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:

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: