Exceptionalities defined
The term "exceptionalities" in K-12 schooling refers to disabilities or giftedness. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (IDEA '97) is the national law that guarantees an appropriate education to students with disabilities. IDEA '97 recognizes 14 disability categories:

Autism Deaf-blindness Deafness Developmental disabilities Emotional disturbance Hearing impairments Mental retardation Multiple disabilities

Orthopedic impairments Other health impairments Specific learning disability Speech or language impairment Traumatic brain injury Visual impairment

Giftedness is not covered under IDEA; however, gifted students also have special needs.

Let's pretend Joseph (right) will be a student in your classroom. Do you think he has special learning needs? What other special needs might have to be addressed? What are your thoughts about his academic progress? Perhaps you worry he will not be able to keep up in social studies because of the amount of reading required, or that he won't do well on weekly spelling tests. Naturally, we tend to have preconceptions and misconceptions about learners. Sometimes the fourteen IDEA '97 disability categories trigger stereotypes. For example, we frequently hold stereotypical views about people with speech impairments, thinking that their cognitive abilities may also be affected. If a person has an obvious cognitive disability, we may think she has nothing to contribute to class discussions. Think of someone with visual impairments. What are your thoughts about this person? Your past experience may subconsciously affect your perception that other people with visual impairments will behave or perform similarly. Similarly, we may allow the presence of exceptionality to pervade our perceptions about the students we teach. For instance, traditional views of students with hearing or visual impairments may cause school staff to feel sorry for them. A better response is to be motivated to get to know them, their interests, and their strengths.

Dr. Ginger Blalock University of New Mexico

Dr. Ginger Blalock, University of New Mexico, discusses some key considerations for students with disabilities.

Least restrictive environment (Time: 1:16) View Transcript

Individualized instruction (Time: 1:32) View Transcript

Accessing the general curriculum (Time: 2:09) View Transcript

Important points to remember

• There will be students with unidentified disabilities in your classes.
• Not all disabilities are equally obvious. Many students with learning disabilities have not been identified, even as late as college. Keep this in mind when working with that particularly challenging child.
  
  
• Avoid making judgments based simply on a disability label.
• Disabilities affect each learner differently. No two people with the same exceptionality act or achieve in exactly the same ways.
  
  
• First and foremost, learners with disabilities are students. Besides having a disability, they can also be left-handed, like to play soccer, or collecting rocks. Find out about all aspects of your students.
• It is important to find out the learner's motivations, experiences, goals, strengths, and growth areas.
  
  
• Students with exceptionalities have strengths and weaknesses more similar than dissimilar to their age group.