Chapter 2

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter provides the related literature to the study. It shows the efforts employed by

empirical studies of other researchers and their findings. This presented survey of related

literature and writings of recognized experts, both of which have significant bearing or relation

to the problem under investigation.

Concept of Learners with Special Educational Needs

The category of children with special needs is very broad and includes a wide variety of

disabilities. Special Educational Needs (SEN) used to define learners with learning disabilities,

physical and developmental disabilities, behavioral, emotional, communication disorders, and

learning deficiencies (Kryszewska, 2017).

Many studies conducted to distinguish different categories of special needs of children

that may developmentally manifest (Neeraja & Anuradha, 2014). These special needs or

disabilities have been categorized in so many types including developmental and speech

disorders (Neeraja & Anuradha 2014); social and emotional disorders (Ferguson, 2014); and

social skills deficit disorders (Leach, 2015). Other classifications are dyspraxia & auditory

perceptual deficit (Barrow, 2017); academic skills disorders, visual perceptual deficit, behavior

and adjustment problems (Neeraja & Anuradha, 2014). They differ from normal kids in so many

ways. They have special educations that only designed for them to develop their potentials in

very special ways (Cuaresma et al., 2014).

Another definition of learners with special educational needs by Morena (2017) refers to

those learners who need special education programs because of their physical, intellectual,

learning, communication, and behavioral characteristics. Learners who need to require

specialized health services or those learners who are gifted and talented.
 UNESCO (2014) emphasized that to promote equality in the educational process, all

private and public schools must accept all children with special needs regardless of their

physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic conditions and recommend that “all

educational policies mandate that all disabled children have the right to education”.

Department of Education supports the idea of UNESCO cater to all children who have

special needs that is why DepEd Order No.11 series of 2000 pursuant to the DECS Order No. 29,

s. 1997 also known as “Institutionalization of SPED Programs in all Schools” longed to extend

help to those children with special needs who want to go to school.

According to Manila Times issued on February 26, 2017, there are around 648 schools in

the Philippines who cater children with special needs, 471 are catering elementary students and

177 schools catering secondary students. It was also reported that in the school year 2015- 2016

there are 250, 000 learners with special needs were enrolled in the elementary level and around

100,000 learners at the secondary level.

Challenges faced by Parents and Family having Learners with Special Needs

Parents are the first teacher of the child and who supervise the series of development

inside or outside the home (Taderera & Hall, 2017). Several researchers conducted a study on

how life living together with children having disabilities or special needs in the family, especially

in the perspective of the parents (Leach, 2015). A study by Thwala, Ntinda and Hlanze (2015)

showed that parents having children with special needs come with struggles like social isolation,

emotional stress, depression, grief and financial problems. Parents who have children with

special needs experience a sense of guilt, loss and anger as they already know of their child’s

situation (Neeraja & Anuradha, 2014). Parents of children with special needs have a guilty

feeling that they are the sole responsible why their children are having disabilities because of

genetics, stressful moments while pregnant or vices like smoking and drinking (Taderera & Hall,

2017).
 Taderera and Hall (2017) revealed that since parents are blaming themselves of their

children’s disabilities, it leads them to have a high risk of depression, health problems, and other

ends their lives.

Gona et al. (2016) added on their report that parents who are living with a child having

special needs undergo a lot of stress that affects the psychological and emotional stability of

parents and can cause conflict between them. Taderera and Hall (2017) also agreed that having

children with special needs may lead to divorce of the parents.

Okeke and Mazibuko (2014) highlighted in their report that parents having children with

special needs had a hard time in providing basic needs for them. A lot of pressure in looking for

financial support to provide their unhealthy children (Thwala et al., 2015). As concluded by

Taderera and Hall (2017) in their study, they stated that parents who have children with

disabilities experienced different kinds of struggles in their everyday routine. The number one

challenges that the parents are facing are financial instability and lack of knowledge on how to

deal with their children’s special needs. Nascati (2017) contest that having children with special

needs in the family tightens up the family connection and commitment to their families if they

just only accept the situation and has positive disposition to the challenges.

