Jolanda Morales
Dr.Luft
ED 255 1301
29 August 2013

Chapter 1 Children with Exceptionalities and Their Families

I. The Child with Exceptionalities A. The term exceptional includes the child with developmental disabilities and the child who is gifted and talented.

B. Gifted and talented children also have special needs.

1. Five areas where the exceptional child is different from the typical child are in mental, sensory, communicative, behavior, and emotional development and physical characteristics.

2. Gifted children need to be motivated to use their talents and to reach their potential. Society needs to be aware that they have special contributions and needs to be supportive of them.
II. Interindividual and Intraindividual Differences A. Exceptional children have both interindividual (differences among other children) and intra individual (differences with themselves).

B. Intra individual differences can occur in intellectual, emotional, physical and social areas.

1. Understanding the child’s intraindividual differences can help develop an individualized plan for instruction.

2. The individualized education program (IEP) is designed to discuss individual pattern of needs that need to be brought to the attention of the educator.
III. Early Identification of Children with Exceptionalities A. The first step to successful intervention is to identify the student with exceptionalities. When exceptionalities are identified early appropriate intervention can be provided.

B. The American Public School System was not always involved with educating and the care of preschool age children. Early childhood programs include family daycare, Head Start, and Title I. These programs offer early intervention to help families of young children with developmental problems or disabilities.

1. Economic reasons also play a part in appropriate identification. Children identified with having a disability can be eligible for supports and services provided from federal and state governments.

2. When there is early intervention in the development of the child the more significant outcome is seen. Public preschools and early childhood programs are emerging to start treatment as soon as the disability is known. IV. Information Processing Model A. Children learn using an information model which explains how students interact and respond to the world around them. Processing information takes place within an emotional context. A student that is not capable of processing information correctly may need special education.

B. Children receive information from their senses through input (visual or hearing) then process information through memory and reasoning abilities. Lastly their response to the information is through output (speaking, writing and acting).

1. The child’s executive function helps him decide what information to deal with, how to interpret it, and what option to use when responding.

2. Processing information takes place in the emotional context which influences every part of the system: input, processing, output and executive function.

V. Causation of Exceptionalities A. To understand the various types of exceptionality, the role of heredity and the environment needed to be examined. Before 1960 it was believed that it was impossible to change a child’s condition if heredity was involved. B. A movement was discovered to explain how the environment played a role in exceptionalities. Exceptionalities can be created depending on the environmental condition.

1. The educator’s main focus was to help the child adopt as well as possible to their condition.

2. In the 1990 a new look was placed on the interaction of heredity and and environment and their effects on the interactions.

VI. How Many Children with Exceptions are there? A. It is estimated that there are six million