Intended as a text for undergraduate, postgraduate (B.Ed./ M.Ed.; B.A., M.A. Education) and diploma level courses in Education as well as for courses in Special Education, this comprehensive and accessible book provides a sound base for understanding Special Children through an insightful and incisive analysis on Special Education. The text dwells on exceptional children, or children with special needs, who are found to be in one extreme or the other and suffer from various deficits or disabilities or are gifted. They cover a wide spectrum???the mentally retarded, the visually and hearing impaired, the emotionally disturbed, those with autism, cerebral palsy, and the deprived, as well as the gifted and the creative. This well-organized and pedagogically rich text should be extremely useful to students as well as professionals???special education teachers, those engaged in guidance and counselling, educational policy makers, and field workers, who have an abiding interest in the education of exceptional children and in special education.