Special education

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This article is about educating students with disabilities or behavioral problems. For information about educating gifted students, see Gifted education.
Kindergarten or Special Education teacher instructing a student.

Special education is the term most commonly used to describe the methodology and practice of education for students with special needs, such as learning differences, mental health issues, specific disabilities (physical or developmental). Ideologies and application of special education can differ from region to region, nation to nation, but most developed countries recognize the importance of the field.

Purpose

Special education exists primarily because of the belief that certain students are not capable of receiving the same level of education if taught in the same manner and with the same techniques as the larger school population. Special education students often have different needs, learn in different ways and socially interact differently than other students. Accordingly, special education exists so as to ensure that students with special needs receive an education equal to the rest of the student body, by imploring researched and verified methods that help individual students learn in the style most beneficial to them.[1]

History

Before laws were established mandating compulsory special education in many parts of the industrialized world, students with special needs had varied educational experiences based upon their disabilities. Towards the end of the 19th century, children with physical handicaps, and whose families could afford to, were often taught one-on-one by tutors, or attended specialized schools. One of the most famous examples of this is Helen Keller's tutor, Anne Sullivan, who was educated at Boston's Perkins School for the Blind. In many parts of Europe and the United States, these types of schools were opening by the beginning of the twentieth century, but were not options for those families who did not have the money pay for this specialized education. Even many of the deaf and blind student who attended these schools were not often educated on an equal level with non-disadvantaged children.

However, there were a few pioneers in the field of special education at this time. William Stokoe was not only an educator of the deaf, he helped to develop Sign Language. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was instrumental in founding a school for teaching the deaf. Valentin Haüy opened the first school for the blind and taught Louis Braille, who later when on to develop the Braille system. Despite all of these innovators and accomplishment, a majority of the blind and deaf were under educated.

Children with mental handicaps often fared worse. With some of the more extreme cases such as advanced autism, were restricted from attending public schools as they could be disruptive in classroom settings and were forced to either stay home and become entirely dependent upon their parents or were sent to mental institutions which provided little education. Some psychological conditions, such as Attention Deficit Disorder had not yet been studied or recognized in the early twentieth century, and while these disabilities did not hinder a student's ability to attend public or private schools, special attention was not placed upon why these students were struggling with their studies or lacked close friendships.

Recognition of the need for special education arose from the advancement of society towards more democratic and equal societies, particularly after World War II. In the United States, special education was actually an outgrowth of the civil rights movement.[2] As schools became more integrated and equality in education became a central issue, students and all person's with handicaps were given attention to the special needs they required. In 1975, the U.S. Congress passed Public Law 94-142 - Education of All Handicapped Children Act, which dictated that all states receiving federal funding for public education must employee certain special education programs that the Federal government had established. Of special emphasis that compulsory education had to include all students of compulsory schooling age and that students with special needs were not to be segregated entirely from their fellow classmates. Other such laws were being passed around the same time in the industrialized world in recognition of the importance of giving an equal education to students with disabilities.

Since the establishment by law, special education has become an important field of study in psychology, medicine and education. Many government, professional and civil groups have been created across the world to help progress the development of effective special education programs.

Methodology

The provision of education to people with disabilities or learning differences differs from country to country, and state to state. The ability of a student to access a particular setting may depend on their specific needs, location, family choice, or government policy. Special educators describe a cascade of services, in which students with special needs receive services in varying degrees based on the degree to which they interact with the general school population. In the main, special education will be provided in one, or a combination, of the following ways:

  • Inclusion: Regular education classes combined with special education services is a model often referred to as inclusion. In this model, students with special needs are educated with their typically developing peers for at least half of the day. In a full inclusion model, specialized services are provided within a regular classroom by sending the service provider in to work with one or more students in their regular classroom setting.[3] In a partial inclusion model, specialized services are provided outside a regular classroom. In this case, the student occasionally leaves the regular classroom to attend smaller, more intensive instructional sessions, or to receive other related service such as speech and language therapy, occupational and/or physical therapy, and social work. Inclusion is geared towards students who do not require intensive support.
  • Mainstreaming: Regular education classes combined with special education classes is a model often referred to as mainstreaming. In this model, students with special needs are educated with their typically developing peers during specific time periods based on their skills.[4] Mainstreaming is geared towards students who require significant support and who are unsuccessful in a regular classroom.
  • Segregation (Self-Contained): Full-time placement in a special education classroom may be referred to as segregation. In this model, students with special needs spend no time with typically developing students. Segregation is geared towards students who require intensive support or are unable to cope with even brief attendance in a regular classroom.[5] Segregated students may attend the school as their neighbors, but spend their time exclusively in a special-needs classroom. Alternatively, these students may attend a special school that is specifically designed, resourced and staffed to meet the needs of the particular students who attend it.
  • Exclusion: A student whose disabilities preclude attending any school is said to be excluded. Such a student may be in hospital, homebound, or detained by the criminal justice system. These students may receive one-on-one instruction or group instruction within their institution. Residential centres, which are live-in schools where complex needs can be met with appropriate medical care and provision of a variety of therapies, are sometimes considered segregation and sometimes exclusion. Students who have been suspended or expelled are not considered excluded in this sense.

