This PowerPoint explains what learners with disabilities are, and shows them the different types and how to deal with as future educators.

1. Learners with
Exceptionalities

2. Disability vs. Handicap
Disability
• measurable impairment
or limitation
• “interferes with a person's ability
to walk, lift, hear, or learn”
– (Schiefelbusch Institute, 1996)
Handicap
• disadvantage that occurs
as a result of an inability
or impairment.
• often dependent on the
adjustment made by both
the person and his
environment.

3. Categories of
Exceptionalities

4. Categories of Exceptionalities
A. Specific Cognitive or Academic Difficulties
B. Social/Emotional and Behavioral Diffuculties
C. Physical Disabilities and Health Impairments
D. Sensory Impairments
E. Giftedness

5. A. Specific Cognitive or Academic
Difficulties
1. Learning Disabilities
-Difficulties in specific cognitive processes that are not
due to other disabilities
–example:
»dyslexia (reading)
»dyscalculia (number operations)
»dysgraphia (writing)
»dyspraxia (physical movement)

6. A. Specific Cognitive or Academic
Difficulties
2. Attention-deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD)
- (a) Difficulty in Focusing and maintaining
attention
- (b) recurrent hyperactive and impulsive
behavior

7. A. Specific Cognitive or Academic
Difficulties
3. Speech and Communication Disorders
-voice disorders, inability to produce the sounds
correctly, shuttering, difficulty in spoken
language comprehension that significantly
hampers performance.

8. B. Social/Emotional and Behavioral
Difficulties
1. Autism - impaired social interaction and
communicaiton, repititive behaviors and limited interest
2. Mental Retardation - significant sub- average
intelligence and deficits in adaptive behavior
3. Emotional/Conduct Disorders - presence of emotional
states like depression and aggression over considerable
amount of time

9. C. Physical Disabilities and Health
Impairments
1. Physical and Health Impairments
physical or mental conditions (usually long-term) includes;
• limited energy and strength
• reduced mental alertness
• little muscle control
2. Severe and Multiple Disabilities
presence of two or more different types of disabilities

10. D. Sensory Impairments
• 1. Visual Impairments
– malfunction of the eyes or the optic nerves that prevent normal
vision even with corrective lenses
• 2. Hearing Impairments
– malfunction of the ear or auditory nerves that hinders
perception of sounds within the frequency range of normal
speech

11. E. Giftedness
•high level of cognitive development
•unusual high ability or aptitude in one or more
of the ff. aspects;
• intellectual ability
• aptitude in academic subject
• creativity
• visual or performing arts
• leadership

12. People-First Language

13. People-First Language
• putting the person first, not the disability
–(e.g. a person with disability not a disabled
person)
• “... tells us what conditions people have, not
who they are.” (Schiefelbusch Institute, 1996)

14. Other suggestions for referring to those with
disabilities;
• avoiding generic labels
• emphasizing disabilities not limitations
• avoiding euphemisms (physically challenged)
• avoiding implying illness or suffering