Moreover, having children with special needs the attention of the parents especially the

mothers tend to be divided and other family matters were neglected. Also revealed in the study

that most of the mothers were seriously worried about the unsure future of their children

(Thwala et al., 2015) and how they will do when they get older (Nascati, 2017).

Thwala et al. (2015) revealed in their study that stigmatization and discrimination as

another challenges they need to endure as parents. Parents in this study disclosed that society

has still not accepted their children with disabilities as a member of the society. Alkahtani

(2016) added that the society is still not willing to accept children with special needs. As a
matter of fact, negative attitude of people towards children with special needs is the reason why

they are not frequently exercising their rights and being actively involved in the community.

Taderera and Hall (2017) noted that children with special needs are prone to racism,

bullying, discrimination, and they are known for name-callings such as stupid, slow learners and

underachievers. Thwala et al., (2015) revealed in the research study that they conducted that

stigmatization and discrimination is another challenge that these children with special needs

were facing. They also explained that the parents who suffer the most in which they witness the

situation of their children. Due to discrimination of children with special needs, the social

adjustment will lead to isolation and rejection. Other challenges faced by parents are using

public transportation, it is difficult for them to travel children having special needs because it

will draw more attention to the passengers and it made them more emotional (Thwala et al.,

2015).

Furthermore, Cuaresma et al., (2017) as the result of their study they give importance

that parents especially fathers who are the breadwinner of the family, are inclined in depression

and have low- emotional intelligence. Also added that if parents have children with special

needs, one of the things they need to do is to ask and seek help not just in financial but also

emotional assistance (Mintari & Midyarini, 2015).

This further highlights that having children with special needs can have a complex and

domino effect on the family’s life. As concluded by Thwala et al., (2018) in their research study,

they pointed out that upon the birth of a child and being diagnose having disabilities the

unexpected challenges are tangible not just in the parents but also to the whole family as well.

The family life is emotionally unbalanced as it suffers real changes in so many aspects.

Challenges of Learners with Special Educational

Needs in Accessing Education
 Having children with special educational needs has encountered many challenges in

everyday living and one of them is discrimination and bullying. Discrimination may lead to their

exclusion from the society and school (Manzoor et al., 2016).

Many studies conducted by many researchers to find out the reasons why most of the

children having special needs are excluded and deprived in the access to schools. There are

many explanations why these children are deprived in the school like poverty, gender, ethnicity,

geographical location and language. These underlying reasons made them more unreachable

(Hameed et al., 2014). As added by UNESCO (2014), these learners who are in the marginalized

and rural areas should be the priorities and needed to be addressed immediately.

UNESCO (2015) together with the vision of Education for All (EFA) points out many

ways to possibly address the unreached group of individuals living in the rural areas and show

concern for the equality, quality and accessibility for the educational needs. Morena (2016)

added that inaccessibility of schools is a serious challenge for learners with special educational

needs, these learners should be given priority and should not be marginalized and excluded

from school. As concluded by Hameed et al., (2016) in their research study that learners with

special needs had to cover twelve times longer distance to reach school offering a special

program for them.

Most of the special education schools are only available in the urban areas and cities that

makes it more difficult to reach because of the distance (Farooq, 2014). Since learners with

special educational needs are to be found everywhere, it is impossible for the concerned

authorities to build special school in every village and rural area. Despite all the efforts exerted

by the government to cater all learners with special needs, there are still who are unreached and

cannot avail the educational services (Saeed, 2016). Farooq (2014) emphasized that LSEN who

lives in the remote areas and has no special school available most of them choose to go to
regular school together with their other siblings. Accessibility to all aspect is important to them

to function in the society properly.

The hopes and aspirations of education LSEN are parallel to all children with or without

special needs. Special Educational Needs (SEN) aims to provide the development of the aspects

of lives in these learners like spiritually, morally, emotionally, cognitively, socially and physically

(Saeed, 2016).

