DNE: Lecture 16**

• WHAT IS PHYSICAL DISABILITY? (LIFE-LONG PD)

  • Total or partial loss of a person’s bodily functions

  • Total or partial loss of part of the body

  • Disability may exist from birth or be acquired later in life.

  • May have one or multiple disabilities

  • May be apparent (e.g. loss of limb)

  • People with the same disability may have different abilities
• WHAT IS MOTOR IMPAIRMENT?

  • A disability affecting the ability to control muscle movement, which often limits mobility.
• ISSUES

  Students with Physical Disability may have other disabilities such as problems in:

  • Hearing

  • Vision

  • Speech

  • Motor Coordination

  • Intellectual Functioning
• LEARNING ABILITIES

  Physical constraints :

  • Write at a lower speed

  • Power to control head movement is generally weak

  • Sitting posture/head control - may affect their abilities to have eye contacts and acquire knowledge

  
  

  Restraints in movement:

  • Reluctant to use their weaker hands and legs

  • Fewer experiences with the verbs and spatial concepts of certain words in connection with motion and space

  • Less competent to understand and acquire the meaning of the related words
• ATTENTION SPAN:

  • problems in concentration

  • easily distracted

  • unable to work persistently

  • easily irritable

  • Emotional

  • This will affect their self-confidence and self-image
• SUPPORT STUDENTS WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITY

  • schools need to create an inclusive environment where every pupil is valued.
  • A team approach, appropriate training and advice from both education and health professionals
  • Positively reinforce the young person’s efforts in learning tasks and activities.
  • Break down verbal instructions into stages
  • Frequently check the young person’s understanding of information
  • Try and give as much attention to effort as to achievement.
• THE SCHOOL AND CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT

  • Adapt the layout of the classroom to maximize their independence and learning (e.g. near to the teacher and blackboard)
  • if they have difficulty recording, look at the aids available. Different-sized keypads, predictive text software, and various types of mouse.
  • Most young people with a physical disability need specialized equipment to assist them - seating, height adjustable tables, computer adaptations
• Break down the curriculum

  Into small parts With well-defined teaching targets With learning activities

  • Encourage students
  • To use both hands in class work and learning activities

  
  

  Highlighting key words...

  • Writing tools /Computers/writing pads with large grids

  
  

  Teaching aids

  • Displayed or placed in a position that students have to move their heads to see
• Students with hearing impairment

  • Teachers should speak in front of them in the light to facilitate their understanding of the message
• Students with speech impairment

  • Teachers should communicate with them in a way appropriate to their language ability and diverse instructions