Facilitating Learning for Students with Disabilities

This document provides an overview of facilitating learning for students with disabilities, focusing on visual impairment, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome. It discusses the impact of these disabilities on physical, language, and social development, as well as their ability to learn in the classroom. Practical support strategies for each disability are also provided.

CHILDREN’S EDUCATION AND CARE 202010
CHCEDS025 Facilitate learning for students with disabilities
Assessment 1 OFF JOB TEMPLATE
You are required to conduct research on a range of disabilities as classified in the Nationally Consistent Collection
of Data (NCCD). The classifications of disability under the NCCD are Physical, Cognitive, Sensory and
Social/Emotional.
For your written assessment you will provide an overview of each of the disabilities listed below. You will outline
how these conditions may affect learning and development and how the LSA can support the student with these
disabilities. You are also required to reference your research information. The template below is to be used for
your responses.
The four disabilities are:
 Visual Impairment (Sensory disability)
 Cerebral Palsy (Physical disability)
 Down Syndrome (Cognitive disability)
 Anxiety (Social/Emotional disability)
NOTE: Extent of disability refers to the variation that might be found within the disability such as those mildly
moderately or severely/permanently impacted by the disability. For example paraplegia and quadriplegia
explain the variation that may occur with injuries that restrict movement to the limbs. Some disabilities can
affect part of the body or the whole body.
Question 1 Disability 1: Sensory – Visual Impairment
a) Provide an overview of this condition,
how this condition is acquired and the
extent of disability that may be
experienced by the person (for example
mild, moderate or severe disability)
Minimum of 50 words
Visual impairment refers to a condition of low sightedness where
ability of a person to see far or near objects, is much less, which may
treat easily either by contact lenses or eyeglass. In early age of
childhood, the condition which causes the visual impairment is
Amblyopia which refers to a reduced vision in one eye due to its lack
of usage. Kids having visual impairment or congenital blindness are
usually visually impaired at their birth, which may be caused by
several reasons, such as by inheritance, infection which is
transmitted from mother to its foetus during pregnancy or some
injury for development of visual system. Extent of such disability
under child is significantly considered as so serious because due to
this capacity of perceiving information visually is much affected.
b) How could this disability affect a
student’s physical development,
language development and social
development?
Students having visual impairment suffers a lot with comprehensive
difficulties especially, when their disability is not corrected by using
lens or glasses. They often fail due to this issue to enhance
organisation skills, complete academic projects on time as well as
experience many difficulties to work in group-assignments.
Therefore, it will affect both on language and social development of
them, also physical development of child is also influenced because
under such condition, when they find themselves different or weak
from others, then it highly impact on their mind and aversely affect
their health.

c) How could this disability affect the
student’s ability to learn in the
classroom?
Cognitive or visual impairment ability especially at early age, affect
ability of students for conceptualising the environment due to
reduction of earning visual information. Severe or early impairments
affect learning ability of students because of limited accessibility of
such environment which is required to gain information in desired
way. Poor sensory impairments also make it so difficult for students

to perform academic and functional tasks.
d) Provide three practical (3) support
strategies the LSA could use to assist a
student with a visual impairment in the
classroom.
To support students with visual impairment, LSA needs to provide
desired environment to them where they can interpret and organise
sensory information more better. Students who react more to
stimuli requires a calming environment, where those who react less
or too little, are needed an alerting program. For this purpose, three
main strategies for LSA are –
 Provide vestibular input to those visually impaired students
who cannot sit on chairs in classrooms and frequently use
to change their position.
 Auditory input which include activities like tapping a pencil,
humming of a humidifier etc. to calm behaviour of visually
disabled children and allow them to buffer the noise by
earning ear protectors.
 Eliminate or minimise the risk of glare from whiteboard
and desk as well as make correction in their seating
arrangement also assists student with visual impairment in
the class room.
e) List three (3) disability web links used in your research
for the above responses
https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/visual-impairment.html
https://www.sess.ie/categories/sensory-impairments/visual-
impairment
http://www.intellectualdisability.info/physical-health/
articles/visual-impairment-its-effect-on-cognitive-
development-and-behaviour
Question 2 Disability 2: Physical – Cerebral Palsy
a) Provide an overview of this
condition, how this condition is
acquired and the extent of
disability that may be
experienced by the person (for
example mild, moderate or
severe disability)
Minimum of 50 words
Cerebral palsy refers to abnormal condition of a person due to damaged
brain which can happen before or during birth and can occur within a
month or during first year of a child also. In child, it may cause to
infection during pregnancy, jaundice and kernicterus, medical
condition of mothers like thyroid problem, seizures, intellectual
disability etc. Along with this, detachment of placenta, problem during
birth with umbilical cord that may disrupt supply of oxygen to kid that
result in congenital cerebral palsy. Another conditions which shows
that baby at early age is higher risk of such disability includes low
birthweight (less than 5 and ½ pounds or 2500 gm), premature birth i.e.
delivery of mother before 37th pregnancy week, multiple births with
more than twins etc. Extent of physical – cerebral palsy may vary from
mild to severe disability, which affect ability of person to control and
move muscles, balance, posture and coordination.
b) How could this disability affect a
student’s physical development,
language development and social
development?
A child having cerebral palsy may face a number of difficulties in
processing information from sensory organs, therefore, they might
found as a sensory processing disorders like hypersensitive and
hyposensitive. This will lead to affect lack of coordination in some
muscles like vocal cords; also difficult to understand and speak causes
intellectual and hearing disabilities also. All these factors affect their
social, physical and behavioural development, due to abnormality of
brain. One in every three children having cerebral palsy are unable to

