DISBABILITY

CATEGORY

LABELS
 There are two points of viewing regarding the use of labels to describe
children and youth disabilities.

The first point of view frowns on labeling these children as:

 Mentally Retarded
 Learning Disabled
 Emotionally Disturbed
 Social Maladapted
 Blind
 Deaf or
 Physically Disabled

Use of disability labels calls attention to the disability

itself and overlooks the more important and positive
characteristics of the person.
 These negative labels
cause the “spread phenomenon”
to permeate the mind of the able-
bodied person. The disability
becomes the major influence in
the development of preconceived
ideas that tend to be negative, The second and less popular
such as helpless, dependence point of view is that us necessary to
and doom to a life of hopeless. use workable disability category labels
in order to describe the exceptional
learning needs for a systematic
provision of special education service.
The truth is, person with
disabilities are first and foremost
human beings who have the same
physical and psychological needs like
everybody else. They need to belong,
to be loved. To be useful.
PROS AND POSSIBLE BENEFITS OF LABELLING

 Categories can relate diagnosis to specific types of education and

treatment.
 Labeling may lead to “protective "response in which children are
more accepting of the atypical behavior by a peer with disabilities
than they would be if the same behavior were emitted by a child
without disabilities
 Labeling helps professionals communicate with one another and
classify and assess research findings.
 Funding of special education programs is often based on specific
categories of exceptionality.
 Labels enable disability-specific advocacy groups to promote
specific programs and to spur legislative action.
 Labeling helps make exceptional children special needs more
visible to the public.
POSSIBLE DISADVANTAGE OF LABELLING
 Because labeling usually focus on disability, impairment and
performance deficits, some people may think only in terms of what the
individual cannot do instead of what he or she or might be able to
learn to do.
 Labels that describe a child performance deficit often mistakenly
acquire the role of explanatory constructs.
 A labeled child may develop poor self concept
 Labels may lead peers to reject or ridicule the labeled child
 Special education labels have a certain permanence.
 Labels often provide a basis for keeping children out of the regular
classroom.
 A disproportionate number of children form diverse cultural, ethnic and
linguistic groups have been inaccurately labeled as disabled,
especially under the category mild mental retardation.
 Classification of exceptional children requires the expenditure of a
great amount of money and professional and student time that could
better be spent in planning and believing instruction.
THANK YOU
FOR
LISTENING !!!