Special Education has evolved throughout 20th century. We no longer see children and adults with disabilities as being retarded. Many curriculum guidelines have taken out the term, retardation, and made it impossible for doctors to institutionalize children with disabilities. Here are just 10 childhood disabilities that are prevalent in our school systems.
1. Learning Disability:
The disorder affects the brain’s ability to receive and process information. A learning disability thus is not a problem with intelligence. Individuals with learning disabilities see, hear and understand things differently.
Example: Dyslexia
2. Gifted:
There is no definition for giftedness. Many see children who are gifted as talented and creative. They have a wide range of abilities that are both academic and leisurely. There is also a well-developed attention span, deep curiosity and the ability to grasp, retain and synthesize information.
3. Language Delay:
This is a failure to develop language abilities on the usual evolving timetable. A person with language delay experiences a postponement in the development of the underlying knowledge of language.
4. Pervasive Developmental Disorder:
This is a severe disorder that strikes to 10 to 15 out of 10,000 children. The disorder affects intellectual skills; responses to sights, sounds, smells and other senses as well as the ability to understand language or to talk. Children with PDD may undertake strange postures or perform unusual movements.
Example: Autism
5. Seasonal Affective Disorders:
Children may appear depressive during winter and summer and active during the fall and spring. These mood changes are usually due to seasonal changes and the inability to adjust to the variations.
It is a wonderful toy from Lego. The Lego brand has been issuing brick based toys for the last sixty years. This new addition in the form of Lego City Airport is very popular with kids and parents. Parents can help their kids build the airport terminal, Control tower and the jet plane itself. The terminal has revolving doors and a check in counter. There is an X-ray machine for the luggage and five small figurines. The five figurines are a pilot, a passenger, a service man, flight attendant and steward. There is also a baggage car.
These two models are the favourites of both boys and girls. The Jeeps are powered by a twelve volt battery. The Jeeps are two speed and also have a reverse mode. The Jeeps have large treaded tyres and have grab bars for easy access and egress. These jeeps can drive at the speed of 5 mph but can be set at a safer speed of 2.5 mph. The battery of course is rechargeable.
This is a very popular toy with both boys and girls. The helicopter has excellent take off and landing capabilities. It can go up, down, right and left. This helicopter has two rotors placed on top of each other. It is a coaxial helicopter. The toy comes in three bright colours of red, blue and yellow. The helicopter is very sturdy because of its metal frame. The helicopter can fly up to eight minutes after every charging. It is the perfect toy for both adults and children. The remote requires six AA batteries. The helicopter can be recharged in half and hour.
Fisher Price has come up with this hot seller. This has received the Toy of the Year Award for the year 2011 by the Toy Industry Association. This is an interactive stuffed toy in animal shapes which children can use to replay songs at their own pace and volume. The toys come in bright colours including red, blue, yellow and purple. There are twelve different versions in all and identified by unique colours and individual songs for each colour. Thus the orange bear sings, ‘on top of old smokey’ and the purple dog sings, ‘Oh Susanna.” If held together these soft toys magically harmonize with each other.
Perhaps you frown upon the purchase of toy guns but these sell like hot cakes. These are extremely colourful machine guns with soft bullets. These plastic guns come in so many shapes and sizes that it is hard to make a decision as to which one to buy. These are manufactured by Hasbro. The guns can be single shot or automatic firing at sixty shots per minute. They are very popular toys for boys who like to pretend they are commandos out on a raid and tag each other with the bullets. The Nerf Blasters come as hand held guns or machine guns mounted on elaborate stands.
Procter & Gamble Co. is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in Ohio. It is a conglomerate that manufactures a wide range of consumer goods. It is 5th in Fortune’s Most Admired Companies 2011 list. P&G is credited with many business innovations including brand management and the soap opera. Procter & Gamble is a leading member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a Washington D.C.-based coalition of over 400 major companies and NGOs that advocates for a larger International Affairs Budget, which funds American diplomatic and development efforts abroad. P&G is a leading manufacturer of baby products and is present almost everywhere in the world.
Johnson & Johnson is a global American pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer packaged goods manufacturer founded in 1886. Johnson & Johnson is one of the leading baby products manufacturers in the world. J&J products are highly popular in the South East Asia and are hugely popular in India. The J&J baby product ranges from the baby soap to baby clothing. They manufacturer almost everything for babies and is indeed one of the top manufacturers of baby products.
Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an American corporation that produces mostly paper-based consumer products. This is another big manufacturing company which produces baby products. The ace product of Kimberly-Clark Corporation in this segment is the Huggies. Huggies is probably the pioneer in baby dippers and is the leading baby dipper brand in the world.