CHILDREN’S EDUCATION AND CARE 202010
walk properly therefore, they are at greater risk of inability to sit,
epilepsy and other mobility issues, that highly affect their physical
development.
c) How could this disability affect
the student’s ability to learn in
the classroom?
Students with cerebral palsy may experience a number of learning
difficulties due to intellectual disability, which include a short or less
attention span, language difficulties due to hearing or speaking issues,
motor planning difficulties such as organisation and movement
sequencing, perceptual difficulties etc. These difficulties directly affect
learning abilities of students in terms of numeracy, literacy and other
academic skills. Along with this, communication disability fine and
gross motor coordination and so on, also causes learning or intellectual
disabilities among learners , where to grab into learning environment,
they put more effort for concentrating on lectures, sequence of actions
etc.
d) Provide three practical (3)
support strategies the LSA could
use to assist a student with CP in
the classroom.
Students with Cerebrum Palsy possess special needs to be assisted in
classroom therefore, before creating inclusive classroom for them,
authorities at schools are required to know about their condition.
Educators need to understand the extent at which students have such
diseases, because some disabled learners might have cognitive
disability or some possess an average above IQ. Therefore, to gain
their attention and include active participation of such learners,
teachers are required to –
 Call child during discussion, give them opportunity to hold
leadership position in group activities that encourage them to
be active learner in class.
 Classrooms must be designed uncluttered and remove
obstacles from learners with CP so that they can get enough
space to move.
 Bullying at class considers as one of the biggest problem that
face by learners with CP and arise feeling of being excluded
under them. Therefore, teachers need to give more attention
for prevention or intervention of same by enforcing some
rules to create inclusive classroom for such learners.
e) List three (3) disability web links used in your
research for the above responses
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/cp/causes.html
https://cerebralpalsy.org.au/our-research/about-cerebral-
palsy/what-is-cerebral-palsy/how-cerebral-palsy-affects-
people/
https://www.abclawcenters.com/frequently-asked-
questions/cerebral-palsy-developmental-categories/
Question 3 Disability 3: Down Syndrome
a) Provide an overview of this
condition, how this condition is
acquired and the extent of disability
that may be experienced by the
person (for example mild, moderate
or severe disability)
Minimum of 50 words
Down syndrome refers to a genetic disorder disease which is caused
mainly when an abnormal cell division lead to a partial copy or an
extra full of chromosome 21. In this regard, the extra chromosomes or
genetic material results in development change of Down syndrome,
which varies among individuals at severe level. In children, it may
cause intellectual or learning disability till lifelong. Along with this, a
person having such disorder also faces a number of medical
abnormalities like gastrointestinal and heart issues. This disease may

cause by one the genetic variations from Trisomy 21, Mosaic Down
Syndrome and Translocation Down Syndrome, but anyone of these
variations causes by mistake within cell division at early development
of foetus. But it may transfer from mother to their offspring’s also.
Person having down syndrome may face a number of complications,
where half number of children when born with this disease get
congenital heart defects; they are also at higher risk of abnormalities
of oesophagus, intestines, anus and trachea. Along with this, spinal
problems, leukaemia, sleep apnoea, immune disorders etc. are other
issues that caused by Down syndrome.
b) How could this disability affect a
student’s physical development,
language development and social
development?
Children having the Down Syndrome take more time to be grown
mentally. As compare with other kids, they can’t crawl, walk and play
normally due to less physical development. They highly face less
development of cognitive skills like proper communication and socially
interactive abilities, therefore, they take longer time to collaborate
themselves with others. Along with this, because of delay of language
development and less physical growth, behaviour of such children also
becomes abnormal. The social functioning of such children with
disabilities is relatively take longer time than other developmental
areas. Students with Down syndrome used to look at faces and smile
to make communication therefore, they are also known as sociable
infants. They enjoy communicating and making effective use of non-
verbal skills such as babbling and gesture within social situations.
Thus, all these things highly affect the physical, language and social
development of child with down syndrome, that impact on their
academic life also. Under this condition, as compared with other
students, they might even grab information either more or less but
can’t express in desired manner.

