Special people are often defined as individuals with disabilities or impairments that may include intellectual disabilities, hearing or visual impairments, speech or language issues, emotional disturbances, or orthopedic impairments.
Here's a more detailed breakdown:
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Intellectual Disabilities: These involve significant limitations in both intellectual functioning (reasoning, learning, problem-solving) and in adaptive behavior, which covers a range of everyday social and practical skills.
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Hearing or Visual Impairments: This category encompasses individuals with varying degrees of hearing loss or visual impairment, ranging from mild to profound. This can impact communication, mobility, and access to information.
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Speech or Language Issues: These refer to difficulties with verbal communication, including articulation disorders, fluency disorders (like stuttering), and language disorders that affect understanding or using spoken or written language.
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Emotional Disturbances: This involves conditions exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child's educational performance:
- An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
- An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.
- Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
- A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
- A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
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Orthopedic Impairments: This refers to impairments that affect a person's body movement or motor skills, and may be caused by congenital anomaly, disease, or other causes such as cerebral palsy, amputations, and fractures or burns that cause contractures.
It is important to remember that the term "special people" can be viewed differently by individuals, and person-first language (e.g., "a person with a disability" rather than "a disabled person") is generally preferred as it emphasizes the individual's humanity rather than their condition.
