HOW TO IDENTIFY SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN IN A REGULAR

CLASSROOM.
The term ‘special needs’ is extremely general. Special needs as it is used today refers to any
behavioural, physical, emotional, learning difficulties.
Special needs can range from people with autism, physically challenged, cerebral palsy,
Down Syndrome, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, visually impaired, hearing
impaired etc.
Therefore, individuals with special needs are people who have various forms of difficulties
mentioned above. But for the purpose of our discussion we shall limit ourselves to three
areas; intellectual disability, hearing impairment and visual impairment.

* Intellectual Disability.
Intellectual disability formerly referred to as mental retardation. This condition may not be
visible in the child unless the child is severely affected or is a Down syndrome type. In most
situations, such children those with mild and moderate conditions can only be identified by
the way they approach academic tasks in the classroom.
They need adequate diagnosis to declare them as mentally retarded. All children with mental
retardation can learn any academic task, but take much longer time to do so if compared
with non retarded children. All that they need is patience, adequate support and practical
approach to teaching and learning.

* Hearing Impairment.
Another category of pupils with special needs is children with hearing impairment. Hearing
impairment hinders the development of language and communication ability of children with
this condition, because every individual learn language through hearing, interpretation and
imitation. By far the most common way of classifying hearing impairment is the division
between deaf and hard of hearing. Hard of hearing means being able hear a little bit.
Individuals who are deaf have some residual hearing and the basis that no child who is deaf
be labeled deaf and dump. People from educational point of view are concerned with how
much the hearing impairment is likely to affect the child ability to speak and develop
language.
In fact, hearing impairment is more or less a hidden condition because it only be recognized
through the person’s behaviour. The following can be signs of hearing impairment in a child.
 Demonstrate unusual behaviour in response to oral instruction, direction or question.
 Often fails in oral text or examination.
 Directing a particular ear to sound source.
 Often looking straight into speaker’s face.
 Late to response to group instruction.
 Drags the feet on the ground while walking.
 Rely heavily on gestures or visual cues.
 Often being suspicious about others conversations.
* Visual Impairment
Another categories of individuals with special needs, is pupils with visual impairment. As far
as learning is concerned, vision cannot be left out. Although blindness is the least prevent of
all disabilities in children people dread it. It is reportedly the most feared condition; only after
cancer and AIDS (Sernigan, 1992).
The two most common ways of describing someone with visual impairment are the legal and
educational definitions; The legal definition involves assessment of visual acuity and field of
vision.
Visual Acuity; It is the sharpness, clearness or the distance the eye can reach to an object. In
the other hand, education definition, is the ability to use vision as an avenue for learning.
Thus, visual impairment can be explained as a range of vision loss from mild to severe.
The following are symptoms to watch for possible identification of visually impaired.
 Rubes the eyes excessively.
 Exhibit irregular eye movements.
 Has difficulties seeing from a distance
 Has difficulty in reading or in other wise requiring close use of the eyes.
 Blinks more unusual or irritable when doing close work.
 Skipping over words or lines when reading or writing.
These are some ways we can use to identify individuals with special needs and most specially
those with disabilities in the regular classrooms.
We therefore encourage you to report any suspected case to the municipal office for
assessment and referral if the need arises.