Exceptional children can be classified into many broad categories and each of these categories have one or more types.
1. The Intellectually Exceptional Child:
There are three groups comprising the intellectually exceptional children. On one hand we have the gifted child, the child with superior intellect.
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Gifted children exceed, in terms of intelligence quotient, 125 or 130 and generally fall within the range between IQ, 130 and 180 or above. Such children constitute about 2 to 7 per cent of the average population. These children are more neglected in terms of special provisions, particularly in the elementary school, than are children of any other area of exceptionality.
They present a unique challenge to teachers and administrators who must plan a realistic programme geared to meet the special needs of the gifted pupil and at the same time insure that society will benefit to the maximum from the unusual abilities and leadership qualities which the children and youth with high mental ability possess.
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It is not enough merely to set normal standards for them or to leave them to their own devices on the assumption that they are well-qualified to care themselves.
Such negligence and lack of appropriate instruction encourages some gifted students to operate on a resort ‘get-by’ policy, while others become so bored that they resort to a social if not antisocial behaviour. If properly guided, they can become the evaluators and innovators of society, the great economists, industrialists, engineers, statesmen, scientists and linguists.
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They need special curriculum content and precepts, special methods of teaching, special leadership roles in the school and college society.
(i) The slow-learners are those children whose measured intelligence quotient is somewhere between 80 and 95. They have problems of adjustment and education which must be understood by parents and teachers. They need remedial education.
(ii) The mentally handicapped or the educable mentally retarded pupils possess I.Q., between approximately 50 to 75. They can however, become literate and socially and economically self- sufficient in childhood.
(iii) The mentally difficult or trainable. Mentally retarded children have been defined as possessing I.Q., scores between 30 and 50. Because their mental ages approximate 4 to 8 years by adulthood, they can expect to develop rudimentary skills in self care, socialisation, and oral communication, but not to become literate.
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This group will need some social support or protection for all of their lives. Many of them are able to perform useful tasks at home or in a sheltered environment.
Mentally deficient children whose I Qs fail below 30 cannot benefit from any training. They need custodial care and are called custodial cases.
2. The Physically Handicapped:
Within the large category of the physically handicapped children are a number of separate and distinct groups of children, each of which requires special thought by educators. Herein are children with impaired vision, children with impaired hearing, and children with speech handicaps, children with orthopedic and neurological impairment.
Children with impaired vision may be subdivided into two major groups, that is, the partially-sighted and the blind. The basis of grouping is in terms of visual activity.
The partially sighted are those whose vision is between 20/70 and 20/200 in the better eye with correction. The blind child is one whose vision is less than 20/200 with correction or whose field of vision is significantly restricted. These children need special programmers, special methods of teaching, special equipment and teaching aids.
The blind have to use Braille as their reading medium. Some of them, partially seeing ones, may be able to read large letters slowly but do not have sufficient vision to read them effectively. The blind have to acquire skills in travel and mobility, in adjusting to group situations and strange environments, in avoiding undesirable facial expressions and mannerisms, and in learning to explore the world about them by tactual means. They need suitable vocational training.
Pupils with impaired hearing encounter more difficulty scholastically than other children with sensory disabilities. Besides teaching subject- matter, a teacher of the hearing impaired must offer instruction in speech development, speech reading, language and auditory training.
In children who are hard of hearing, the residual hearing is functional for acquiring language usually with a hearing aid but sometimes without one.
Children who are deaf have a profound hearing loss, either congenitally or accidentally after they have experience of speech. They need to acquire their language concepts and skills in speech and speech reading through special instruction i.e., lip- reading. Whether the hearing impaired children need specialised instruction in a special class depends on the degree of hearing loss, the age when the loss occurred amount of special training already received and amount of language, speech, and speech reading proficiency attained.
Speech disabilities are often closely associated with loss of hearing. They result from developmental, functional and organic causes. Delayed speech may be associated with the former while stuttering is typical of a functional speech disability.
Cleft palate and cerebral palsy cause speech disabilities of the organic type. Infantile and other minor speech problems can be corrected by the teacher, but the more difficult ones require direct services of a speech therapeutist. Unfortunately, in India we have hardly 3 or 4 trained speech therapeutists and not more than 3 or 4 speech clinics. The various types of speech disabilities include defective articulation, lisping, stuttering, voice disorders of pitch, quality of duration.
Pupils with neurological and non-sensory physical impairments are also included in this group. Disabilities may result from polish, osteomylitrs, tuberculosis, central palsy, epilepsy, and such as chronic health conditions as cardiac disorders, asthma, nephrites hepatitis and diabetes.
These conditions make the children “crippled” in functioning. Some of these children may become crippled because of malformations or malfunctions of bones, joints or muscles. These are also called orthopaedic handicaps.
In a few cases there may be aphasia which is a language disorder due to brain damage. All these children need specialised care and specialised techniques of training and education.
3. The Emotionally Disturbed Children:
Include those with behaviour problems and those who are socially maladjusted or the delinquents. The causes of emotional disturbance or social maladjustment are a breakdown in the family constellation, a developmental disturbance, an economic, social or ethnic or religious conflict, unhappy home and school life generating all sorts of emotional insecurity, overcrowding in houses and schools, lack of individual attention, absence of individualised instruction, primitive discipline and ego-deflating methods of teaching or handling at home.
These children need special care and attention. They may disrupt the rest of the class by their irregular class attendance, may place under pressure on the teacher and may not be able to learn because of their own inner conflicts and anxieties. Such children need the help of child guidance specialists and a mental hygiene approach.
4. The multi-handicapped or multiple handicapped child:
Has a problem of exceptionality which is highly complicated. Children may be mentally retarded as well as speech handicapped. They may be at the time suffering from epilepsy. They may have cerebral palsy with mental retardation and epilepsy. They may be deaf, blind and mentally handicapped. They may be mentally defective, speech handicapped and suffer at the same time from behaviour disturbances. Very little research has been done in this area so far. Hence chances of their rehabilitation are meager.