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Labeling: Disability and Special Education

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Journal Entry I

What are Exceptional children and what place do they have in our schools?

Exceptional children are children who are either exceptionally gifted or children with exceptional learning disabilities. These are children whose performances are way above the average child or way below the average child. When they perform way above the average child, they are called gifted. When they perform way below the average, we say they are children with learning disabilities.

Like any other child, these children with exceptionalities are also a part of our society. Therefore it is important that they get the same opportunities as other children. Sometimes these children are clled Special and are placed in a special education …show more content…

This is stereotyping and it harms children when a teacher rationalize low achievement by citing characteristics of the label. Example: We do not expect John to remember all his spellings vecause he is intellectually disabled.

7. Diagnostic labels are unreliable. Educational evaluation is filled with quirks. /the governments use different description criteria for the same categories; many evaluation instruments have questionable validity and reliability; specific labels go through trends.

8. Labels often put the blame (and the guilt) for a student’s learning problem squarely on the parents’ shoulders. In many cases, this is unjustified because students may be mislabeled or teachers many not fully understand the many different cases for learning disability.

More disadvantages

Labeling a child with Learning Disabilities may:

1. Cause stigmatization from teacher, peers and parents

2. May lower expectations placed on them

3. Have teachers treat them differently

4. Students may make fun of them

5. Students may have difficulty of being alienated or bullied by the general school body

6. They are unable to participate in school functions or attend different school from their siblings, which can lead to isolation

Conclusion

The advantages of labeling were more obvious in the formative years of special education (mid 1940s to early 1970s) then they are now without the category

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