Characteristic of CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Categories of children with special needs

Physically impaired problems Visually impaired Hearing impaired Speech disorder Behaviour problems Learning disabilities Autism Hiperactive Slow learner

Physically impaired problems

Physically impaired problem refers to children with physical disabilities

They require medical or special equipment, such as wheelchair.

physical disability includes a form of neurological disability affecting the brain and nervous system (Mohd Sharani,2006) It also includes orthopedic problems which involves the bones, joints and muscles. Among the problems which categorized as physical disability are cerebral palsy, epilepsy, spinal bifida, muscular dystrophy, limb deficiencies, asthma, diabetes and leukemia.

Cerebral palsy
Difficulty to move because they could not coordinating their body. It is caused by neurological motor that can not function well because of the injury on the brain. This injury may occur before, during or after birth. In general, these children will also be have other defects such as visual and speech problems, or mental retardation.

Epilepsy (Penyakit sawan)

Epilepsy caused by neurological problems that cause children tremors

Spinal bifida Defects in the spine that can cause paralysis below the waist. It is a condition that occurs since birth, however this problem can be solve with surgery.

Muscular dystrophy The decline of muscle strength progressively until the child require a wheelchair however children's intelligence are not affected.

limb deficiencies This may due to accident or occur during birth These children are trained to use artificial limbs.

Asthma Respiratory problem This disease can be controlled with drugs

diabetes
a disease that caused by the pancreas that can not be function to prevent the increase of sugar in human blood. This disease can be controlled with drugs and proper nutrition.

leukemia
a common form of cancer among of children. The disease is caused due to the sudden increase of white blood cells in the bone marrow. Chemotherapy is a method used to help control

Hearing impaired
There are 2 types of hearing problems: deaf, the partially deaf. Partial deafness means the use of hearing aids will enable children to receive audio education. Children who are classified as deaf need to receive education by using the theory such as vision.

 Hearing problem consists of several levels and some of them can be identified when the child was a few years old.
A teacher have to alert to signs of this problem such as frequent ask people to repeat what has been mentioned. They also had difficulties to follow instructions.

Speech skill of these children are not good ad they often pronoun wrongly.
the hearing problems will affect their communication and individual learning.

Visual Problem
Children is categorized as have vision problem if the damage cannot be corrected and interfere with the childrens learning. A child with visual impairment are likely to have limited vision or blindness. Childs vision is limited to only close objects. Children who are classified as blind cannot learn through visual. They have to rely on hearing and touching. This kind of children can learn as usual if the facilities and services are available to them.

 They cannot explore the environment as a normal child. This can also have an impact on personality development. Their limited visual experience of the world will affect their development of language. For example, a normal child can give many examples for the word "whole" explaining it clearly when compared with children who are visually impaired.

Children with visual problems may have squinted eyes and sometimes shuts one eye in order to see.

 There will also keep rubbing the eyes for no reason and cause the eyes red and swollen. Children often complain of dizziness or nausea. They tend to read from a very closed distance Difficulty in assimilating information regarding the different qualities of objects, colour, reflection and angle.

Speech Disorder
Pronunciation problem

Language problem

Four types of speech disorder:

Voice
problem

Stuttering problem

1. Pronunciation Problem
Pronunciation problem is the tendency to leave syllable or change the sound of a word, for example the word saya" to caya". It is usually not taken seriously, but if this problem persists it should be noted.

2. Voice Problem
Problems related to voice quality sound of a person. It may be too loud, soft, hoarse, harsh, nasal, tone higher or lower or the same tone and not changed.

3. Stuttering Problem
Stuttering is a disruption of speech fluency. Uninterrupted flow of speech in which a person may repeat, stop for a moment or intervene with syllables or words. Stuttering usually occurs when the individual is excited and want to say something with a higher rate.

4. Language Problem
Language problems associated with central nervous system. According to Myklebust (1971), language problem disrupted understanding or use of the word. The term used is aphasia. It means ones have difficulty interpreting a language in a conversation. It also involves the difficulty in using appropriate words during communication. Speech disorders such as pronunciation problems, stuttering and sound can cause the child feels embarrassment. The problem of language affects cognitive development of children.

