Autotelic Responsive Environments and Exceptional Children

In every society there are those who fail to learn the things which are held to be essential for carrying out the role of a competent adult, or who learn so slowly that they are generally out of phase with the age-graded societal demands imposed upon them. Slow learners are apt to be problems to themselves and to their friends. It is recognized, in scientific circles at least, that there are many and diverse causes for failure to learn at the socially prescribed rate: brain damage, emotional disturbance, social-cultural deprivation, and the like.1