Sensory and/or physical

The children referred to in this strand are varied in terms of their impairments and, indeed, in their educational needs. They include many children whose needs can be met with a little adaptation by a mainstream class teacher. However, there are others whose needs are highly complex and who may require some input from a highly qualified specialist teacher.

Many different terms are used in the literature and there are considerable differences internationally. For instance, in the USA the term ‘hearing impaired’ is rarely used and the term ‘hard of hearing’ is preferred. The terms ‘deaf’ and ‘hearing impaired’ may indicate a ‘political’ distinction, particularly where ‘deaf’ is used. Indeed, the capitalisation of ‘deaf’ to ‘Deaf’ is often used to imply identification with a Deaf community that has its own linguistic and cultural identity. For the purpose of simplification, the following terms are used here to describe the children in this strand: visually impaired (VI), hearing impaired (HI), multi-sensory impaired (MSI), and physically disabled (PD).

Although, each of these categories carries with its implications for the specifics of effective teaching strategies and methods, within any one sub-category (e.g. HI or MSI) there is also wide variation in the educational needs of the children and wide variation in the detail of specialist teaching approaches reported.

Physical impairments can also be related to medical conditions. Epilepsy, for instance, is an important chronic medical conditions affecting children. Until comparatively recently children with epilepsy were either excluded from mainstream education, or were educated in settings supported with highly elaborate, medical assistance in place. Even now, children often experience restricted curriculum and social access to facilities in mainstream schools (Parkinson 2002, Tidman, Saravavan and Gibbs 2003). However, there is a dearth of evidence-based literature that explores best practice in assessment, access to learning and the curriculum for this group. Neither have there been any recent studies on the effects epilepsy may have on disruption to education, which may affect children to varying degrees, both short and long term (Closs, 2000).