Characteristics of Learners with Special Educational Needs

Choo et al. (2019) revealed that developmental delays do not follow the normal pattern

such as child with autism who has language abilities but unable to use it for social interaction

and communication purposes. Developmental delay of the children may affect their sufficiency

and adaptive skills. These children tend to walk late and may not be able to walk for the rest of

their lives. Children may exhibit variation in their rate of acquisition of language, social skills,

play, and behavior as they follow familiar pattern like speech delay.

Both genetic and environmental may be a driving force for a child to have a

developmental delay. Developmental delay of the children may vary upon how the parents

raised those (Johnson et al.,2015). One of the characteristics that can manifest that a child needs

special attention and needs if he/she lacks of social and communication skills. Garrote (2017)

cited that LSEN is less involved in social interactions with peers, less accepted and more

frequently rejected than their typically developing peers. Social participation and social skills

were learners with diagnosed intellectual disability.

Furthermore, Fieldman et al. (2015) found out that students with severe disabilities

included in general education classroom, were not present in most of the classes and were not

physically close enough to their peers if present. As concluded that, pupils with SEN not only
miss opportunities to interact and to become involved in social relationships but also do not

receive the chance to learn and practice social skills with their peers.

In connection with that, Schwab et al. (2018) reported that students with disabilities are

less likely to participate in different social activities in class or in the community. Learners with

special educational needs have the inability to participate in classroom activities or discussions

due to processing disabilities.

Mutumburanzou (2018) cited that children with severe disabilities are usually less

inquisitive, more drawn, less active and less fun than a child without disabilities. Their

disabilities prevent them from interacting successfully with their experiences and hold them

back to learn from interactive experiences unlike the non-disabled children, that they do not

want to spend time with other peers.

Learners with special educational needs have the characteristics of being playful.

According to Pinchover (2017), he describes being playful as the ability to experience of frame

everyday situations as stimulating, interesting and or entertaining. Playing to the learners with

special educational needs is important through this their social-emotional growth and

imagination can be exercised. Stagnitti (2016) agreed to the idea of Pinchover (2017) that

through playing it is their way of expressing themselves and escape the feeling boredom or to

gain attention. Peckham-Hardin et al. (2018) stressed that learners with severe disabilities

include rejecting items, gaining someone’s attention and confirming or denying in response to a

question. They cannot merely express their thoughts because they lack communication skills

they have no idea how to interact with them.

Moreover, the National Center and State Collaborative (2015) emphasized that learners’

lack of appropriate communication systems is potentially dangerous to the student’s basic

health and well- being.

 Ocansey and Gyimah (2016) stated that one way of helping learners with special

educational needs to overcome their challenges in school is guidance and counseling. It also

stated that guidance and assistance support to overcome not just in doing tasks but in

contextual, social and individual difficulties. With proper guidance, learners with special needs

can overcome difficulties (Oluka & Okerie, 2014).

Garrote (2017) emphasized stated how these learners need to reread information or

receive instructions multiple times due to memory disabilities. Due to their disabilities, they

need the information to be repeated and well explained for them to understand the things they

need to do. Mutumburanzou (2018) stressed that they easily get distracted, finding it hard to

listen to others in a conversation, overlooking details and not completing tasks or projects. They

have a limited span of attention and they get easily distracted by other things.

Root Causes of Being a Child with Special Educational Needs

Harstad (2018) stressed that parents’ with disabilities more likely developed by the

children themselves. Either any kind of health problems and deficiencies, children can inherit it

one way or another. Isobel (2019) emphasized that children whose parents have mental illness

are at increased risk of developing their own mental health problems with approximately one-

third at risk of serious mental illness and another one-third at risk of any mental illness. Collins

et al., (2017) cited that lack of knowledge about their child’s condition, negative feelings and lack

of support adversely affect parent-child interactions, child behavior and development.

Malnutrition is another determining factor that can cause children to develop

disabilities. Mukhtar et al., (2018) stated that people who are in lowest sector of the society have

no knowledge of the diverse, nutritious foods and harmful ones. Hence, they continue their poor

eating habits. During maternal and pregnancy of the mother, if the mother did not get proper

nutrition can affect the development of the fetus and increase the risk of the infant developing
impairments. Deficiency of either during pregnancy is a risk for premature birth that is

accompanied with numerous complications and adverse long-term abnormalities like cerebral

palsy and cognitive, visual and hearing impairments (Groce et al., 2014).

