DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 1386 (XIV) of 10 December 1959

WHEREAS the peoples of the United Nations have, in the Charter, reaffirmed their faith in
fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person, and have
determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

WHEREAS the United Nations has, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed
that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any
kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, property, birth or other status,

WHEREAS the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special
safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth,

WHEREAS the need for such special safeguards has been stated in the Geneva Declaration
of the Rights of the Child of 1924, and recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and in the statutes of specialized agencies and international organizations concerned with the
welfare of children,

WHEREAS mankind owes to the child the best it has to give,

Now, therefore, Proclaims
THIS DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD to the end that he may have a happy
childhood and enjoy for his own good and for the good of society the rights and freedoms herein
set forth, and calls upon parents, upon men and women as individuals, and upon voluntary
organizations, local authorities and national Governments to recognize these rights and strive
for their observance by legislative and other measures progressively taken in accordance with
the following principles:

1 The child shall enjoy all the rights set forth in this Declaration. Every child, without any
exception whatsoever, shall be entitled to these rights, without distinction or discrimination on
account of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, property, birth or other status, whether of himself or of his family.

2 The child shall enjoy special protection, and shall be given opportunities and facilities, by law
and by other means, to enable him to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and
socially in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity. In the
enactment of laws for this purpose, the best interests of the child shall be the paramount
consideration.

3 The child shall be entitled from his birth to a name and a nationality.

4 The child shall enjoy the benefits of social security. He shall be entitled to grow and develop
in health; to this end, special care and protection shall be provided both to him and to his
mother, including adequate pre-natal and post-natal care. The child shall have the right to
adequate nutrition, housing, recreation and medical services.

5 The child who is physically, mentally or socially handicapped shall be given the special
treatment, education and care required by his particular condition.

6 The child, for the full and harmonious development of his personality, needs love and
understanding. He shall, wherever possible, grow up in the care and under the responsibility of
his parents, and, in any case, in an atmosphere of affection and of moral and material security;
a child of tender years shall not, save in exceptional circumstances, be separated from his
mother. Society and the public authorities shall have the duty to extend particular care to
children without a family and to those without adequate means of support. Payment of State and
other assistance towards the maintenance of children of large families is desirable.

7 The child is entitled to receive education, which shall be free and compulsory, at least in the
elementary stages. He shall be given an education which will promote his general culture and
enable him, on a basis of equal opportunity, to develop his abilities, his individual judgement,
and his sense of moral and social responsibility, and to become a useful member of society.
The best interests of the child shall be the guiding principle of those responsible for his
education and guidance; that responsibility lies in the first place with his parents.
The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation, which should be directed to the
same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavour to promote the
enjoyment of this right.

8 The child shall in all circumstances be among the first to receive protection and relief.

9 The child shall be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty and exploitation. He shall not
be the subject of traffic, in any form.
The child shall not be admitted to employment before an appropriate minimum age; he shall in
no case be caused or permitted to engage in any occupation or employment which would
prejudice his health or education, or interfere with his physical, mental or moral development.

10 The child shall be protected from practices which may foster racial, religious and any other
form of discrimination. He shall be brought up in a spirit of understanding, tolerance, friendship
among peoples, peace and universal brotherhood, and in full consciousness that his energy and
talents should be devoted to the service of his fellow men.