Debate

The struggle to balance the needs of the individual student against the needs of the larger school population has always been a factor in educational debates, and special education is no exception. The stigma of disability is something that is still felt in daily life and one of the reasons that special education can be a passionate subject for many, coupled with the fact that compared to systemized education, special education is still relatively new. As new methods and studies continued to be conducted, debates will go on about the most effective means to implement special education and its overall effectiveness. Below is a summary of the some of the most contentious and current debates around the topic:

Identification: Many schools now test students for mental/emotional or developmental disabilities that are not easily apparent, so as to identify students who may need special education. Often times these tests are criticized for a number of reasons, particularly that a result may not necessarily be an effective enough diagnosis of a condition, or in some instances result in an improper diagnosis. In some cases, parents and students protest the students' placement into special education programs. For example, a student may be placed into the special education programs due to a mental health condition such as OCD, depression, anxiety, panic attacks or ADHD, while the student and his parents believe that the condition is adequately managed through medication and outside therapy. In other cases, students whose parents believe they require the additional support of special education services are denied participation in the program based on the eligibility criteria. At-risk students (those with educational needs that are not associated with a disability) are often placed in classes with students with disabilities. Some assert that placing at-risk students in the same classes as disabled students may impede the educational progress of people with disabilities.

Placement: Inclusion vs. exclusion has been a topic of heated debate for some years. The currently popular practice of inclusion has been criticized by advocates and some parents of children with disabilities because some of these students require instructional methods that differ dramatically from typical classroom methods. Critics assert that it is not possible to deliver effectively two or more very different instructional methods in the same classroom. As a result, the educational progress of students who depend on different instructional methods to learn often fall even further behind their peers without disabilities. Conversely, parents of typically developing children sometimes fear that the special needs of a single "fully included" student will take critical levels of attention and energy away from the rest of the class and thereby impair the academic achievements of all students.

Notes

  1. Jennifer E. Sisk Special Education Encyclopedia of Children's Health (Answers Corporation, 2006). Retrieved September 9, 2008.
  2. (2002) Pardini, Priscilla. The History of Special Education. Rethinking Schools Online. Vol. 16, No. 3. Retrieved September 7, 2008 [1]
  3. (2007) Wisconsin Education Association Council. "Special Education Inclusion" Retrieved September 7, 2008
  4. Meisel, C. Julius (Ed). Mainstreaming Handicapped Children: Outcomes, Controversies, and New Direction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986. (ISBN 0898595827)
  5. Hegarty, Seamus and Mithu Alur. Education and Children with Special Needs: From Segregation to Inclusion Sage, 2002. (ISBN 0761995846)

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Rosenberg, Michael S., Westling, David L. and James McLeskey. Special Education for Today's Teachers: An Introduction. Prentice Hall, 2007. (ISBN 0131185608)
  • Osgood, Robert L. The History of Special Education: A Struggle for Equality in American Public Schools (Growing Up: History of Children and Youth). Praeger Publishers, 2007. (ISBN 0275989135)
  • Rayner, Steve G. Managing Special and Inclusive Education. Sage Publications Ltd, 2007. (ISBN 1412918898)
  • Harwell, Joan M. Complete Learning Disabilities Handbook: Ready-to-Use Strategies & Activities for Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities. Jossey-Bass, 2004. (ISBN 0130325627)
  • Sigmon, Scott B. Critical Voices on Special Education: Problems and Progress Concerning the Mildly Handicapped. SUNY Press, 1990. (ISBN 079140319X)
  • Tomlinson, Sally. A Sociology of Special Education. Routledge Kegan & Paul, 1982. (ISBN 071009003X)

External links


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