2. MAJOR DEFINITIONS OF DISORDERS The following are the major disorders considered by educators of exceptional children that need to be included in special education programs. 1. Communication disorders, including children with (a) learning disabilities and (b) speech handicaps; 2. Mental deviations, including children who are (a) intellectually gifted and (b) mentally retarded; 3. Sensory handicaps, including children with (a) auditory handicaps and (b) visual handicaps; 4. Neurologic, orthopedic, and other health impaired; 5. Behavior disorders. 6. Multiple handicaps (Kirk, 1972, p. 5). Historically, three stages in the development of attitudes toward the handicapped can be recognized (Frampton and Gall, 1955). First, during the pre-Christian era, the handicapped were persecuted, neglected, and mistreated. Second, during the spread of Christianity, they were protected and pitied. Third, in very recent years there has been a movement toward accepting the handicapped and integrating them into society to the fullest extent possible. Not until the early 1900's with the advent of mental testing by Binet and Simon in France did refined techniques for assessing individual differences in areas other than the physical begin to be developed. Practically all countries who have established universal and compulsory education have found that the general programs for the ordinary child are not suitable for the exceptional child (p. 7). The concept of interindividual differences; namely, that one child is significantly different from another child is the basis upon which most test are constructed, i.e., to determine children's relative abilities on a particular characteristic -- height, weight, intelligence, reading ability, and so forth. Another concept of individual differences refers to a comparison of the child's abilities and skills with his disabilities. A comparison of the child's abilities and disabilities within himself determines intraindividual differences (p.7). The exceptional child has intraindividual differences or discrepancies in growth. In general, the concept of interindividual differences is used for classification and for grouping children into special classes or ability groups. The concept of intraindividual differences, on the other hand, is used to organize an instructional program for a particular child in conformity with his abilities and disabilities, without regard to how he compares to other children (p. 8). The auditorily handicapped may be totally deaf or only hard of hearing. They may have been born deaf or they may have acquired deafness after learning speech and language. When born deaf, the child does not have sufficient hearing even with the use of a hearing aid to develop language and speech through the sense of hearing. Children with visual handicaps fall into several categories for educational purposes. In the first group are those whose visual defects can be corrected through medical treatment or optical aids. Such children are not regarded as exceptional since with corrective devices they are considered normal and can be educated without modification of school practices. In the second group are children whose vision is quite defective even after correction. They have difficulty in the regular grades and need instructional compensations for their defects. They utilize their eyes in learning, but to a lesser degree than does the average child. They are referred to as "visually impaired children." Since they can use their residual vision in learning, they are not considered blind. In the third group are the blind. These children, like the deaf, require instruction primarily through their senses. Associated with blindness are retarded mobility, restricted interpersonal relations, and lowered school achievement. Speech is one of the major characteristics differentiating man from the lower animals. Most communication among people is dependent upon their ability to speak and to understand the spoken word. Any defect in one's speaking ability is likely to interfere with his interpersonal relations. There are many forms of speech disorders, ranging from complete inability to speak, to minor articulatory defects. There are also many causes for speech difficulties. This deviation is sometimes associated with other handicapping conditions, such as deafness, mental retardation, and cerebral palsy. The speech-defective child with an otherwise average developmental pattern does not differ from the normal, nor does he differ within himself except for the one specific difficulty, speech. He does not have widely varying discrepancies in growth. His educational program is like that of other children. Special education is provided to him on a part-time basis by an itinerant speech correctionist while he is being educated in the regular grades. The orthopedically handicapped child is one who is disabled in motor abilities. A simple example would be a child who, through an accident, has lost the use of both legs. It is necessary for him to use a wheel chair. Motor handicaps can result from brain injuries, such as those found in cerebral- palsied children, in which case they are often associated with speech defects, mental retardation, and/or other handicapping conditions. These conditions complicate the educational picture, for the more disabling the mental and physical circumstance, the more special education is necessary. Behavioral disorders may take man of forms and stem from a variety of causes. There may be hostility and aggression or withdrawal and restraint. There may be a high or low IQ. There may or may not be physical concomitants. There may be academic success, but more often failure in at least some school subjects. The category of those with behavior disorders may include psychotic and neurotic children, children with lesser emotional difficulties, and delinquent children. Specific learning disabilities is a relatively new category in the education of exceptional children. Its gradual evolvement resulted from the recognition that handicapped children do not always fit into neat, well-defined categories with uniform characteristics. Special educators have found that there are a number of children who are not deaf, but cannot understand language; who are not blind, but cannot perceive visually; or who are not mentally retarded but cannot learn under ordinary school instruction. Children listed under the caption of "specific learning disabilities" are children who cannot be grouped under the traditional categories of exceptional children, but who show significant retardation in learning to talk, or who do not develop normal visual or auditory perception, or who have great difficulty in learning to read, to spell, to write, or to make arithmetic calculations. Although these children form a heterogenous group and fail to learn for diverse reasons, they have one thing in common; namely, developmental discrepancies (intraindividual differences in growth). Children with specific learning disabilities manifest them in the form of deficient visual sequential memory, deficient sound blending ability, and deficient ability in visual closure. These specific learning disabilities will have to be remedied before he will be able to learn to read. In many instances multiple handicaps (Wolf and Anderson, 1969) are found or other combinations of divergences from the normal. A crippled child may be gifted. A deaf child may be blind. A cerebral-palsied child may have many deviations. He may be visually impaired, hard of hearing, mentally retarded or gifted and defective in speech. Sometimes two handicaps are so severe that the child cannot adapt to a special class for either one. In such cases, other arrangements must be made, using itinerant teachers, homebound education, or more specifically adapted special classes. In other cases, the child can be placed in a class designed to take into account his major disability. Many children listed under mental retardation, speech impairment, and emotional disturbance could be reclassified as children with specific learning disabilities. Visual and auditory impairments are among the least frequent handicaps among school children. Their handicap is such, however, that special arrangements and training are necessary (pp. 18-25).