SPECIAL EDUCATION LECTURE NOTES

ED127 – EDUCATING EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

MODULE:1: INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL/INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

TOPIC:6: CAUSES OF DISABILITIES

DIFFERENT STAGES OF CAUSES OF DISABILITIES

BACKGROUND – ABOUT THE CAUSE OF DISABILITY

About 1 in 100 children are born with conditions such as cleft lip or cleft palate, joined fingers or
toes, extra fingers or toes, or short or deformed limbs. More serious birth conditions include
Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Spina bifida, blindness and deafness. In most cases, the cause of
such birth conditions is not known but the following circumstances can cause them:
 Poor diet during early pregnancy
 Genetic causes (especially if parents are related)
 Exposure of the pregnant mother to some medicines, poisons, pesticides and other
chemicals
 Exposure of the pregnant mother to German measles (rubella)
 Older or very young mothers are more likely to have babies with birth conditions such as
Down syndrome
Disability can occur in three different stages.
Before Birth when damage can happen to the tiny baby’s brain because of:
 The mother becoming sick during pregnancy
 The mother being involved in drugs or fighting
 The mother having poor food or doing too much hard work
 Disability being passed on through the family (inherited)
 When the mother and father’s cells cause a disability to happen (bio-chemical imbalance
 Attempt abortion but unsuccessful can affect the child’s growth and development in the
womb ( drinking bleach/ashes, ginger etc)
During Birth damage can happen to the baby:
 If it is not born where the mother can get help from a nurse or midwife
 If the baby is born in unclean surroundings
 If the baby is born too early (pre-mature)
 If the baby’s birth is very difficult ( pro-long labor)
 If the mother and baby are very sick
After Birth and During Life when all these situations:
 Sickness ( malaria, TB meningitis etc )
 Accidents (head injuries, spinal cord injuries, knife wounds, chemical trauma etc)
 Fighting
 Poor food – poor diet
 Unclean living conditions
 Poor personal hygiene
 Old age

All these situations can cause damage to babies and adults. But for many disabilities there are no
known causes. When there is no cause people often blame each other but what people need to do
is work together and help the person and their family.

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ABOUT LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

Learning Difficulty is not the same as Intellectual Disability. Children with Learning Difficulties
have normal intelligence and may have learning difficulties in one or two academic areas such as
language and literacy but children with Intellectual Disabilities have a level of intelligence that is
significantly below the normal range.
There are very large numbers of possible causes of learning difficulties and they are many
different theories. Proposed possible causes include:
 Brain damage (before birth, during birth or after birth )
 Biochemical imbalance
 Hereditary predisposition
 Environmental factors
 Visual problems
 Hearing impairment etc
It is often more productive for teachers to focus on possible causes that can be treated such as:
 Quality and type of instruction given
 Teacher’s expectations
 Relevance of the school work to the student
 Classroom environment
 Manner in which the teacher treats the student
 Ways in which the student is treated by other students
 Appropriateness of the curriculum

ABOUT INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

Intellectual Disability is the result of damage to the brain. Damage to the brain can be a result of
a developmental or genetic disorder such as downs syndrome, a disease before or after birth, or a
trauma before or after birth. It is often not possible to identify the cause but here are some known
causes:
Genetic Conditions
 Abnormalities in genes inherited from parents,
 Errors when genes combine
 Damage to genes during or before pregnancy from disease, radiation or poisoning.
Problems during pregnancy
 Poisoning of the unborn baby from alcohol or other drugs
 Malnutrition
 Illness of the mother ( German measles/rubella)
 Venereal diseases
Problems at Birth
 Premature
 Low birth weight
 Injury at birth due to birth complications
Problems after birth
 Diseases such as whooping cough, chicken pox, measles, meningitis, malaria
 Head injuries from accidents or abuse
 Malnutrition
 High fever.
 Ingestion of pollutants.
 Oxygen deprivation of near drowning

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The chromosomal make up of a person with Down syndrome is different. An extra
chromosome (or part of one) is attached to the 21st pair of chromosomes at the moment of
conception. This makes the cell formation in the newly form zygote different from the
moment of the first cell division. Growth and development of the foetus will be
abnormal, as will the newborn baby, child and adult. Medical research indicates that
mothers over the age of 35 years are more likely to conceive a baby with Down syndrome

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Leprosy is a cause of physical disability.

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TUBERCULOSIS IS A CAUSE OF PHYSICAL DISABILITY

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CLEFT LIP AND CLEFT PALATE AFFECTS SPEECH.

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MASCULAR DYSTROPHY

It is inherited and affects males only. The mother carries the gene that produces dystrophy in her
sons. Her daughters will develop normally but they may have sons with muscular dystrophy.

To get up from the ground the child walks up his thighs with his hands. This is mainly because of
the weak thigh muscles.

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REFERENCES

Warwick and Jo Bowden, ( March 2003) A CBR Field Worker’s Guide,

Christoffel-Blindenmission(CBM) and Callan Services, Papua New Guinea.

Werner David, (Second Edition, November 1998,January 1994) Disabled

Village Children, A Guide for Community Health Workers, Rehabilitation
Workers and Families,
The Hesperian Foundation, P.O.Box 1692,Palo Alto,CA 94302,USA.

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