WHO IS THE EXCEPTIONAL CHILD?
"Exceptional children" means those children who meet one or more of the following criteria and
need special education services:
"Autism" means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal
communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three but not
necessarily so, that adversely affects a child's educational performance. Other
characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and
stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines,
and unusual responses to sensory experiences. The term shall not apply if a child's
educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an
emotional disturbance.
"Blindness" means a visual impairment that requires dependence on tactile and auditory
media for learning.
"Child with a disability" means the following:
a. a child evaluated as having mental retardation, hearing impairments including
deafness, speech or language impairments, visual impairments including
blindness, emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic
brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities and who, by
reason thereof, needs special education and related services; and
b. for children ages three through nine, a child who is experiencing developmental
delays and, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.
"Deafness" means a hearing impairment that is so severe that it impairs a child's ability
to process linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, and
adversely affects the child's educational performance.
"Developmental delay" means such a deviation from average development in one or
more of the following developmental areas that special education and related services
are required:
a. Physical;
b. cognitive;
c. adaptive behavior;
d. communication; or
e. social or emotional development.
The deviation from average development shall be documented and measured by
appropriate diagnostic instruments and procedures.
"Emotional disturbance" means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following
characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects
a child's educational performance:
a. an inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health
factors;
b. an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers
and teachers;
c. inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;
d. a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or
e. a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or
school problems.
The term shall include schizophrenia but shall not apply to children who are socially
maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.
"Gifted" means performing or demonstrating the potential for performing at significantly
higher levels of accomplishment in one or more academic fields due to intellectual
ability, when compared to others of similar age, experience, and environment.
"Hearing impairment" means an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or
fluctuating, that adversely affects a child's educational performance but that does not
constitute deafness as defined in this regulation.
"Mental retardation" means significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning,
existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the
developmental period, that adversely affects a child's educational performance.
"Orthopedic impairment" means a severe orthopedic impairment that adversely affects a
child's educational performance and includes impairments caused by any of the
following:
a. congenital anomaly, including clubfoot or the absence of a limb;
b. disease, including poliomyelitis or bone tuberculosis; or
c. other causes, including cerebral palsy, amputation, and fractures or burns that
cause contractures.
"Other health impairment" means having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including
a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with
respect to the educational environment and that meets the following criteria:
a. Is due to chronic or acute health problems, including asthma, attention deficit
disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart
condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, and
sickle cell anemia; and
b. adversely affects a child's educational performance.
"Specific learning disability" means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological
processes involved in understanding or using language, spoken or written, that may
manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do
mathematical calculations, including perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain
dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. The term shall not include learning
problems that are primarily the result of any of the following:
a. Visual, hearing, or motor disabilities;
b. mental retardation;
c. emotional disturbance; or
d. environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
"Speech or language impairment" means a communication disorder, including stuttering,
impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment, that adversely
affects a child's educational performance.
"Traumatic brain injury" means an acquired injury to the brain, caused by an external
physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or psychosocial impairment,
or both, that adversely affects educational performance. The term shall apply to open or
closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, including the
following:
a. cognition;
b. language;
c. memory;
d. attention;
e. reasoning;
f. abstract thinking;
g. judgment;
h. problem solving;
i. sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities;
j. psychosocial behavior;
k. physical functions;
l. information processing; and
m. speech.
The term shall not include brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative or that are
induced by birth trauma.
"Visual impairment" means an impairment in vision that, even with correction, adversely
affects a child's educational performance. The term shall include both partial sight and
blindness.

Gleeson (2006) has attempted to de-construct discourses of what is considered normal
i.e. normalcy. In the NDA Research Conference in Dublin in 2006 she describes how a
powerful but narrow and rigid set of thinking called normal arises and how structures
and systems are then organised around this thinking. Reviewing research carried out by
people with disabilities Gleeson found that
Fear and power under-gird relationships with disability
Vulnerability to illness and death are feared and unconsciously that fear is projected
onto people with disability
Fear turns in to power in that unconsciously people with disabilities are treated as
not normal and our projection is reflected in social structures which further isolate
and marginalize them
From an early age we are socialised into thinking about normal and not normal
categories of people and consider those categories to be true or natural
As soon as we begin to see as small children we become aware that we can also be
seen by others and, accompanying this realisation, is the pressure of conforming to
social expectations (Gleeson citing Berger, 1972)
Bodies are pressured to conform to an ideal, for example, the size zero dynamic
Everyday visual imagery consolidates a narrow category of normal particularly in
relations to how bodies should look and behave (Gleeson, 2006)
The social construction of disability represents a basis from which barriers to inclusion
of people with disabilities are created (Devine, 1997 citing Olkin et al, 1994). As a result
of the social construction of disability, people with disabilities experience decreased
expectations by people without disabilities and limited inclusion in scoiety (Devine, 1997
citing Bogdan et al, 1992; Safilios Rothschild, 1976). Understanding social constructions
can help to explain why people with disabilities have been sidelined and discriminated
against and also can draw attention to what needs to be done to eliminate negative
attitudes. New interpretations of impairment and disability can be informed by
the experience of impairment of people with disabilities; by facilitating their rightful
participation in mainstream activities and by the recognition and defence of the common
values of autonomy/self-determination, equality, dignity, social justice and diversity that
are rooted in every person and of the rights that flow from them.

Stigma, stereotyping and prejudice
Stigma as a concept is imprecise. It involves attitudes, feelings and behaviours (Morgan et
al, 2002 as cited by Nolan et al, 2006).
Nolan et al (2006) cite a number of definitions of stigma including the following
A sign of disgrace or discredit which sets a person apart from others (Byrne
2000 p.65)
A societal reaction which singles out certain attributes, evaluates them as
undesirable and devalues the person who possess them (Miles, 1981, p. 70)
Some attribute or characteristic, that conveys a social identity that is devalued in a
particular social context (Crocker et al, 1998, p505)
The co-occurrence of its components labelling, stereotyping, separation, status loss
and discrimination further indicate that for stigmatisation to occur, power must be
exercised (Link et al, 2001, p. 363)
A special kind of relationship between attribute and stereotype attribute that
is deeply discreditingReduces the bearer from a whole and usual person to a
tainted, discounted one We believe that a person with a stigma is not quite human
(Goffman, 1963, pp 14-16)Literature Review on Attitud


Interindividual and Intraindividual
Differences
Children with exceptionalities are different in some ways from other children
of the same life age. These differences between children are called interindividual differences,
and they can present educators with many challenges. What
sometimes goes unnoticed is that some students also show substantial intraindividual
differences. Intraindividual differences, or differences that occur within
a single child, such as a gap between motor skills needed for writing and cognitive abilities,
must also be taken into account when planning for the child. For
example, Jason, who is 9, has the intelligence of an 11-year-old but the social
behavior of a 6-year-old, and so both interindividual and intraindividual differences must be
addressed.

