While identifying students with a disability, the most crucial aspects are on their development. The focus is on the learner's cognitive, emotional, social, behavioral, functional, and physical development in special education. The aim is to identify any challenges that a student faces in the various development traits to provide extra assistance.
Discussion of Characteristics
Cognitive
In the cognitive domain, special needs learners face challenges with reading as retention of content. While reading, it is possible to find some of them omitting some words, and others easily forget the concept. Also, there is the issue with understanding. Most of the special need students are slow learners, and they require more elaboration than the rest. They lack the aspect of critical thinking where they can solve the issue on their own. Thus, in most instances, they will require the teacher's help to operate effectively. Since they easily forger they need to be reminded frequently on what is expected of them. They process information slowly, and it will take time to grasp what they are instructed to do.
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Social
Social domain deals with their ability to interact with each other and the rest of the learners. Special needs learners prefer to stay by themselves. They tend to seclude themselves from the rest of the population. They will only be in close contact with people in the environment that are familiar to them (Act Government Education and Training, n.p). Special needs student feels threatened by any new thing in their environment that is unfamiliar to them. They will not play with other children, but instead, they will play by themselves. They feel different and unable to fit in with the rest of the learners.
Emotional
Emotionally, they are quick to anger and are very aggressive, especially in kept under pressure. The kind of care that the students need is tender to counter their emotional challenges easily. Their cognitive development is in connection with higher emotional expectations. Depression and underachievement are the other emotional traits for special needs students (National Association of Special Education Teachers, n.p). They tend to compare themselves with other learners, and if there is an underachievement, they start to feel depressed. They always want to be treated like the rest of the students and negatively perceive the special education that they receive from the teacher. They have an issue with emotional stability and can react differently depending on the situation.
Behavioral
The behavior of special needs students varies depending on the situation. When under pressure, they are resistant to change and may be wild and aggressive. In most cases, they are hyperactive, and they require someone to keep them calms. Also, they are hypersensitive and quickly respond to any changes in their environment. They are always risk-taking as they lack the cognitive ability to differentiate what is right and wrong. Thus, they require close monitoring as they are not aware of what puts them at risk in their surroundings.
Functional
They lack effective communication skills that can hasten the response to their needs. They have an intense focus and concentration on one thing. Once they gain interest in a particular item, all their focus is diverted in that one direction. They will always want to do the task over and over again as it is what makes them feel good. Also, they are repetitive and cannot connect to something that they have already done. For instance, they may make a mistake and be instructed not to do it again. But they will still make the same mistake, not remembering they were warned until they perfectly get trained on the issue.
Physical
Physically, they have strong visualization and perception skills. Such implies that they can easily resonate with things that they know in the environment surrounding them. Some might require physical support, such as walking and doing their assignment, but they tend to want to take charge, which makes them aggressive towards anyone wishing to offer help (Mattson et al., 2019). They are usually disciplined to practice implying that they perfectly respond to a skill that they have been trained. They have strong tactical and kinaesthetic learning preferences, making their functioning more effective and easier to manage.
Identification and Assessment
It is easy to identify a student with the kind of disabilities in schools by monitoring the traits. For instance, a teacher can observe the learners' social behavior and know if they have a disability. They will tend to seclude themselves from the rest and have behavioral issues. They can get into fights all over the time, some are slow in responding to question, and even their cognitive ability might be impaired. A student might not resonate with what is being taught in class, and they will be hypersensitive when approached on an issue. One of the assessments that are commonly used in conducting a background check. The strategy aims and analyzing the health background of the child. The main focus is on the child's health, behavioral, and psychological aspects in the evaluation. The assessment helps in discovering if the child has any underlying psychological problems that are impacting their learning. A teacher, psychologist, or even the parents of the child can conduct the assessment. While planning for instructions, the review is key in highlighting sections that need more decoding. If the child has any psychological problems, they are more likely to have cognitive issues. Thus, they will need a more elaborated learning instruction that can be achieved through a decoding process. Another assessment that can be done is an adaptive behavior. The evaluation is carried out after a clear confirmation that the child has a learning disability. Using adaptive behavior will provide information on the challenges that the learner is facing while learning. It is easy to create a learning method intervention that will suit their needs (Abdi et al., 2020). While planning for instructions, the assessment tool will lead to identifying a teaching strategy that suits the needs of the disabled learner. It will show the ability of the learner to live independently. Thus, if a student cannot be independent, there can be extra learning materials in the planning to provide further assistance to the learner. The last assessment is intelligence testing. The tool's main aim is to realize the type of learning environment that a disabled student needs. Carrying out a review using the method will provide information on a learner's behavior in a different environment. The data is crucial in planning. The teacher will know the kind of supervision that the students’ needs and the various learning instruments that need to be incorporated in the different learning environments. The assessment is usually done individually, and the requirements of learners in the different environments differ from each other.
Parents Collaboration and Cultural/Linguistic diversity
The main challenge for the cultural and linguistic students is the language that they speak. Most of the learners in the category are not English speakers since it is their second language. Students will learn and try to talk in English while in school, but since their parents are not known and cannot communicate in the language, they will use their local dialect while at home. The issue makes the learning to be more challenging to the students. Thus, parents have a key role in enhancing students' learning progress who speak English as their second language. A key recommendation is for the parents to tray and communicate in English with their children while at home (National Association of Special Education Teachers, n.p). The strategy will enhance their level of understanding and mastering of the language, and thus decoding the learning instructions as a teacher will be an easy task. The difference in culture and linguistics negatively affects the learner's characteristics and potential identification. The main issue arises from seclusion by other students as they cannot effectively communicate. Students tend to be close to each other and easily interact if they can share in the same language. If there is diversity, those who cannot use the language will be set aside, resulting in consequences. One is the development of harsh behavior as their self – esteem decreases. The secluded student will tend to protect themselves, and they will be hypersensitive to anything said to them. They will feel discriminated against because of their language and cultural practices and will have social connection issues. As a teacher, the best strategy is to incorporate the learner's culture and linguistics in the teaching process. The system will make the decoding of the instructions easy and will enhance the understanding of the learners.
References
Abdi, F. M., et al. (2020). Children with special health care needs face challenges accessing information, support, and services. Child Trends. Retrieved from: https://www.childtrends.org/publications/children-with-special-health-care-needs-face-challenges-accessing-information-support-and-services Act Government Education and Training. (n.d.). Gifted and talented education: Social emotional needs. Retrieved from Social-emotional needs (act.gov.au). Accessed 1 February 2021. Mattson, G., et al. (2019). Psychosocial factors in children and youth with special health care needs and their families. Pediatrics, 143(1). National Association of Special Education Teachers. (n.d.). Assessment in special education series. NASET. Retrieved from National Association of Special Education Teachers: Assessment in Special Education Series (naset.org). Accessed 1 February 2021. National Association of Special Education Teachers. (n.d.). Characteristics of children with learning disabilities. NASET. Retrieved from Microsoft Word - Issue_#3_LD_Report_Characteristic_of_LD (naset.org). Accessed 1 February 2021.
