Resources For Educators Typical and Not "Normal" Share Flipboard Email Print Disabled student with friends. Huntstock/Disability Images/Getty Images For Educators Special Education Basics Applied Behavior Analysis Classroom Management Strategies & Lesson Plans Math Strategies Reading & Writing Strategies Social Skills Engaging Students Individual Education Plans Becoming a Teacher Assessments & Tests Elementary Education Secondary Education Teaching Homeschooling Teacher Education Issues in Education Tips & Strategies Motivating Students Resources for Teachers View More by Jerry Webster Jerry Webster has a master's in Special Education, a post-baccalaureate certificate in Autism, and more than 20 years of classroom experience. Updated May 10, 2017 Typical, or Typically Developing is the most appropriate way to describe children who are not receiving special education services. "Normal" is frankly offensive since it implies that a special education child is "abnormal." It also implies that there is a single norm for children. Instead we prefer to refer to children without disabilities as "typical" because they have the behavior, intellectual ability and functional skills we would "typically" see in children of their age. At one time, the only measure of whether a child was disabled was how he or she performed on a measure of Intelligence, known as an "IQ Test." Describing the intellectual disability of a child was defined by the number of IQ points below the mean of 100 a child would fall. 20 points was "mildly retarded," 40 Points was "severely retarded." Now, a child is to be considered disabled if her or she fails to respond to intervention, or RTI. Instead of performance on an intelligence test, the child's disability is defined by his or her difficulty with grade appropriate academic material. A "Typical" child would perform within a standard deviation of the mean of all children's performance. In other words, the distance on either side of the mean that represents the largest part of the "curve" of the population. We also can benchmark the social behavior of "typical" children as well. The ability to talk in complete sentences, the ability to initiation and maintain conversational exchange are behaviors, behaviors for which speech language pathologists have created norms. Oppositional defiant behavior can also be compared to the behavior expected of a child of the same age without disruptive or aggressive behavior. Finally, there are functional skills which children "typically" acquire at certain ages, such as dressing themselves, feeding themselves and typing their own shoes. These can also be bench marked for typical children. At what age, does a child child tie his or her shoes? At what age does a child typically cut his or her own food, using both hemispheres. "Typical" is especially appropriate when comparing a typically developing child with a child on the autism spectrum. Children with autism spectrum disorders have a great many language, social, physical and cognitive deficits. In many cases they are related to developmental delays that children with autism experience. It is often in contrast to "typically developing children" that we can best describe the needs of special education children. Also Known As: Normal (Ugh. Sorry)Regular Education StudentsGeneral Education Students Examples: Ms. Johnson looks for as many opportunities as possible for her students with severe cognitive challenges to engage their typical peers. Typical children encouraged the children with disabilities while at the same time modeling age appropriate behavior. Continue Reading