Chapter 3 Low- Incidence Disabilities

Amazingly in my 15 years of teaching I have had only one low-incidence disabled child in my room.  I was teaching 5th grade and this student had low vision due to congenital glaucoma.  Her vision was not low enough to need any help when walking, but assistance was needed for reading.  We had a large machine connected to a tv screen that projected whatever she was trying to read onto the screen.  That was eight years ago and fortunately the new devices are much smaller and easier to use.

While I haven't had much experience with low-incidence disabilities, there have been several in the schools where I have taught.  Currently we have a student in kindergarten who has an autism spectrum disorder.  He has a shadow that spends the day with him and many accomodations are made for him.  My child was in his class last year and it was so wonderful to watch how she and the other students loved him and helped him.  His outbursts when something upset them didn't bother them at all and they always tried to help.  One example is that he couldn't handle walking down the hall with so many students in the hall in the morning, so he would stay up in the office and when everyone had cleared the halls, the teacher would send two students to get him.  It wasn't the same two everyday, but you could tell they had been instructed on walking slowly and talking calmly to him on the way.  What a great lesson in compassion those students learned!  There are several other students in the school with autism, but none so severe.  We have another student who is legally blind.  He has a machine that goes where ever he goes to help him see.  He also has a machine that allows him to write in braille.

Again, I think it is important for teachers to have many strategies available when a student with one of these low-incidence disabilites is placed in our room.  There is so much to know about each of these disabilities and yet no two will be exactly alike.  Spina bifida was mentioned in this chapter.  I have seen children with spina-bifida that also have other impairments which make learning difficult, but I also had a cousin with spina-bifida who had none of the learning problems.  He graduated from college and worked for several years before complications from the spina bifida took his life.  There is just so much to know.  I think we need to make sure plenty of information and strategies to help these students need to be at a regular ed teacher's disposal.