5.1.3 Learners with special needs, giftedness and creativity

Core facts

• Exceptional child (Samuel Kirk): deviates from the average in mental, physical, sensory, emotional or social traits to such an extent that he or she needs special education to develop fully. Includes both ends: the gifted and the disabled.
• CWSN = Children With Special Needs (2025 HWO); the term used in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Samagra Shiksha. Early sign: developmental delays (missed milestones) (2022 HWO).
• Kinds of exceptional children: intellectually (gifted; intellectually disabled), physically / sensorily (visual, hearing, speech, locomotor), with learning disabilities, emotionally and behaviourally disturbed (maladjusted), socially deviant (delinquents: 2019 HWO), socially and culturally disadvantaged (they need special care by teachers: 2022 HWO), and the creative.
• Slow learner: IQ about 75/80 to 90; learns everything more slowly but can learn with more time, repetition and concrete aids; not a disability.
• Backward child: works clearly below the class level of his age. Cyril Burt (The Backward Child, 1937) took as backward a child who, in the middle of school life, cannot do the work of the class below his normal class.
• Under-achiever: achieves below his own mental potential (2019 HWO); under-achievement = performance poorer than expected (2022 HWO). Over-achiever: achieves above the level his measured ability predicts. A gifted child can be an under-achiever. Measured by achievement quotient (AQ) = educational age ÷ mental age × 100 (Franzen); the same as AQ = EQ ÷ IQ × 100, where educational quotient EQ = educational age ÷ chronological age × 100; AQ below 100 means achievement below capacity. A diagnostic test finds the pupil's specific weak points; remedial teaching follows.
• Terman's IQ classes (old exam terms): 140+ genius / near genius; 120-140 very superior; 110-120 superior; 90-110 average; 80-90 dull; 70-80 borderline; below 70 feeble-minded (old labels: moron 50-70, imbecile 25-50, idiot below 25).
• Intellectual disability (old term "mental retardation"), current levels: mild (about 50/55-70; "educable"), moderate (35/40-50/55; "trainable"), severe (20/25-35/40), profound (below 20/25); IQ is read with adaptive behaviour, onset before 18.
• AAMR definition of intellectual disability: significant limits in intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviour (conceptual, social, practical skills), originating before age 18. Old educational labels: mild = educable, moderate = trainable, severe and profound = custodial.
• Causes: genetic (Down syndrome = an extra copy of chromosome 21, trisomy 21, the commonest genetic cause; fragile X; PKU), before birth (rubella, alcohol, poor nutrition of the mother), at birth (lack of oxygen), after birth (meningitis, head injury, lead poisoning, malnutrition). NIEPID (National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; formerly NIMH, 1984) is at Secunderabad.
• Hearing impairment: conductive loss (blockage or damage in the outer or middle ear; often treatable), sensorineural (inner ear or nerve; usually permanent), mixed, central. Degrees: mild 20–40 dB, moderate 41–60, severe 61–80, profound above 80. Speech disorders: articulation, fluency (stuttering), voice.
• Learning disability (LD): term coined by Samuel Kirk, 1963. A difficulty in one or more basic processes of understanding or using language, spoken or written, in a child of normal or above-normal intelligence, not caused by visual, hearing or motor disability, intellectual disability, emotional disturbance or poor teaching.
  • Dyslexia: reading; main sign inability to read fluently (2022 HWO); reversals (b/d, p/q, was/saw), skipping lines, slow spelling-out.
  • Dysgraphia: writing (poor handwriting, spacing, spelling while writing).
  • Dyscalculia: arithmetic (number sense, place value, signs).
  • Dyspraxia: motor planning and coordination.
  • Aphasia / dysphasia: spoken language (understanding or producing speech).
  • Visual-spatial dysfunction: misjudging distance, losing the place on a page, trouble copying from the board or reading maps and graphs; a learning disability, not a physical one (2022 HWO).
  • ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, 2019 HWO): inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity; often occurs with LD but is not itself an LD.
• Gifted child: shows intellectual superiority far beyond what others have (2019 HWO), in general ability or a special talent; often IQ above 130/140. Lewis Terman, Genetic Studies of Genius (begun 1921, over 1,500 children with IQ above about 135, the "Termites"). Joseph Renzulli's three-ring concept (1978): above-average ability + task commitment + creativity.
• Educating the gifted: acceleration (early admission, grade skipping, telescoping two years into one), enrichment (wider and deeper work in the same class: projects, clubs, competitions), ability grouping, special schools, mentoring. In India, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (from NPE 1986) for talented rural children, and the National Talent Search (NCERT, begun 1963).
• Creativity = the ability to produce new, original and useful ideas or things. It is divergent thinking (2019, 2022 HWO), not convergent. Creative people show innovative ideas, independence and non-conformity, not rote memory or conforming behaviour (2019 HWO).
• J.P. Guilford (APA address, 1950; Structure of Intellect): convergent thinking (thinking aimed at a single correct answer, 2019 HWO) vs divergent thinking (many possible answers). Other options seen: lateral thinking (de Bono: new angles), autistic thinking (fantasy, day-dreaming).
• Four features of divergent thinking: fluency (number of ideas), flexibility (variety of kinds of ideas), originality (unusual, rare ideas), elaboration (developing an idea in detail).
• Tests of creativity: Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (E. Paul Torrance, 1966; verbal and figural); Guilford's unusual uses test; Indian: Baqer Mehdi (verbal and non-verbal tests of creative thinking) and B.K. Passi (Passi tests of creativity).
• Graham Wallas, four stages of creative thinking (The Art of Thought, 1926): preparation → incubation → illumination → verification.
• Brainstorming: Alex Osborn (many ideas, no criticism during the session). Lateral thinking and Six Thinking Hats: Edward de Bono.
• Inclusive education: all children, including CWSN, learn together in the neighbourhood school, which changes its teaching and facilities to suit every child.
• Milestones: IEDC scheme 1974; NPE 1986 (integrate the handicapped "as equal partners"); RCI Act 1992 (Rehabilitation Council of India, trains and registers special educators); PIED 1987 (NCERT with UNICEF); PwD Act 1995 (in force 7 February 1996; 7 disabilities; Section 26: free education up to 18); National Trust Act 1999 (autism, cerebral palsy, intellectual and multiple disabilities); SSA 2001 ("zero rejection"); IEDSS 2009-10 (secondary stage); RTE Act 2009 (2012 amendment: disabled children count as a disadvantaged group); RPwD Act 2016; Samagra Shiksha 2018; NEP 2020.
• International: Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, Spain, 1994): regular schools with an inclusive orientation are the most effective way to fight discrimination. UN CRPD 2006 (India ratified in 2007); the RPwD Act was passed to meet it.
• RPwD Act 2016: passed December 2016, in force 19 April 2017; replaced the PwD Act 1995; disabilities raised from 7 to 21; benchmark disability = at least 40% of a specified disability; free education for children with benchmark disabilities aged 6 to 18 (Section 31); at least 5% seats in government and aided higher education (Section 32); at least 4% reservation in government jobs (Section 34); Section 16 makes inclusive education a duty of government-funded and recognised institutions, which must also detect specific learning disabilities early.