Chelsea Neal Nelson

Field Experience
11/11/14
Exceptionality

Exceptional children are defined as children that have learning and/or behavior problems,
children with physical disabilities or sensory impairments, and children who are intellectually
gifted or have special talents. After being a part of Mrs. Shiffletts Kindergarten classroom for
the past two months, I have been able to discuss and experience first-hand educating students
with exceptionalities. Mrs. Shiffletts has gone over the different kinds that are present in her
classroom. There are that have speech problems because of language barriers or just speech
impairment. Mrs. Shifflett explained that these students just need a little extra attention when it
comes to grasping their alphabet, spelling words and reading. An assistant comes into their
classroom every day and helps these students for an hour reviewing what is being taught or has
different speech activities for them to practice with. These are just considered as limitations in
the classroom that need a little extra attention.
Mrs. Shifflett explained to me that the language barrier is a pretty normal exceptionality
amongst her students because they have huge population of Hispanic speaking students in
Keister Elementary. By having these students and students with speech impairments work with
the co-teaching assistant or a special educator assistant it sets them up for success. These
assistant will evaluate the students progress continuously and one day they may not need it
anymore. One student in Mrs. Shiffletts early morning classroom she and other assistants
believe he has a speech impairment or a developmental delay but his parents are not considering
any of the information they are trying to explain, therefore, the student can only receive as much
help as the assistant can give him. Mrs. Shifflett explained that this is one of the hardest parts of

her job; when a child does not understand the information and needs extra attention but the
parents refuse to believe that anything might be different about their childs learning style.
Having the help of the teacher, co-teacher, assistants, school and evern the parents is the best way
for each student to get the best education possible, even if they do not have exceptionalities.
Just from paying close attention to the differences in the classroom; the special needs of
some students I have learned what I will do in my future classroom. Before this class I did not
understand the difference between having a student in normal classroom and one in a special
education classroom; I believed that the only difference was that those students had something
wrong with them. I had always been told that the students in these classrooms were just students
with intellectual delays, which I have learned is far from the truth. Students who have a speech
impairment or language barrier can be placed in the same environment with a student who has a
specific learning disability. My host teacher explained to me how important it is to keep these
students involved in the classroom activities when they are in there because you want them to
understand that they are more like the normal than unlike them. I thought this is important
aspect to bring into my classroom one day because this helps students with exceptionalities to
succeed as well as others. Helping students with special needs see how they can contribute to a
normal setting classroom makes them feel like they are not so different after all. Also, having
these students in the classroom gives other students the opportunity to learn from them or learn
about differences there can be in a students learning style. These experiences will hopefully help
them not to judge one another but instead understand the issues as hand. I would like to make my
future classroom an open, learning environment for every student, no matter what special needs
they may demand.
Word Count: 634