Nestlé is one of the largest food and nutrition companies in the world, founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland. The company grew significantly during the First World War and following the Second World War, eventually expanding its offerings beyond its early condensed milk and infant formula products. Today, the company operates in 86 countries around the world. Nestle’s baby food products are probably the best in the market and it has a high market share in the baby food sector.
Mead Johnson & Company is a company which was majority owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb after an acquisition in 1967 but in 2009 was spun off as an independent firm. Mead Johnson is a major manufacturer of infant formula both domestically and globally with its flagship product being Enfamil. The company was gaining a presence in such emerging markets in the People’s Republic of China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam and was starting to develop a presence in India.
A healthy child can grow up and adjust to all the changes properly. Ill health makes a child lag behind in studies and other co curricular activities in school. A child who does not keep well most of the times is also low in terms of social skills and feels shy to mix up with others. Thus a well balanced nutritional diet and proper hygiene go a long way in way in keeping a child healthy.
Schooling plays a vital role in the development of a child. It is the parents’ responsibility to provide proper schooling and education to their children. School takes care of the formative years of a child’s life, ranging from elementary education to playful activities and making friends for life all happen in the school days.
The child is the bearer of culture and tradition, he is the fore runner of the human race and life on earth; thus inculcation of proper traditions and culture is another vital aspect of bringing up children. However a thin line differentiates tradition from habits and fads from culture. Thus the responsibility lies on parents’ shoulders to provide right set of education as far as their family traditions and culture is concerned, so that the torch that he bears for his future generation emanates same kind of wisdom and brightness.
Teaching discipline is yet another task the parents are responsible for as it is in the company of parents that a child learns the difference between right and wrong. Discipline includes respect and right treatment of elders, peers and younger ones. Discipline reflects not only in behavior but also in day to day routine and other habits of keeping clean or eating.
Developing self confidence in kids is the key to a bright future. Supporting kids to be inquisitive and respecting their opinions, helping them to learn from their mistakes and letting them take minor decisions in life is the cornerstone of harvesting self confidence in children. This confidence makes a child smart enough to face the world on his own.
Children in the Palestine are made to learn how to hate certain religions, glorify holy war, indulge in violence and understand the basics of child martyrdom from a very early age. The guidelines are included in the curriculum and many television shows revolve around these concepts as well.
Over 30 percent of children residing in developing countries are underweight and suffer from malnutrition because of which their growth is stunted. Over 25,000 children die on a daily basis because they live under the poverty line, according to UNICEF. They may die of starvation or from such diseases that are easily curable but sadly their parents do not have the resources to help them.
There are over fifty million refugees all over the world and shockingly, 25 million are children. Child refugees come into being because of war which is also the primary cause of loss of parents and child death. 2 million children have died over the last 10 years because of war and 1 million have gotten orphaned.
Illiteracy is a major problem all over the world and over 100 million children suffer from the problem. While some are forced to drop out, others are not given a chance to go to school at all because of paucity of funds. This problem is widespread in countries like Turkey, India and Nepal.
Children are neglected when the parents do not know how to do their job or if the child is unwanted or the result of an accident. These parents do not care about keeping their babies clean or giving them warm clothes during winter-time. They also don’t care whether their child goes to school or not or if he/she has a problem.
These usually come in large boxes with neat segregations and it’s all hunky dory till the kid opens the box. The beads spill out and go everywhere. The child then starts making mismatched and odd bracelets which the parent then has to wear because unfortunately, that’s what they expect.
The most annoying electronic noisemakers are those that are in the form of chickens and dance about saying things like “I Can Dance” and “I Can Sing”. The battery cavity is screwed in and a parent may think the company does that to prevent the child from swallowing the batteries but in reality, they are saving the parent’s sanity as the child will not know how to open it up without help.
Slime is made with some awful material which slips off the child’s hand and amuses him for some reason. However, he will get bored of it soon and leave it lying about on the carpet and the parent will either slip on it and break his skull or spend hours trying to get it off.
Every little girl in the world plays with Barbie dolls today. These are available in different avatars, for different occasions and so much more. Once the child receives the doll, she throws it about, twists its limbs, cuts the hair or removes all the clothes. Let’s not even get started on the box it comes in- you may as well be dismantling a bomb- it’s that complicated.
A Lite Brite is some annoying toy that allows the child to draw pictures on it. The image then lights up and the colors used could not be brighter. If the parent happens to step on this toy in the middle of the night, he will definitely throw it out of the window and watch it break into pieces with a smile on his face.
