Special needs education or special education is the education of students with special needs or with medical, mental or psychological disabilities in a manner that addresses the individual differences and needs of those students. If you are planning to pursue a teaching career and become a special needs education teacher, it is important that you should know the importance or significance of special needs education programmes in schools especially for the kindergarten, primary school and secondary school levels.
When you know the significance and relevance of having a special education programme in a school, then, you would have an idea about the important role you would play for children with special needs if you continue your plans in pursuing a career as a special needs education teacher. The most important reason for the significance of special education is early intervention for preschool-age children. The special needs education programmes of various school districts would include early intervention components in which preschool children with special needs would receive initial exposure to special needs learning so that they would be well-prepared on entering the kindergarten level under a special needs education class.
The other reasons for the importance of a special education programme in a school would depend on the particular type of disabilities that need to be addressed by a special needs education programme that should be carried out in a specific school. For example, children with learning disabilities would usually receive individualised education plans because the level of a learning disability would be different from one child to another.
Therefore, a special needs education plan that is tailor made for a specific child with a certain level of learning disability would make sure that the unique needs of the child is specifically addressed. In addition, children with behavioral or emotional disabilities would also receive special needs education plans based on the particular type of behavioral or emotional disorder.
Importance of Special Education Programmes in Schools
Qualifications in Becoming a Special Education Teacher
There are several general and standard qualifications in becoming a special education or special needs teacher that is usually followed and applied throughout the United States regardless of the particular state where the aspiring teacher wants to practice his profession. If you are planning to pursue a career as a licensed or professional special needs teacher, you should know the qualifications for achieving that goal.
Today, the educational qualifications needed for a special education teacher is a four-year bachelor's degree in special education and obtain an accredited teacher training programme that preferably focuses or specialises in specific area of special needs such as developmental or learning disabilities, emotional disturbances, physical disabilities, and other specialisations in special needs education. In addition, many states in the U.S., require the special needs teachers to have master's degrees in special needs education.
The next qualification is taking and passing the state professional certification examination administered by the state so you could become a certified special education teacher in the state where you would practice. But it is also important that you should possess the other qualifications needed to become a special needs education teacher, which are the personal qualifications involving personal characteristics and traits.
As a special needs education teacher, you should have an endless amount of patience and understanding for managing children with medical, mental or psychological disabilities. You should be motivating, adaptable, creative and innovative, and withstand the pressure of working under extreme stress in communicating and negotiating with your students. You should also think out of the box when you think that the conventional approach is not enough for your students. You should also be comfortable and have the patience for doing the large amount of red tape or paperwork required in doing your job such as progress reports, referrals, curriculum changes or revisions, etc.
Planning Special Education Activities
Special education requires careful planning because its students have learning disabilities that do not allow them to understand lessons as fast and as well as their non-disabled classmates. In designing and planning special education activities, the following factors should be taken into consideration:
- Whether the students have physical or emotional deficiencies
- Whether the students are developmentally disabled
- Whether the students have learning disabilities
- If the students are impaired in vision or hearing
With these important factors on the side of the student, it is now time to factor in some general considerations:
- Be aware that special students may face unique stressors not typically recognised or seen in a normal student. For example, what may seem to be a fun and engaging activity for a mainstream student could be stressful for an autistic student.
- Strictly monitor the incoming sensory stimulation brought about by each activity: hearing new sounds, smelling new scents, recognising new tastes and touching new textures and shapes.
- Always assure the students of their personal safety. Understand that for students with special needs, change can be very difficult to accept because their comfort zone is narrow. Thus, introducing new things and new people can seem intimidating.
- Be mindful about limiting variables in the environment. Special education students easily experience sensory overload, so keep as much of the environment consistent as possible.
- Special education students, as a result of their condition can make difficult situations for a teacher or caregiver. Be prepared for this by keeping a calm and consistent manner. Seeing these traits will build your students' confidence in you when new situations arise.
- Take the time to discuss options with your students. Often, a child with special needs have a perspective that there are only two choices when encountering a difficult situation: fight or flight. Practice them to do compromising activities such as asking help from an adult or going into a hallway when they feel threatened.