c) How could this disability affect the
student’s ability to learn in the
classroom?
Students having down syndrome are tending to be slow learner in the
classroom. Motor skills of such student develop at a slower rate as
compared with normal ones therefore, these delays in development
of skills reduce their opportunities to explore and learn what they are
being taught in classrooms and what happens around the world. In
this regard due to poor cognitive and motor skills development effect
their language abilities also. This would lead time for such students to
learn how to use spoken language, make sentence structures,
grammatically correct and more, that results in arising barriers in
developing the clear pronunciation of words. Furthermore, most
students with Down syndrome face struggle with basic computing and
number skills that create difficulties in learning the maths. The ability
these students to hold and process the verbal information is also not
so good as others for holding and processing the visual information.
Therefore, due to verbal and short-term memory problems creates
more difficult for these students to learn the new words, sentences
and other information. These things adversely affect their learning
within classroom.
d) Provide three practical (3) support
strategies the LSA could use to
assist a student with Down
Students with Down syndrome have capability to learn effectively in
classrooms if they got inclusive environment and opportunity to excel.

CHILDREN’S EDUCATION AND CARE 202010
syndrome in the classroom. However, they may learn less or at a slower pace in class but they are
more capable of learning as compared to normal children. They are
also the strong visual learners to understand what are being taught
visually rather than verbal methods of teaching. Therefore, to create
inclusive environment of learning, educators need to adopt following
strategies –
 Educators are required to make some compromises for
students having down syndrome in order to meet their
educational needs within classroom. As they are visual
learners, therefore, teachers need to put strong emphasis on
providing the visual learning, because visual demonstrations,
including pictures and illustrations will help students to
develop their academic skills. Along with this, lessons in
phonics must be included in the curriculum activities for the
learner with Down syndrome, so that, educational needs of
them can be met.
 Students with Down syndrome are generally possess good
skills to understand instead to express, so, this can be utilized
by educators to increase their learning abilities by measuring
their capabilities and encouraging them to express more.
When speaking to such student, it is also essential for teachers
to speak with them by using short sentences with clear
language. They must give adequate time to process what have
been taught in class and respond accordingly. Positive
reinforcements also need to be be used for students with
Down syndrome for boosting their self-esteem and providing
positive learning experience.
 The use of conceptual, manipulatives as well as activity
learning could also prove beneficial if employed within the
development of number concepts. Educators need to develop
visually-based mathematic and other materials with particular
reference for increasing the learning strengths of students with
down syndrome and meet their educational needs effectively.
e) List three (3) disability web links used in your
research for the above responses
https://www.down-syndrome.org/en-gb/about-down-
syndrome/development/
https://www.everydayhealth.com/down-syndrome/what-
expect-raising-child/
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/down-
syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20355977?
page=0&citems=10
Question 4 Disability 4: Social/Emotional – Anxiety
a) Provide an overview of this condition,
how this condition is acquired and the
extent of disability that may be
experienced by the person (for
Anxiety defines as the response of brain to danger, which stimuli that a
person will actively attempt to avoid. In infancy and early childhood,
this brain response refers to a basic emotion including expressions that
falls on a continuum in children from mild to severe. Furthermore,

