CATEGORIES OF DISABILITIES - Assignment Example

s for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the frequency of autism in the United States is 1 out of every 68 children (Bakken, Obiakor, and Rotatori 37). This translates into 1 out of every 42 boys and 1 out of every in 189 girls. According to IDEA, deaf-blindness means simultaneous visual and hearing handicaps, the mix of which results in such serious communication and other academic and growth needs that the affected child cannot fit in special academic programs meant for children with visual or hearing handicaps (Mamlin 35).

IDEA defines deafness as a hearing handicap so serious that a child is limited in interpreting linguistic information via hearing, with or without sound intensification, which negatively affects the academic ability of a child (Doyle 107). This is a condition marked by the following attributes: a learning problem that cannot be rationalized by sensory, medical, or intellectual issues; an inability to establish or sustain good interpersonal relationships with teachers and other classmates; a general ubiquitous feeling o depression or melancholy; inappropriate emotions or types of conduct in normal situations; and a habit of developing physical traits or phobias related to personal or academic problems (Colker 47).

These attributes are displayed over a long period and to a considerable extent that detrimentally affects the academic performance of a child. This definition includes schizophrenia but is inapplicable to socially maladjusted children, unless it is verified that they are emotionally disturbed. 8.3 million children (14.5 percent) between the ages of four and seventeen have parents who have consulted healthcare providers or academic personnel about their emotional or behavioral challenges (Colker 109).

Doctors have prescribed drugs for these problems for around 2.9 million. This disability is defined as a handicap in hearing, whether intermittent or permanent, that has a regressive effect on the educational ability of a child,