students' disabilities ranged from speech and language impairments to mental retardation, and more than half were described as having a specific learning disability due to a psychological disorder.8
Children with disabilities vary with respect to the type and number of disabilities they have, and their disabilities vary in cause, degree, and the effect they have on the child's educational progress. Although children with disabilities are a very diverse group, data describing the demographic characteristics of students with disabilities suggest the following:
More than half of all students receiving special services are males.
Most are in elementary or middle school.
Most have no obvious disability; they have problems that are primarily academic, emotional, social, or behavioral.
Denishio Grant on 14 Jan 14Students with learning disabilities and emotional problems account for nearly 60% of all children receiving special services in schools today, and their numbers are rising each year.4 These students often have persistent problems learning and behaving appropriately in school, problems that may become apparent only after teachers work with the students for weeks or months. Such students are likely to be given a broad label indicating only that their academic and social progress is unsatisfactory because of a disability,14 and their problems often persist despite a teacher's efforts to meet their students' needs within the regular program.
