Family behind these future rockstars

Special education (also known as special needs education, aided education or exceptional education) is the practice of educating students with special educational needs in a way that addresses their individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help individuals with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and in their community, that may not be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.

Common special needs include learning disabilities, communication disorders, emotional and behavioral disorders (such as ADHD and ADD), physical disabilities(such as Brittle Bone Disease, Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Spinal Bifida, and Frederich's Ataxia), and developmental disabilities. Students with these kinds of special needs are likely to benefit from additional educational services such as different approaches to teaching, the use of technology, a specifically adapted teaching area, or a resource room.

Intellectual giftedness is a difference in learning and can also benefit from specialised teaching techniques or different educational programs, but the term "special education" is generally used to specifically indicate instruction of students with disabilities. Gifted education is handled separately.

Speech Disorders, Language Disorders, and Feeding Disorders

A speech disorder refers to a problem with the actual production of sounds. A language disorder refers to a problem understanding or putting words together to communicate ideas.

Speech disorders include:

• Articulation disorders: difficulties producing sounds in syllables or saying words incorrectly to the point that listeners can't understand what's being said.
• Fluency disorders: problems such as stuttering, in which the flow of speech is interrupted by abnormal stoppages, partial-word repetitions ("b-b-boy"), or prolonging sounds and syllables (sssssnake).
• Resonance or voice disorders: problems with the pitch, volume, or quality of the voice that distract listeners from what's being said. These types of disorders may also cause pain or discomfort for a child when speaking.

Language disorders can be either receptive or expressive:

• Receptive disorders: difficulties understanding or processing language.
• Expressive disorders: difficulty putting words together, limited vocabulary, or inability to use language in a socially appropriate way.
• Cognitive-communication disorders: difficulty with communication skills that involve memory, attention, perception, organization, regulation, and problem solving.

Parent management training (PMT), also known as behavioral parent training (BPT) or simply parent training, is a family of treatment programs that aims to change parenting behaviors, teaching parents positive reinforcement methods for improving pre-school and school-age children's behavior problems (such as aggression, hyperactivity, temper tantrums, and difficulty following directions).

PMT is one of the most investigated treatments available for disruptive behavior, particularly oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD)^] it is effective in reducing child disruptive behavior and improving parental mental health. PMT has also been studied as a treatment for disruptive behaviors in children with other conditions. Limitations of the existing research on PMT include a lack of knowledge on mechanisms of change^[5] and the absence of studies of long-term outcomes. PMT may be more difficult to implement when parents are unable to participate fully due to psychopathology, limited cognitive capacity, high partner conflict, or inability to attend weekly sessions.

PMT was initially developed in the 1960s by child psychologists who studied changing children's disruptive behaviors by intervening to change parent behaviors.The model was inspired by principles of operant conditioning and applied behavioral analysis. Treatment, which typically lasts for several months, focuses on parents learning to provide positive reinforcement, such as praise and rewards, for children's appropriate behaviors while setting proper limits, using methods such as removing attention, for inappropriate behaviors.

Psychosocial disorders

These may manifest as disturbance in:

• Emotions - eg, anxiety or depression.
• Behaviour - eg, aggression.
• Physical function - eg, psychogenic disorders.
• Mental performance - eg, problems at school.

This range of disorders may be caused by a number of factors such as parenting style which is inconsistent or contradictory, family or marital problems, child abuse or neglect, overindulgence, injury or chronic illness, separation or bereavement.[1, 2]

The child's problems are often multi-factorial and the way in which they are expressed may be influenced by a range of factors including developmental stage, temperament, coping and adaptive abilities of family and the nature and duration of stress. In general, chronic stressors are more difficult to deal with than isolated stressful events.

Children do not always display their reactions to events immediately, although they may emerge later. Anticipatory guidance can be helpful to parents and children in that parents can attempt to prepare children in advance of any potentially traumatic events - eg, elective surgery or separation. Children should be allowed to express their true fears and anxieties about impending events.

In stressful situations, young children will tend to react with impaired physiological functions such as feeding and sleeping disturbances.[3] Older children may exhibit relationship disturbances with friends and family, poor school performance, behavioural regression to an earlier developmental stage and development of specific psychological disorders such as phobia or psychosomatic illness.[4, 5]

It can be difficult to assess whether the behaviour of such children is normal or sufficiently problematical to require intervention. Judgement will need to take into account the frequency, range and intensity of symptoms and the extent to which they cause impairment.

Dyslexia is a lifelong condition that makes it difficult for people to read. It’s the most common learning issue, although it’s not clear what percentage of kids have it. Some experts believe the number is between 5 and 10 percent. Others say as many as 17 percent of people show signs of reading issues. The reason for the wide range is that experts may define dyslexia in different ways.

Dyslexia is mainly a problem with reading accurately and fluently. Kids with dyslexia may have trouble answering questions about something they’ve read. But when it’s read to them, they may have no difficulty at all.

Dyslexia can create difficulty with other skills, however. These include:

• Reading comprehension
• Spelling
• Writing
• Math
  
  People sometimes believe dyslexia is a visual issue. They think of it as kids reversing letters or writing backwards. But dyslexia is not a problem with vision or with seeing letters in the wrong direction.

It’s important to know that while dyslexia impacts learning, it’s not a problem of intelligence. Kids with this issue are just as smart as their peers. Many people have struggled with dyslexia and gone on to have successful careers. That includes a long list of actors, entrepreneurs and elected officials.

If your child has dyslexia, she won’t outgrow it. But there are supports, teaching approaches and strategies to help her overcome her challenges

An attention deficit disorder (ADD) is a weakness in the brain's ability to focus on important sensory information. ADD school can impact a student's ability to processes information from a teacher's words, music, video, and written text. An attention deficit may also affect the brain's ability to filter out information that is not important. People with ADD cannot tune out distractions that others may barely notice.

The Difference Between ADD and ADHD

People with the symptoms of ADD who also have hyperactivity are described as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). While people with ADD who do not have hyperactivity may appear dreamy or "off in another world," people with ADHD are likely to have difficulty in sitting still, and may need to move or pace simply to pay attention. They may also be more likely to engage in risky activities such as unprotected sex and drug use. Because people with ADHD are more likely to display overt symptoms (and are often considered to be "troublemakers"), they are also more likely to be identified with and treated for the disorder