Behavioural Problem
Behavioral problems among children is a normal matter. Children who show inappropriate behavior will result in a social conflict, not happy and failure in a school.

Behavioural which is associated with this problem, including aggressive, difficulty forming social relationships, show social behavior that is not acceptable in the society, hyperactive, cheat, steal and problems in learning.
It can be classified into internal behavioral problems and external behavioral problems.

Internal
Sadness, Depression Preoccupation of thinking about a matter

External
Against Difficult to control yourself

Shame, too sensitive

Cheating, Stealing

Characteristics of Children Behavior Problems

Inappropriate behavior in normal situations.
children who chew and eat in the classroom when the teacher is teaching.

Inability to control feelings and behaviors.

For example, children are quick-tempered when a friend took the pencil or eraser.

Shows the physical symptoms associated with personal problem or school problems.
children who complain abdominal pain or fever therefore they cannot go to school.

 Not able to form interpersonal relationships with friends or teacher.

These children are usually quiet and do not want to socialize with other children.

Having a learning disability but the disability can not be explained by health factors, sensory or intellectual.

 Several factors that contribute to this problem:

It may be caused by biochemical imbalance of the individual neurological problems or injuries to the central nervous system. Changes in the family such as divorce, the presence of a new brother or mother / father. Problem behaviors associated with problem learning causes students skipping classes, not attend to school, low achievement and kicking out of school.

SLOW LEARNER
These children are frequently immature in their relations with others and do poorly in school. They cannot do complex problems and work very slowly. Has difficulty following multi-step directions. They are usually not able to follow the lessons taught by teachers who use the normal method. This is because they are unable to focus and passion for teaching and learning process. Has a poor self-image.

Autism
Autism is a neurological disorder that affects language and cognitive development in children. Symptoms of autism begin to become noticeable between the ages of 2 - 3 years.

 A child with autism usually has problems interacting with people in the following ways:
may avoid or lack eye-contact, may not imitate others, may not point or use other hand gestures, may prefer to be alone may not understand social cues.

They will usually have problems communicating such as:

may not speak at all may be severely language delayed, may have unusual or odd speech patterns (repeat words and phrases heard by others, etc) may be unable to initiate or engage in a conversation,

 These children may also show restricted, repetitive, or ritualistic behaviors, interests, and activities, for example:
may insist on sameness (i.e. prefer certain clothing or eating only certain foods,) may spin or like to spin objects may be self-injurious may get anger or show aggression easily may be resistance to change may get angry or upset if their daily routine changes

Learning Disabilities
Researchers think that learning disabilities are caused by differences in how a person's brain works and how it processes information. They are not "dumb" or "lazy. In fact, they usually have average or above average intelligence. Children with learning disabilities see, hear, and understand things differently. This can lead to trouble with learning new information and skills, and putting them to use. The most common types of learning disabilities involve problems with reading, writing, reasoning, listening, and speaking.

 When a child has a learning disability, he or she:

may have trouble learning the alphabet, rhyming words, or connecting letters to their sounds; may not know where to begin a task or how to go on from there. may not be able to retell a story in order (what happened first, second, third); or may not follow the social rules of conversation, such as taking turns, and may stand too close to the listener; may make many mistakes when reading aloud, and repeat and pause often; may have trouble understanding jokes, comic strips, and sarcasm; may mispronounce words or use a wrong word that sounds similar; may have trouble organizing what he or she wants to say or not be able to think of the word he or she needs for writing or conversation;

may have very messy handwriting may have trouble remembering or hold a pencil awkwardly; the sounds that letters make or hearing slight differences between words; may confuse math symbols and may have trouble following misread numbers; directions; may not understand what he or she reads;
may have real trouble with spelling;

may learn language late and have a limited vocabulary;

may struggle to express ideas in writing;

Hyperactive Disorder
Also known as ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) ADHD can cause kids to act in different ways, depending on who has it. Characteristic of hyperactive disorder children:
Inability to focus. Inability to relax Excessive Talking Temper Tantrums Inability to Listen