Perceptual disabilities are a type of learning disorder or learning disability. They are one of the types of specific learning disabilities defined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); therefore, children with them are considered eligible for special education services.
To understand perceptual disabilities, it is important to understand two things. The four stages of learning, which are:
• Input (the initial entry of information into the brain);
• Integration (the processing and interpretation of that information);
• Memory (the storage and ability to recall that information); Y
• Output (the ability to convey that information through language or engine output).
Because perceptual disabilities occur in the entry stage, it is important to clarify two things. First, they do not mean that there is a problem with the sensory acquisition of information. People with perceptual disabilities may have nothing to do with their sight and hearing. Disability is how that information is handled. Second, because they cause problems at the initial stage of information processing, other stages may also be affected.
These disabilities can be classified by the particular sensory area that is affected.
• Seeing: Visual impairments can cause problems with organization, positioning, testing distance, and hand-eye coordination. The ability to read social cues, such as facial expressions, may also be affected.
• Hearing: Hearing disabilities can lead to an inability to distinguish differences between sounds, trouble staying focused on primary auditory input, or trouble keeping up with auditory input.
• Smell and taste disabilities can result in an unusual level of sensitivity or insensitivity and can affect the ability to distinguish smells and tastes.
• Touch: Tactile disabilities can result in a sense of touch that is dull or unusually sensitive to stimuli.
Perceptual disabilities can also affect the proprioceptive sense, which has to do with self-awareness of the body, and the vestibular sense, which has to do with balance and equilibrium.