EVERY CHILD MATTERS

Every Child Matters: Communication and Partnership in Children's Services

Every Child Matters: Communication and Partnership in Children's Services

Introduction

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, approximately 1 in 10 students in U.S. public schools received special education. Before the federal law was passed, many students with disabilities received no education or were institutionalized. After federal law required schools to provide special education in 1975, the percentage of the school population receiving special education grew substantially and fewer children were sent to institutions. Understanding basic concepts about exceptionality and special education will help teachers avoid making inappropriate assumptions and referring students for special education who do not need it (Kauffman & Hallahan, 2005).

Inability Versus Disability

An inability is not always a disability, but a disability is always an inability. Inability simply means that a person cannot do something, but the reason may be due to a disability, age, or a lack of receiving effective instruction. A disability means that a person cannot do something that most people of the same age receiving similar instruction can do. Before identifying a student as having a disability, it is critically important to make sure that he or she has had sufficient opportunities to learn.

Disability Versus Handicap

A disability is something a person cannot do, although the circumstances (e.g., age, instruction, environment) would lead you to expect that the person should be able to do it. A handicap is a circumstance imposed on a person so that they cannot do what they could if the conditions are changed or the environment is altered. For example, lack of a ramp imposes a handicap on a person who uses a wheelchair. The person may have a disability in walking or climbing stairs but have a handicap when it comes to entering a building or classroom that has no access other than stairs. Appropriate adaptations remove a handicap for a person who can use a computer but cannot use it in the standard way because of a disability (e.g., cannot type using his or her fingers because of physical impairment). For these reasons, appropriate modifications and adaptations are mandated in school facilities, equipment, and programs.

Some disabilities occur more often than others. Disabilities that occur relatively frequently—high-incidence categories—include communication disorders, specific learning disability (SLD), mental retardation (MR), and emotional disturbance (ED).

Most disabilities are mild; relatively few are severe. Communication disorders, SLD, MR, or ED can be severe even though they are high-incidence disabilities. Significant impairment of hearing or vision is comparatively uncommon, so both are considered low-incidence disabilities. Total deafness or blindness is severe and low-incidence as well.

Disabilities may also occur in combination. For example, a student may have both mental retardation and emotional disturbance; brain injury and communication disorders in combination with emotional disturbance; physical disability, impaired vision, mental retardation, and communication disorders. Combinations of disabilities—multiple disabilities—make an individual's problems more difficult to address and may make the person's disability severe even though the separate disabilities are relatively mild. Deaf-blindness, which is by definition a multiple and severe disability, is ...