Understanding Disabilities: Types, Signs, and Support
Understanding Different Types of Disabilities
1) The term disability refers to the reduced ability of a person in a specific area, be it motor or sensory. This, in turn, opens up a range of alternatives or different capacities.
2) Speaking of different capacities acknowledges that all individuals with disabilities have much to contribute to society. The term disability implies a lack of ability, which clashes with reality. Furthermore, the term “disability” can suggest diminished value, which is inaccurate and inappropriate.
Intellectual and Emotional Disabilities
3) Intellectual disability refers to learning challenges that interfere with an individual’s normal cognitive performance. These range from mild learning disabilities to more significant challenges, with a wide variety of associated factors. These factors can include difficulties with memory, learning, calculation, problem-solving, attention, concentration, and writing.
Emotional Disability refers to emotional states characterized by significant changes in mood, resulting from neurochemical dysfunction. These can significantly impact behavior.
4) Some signs of emotional and learning disabilities include:
- Learning difficulties
- Inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers
- Inappropriate behavior or feelings under normal circumstances
- A general mood of sadness or depression
- A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems
Hearing and Visual Impairments
1) Hearing Impairment: There are different degrees of hearing problems, ranging from mild hearing loss to congenital deafness. When deafness is total, individuals completely lack the ability to hear spoken language and other sounds. However, they can receive and transmit information in their own language, replacing the oral-auditory system with a visual-gestural one.
2) Argentine Sign Language is considered the natural language of the Deaf community, with characteristics comparable to other sign languages. Besides the visual-gestural mode, Deaf Bilingualism combines a language belonging to the majority society (transmitted orally and aurally) with a written system for accessing information.
3) People who are blind have their own literacy system, the Braille system, which allows them to read with their fingers. This is a crucial tool for education and employment.
4) Blindness is the condition of people who have no vision or only perceive very dim light. It has been estimated that there are 70 million blind people in the world. Color blindness is a genetic disorder that prevents the differentiation of colors, especially red. The lens is a part of the eye that allows you to focus on objects near and far.
Motor Impairments and Aphasia
1) Several diseases can cause functional impairment of motor functions, leading to disruptions in everyday life. These conditions include cerebral palsy, sequelae of brain injury, spinal cord conditions, specific muscle diseases, and similar ailments.
2) Motor disorders can affect different aspects of an individual and present in various forms:
- Muscle tone, which can lead to rigidity
- Muscle strength, which can be totally affected (paralysis) or partially affected (paresis)
- Irregular muscle coordination, lacking rhythm and causing balance disruption
3) Aphasia is the partial or total loss of speech due to brain injury (vascular or traumatic) in the areas responsible for language. People with aphasia generally use meaningless jargon, hear well but do not understand what they are told, have difficulty reading and writing, have problems with attention and concentration, and often show apathy, shyness, and irritability.
Rehabilitation and Support
4) Rehabilitation: The restoration of satisfactory physical, mental, professional, or social function after an injury or disease, including mental illness. Rehabilitation helps people with different abilities to realize and accept their condition.
Reeducation: Re-teaching movements and actions that were lost due to certain illnesses or accidents.
Recovery: The regaining or retaking of what was possessed. The objective is to maximize the diminished or lost function.
Redeployment: The adjustment or accommodation to a new situation. It applies to the common occupations of people with disabilities.