Autism is a spectrum that ranges in severity from mild to severe. It is a general umbrella term for many disorders including Aspergers Syndrome. One defining characteristic is difficulty with social skills and interaction. They tend to struggle with understanding emotion and don't embrace human contact. These children tend to have a narrow range of interests and don't process verbal and non-verbal communication very well (which is why social interactions are difficult). These children tend to overload on stress rather quickly. In fact, sensory overload is very common where too much noise or stimuli becomes overwhelming and those with autism look for ways to neutralize that stimuli (ex. hitting oneself). There is much diversity in those with autism with various strengths and weaknesses.
Those with intellectual disabilities tend to have a very limited learning capacity and/ or their rate of learning is slower. These children tend to need a lot of review, practical application, and slowness when learning. Practical application is essential because these children tend to struggle with connecting what they have learned to other things. For example, they may struggle to connect a story about sharing with an opportunity to share in their own life. Review is essential because not only is learning slower but retaining information I can be a struggle for them. These children won't always be able to learn the same information as other students and modifications will be varied based on individual needs. There are many natural supports like peers and classroom structure that can ease and reinforce learning.
Students with multiple disabilities often have an exceedingly high number of needs. Usual these disabilities are an intellectual disability along with a physical or sensory impairment. Extra professionals like physical and occupational therapists are often needed to support these students. These students often have limited speech and struggle to express their needs to others. AAC systems are one way people compensate.
Deaf-Blindness is a double sensory impairment where the child is typically not totally blind or totally deaf. These children struggles to move around the classroom, engage in activities, and understand how to perform simple tasks that others take for granted. Some have above average intelligences, but often they have intellectual disabilities (partially due to their two other disabilities).
Sensory Impairments are when vision or hearing loss affects the child's education. Visual impairments are when a child cannot see, cannot see well, or cannot see well without assistance of some sort. These children vary in intellectual ability but find visual learning less accessible. These children need help being oriented around the classroom and need help with modifications in learning materials and instruction to help compensate for visual loss. Students that are deaf or hard of hearing have the same range of intellectual ability as anyone else. They too struggle to access their world and find ways to compensate through techniques like sign language and mouth reading. These students can sometimes be socially and emotionally immature because they lack the etiquette needed to listen and they have lost a channel to help them develop social skills. Subtitles for movies and writing on the board are two ways to compensate.
Orthopedic Impairments are those that effect the mobility of the child in the bones, joints, and muscles. This includes cerebral palsy which is the largest group of those who have orthopedic impairments. Palsy comes from a brain injury before, during, or after birth. Some of these children need head supports and wheelchairs, while others just have a minimal loss of control. some lose control in various places like the arms or neck. Spinal cord injuries most often come from automobile accidents and can result in partial or full paralysis.
For students with health impairments, it's important to find out which students have the most difficult problems, provide materials for those students about others with that disability, consider death education in your curriculum if you know the child's impairment to be life-threatening, and work closely with families. Traumatic Brain Injury comes from external physical force exerted on the head, which leads to brain damage. This can happen from issues like shaken baby syndrome, falls, automobile accidents, sporting accidents etc. These people can look like they did prior to the injury but have significant learning and social issues. These children may struggle to remaster skills they once knew. There may be accommodations needed in the classroom, but those will vary greatly from student to student. Work in partnership with parents to find out the exact nature of the child's struggle.
Poverty is a very interesting issue because the effects can be subtle and less easy to address. Children can be labeled as disabled when really they just don't have the temporal, cognitive, emotional, or social resources needed to represent their knowledge. However, when these deficits are too wide, especially during early childhood, then poverty can create a disability. For example, nutrition deficits in early childhood can cause cognitive delays.
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