How To Stigmatize Children With Disabilities

Special education teachers make a conscious decision to work on a daily basis with students who display various disabilities. Some of the disabilities include autism, negative social and emotional behaviors, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, mobility disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, as well as students who suffer from being blind and deaf. When these disabilities interfere with the daily educational activities of a child, the child is in need of the valuable opportunities provided in a self-contained classroom.

Throughout the ages, people with disabilities have been hidden away at homes or institutions and were often not educated. This was common practice and as such, when the education system was designed, children with disabilities were not even considered. Then, starting soon after the civil rights movement in the 50’s, a series of lawsuits was brought against school boards and the federal government took notice. Then the Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975 was passed and these children were finally allowed the education they deserved. As time went

Disability brings problems to schools too causing the child to be disadvantaged. These could include lack of specialist staff or poor staff knowledge which can lead to lack of socialisation and integration into the school.

In some general classrooms, teachers tend to give more time and attention to children with disabilities, leaving general education students who may be struggling with little to no help. Socialization is another whole ballpark, inclusion could lead to children developing negative attitudes about peers with disabilities, especially if they feel they are receiving more attention from the teacher and other students in the classroom. Teachers of general education classes may have a fear of teaching students with disabilities. They feel they do not know them well enough and that they will make a mistake. This can then in return allow the teacher to push the student with a disability away and not give them the best education piece they can. These teachers feel like they should not have to change their classroom for a student that is coming to them. It also shows that these teachers are not trained properly in special education.

The inclusion of children with learning disabilities into normal classrooms has proved to exhibit both positive and negative effects on children with and without disabilities.

There are many different reasons that students may need additional assistance to be successful academically. Students may have a difficulty reading, or English may not be their primary language. They may have suffered a traumatic brain injury or may have been born with Autism. Students might even have difficulty socially interacting with teachers and peers or due to some physiological impact in their young lives might have other emotional impairments. No matter what the cause for the disability, special education services and interventions are vital to success of these special students.

One must understand the diversity of health issues in dealing with different ethnicity groups in childhood obesities. Since my research data demonstrate that minorities are more likely to be obese than non-minorities, thus I do not want to provide an image of social labeling and stigmatizing minority children who are overweight. There are many factors that play in role in children being obese that must be taken into accounts. One of the factors, the income status of the parents and how it generally affects the child quality of life, living environment. For example, if the parents have a low yearly income it can factor in the child being obese in comparison to a child’s parent having an average or high income, including affecting the living environment and the type of food eaten. In addition, obese children are prone to psychological issues such as depression, general anxiety, emotional problem, including eating disorder (Holm et al., 2014). And different race and ethnicity deal with these types of psychological issues differently.

One of the sections of this chapter that really stuck out for me was the Etiology of learning disabilities which explains the variety of reason behind disabilities such as: Acquired Trauma, medical factors, Genetic/Hereditary influences, and environmental factors. I am sure many people can agree that the stigma surrounding learning disabilities is usually pointed toward the child being born with the disease and not everyone considers the many other factors which cause these defects.

Ableism was first identified as an issue in 1973 when, “the passage of the Rehabilitation Act was perhaps the first public acknowledgement that people with disabilities could be considered a minority group in need of civil rights protections. Section 504 of that act prohibited discrimination against people with a disability who had appropriate qualifications for jobs in federally funded programs.” (Koppelman, p. 289) Cultural ableism is the “societal promotion of negative beliefs and images concerning people with disabilities that tend to portray the less able as deviant or incompetent; an assumption of superiority by people or groups based upon physical, mental, and emotional attributes.” (Koppelman, p. 309)

Special Education is interesting because being a special needs teacher is not just rewarding for just one person, it is rewarding for both the teacher and students. According to the “Learn How to Become” article in order to be a Special Education teacher the teacher has to be able to adapt to each child’s learning

The concept of desirability has divided society in two groups. One group has been categorized as the higher- achiever and the other group as the low-achievers. This comparison has been embedded into society for so many years. During the 50’s it was used to protect white middle-class students. Today is mostly used to described people who have mental or physical impairments. Sleeter and Longmore researched how the concept of disability has had a negative development through the US society.

There are millions of children that are passing through the United States school system every day, not all children possess the same traits, and not all children can learn at the same rate, and do not perform at the same ability. The fact that all children learn differently and some have difficulties learning in general classrooms, special education was put into place to try and take care of these issues. Special education programs were put into place to help all students with disabilities. These children range from general disabilities to more complex and severe disabilities. There has been a revolution occurring in the past several years with education systems, and special education. There have now been several laws that have been

“The offspring of the inferior, or of the better when they chance to be deformed, will be put away in some mysterious, unknown place as they should be.” This is one of the many things that were told to those with disabilities back in the day. It is horrible to hear of how badly they were treated just because they “stood in the way of a perfect world.”

The importance of education for all children, especially for those with disability and with limited social and economic opportunities, is indisputable. Indeed, the special education system allowed children with disability increased access to public education. Apart from that, the special education system has provided for them an effective framework for their education, and for the institutions involved to identify children with disability sooner. In turn, this promotes greater inclusion of children with disability alongside their nondisabled peers. In spite of these advances however, many obstacles remain, including delays in providing services for children with disability, as well as regulatory and

Special education students have severe behavior or emotional issues that can disturb the classroom learning environment for themselves and the non-disabled peers. Disabled students often act out from not feeling accepted, frustration from the difficult material, and their cognitive obstacles. According to the article Time to leave inclusion out, seventy percent of teachers blamed the inclusion of children with special needs for increasingly bad behavior in the classroom.