Consequences of Labeling Students Exceptional Children
Exceptional is a term both negative and positive depending on social political and economic pressures. Positive exceptional category includes gifted children while negative include handicapped, mentally challenged and disabled children. Exceptional disabled children lack motivation and commitment due to their physical signs of learning disabilities (Ong-Dean, 2005). Both students and teachers face negative and positive consequences from this labeling. Positive effects allow for diagnosis through prescriptions creating visibility for funding. Teachers can communicate in familiar terms allowing for inquiries regarding the outstanding students. Students benefit from the extra help and support for students from teachers. Educators can come up with individualized plans involving specialized training to these students at individual levels. Students labeled as exceptional also benefit from additional learning support, characterized by frequent repetition. Labeling them as exceptional allows interested groups to participate in promotional programs.
Negative consequences include stereotypes and attitudes since both the student and the teacher reduce their expectations of a classroom performance (Ajzen, 2000). Students labeled as exceptional develop low self-esteem through learning helplessness and tend to believe that they cannot perform well. Teachers possess little expectation on students they consider learning disabled unlike for those considered normal. This negative view of teachers and parents translates to students negatively through a vicious cycle of failure. Students labeled exceptional suffer from peer issues such as stigmatization, rejection, exclusion and social distance. This isolates children since it is difficult for them to make friends from those who bully and may lead to skipping school. In conclusion, appropriate interventions should be employed in order to deal with the negative consequences and create positive appeal for the schools.
References
Ajzen, I. (2000). Nature and Operation of Attitudes. Annual Review of Psychology.52, 27-52.
Ong-Dean, C. (2005). Reconsidering the social location of the medical model: An Examination of Disability in Parenting Literature. Journal of Medical Humanities, 26 (2), 141-158