example mild, moderate or severe
disability)
Minimum of 50 words
anxiety is also not typically pathological because it may adaptive in a
number of scenarios where it facilitates the avoidance of danger.
Generally, it has been analysed that anxiety can become maladaptive in
some cases, when it mainly interferes with functioning. For an
instance, when kids with avoidance behavior, anxiety under them arise
overly frequent, severe as well as persistent, when they worry
excessively for a variety of things, like higher grades, performance om
sports etc. Emotional anxiety among kids at early occurs may arise
between 18 months to three years, which can normally feel when they
distract from feelings of separation from family ones. While social
anxiety can be characterised via an intense fear of the social as well as
performance situations. Social and emotional anxiety disorder create
adversely effects on life of kids, such as generate feelings of specific
phobia, fear to attend schools etc. Extent of such level of anxiety may
be varied with mild to severe under kids, that can be measured with
their behaviour at certain situations.
b) How could this disability affect a
student’s physical development,
language development and social
development?
Social and emotional Anxiety highly influenced the ability of
children for regulating their shyness, which occurs when they
confronted with social evaluations or attentions. Along with this, social
and emotional anxiety impact on interactive skills of kids that reduce
their abilities to socially collaborate with others. This results in slow
growth at pace of such child and in some condition, social anxiety
disorder also increase experience of strong physical symptoms under
them. It includes increased heart-beating, sweating, nausea and full-
blown attacks when they confronted to fear situations. It may arise
difficulties in language development also, because due to feeling of
shyness in extreme level, they resist to make communication with
others.
c) How could this disability affect the
student’s ability to learn in the
classroom?
Signs that shows symptoms of anxiety among children are fear to go
schools, fear to perform terribly in class, feeling a sense of
worthlessness, etc. They become excessively self-conscious that make
it difficult for them to actively participate within class as well as
socialise with peers. Therefore, children associate with anxiety, behave
aggressively on class and always feel upset or threatened over there.
These conditions affect their learning abilities highly especially in
development of cognitive skills. They may be good in attempting
written test in class, but not perfectly well when they ask questions
verbally.
d) Provide three practical (3) support
strategies the LSA could use to assist
a student with an anxiety condition in
the classroom.
 Teachers are required to encourage students with high level of
social and emotional anxiety to use self-calming techniques
and provide them seats in classrooms where they feel more
calm and comfortable to learn what are being taught to them.
 Work collaboratively with professionals who are good in
handling anxiety of students, help teachers to develop good
relations with students having social anxiety disorder and
enrol them easily in learning activities.
 Adopting different teaching methods and give special
attention to such children, will also help in creating inclusive
environment for them in classrooms.
e) List three (3) disability web links used in your research for the above responses
https://adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/children/childhood-anxiety-disorders
https://nationalsocialanxietycenter.com/2018/07/14/social-anxiety-impacts-higher-education-career-choices/

CHILDREN’S EDUCATION AND CARE 202010
https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/partnering-with-childs-school/instructional-strategies/at-a-glance-
classroom-accommodations-for-anxiety
https://ibcces.org/blog/2019/04/22/student-anxiety-teachers-help/
Question 5
From your research on Down Syndrome answer the following questions:
a) Give two examples of social barriers that may affect a student with Down Syndrome
 Lack of behavioural and physical skills: This is most common social barriers which are down syndrome
because they have less behavioural as well as physical skills as compare to the normal children. Due to this
children suffering from down syndrome not able to grab new things or skills as well as they also take huge
time to understand new skills or things.
 A lack of accessible programmes: There is also lack of accessible programmes or activities for down
syndrome children which impact on their day to day life at the society. Moreover it also limit the learning or
academic life of down syndrome children.
b) Give two examples of academic barriers that may affect a student with Down Syndrome
 Learning potential: Student or children suffering from down syndrome take long time to learn new things as
well as in order to teach them new skill teacher need to broke skill into small steps so that they understand it
and started remembering or learning. Respective types of children also want more structure their activities or
practices so that they can perform independently at the classroom. In addition to this, every parents want that
their children experience school because academic succession is essential for leaving a ordinary life in today's
time. But in this process their learning potential seems as a barrier.
 Early intervention programs and preschool: At many school there are pre intervention programmes are
conducted in through which school can identify which child is normal who is suffering from down syndrome.
This is so because there are very less school who offer learning or educational services for special children or
down syndrome children. Due to which these types of children face huge academic barriers which impact on
their career or future.
c) The LSA may be asked by the education support team to do observations on a student with Down syndrome
prior to a review of their Individual learning plan (ILP). A typical example of an observation is a jotting.
Another observation an LSA could do is complete a behavioural chart. Please explain what a behavioural
chart is and what sort of information it would be providing the teacher prior to review of an ILP for a student
with down syndrome.
Behavioural charts can be described as a technique which is used fr tracking child's behaviour as well as
reward positive desirable behaviour. It is helpful is reinforcement of fresh skills and reminds children to
complete their chores of homework and encourage positive behaviour along with discouraging negative
behaviours.
Question 6
List two relevant legislations, policies or standards that

regulate educational service delivery for each of the
following :
a) Inclusive practices in
educational settings  Article 23, The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
 Disability Discrimination Act 2005
b) Student health, safety and
wellbeing
 Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974
 The Health and Social Care Act, 2012
c) Student behaviour
 Education Act, 2002
 Education and Inspections Act, 2006