Intraindividual differences can show up in any area: intellectual, emotional,
physical, or social. A child may be very bright but may have a hearing loss. A childs
physical development might be on target, but he might be unable to relate socially
to his agemates. It is just as important for teachers to know the childs unique pattern of
strengths and challenges as it is to know how the child compares with other
children. Understanding a childs intraindividual differences can help us develop
individualized approaches to instruction. These approaches are tailored to the
strengths and needs of the individual child. Individualized approaches do not necessarily
consider how that child compares with other children; the focus is on the
speci c child. One reason for the development of the individualized education
program (IEP)


Education of the Gifted:
The two major approaches to teaching gifted are acceleration and enrichment.

Acceleration: These programmes allow gifted students to move ahead at their own pace,
even if this means jumping to higher grade levels.
Enrichment: These programmes allow the students to remain in the same grade but
provide special programmes and special activities to cover the topics in greater detail and
depth.

It is generally agreed that the education of the gifted pupils should emphasize the following
objectives to cater to their giftedness.
1. Analytical perception
2. Methods of problem solving
3. Employing Analysis & Synthesis
4. Conceptual Thinking
5. Scientific Objectivity
6. Originality and creativity
7. Independent study habits
8. Encouragement of special interests



Dr. Barbara Klein, a Los Angeles clinical psychologist, discusses the type of learning
environment that meets the needs of students who are gifted, highly gifted and twice
exceptional (students who are gifted and have special learning needs).
The type of curriculum that is the most productive choice for twice exceptional and gifted
children is known as the constructivist approach. Constructivism is a theory that suggests that
children learn best when they use their own knowledge and memories to connect to and interact
with the subject matter they are learning.
Constructivist curriculum is highly individualized. The interactions between students are valued
as an important part of the classroom learning. The students developmental level is taken into
consideration in the selection of curriculum and instruction.
Because of the personalized, individual, developmental approach of constructivist curriculum, it
will serve the asynchronous needs the learning highs and lows of the twice exceptional child
most effectively. Finding a school with a constructivist curriculum can be difficult. Often, parents
must seek private religious and nonreligious schools.
Preliminary Evaluation of a School Under Consideration
Make site observations, with interviews, and contact other parents and other students attending
the school whenever possible.
In the chart below, the new, constructivist views of learning are compared to the old, traditional
views of learning. This chart can help you decide which view of learning best characterizes the
school you are considering.
Language
Old view of learning:
Language is taught by modeling proper academic speech. Teacher affirms or corrects the
childs response.
New view of learning:
Language is taught through social conversation. A young childs speech is elaborated upon
(e.g., the child says big dog, and the teacher elaborates Yes, the big dog is jumping).
Content
Old view of learning:
The focus is on what to learn the facts, information.
New view of learning:
The focus is on how to learn how to ask questions and how to act in variety of settings.
Personalized Learning
Old view of learning:
Children adhere to answering questions and completing assignments given in texts and
workbooks without personal elaboration.
New view of learning:
Children add to lessons with their own stories related to the topics at hand.
Ability
Old view of learning:
Teacher believes individuals differ because of innate ability.
New view of learning:
Individual differences are attributed to childrens prior experiences.
Errors in Performance
Old view of learning:
Errors are marked wrong and feedback is given to the child on how to correct them.
The learning task is broken down by the teacher into simple steps for the parts that make up the
task.
New view of learning:
Errors are seen as learning opportunities.
Errors reflect the childs perception, which teachers try to understand.
The learning task is messy, requiring the child to figure out how to achieve good performance.
Participation
Old view of learning:
Children learn to attend to the teacher, follow instructions, and engage in guided concepts.
New view of learning:
There are multiple opportunities for children to participate in group discussions, practice and
application of newly taught whole class lessons, paired activities, games and social activities.
Collaboration
Old view of learning:
Each child does own work. Children compare their levels of performance.
New view of learning:
Children help each other, each one contributing to a common goal.
Authority
Old view of learning:
The teacher judges and scores the childs work.
Standard rubrics are used in assigning grades.
New view of learning:
Children judge their own work, prepare alternative solutions, and seek evidence for facts
presented.
Assessment
Old view of learning:
Both standardized tests and teacher-made tests show what child has learned.
New view of learning:
Children have many ways to show what they know drawing, acting, writing, building, etc.
Parent/Teacher Conference
Old view of learning:
Teacher controls the conference, and is apprehensive about parents who know too much about
education and schooling.
Child is exempted from parent-teacher conference.
New view of learning:
Teacher listens to parents concerns.
Teacher acts upon home-centered information as way to support both parent and child.
Child participates in the conference.
Summary
If the school you are visiting takes a nontraditional approach, your special needs child will have
an increased chance of receiving an education that will meet his or her academic, social, and
emotional needs.