Detection of Need for Special Education
Special education is the opposite of general education. It is the opposite of the standard curriculum which is presented using standard teaching methods and without supplemental supports. Detecting special learning needs in children is done at the early stages of life.
- Early Detection – Many children are conveniently detected to have needs for special education based on their medical records. New born children are passed through screening before leaving the hospital after they were born and their genetic condition can indicate whether they have the tendency to develop special needs later. Mental retardation, brain damage, developmental disorder, disabilities of the senses essential in learning and other disabilities can be detected at this stage.
- Models for Detection – Very young learners or students who have or may develop needs for special education can either be screened using discrepancy model and the model of response to intervention. In the discrepancy model, teachers use their observation to notice students who achieve very far from what is expected of what learners of their age usually does. On the other hand, the model using response to intervention encourages early intervention.
- Discrepancy Model – Under the use of the discrepancy model, a child with special learning needs is given the services for a specific learning difficulty or SLD only under the circumstances that he or she has at least normal intelligence and underachieves based on his or her IQ. The discrepancy model has been widely used in years but it is still subjected to a good amount of criticism from researchers because, among others, these critics have asserted that diagnosing SLDs based on discrepancy between achievement and IQ does not predict the effectiveness of treatment. According to them, students who achieve low and also have low IQ also seem to benefit from treatment just like students who achieve low and have normal or high intelligence.
My Plans on How to Become a Special Education Teacher
It was during the career day of our secondary school when I saw a booth for teachers and one of the brochures mentioned career opportunities for becoming a special needs or special education teacher – an educator specialising in teaching and educating students with medical, mental or psychological disabilities with the use of methods or techniques that would address their individual differences and needs. It was already the last term in my final year in secondary school and I decided that becoming a teacher for students with special needs would be my choice of career.
So beginning from the first semester until the last semester and just before I graduated, I read and studies various books and other materials on how to become a special needs teacher. I learned that the educational path for a special needs teacher is taking up a bachelor's degree in education and afterwards, then, take up a master's degree, or I could take up a specialised bachelor's degree in special education.
I learned that it is preferable if I take up an expertise in special needs education such as specialising for teaching students with physically handicapped, learning disabilities, mental illnesses, or emotional disturbances. I also learned that I should select a specific age group of students that I want to teach – young children through early adolescents from six to 13 years old, and early adolescents through young adults from 14 to 21 year old levels.
I am glad that I read and studied books and materials about teachers for special needs education. Now that I am a first year student taking up a bachelor's degree in education, my long-term plan when I graduate and pass the teacher's licensor exam is to work as a teacher in school with special needs students while taking up a master's degree in special education so I would eventually become a teacher for children with special needs.
Form of and Needs in Special Education
Special education refers to the education students of special needs require and should get. It is designed educate its students in the manner in which their individual differences and needs are addressed.
- Form of Education – The ideal form of this kind of education is that it is a process involving individually planned and systematically monitored design of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, accessible settings and other interventions are designed to help learners who have the special needs so that they can achieve higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and community more than would be at their reach if the student were given only access to a typical or ordinary classroom education.
- Form of Needs – The most common special needs which are addressed by special education include learning challenges or learning disabilities, communication impairment, behavioural and emotional disorders, physical abnormalities and disabilities and disorders in child and physical development. Learners and students having these different special needs can be better educated through additional educational services like various approaches to teaching, use of technology, specially designed teaching area and resource rooms.
- Education for the Gifted – Gifted intelligence or intellectual giftedness is a disparity in learning and learning pace. This is also a beneficiary of specialised teaching techniques and different educational programs. However, special education is generally used to particularly refer to the instruction of learners or students who have special needs which reduce their ability to learn independently or in an ordinary classroom environment; thus, education for the gifted is separate and different from education for special children.
In some developed countries, educators continually modify teaching methods and environments with the aim of maximising the number of students that can be accommodated in general education environments. In other words, they are in the process of integrating the special children to the regular classroom only that these children are given special attention and equipment.
Introduction To Special Education As A Discipline
Special education programs are designed to help people with special needs, that can significantly affect their ability to learn. Students attending special training programs to learn how to identify and teach individuals with emotional disturbances, developmental challenges or physical disabilities. Exceptionally promising students also fall into this category.
