special Needs

A disability is any condition that prevents, delays or
interferes with a child’s normal achievement and
development. A disability may be classified as one of
the following:
• Developmental
• Learning
• Physical
• Sensory
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Developmental Disabilities

Some goals for the care and education of

children with developmental disabilities are
as follows:
• Expanding language skills
• Increasing attention span
• Learning self-help skills
• Mastering basic concepts
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Learning Disabilities

• A learning disability involves a disorder in

understanding or using spoken or written
language.
• A child with a learning disability may be
unable to listen, think, speak, spell or do
mathematical problems.
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Physical Disabilities

Educators who care for

children with physical
disabilities need to learn
about each child’s special
needs.
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Sensory Disabilities

Educators who work with visually

impaired children can aid their
development in the many ways.
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Sensory Disabilities
Educators who work with children who have hearing impairments need to be aware of each
child’s individual needs.
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Communication Disorders

Educators who care for children with

communication disorders need to learn
about each child’s special needs. The
following guidelines apply to children with
speech impairments:
• Accept and reinforce all attempts by the
child to use speech
• Be a good speech model
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Emotional/Behavioral Disorders

Hyperactive-aggressive Anxious-withdrawn
• Defiant toward adults • Ability to be easily frustrated
• Destruction of property • Excessive dependence on adults and peer
• Inability to stay with a task or wait to be leaders
rewarded • Fearfulness
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Strategies for Working with Disabled

Children
The following strategies are suggestions for
working with learning-disabled children:
• behavior modification
• multi-sensory training
• task analysis
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Instructional Strategies for Classrooms

Best practices in instructional strategies

include the use of three types:
• Direct instruction used for the entire
class
• Small group instruction for a portion of
the class
• Differentiated instruction for an
individual student
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Modifying Your Instruction to Accommodate the

Special Needs Students
The developmental areas of importance
can include:

• attention and memory

• concept development
• functional use of objects and symbolic
play
• pre-vocabulary/vocabulary
• self-direction
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Strategies for Optimizing the Development

of Infants and Toddlers with Special Needs
Cognitive Development Emotional and Social
Physical Development
Development

Helping infants develop the Helping infants develop For infants, providing a safe
concept of object independence. Promote positive environment to encourage crawling,
permanence. behavior, self-esteem and self- walking and independence.
control.

Encouraging vocabulary Helping toddlers develop confidence For toddlers, encouraging large and
development. in recognizing emotions in others. small muscle development.

Helping toddlers to Encouraging confidence and expand Encouraging good nutritional

investigate cause and effect independence. habits.
relationships.
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Strategies for Optimizing the Development

of Preschoolers with Special Needs

All states are required to report data to the U.S. Department of Education,
Office of Special Education Programs on these child outcomes:

• Positive social-emotional skills (including social relationships)

• Acquisition and use of knowledge and skills (including early
language/communication and early literacy)
• Use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs
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Strategies for Optimizing the Development of Special

Needs Children
in the Early to Middle Childhood Stage

Presentation Response Setting Accommodations Timing and Scheduling

Accommodations Accommodations Accommodations
• Providing an audio • Allowing for verbal • Providing preferential Increasing the allowable
tape responses seating length of time to complete
• Providing in large • Allowing for answers to • Providing special lighting an assessment or assignment
print be dictated to a scribe or acoustics and perhaps change the way
• Reducing the • Allowing the use of a • Providing a space with that time is organized
number of items per tape recorder to capture minimal distractions
page or line responses
The Individuals With Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA)
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CONDUCTING AN INTERVIEW
PART-1
Q1. Have you met or heard about anyone with a special need or a disability? Yes or No? If yes,
who and where? Describe the problems.
Q2. Can you describe what you felt when you met the person?
Q3. What did you first notice about the person?
Q4. What do you think were the disabilities the person had?
Q5. What were the difficulties the person was having doing day-to-day activities?
Q6. Did he/she needed assistance to do things?
Q7. Did he/she was involved in any creative activities?
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CONDUCTING AN INTERVIEW
PART-2
Q8. Did you tried helping that person if he needed assistance?
Q9. What was the difficulty which was affecting him/her the most?
Q10. What would you do if you were given a chance to help a disabled person?
Q11. What were your main concern about that person?
Q12. Was the person comfortable about talking about his/her disability?
Q13. Did you felt that the person must be having mental unstability also due to his disabilities?
Q14. Have you ever worked for any of these kinda of people with special needs?
Q15. If the answer to above question is yes , then how was your experience after helping people with
disabilities?
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Thank you