Overview

Children diagnosed with special needs display a range of strengths and challenges when using and understanding language in the classroom.

Strengths	Challenges
Telling about events	Stating conclusions
Describing events, objects, people	Responding to questions that require inferences, deductions, and cause and effect
Responding to concrete questions	Maintaining the thread of a discussion
Conversing during predictable situations	Synthesizing the quickness of the verbal presentation with the visual intake
Taking turns during exchanges	Struggling to interpret the subtle intonations and the nuances in language, such as a louder tone emphasizing the importance of a topic
Conversing in small groups or one-to-one	Maintaining exchanges in large group settings