Previously, schools have sought to provide a solution to the problems of children with special needs through the concept together in joint special classes, regardless of their individual needs. For a better understanding and investigation of teacher learning in this phenomenon has resulted in special education as an additional subject in education as a discipline. Here are the categories of pupils:
1. Students with physical disabilities such as blindness or deafness
2. Students with mental and emotional disabilities
3. Students with autism or speech and language
4. Students with developmental disabilities
The needs of these students, special schools and institutions, the introduction of additional services, creating a specialized approach to teaching, technology and specially designed educational area of the room or resources.
At the other extreme are areas of learning, intellectual talent will also require specialized approaches to learning. Thus, they can benefit from learning technology and special education programs. This is because the term "special education" is usually a term used specifically to show to teach students with special needs interfering with their ability to learn the standard curriculum as regular students.
A student enrolled in a degree program in special education, commitment to learning many aspects of this area. Some of the issues in special education classes are:
1. Barriers to learning that students face special education
2. Government laws and policies that affect the implementation of special education in a particular country or region
3. How to identify special education students and plan a specialized program or study in the light of these needs
Introduction to Special Education as a Field of Study
Special education programs are designed to help individuals who have special needs that significantly affect their ability to learn. Students taking up special education degree programs will learn to identify and teach individuals with emotional disturbances, developmental challenges or physical disabilities. Students with exceptional abilities also fall into this category.
Previously, educational institutions attempted to provide a solution to the problems of children with special needs by lumping them together in common remedial classes without any consideration to their individual special needs. Further understanding and study by educators relating to this learning phenomenon has given rise to special education as an additional subject in education as a field of study. Below are the categories of special education students:
- Students with physical disabilities such as blindness or deafness
- Students with mental and emotional disabilities
- Students with autism or speech and language impairments
- Students with developmental disorders
To address the needs of these students, special education schools and institutions introduce additional services by creating specialised approaches to teaching, use of technology and a specially designed teaching area or resource room.
At the other end of the learning spectrum, intellectual giftedness also requires specialised approaches to learning. Thus, they can benefit from learning techniques and programs adapted in special education. This is because the term “special education” in general is a term used to specifically indicate teaching students whose special needs impede their ability to learn in an ordinary curriculum as ordinary students would.
A student enrolled in a special education degree program undertakes to learn many aspects of this field. Some of the topics covered in special education courses include:
- The barriers to learning that students of special education face
- Government laws and policies affecting the enforcement of special education in a particular country or territory
- How to identify special education students and plan a specialised program or course of study taking into account these needs
Methods of Providing Special Education
Special education programmes offered in universities and other institutions of higher learning prepare teachers to handle students whose special needs adversely affect their ability to learn. They will learn to identify and handle students in the classroom with emotional disturbances or developmental challenges. The field of special education also covers working with students who have physical difficulties such as being blind or deaf-mute.
There are four broad categories that schools providing special education services use to handle special education students:
1. Inclusion
This approach has students of special education spend all or at least more than half the school day with the rest of the students that do not have special education needs. This approach requires a substantial modification of the curriculum in order to ensure that the pace of learning for either type of student is not affected. Hence, schools use it only on selected students with mild to moderate special needs.
2. Mainstreaming
Special education students under this setup are also integrated into classes with non-disabled students on specified time periods based on their skills or deficiencies. For the rest of the school day, special education students are then placed in separate classes exclusively taught for their group.
3. Segregation
This model places special education students exclusively in separate classrooms apart from the non-disabled students. Although special education students may study in the same school as non-disabled students, students in the two groups are not placed with one another in the same class. However, social interaction is still possible outside the classroom such as in the playground or school cafeteria. As an alternative, segregation can also be done by enrolling the special education student in a special school which does not cater to non-disabled students.
4. Exclusion
In this approach, the special education student is totally excluded from attending school altogether. This occurs in situations such as when a student is in a hospital, his or her parents do not have enough money to afford schooling, or he or she is detained in prison or rehabilitation facility. The special education that these students get are from one-on-one or group instruction.
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