Unit 2

UNIT 2:
TYPOLOGY OF LEARNERS WITH

SPECIAL NEEDS
Lesson 1: LEARNERS WITH
INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES
The term 'intellectual disability' refers to a group of conditions
caused by various genetic disorders and infections. Intellectual
disability is usually identified during childhood, and has an
ongoing impact on an individual’s development. Intellectual
disability can be defined as a significantly reduced ability to
understand new or complex information, learn new skills and
to cope independently including social functioning. As with all
disability groups, there are many types of intellectual disability
with varying degrees of severity.
Cerebral palsy
is a group of disorders that affect movement and muscle tone or posture.
It's caused by damage that occurs to the immature brain as it develops,
most often before birth. Signs and symptoms appear during infancy or
preschool years. In general, cerebral palsy causes impaired movement
associated with abnormal reflexes, floppiness or rigidity of the limbs
and trunk, abnormal posture, involuntary movements, unsteady walking,
or some combination of these. People with cerebral palsy can have
problems swallowing and commonly have eye muscle imbalance, in
which the eyes don't focus on the same object. They also might have
reduced range of motion at various joints of their bodies due to muscle
stiffness.
Down Syndrome
is a genetic disorder caused when abnormal cell division
results in an extra full or partial copy of chromosome 21. This
extra genetic material causes the developmental changes and
physical features of Down syndrome. Down syndrome varies
in severity among individuals, causing lifelong intellectual
disability and developmental delays. It's the most common
genetic chromosomal disorder and cause of learning
disabilities in children. It also commonly causes other medical
abnormalities, including heart and gastrointestinal disorders.
LESSON 2: LEARNERS WITH LEARNING
DISABILITIES
A learning disability is a neurological disorder. In
simple terms, a learning disability results from a
difference in the way a person's brain is "wired."
Children with learning disabilities are as smart as or
smarter than their peers. But they may have difficulty
reading, writing, spelling, and reasoning, recalling
and/or organizing information if left to figure things out
by them or if taught in conventional ways.
There are different types of learning disabilities. These
include:
1. Dyslexia
2. Dyscalculia
3. Dysgraphia
4. Auditory and Visual Processing Disorder
5. Nonverbal Learning Disabilities
Dyslexia
-a language-based disability in which a person has
trouble understanding written words. It may also
be referred to as reading disability or reading
disorder.
Dyscalculia
- a mathematical disability in which a person has a difficult
time solving arithmetic problems and grasping math concepts.
Dysgraphia
- a writing disability in which a person finds it hard to form
letters or write within a defined space.
Auditory and Visual Processing Disorders
- sensory disabilities in which a person has difficulty
understanding language despite normal hearing and vision.
Nonverbal Learning Disabilities
- a neurological disorder which originates in the right
hemisphere of the brain, causing problems with visual-spatial,
intuitive, organizational, evaluative and holistic processing
functions.
LESSON 3: LEARNERS WITH PHYSICAL
DISABILITIES
- A physical disability is a physical condition that
affects a person's mobility, physical capacity,
stamina, or dexterity. The following are several
types of physical disabilities.
Visual Impairment
- A visual impairment is any visual condition that impacts an
individual’s ability to successfully complete the activities of
everyday life. Students with visual impairments are infants,
toddlers, children and youths who experience impairments of
the visual system that impact their ability to learn. Some
common causes of visual impairment are glaucoma, retinopathy
of prematurity, cataracts, retinal detachment, macular
degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, cortical visual impairment,
infection and trauma. Factors such as lighting, the environment,
fatigue, and emotional status can also impact visual functioning
in many of these students throughout the day
Hearing Impairment
- Hearing impairment (called auditory impairment in Texas) is
defined by IDEA as "an impairment in hearing, whether
permanent or fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's
educational performance." Deafness is defined as "a hearing
impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in
processing linguistic information through hearing, with or
without amplification." Thus, deafness may be viewed as a
condition that prevents an individual from receiving sound in
all or most of its forms. In contrast, a child with hearing loss
can generally respond to auditory stimuli, including speech.
There are four major types of hearing loss that are categorized
by the site of the disorder in the auditory system. These
hearing disorders can be caused by genetic or hereditary
factors, infections, developmental abnormalities, or
environmental/traumatic factors.
Conductive Hearing Loss is caused by damage or obstruction

in the external or middle ear that disrupts the efficient passage
or conduction of sound through those chambers.
Sensorineural Hearing Loss is caused by damage to the
inner ear (cochlea) or auditory nerve that transmits
impulses to the brain.
Mixed Hearing Loss is a combination of both a

conductive and a sensorineural hearing loss.
Central Hearing Disorders are the results of a disorder
or dysfunction in the central auditory system between
the brain stem and the auditory cortex in the brain.
Students with auditory impairments are provided special
education services by a variety of professionals.
Speech and Language Impairment
Speech and language impairment is defined as a
communication disorder that adversely affects the
child's ability to talk, understand, read, and write. This
disability category can be divided into two groups:
speech impairments and language impairments.
There are three basic types of speech impairments:
articulation disorders, fluency disorders, and voice
disorders.
Articulation disorders are errors in the production of speech

sounds that may be related to anatomical or physiological
limitations in the skeletal, muscular, or neuromuscular support
for speech production. These disorders include: Omissions: (bo
for boat), Substitutions: (wabbit for rabbit), and Distortions:
(shlip for sip)
Fluency disorders are difficulties with the rhythm and timing of
speech characterized by hesitations, repetitions, or
prolongations of sounds, syllables, words, or phrases. Common
fluency disorders include: Stuttering: rapid-fire repetitions of
consonant or vowel sounds especially at the beginning of
words, prolongations, hesitations, interjections, and complete
verbal blocks; Cluttering: excessively fast and jerky speech;
Voice disorders are problems with the quality or use of one's
voice resulting from disorders in the larynx
Speech-language pathologists provide a variety of
professional services aimed at helping people
develop effective communication skills.
Multiple Disabilities
Multiple disabilities are defined in one regulation as
"concomitant impairments (such as mental retardation-
blindness, mental retardation-orthopedic impairment, etc.), the
combination of which causes such severe educational problems
that they cannot be accommodated in special education
programs solely for one of the impairments."

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UNIT 2:

TYPOLOGY OF LEARNERS WITH

Conductive Hearing Loss is caused by damage or obstruction

Mixed Hearing Loss is a combination of both a

Articulation disorders are errors in the production of speech

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