Multiple disability is a term used for a person with a combination of disabilities.
e.g.- someone with both a sensory disability and a motor disability.
Individual with multiple disabilities have more than one significant disability such as orthopedic impairment, sensory impairment and behavioural or emotional issues.
It could be two different types of physical disabilities, two different mental disabilities or a combination of physical and mental disabilities.
Common examples of multiple disabilities are intellectual disability and blindness, mental retardation and orthopedic impairment, locomotor disability and speech impairment.
Difficulty in basic physical morality.
Child may experience fine motor deficits that can cause penmanship problems.
Child may have slow clerical speed.
Child may tend to forget skills through disuse.
Child may have trouble generalising skills from one situation to another.
Child may lack high level thinking and comprehension skills.
Child may have poor problem solving skills.
Ability to engage in abstract thinking is limited.
Child may have difficulty locating the direction of sound.
Child may have difficulty learning about object and object relationship.
Child may lack maturity in establishing career goals.
Child may face problems in socialising with peers.
Bump into things while walking
Complain of too much light
Eyes may look different from normal eyes
Tries to look at things very closely.
Respond only to particular sounds
May take a long time and repetitions to develop speech
Sometimes they may also show difficulty in balancing their body while walking in a straight line
Due to combined loss of more than two disabilities, the rate and speed of learning of these children is very slow.
Communication is the most significant affected area of children with multiple disabilities as they are unable to see or hear or follow the different ways of his peer groups and children activities.
Over sight, hearing and body movements help us to move around without bumping into things, remember the ways to reach places or even to use our hands to hold and look at things.
Most children with multiple disabilities show strange behaviours that are called self-stimulating behaviour.
Chromosomal abnormalities
Viral infections
Drug and alcohol used during pregnancy
Mother's malnutrition
Physical trauma to the mother
Lack of oxygen supply to the baby's brain
Physical injury to the baby's brain
Contracted infection during birth
Childhood infections like meningitis and encephalitis
Traumatic brain injury from an accident
Lead poisioning
Reactions to medication
Exposure to toxins
Other environmental conditions
Use of multi-sensory teaching approach
Teaching should make students active
Regular behaviour observation
Make students aware about their shortcomings
Focus on learning by doing individualized educational programme
Infrastructure according to the needs of students
Flexibility in evaluation
Regular PTMs
Vocational training