It is not normal for mixed-race couples to have children that are ‘differently colored’ but there are certain cases every now and then which go beyond what is normal and ‘known’. Miya and Leah Durrant came into the world in 2008 looking alike but with differently colored skin and eyes. What’s more, the couple had given birth to a pair of twins in 2001 and they were different colored as well!
Rajo Devi gave birth to a baby in 2008, at aged 70, making her the oldest woman in the world to go through child birth. She was unable to conceive all through her life and was menopausal by the time she was 50.
If the oldest mother is 70 years old, the youngest mother, Lina, is 5 years old. She gave birth to her baby who grew up thinking that his mother was his sister and his grandmother, his mother. He lived a normal, healthy life and Lina had another child 33 years later.
James Elgin Gil was born 4.5 months premature, but he managed to survive. He weighed 482 grams, which is why he was put into intensive care.
We first saw Lindsay Lohan in the movie, “Parent Trap”, when she was not even 10 years old. The role proved to be difficult as she played two people at the same time. She played twin sisters, Haillie and Annie, who were separated at birth, and tried to bring their parents back together. Lohan’s movie career went on a sky high throughout the years, when she starred in movies such as “Freaky Friday” and “Mean Girls”. She also tried out a music career, as well as debuted her own fashion line, 6126, which mainly focuses on women’s clothing.
Michael Jackson is the most successful artist of all time. But he proved that success comes at a very high price. Jackson began his career at age 5, when he began performing with his brothers. Their act was known as “Jackson 5”. His career began evolving even more when he began his solo career. His 1984 album, “Thriller”, is considered to be the most successful album of all time to this very day.
Britney Spears began performing when she was part of The Mickey Mouse Club, along with Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Ryan Gosling. She then re-emerged when she released her hit single, “Hit Me Baby One More Time”. Spears became very popular with the young tweens and teens age groups. She released her debut album of the same name in 1998, as well as several others throughout the years.
Dana Plato was a particularly well known actress for her role in the hit series, “Diff’rent Strokes”. Plato played Kimberly, the teenage daughter of Phillip Drummond, a widower who adopts two African American boys after their parents died. The series aired from 1978 to 1986. Plato was cast at the beginning of its run, but her appearances ended in 1984, when she became pregnant. The producers of the show felt that a pregnancy would not fit the concept of the show. She appeared again between 1985 and 1986.
This animated show revolves around two bunnies-Ruby is Max’s elder sister. It is all very innocent till one realizes that the parents are never around. Ruby looks after Max and pretends to be his mother even though she is only seven years old. Maybe some animated social services should visit the show.
The protagonist of this show is named Stephanie and she is a human being. She visits LazyTown and decides to live with her uncle. However, everybody in the town, including her uncle, is a puppet. There is one more human who encourages the puppets to start eating junk food. Humans and puppets live around each other like it is perfectly normal and give the children serious headaches.
Even though this show is quite popular, one cannot deny the fact that it is quite bizarre and should not be watched by kids. What are these creatures meant to be? They have screens instead of stomachs and their voices are nothing if not weird.
It is difficult to describe the characters in this show. Let’s just say they are played by hands which hold up eyeballs. These hands don’t speak much- they throw about single worlds when they feel like it. If this does not give children nightmares, the Teletubbies surely will.
This show features strange looking anthropomorphic vegetables that play instruments. What’s more, they teach children all about Biblical values and morals. Why?
Rugrats was around for about 14 years and aired on Nickelodeon. It focuses on the lives of several toddlers. It was so popular that it managed to make a place for itself on the Hollywood walk of fame. The show was adorable and all the characters were quite bizarre in their own unique way.
Tiny Toon Adventures aired on Cartoon Network from 1990 till 1992. It was about young characters that were enrolled at a university. Most of them strongly resembled the classic and popular Warner toons that we are all familiar with. The Loony Toones characters are a part of the faculty that teaches them to be funny.
Beavis and Butt-head aired on MTV for 4 years during which it completed 7 seasons. The two teenager characters were shown to be quite dumb and usually had very sarcastic conversations. They also made fun of music videos at the time which was always fun to watch!
Animaniacs aired on Kids WB from 1993 till 1995. The main characters were Dot, Yakko and Wakko. It lasted for over 90 episodes and was so popular that a movie based on the show was made soon after.
Ren and Stimpy was first aired in 1991 but was discontinued in 1996. It was picked up by by another channel in 2003 and was back on air after 7 long years. Ren is a dog and Stimpy is a cat. The former is quite neurotic and the latter is calm and simple but because the two work well together, they go on adventures which usually end up being quite nonsensical.
