Categories of Disability:
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
This disorder is characterized by severe impairment in several areas of development: social interaction skills, communication skills and the presence of stereotypical behaviour specific to each child.
Intellectual disability
It means significant below-average intellectual functioning and is associated with limitations in adaptive behaviour (behaviour needed in daily life skills).
Examples include:
- Down’s syndrome (Trisomy 21): is a condition in which an extra chromosome is present and causing delays in the child’s development physically and mentally.
Deaf/Blindness
It is the presence of both visual and hearing impairment which leads to sever communication problems. The sense of touch is used to perceive the environment and surroundings.
Hearing impairment
It refers to any degree of impairment of hearing ability. It ranges from hard of hearing in which amplification aids are needed to the complete absence of hearing in which those people cannot benefit from amplification aids.
Learning Disability (LD)
It is a disorder that involves difficulty in understanding and using concepts through verbal language (spoken) and non-verbal (written) means. Children with LD are smart but have problems with the following areas: attention, processing, memory, communication, reading, writing, spelling, and calculation. It affects how the information is taken in, perceived, heard, seen; how it is linked to old information and how it is expressed.
Examples include:
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Dyscalculia: difficulty performing math calculations
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Dysgraphia: difficulty expressing thoughts in writing regardless of the ability to read, not a result of intellectual impairment.
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Dyslexia: is a learning disability that involves reading; it means difficulty understanding written words.
Speech impairment
Speech disorders refer to problems in producing the sounds of speech or with the quality of voice. It includes the following:
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A sound system disorder which includes articulation and/or phonology exhibited as a delay of correct sound production.
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Fluency disorders that are exhibited through one or more symptomatic behaviours of influence (repetitions, prolongations, blockages or hesitations).
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Voice disorders that are exhibited through deviations in one or more of the parameters of voice (pitch, quality or volume).
Examples include:
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Dysarthria: is a weakness or paralysis of speech muscles caused by damage to the nerves and/or brain.
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Stuttering: is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses.
Language impairment
It is the inability to understand and/or use words in context, both verbally and non-verbally. Some characteristics of language impairment include improper use of words and their meanings, inability to express ideas, inappropriate grammatical patterns (he walk instead of he walks), reduced vocabulary and inability to follow directions.
Visual impairment
Blindness implies a total loss of vision while low vision implies severe vision impairment and needs the use of adaptive aids.
Examples include:
Physical Disability
It is dysfunction of the musculoskeletal and/or neurological body systems, which affects the muscles responsible for controlling and moving the body.
Examples include:
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Cerebral palsy: it is a non progressive lesion affecting one or more areas in the immature brain leading to poor body movements and muscle coordination. It occurs before, during or shortly following birth.
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Muscular dystrophy: it is a genetic, muscle disorder leading to progressive weakness of the muscles.
Multiple disability
It means the presence of more than one impairment equally evident (no one is more dominant than the other) such as mental retardation and blindness; mental retardation and physical disability.
Emotional disturbance
It means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and is sever in nature:
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An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors
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An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers
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Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances
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A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression
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A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or social problems
Developmental delay
A child experiences developmental delay between the ages 3 through 5 in one or more of the following areas: physical development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional development or adaptive development.
References