Poverty and hunger is linked to one another. Pickett et al., (2015) stated that hunger

during childhood is related to poor food and nutritional environmental in families. It is also

anticipated that health problems, impaired physical function makes the children vulnerable to

disease due to infections. Hunger is a result of poverty. Poverty has a very wide horizon also

concerned with the economic and environmental dimension. Sadly, the most tangible effect of

illiteracy is the continuity of poverty (Paredes, 2018).

Learners with special educational needs are learners who are unable to acquire basic

writing and reading. Bobzien (2014) stressed that learners with special educational needs solely

focused on a functional life skills curriculum that focused upon teaching important knowledge

and skills that assisted the student to be more independent in the home and community.

Daily or Usual Routines of LSEN in the Hinterlands

LSEN cannot accomplish a basic task given to them because of some factors that may

affect their way of motion. Mutumburanzou (2018) stressed that most children with severe

learning disabilities have a little or inability to speak and find it very difficult to communicate

and learn new set of skills. She also stated that children with learning difficulties pose challenges

when it comes to communication and they usually experience profound delays and or failure to

acquire speech and language.

Since they lack communication skills what LSEN need are help from the teacher through

proper guidance and counseling (Ocansey, 2016). LSEN needs much more support that they can

get to overcome not just the task but also to beat the contextual, social, and individual

differences (Oluka & Okerie 2014).

 Garrote (2017) mentioned that LSEN does not just need guidance from the teachers, but

they also need to reread or receive multiple times of instructions or information in order to

understand what they have to do due to difficulties. LSEN tends to be easily distracted that is

why it is hard for them to focus on conversation and completing tasks or projects. They are also

having limited span of attention.

Challenges Faced by the LSEN in the Hinterlands

Hunger during childhood is related to poor food and nutritional environmental value in

families. It is also anticipated the health problems, impaired physical function and make the

children vulnerable to disease due to infections (Pickett et al., 2015). Bobzien (2014) stressed

that learners with special educational needs solely focused on a functional life skills curriculum

that focused upon teaching important knowledge and skills that assisted the student to be more

independent in the home and community.

LSEN had the difficulty to acquire basic reading and writing skills they are slower than

other students due to language processing and trouble in holding a pencil due to issues related

to motor disabilities (Garrote, 2017).

Most of LSEN are victims of physical abuse, Klebanov (2018) stated that children who

are subject to any level of abuse, mistreatment or neglect will often grow up with lower

intelligence levels and cognitive strength consequences. Child trauma also impacts social and

emotional distress of the child. Children who experienced physical abuse can get relational

trauma and exposure to toxic stress, which had been shown to have a negative effect on the

development of childhood and importantly, increased the development of mental health

disorders (Bunston et al., 2017).

LSEN and Its Way of Coping to the Challenges

UNESCO (2016) stated in their report that people in marginalized sectors are prone to

health implications due to their lack of knowledge of the basic things like hygiene and food.

People in these sectors have no idea either if they are eating healthy foods or not (Mukhtar,

2018). Nevertheless, because of insufficiency of basic needs, they tend to commit a crime like

robbery and theft (Odeh & Okeye, 2014). Many people engaged their self to robbery and theft as

an alternative source of income (Papaioannou, 2017).

McMann (2014) elaborates that in rural areas, another way to fight the poverty is to ask

help and support to the neighbors, friends and relatives. Giving and sharing of foods like foods

and groceries are common in rural areas.

The above-mentioned readings pointed out the insights of some people regarding the

different challenges by the parents and children as well as the effects brought by these issues to

the families. All these ideas have relevance to the study of the researcher since it served as the

springboard in the conceptualization of the study as to the formulation of research questions

and anchored theories. The review of related literature provided support to the results and

findings of the study and served as the references of the study.