Special
Education, specially designed instruction to meet the unique needs and
abilities of disabled or gifted children. Disabled children have conditions that
adversely affect their progress in conventional education programs. Gifted
children, who demonstrate high capacity in intellectual, creative, or artistic
areas, may also fare poorly in regular education programs. Special education
services can help both disabled and gifted children make progress in education
programs. Most children served by special education programs are between the
ages of 6 and 17.
In the United States, federal law requires
states to identify and serve all children with disabilities. Public education
and health officials in the United States identified approximately 5.4 million
infants, toddlers, children, and youth as disabled in 1994. That same year, the
U.S. Department of Education reported that 12.2 percent of all children below
the age of 21 received some form of special education. The most frequently
reported disabilities are speech or language impairments; mental
retardation and other developmental disorders; serious emotional
disturbance; and specific learning disorders, such as memory disorders. Other
disabilities include hearing, visual, or orthopedic impairments;
autism; and traumatic brain injury. An increasing number of
children in the United States are identified as having attention-deficit
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and receive special education services.
Many schools in the United States provide
special education services for gifted children, although federal law does not
mandate these services. Gifted children demonstrate exceptionally high abilities
in intellectual, creative, academic, leadership, or artistic areas. Estimates of
the gifted population in the United States range from 3 to 15 percent of all
school children.
There have always been disabled and gifted children. However, special education
programs are relatively new. Historically, people with disabilities were often
placed in hospitals, asylums, or other institutions that provided little, if
any, education. French physician and educator Jean Marc Gaspard
Itard was one of the earliest teachers to argue that special teaching
methods could be effective in educating disabled children. In 1801 Itard
discovered a young boy roaming wild in the woods of France. Between 1801 and
1805 Itard used systematic techniques to teach the boy, named Victor, how to
communicate with others and how to perform daily living skills, such as dressing
himself. In 1848 French psychologist Edouard Séguin, who had studied with Itard,
immigrated to the United States and developed several influential guidelines for
educating children with special needs. Séguin’s education programs stressed the
importance of developing independence and self-reliance in disabled students by
presenting them with a combination of physical and intellectual tasks.
During the 18th and 19th centuries in the
United States, educators opened a variety of special schools for disabled
students. In 1816 American minister and educator Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet established the first public school for deaf students in the
United States. The first school for blind students in the United States was
founded in 1829 in Boston by American physician John Dix Fisher. The school is
known today as Perkins School for the Blind and is located in Watertown,
Massachusetts. Special education classes within regular school programs began at
the beginning of the 20th century. Elizabeth Farrell, a teacher in one of these
early classes in New York City, founded the Council for Exceptional Children in
1918. This organization remains the primary professional group for teachers and
administrators in the field of special education.
Special education in the United States has
been most influenced by parent and professional advocacy groups, federal laws,
national trends in conventional education, and the civil rights movement (see
Civil Rights Movement in the United States). Despite mandatory
school attendance laws for all children, many U.S. schools excluded children
with disabilities as recently as the 1960s. Since then, societal attitudes have
changed, and federal laws now require schools to give children with disabilities
full access to education programs.
Facilities
Special education services are delivered in
many different settings and facilities depending on the services to be provided,
the age of the child, and the need for other related services. School districts
must provide a full range of settings to meet individual needs of children with
disabilities, but U.S. law requires that a child with a disability must be
educated in the “least restrictive” setting. For example, children with mild
disabilities may be educated in regular classrooms with or without teachers
trained in special education. Some students with more severe disabilities
require more restrictive settings, such as separate schools, hospitals, or
modified facilities within their own homes.
In conventional classrooms, teachers trained
in special education collaborate with other teachers to plan and carry out
instruction for students with special needs. Children with severe health or
behavioral problems may receive education services in separate facilities or
hospitals from many different teachers and specialists. A child with severe
behavior problems, for example, may receive a combination of education, mental
health, and social services. Infants and toddlers with disabilities often
receive assistance in the home or in community settings, such as a school or
hospital. Such assistance, known as early intervention services, focuses on
treating existing disabilities or preventing their occurrence. As older children
with disabilities prepare for adult life, planning increasingly centers on
functional skills within community, work, and living environments; continuing
education and training; and identification of support services, as needed, in
the community.
INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES |
Special education services make use of an
extraordinary array of instructional methods and settings that make it possible
for all students to learn. Special educators plan and evaluate instruction in an
individualized manner to accommodate each child’s unique strengths and
weaknesses. In planning instruction, teachers often use methods known as
ecological assessments to consider environmental factors that influence
learning, such as school, home, and community environments. Many students with
disabilities receive instruction in traditional subjects, such as reading,
writing, language, and math. To evaluate a student’s progress, teachers often
rely on a method known as curriculum based assessment, which monitors progress
within the student’s own curriculum rather than against the educational programs
for other students.
Specific fields of special education address
the needs of students with specific disabilities. These disabilities include (1)
behavior disorders, (2) learning disorders, (3) mental retardation, (4) physical
disabilities, (5) vision impairments, and (6) hearing problems. Special
education also includes the field of education for gifted students.
- For Students with Behavior Disorders
Instructors teach social skills to help all
students demonstrate the behavior needed to develop and maintain satisfactory
relationships with peers and others. When students with disabilities have
problems with behavior, special educators often use principles of instruction
known as applied behavior analysis, which analyzes and alters the sources or
consequences of problem behavior. Behavior analysis consists of defining and
analyzing the specific task to be learned, direct and frequent measurement of
student performance, and providing systematic feedback to the student. Behavior
modification techniques help students to deal with anger and other emotions, to
solve problems better, and to manage their own behavior. See also
Education of Students with Behavior Disorders.
- For Students with Learning Disorder
Several different instructional techniques
are used for students who have problems learning, remembering, and communicating
information. Among these techniques is Direct Instruction, a method based on a
systematic curriculum design and highly structured, fast-paced lessons in which
students participate actively and often. Another method is known as learning
strategies instruction, which is designed to teach a student specific learning
skills, such as strategies to enhance memorization or problem-solving skills.
Teachers may also help students to work around individual learning disorders.
For example, teachers may allow a student with memory problems to use a tape
recorder to dictate notes and record class lectures. See also
Education of Students with Learning
Disorders.
- For Students with Mental Retardation
Mental retardation is a form of developmental disability characterized primarily
by an intelligence quotient (IQ) that is significantly below average. Other
developmental disabilities include cerebral palsy, dyslexia, and
certain learning disorders. An education program for a student with mental
retardation varies depending on the student’s level of disability. Instruction
may center on developing communication, socialization, or daily living skills.
Many students with retardation receive services in regular classes in their
local schools. Others with more profound levels of retardation may attend
classes in specialized schools or hospital facilities designed for students with
special needs
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Students with physical disabilities often
benefit from the use of technology designed to increase their capability to
participate in classroom activities. Technological devices used by these
students may be relatively simple, such as leg braces for students with
orthopedic problems, or they may be as complex as a computer that synthesizes
speech patterns for children whose disability causes speech disorders (see
Speech Synthesis). Some of these technological devices are very
expensive and strain the budgets of many school districts. Educators and parents
work closely to determine the best use of school resources for classroom
modifications and acquisitions of technology for all children with special
needs.
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Many children who have low vision or are
blind (see Blindness) learn to read and write by using the
Braille system of raised dots that can be read by touch rather than
sight. They may also use a special laptop computer that allows them to take
notes in Braille and print in Braille or English. Sophisticated electronic
devices can also convert print into a form that is readable by blind or visually
impaired students. Some computers can scan printed text for a blind student and
read it aloud by means of a synthetic voice. Most children with visual
impairments have some functional vision and can often read by using large-print
materials.
- For Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students
Education of students who are hard of hearing or deaf (see
Deafness) may involve the use of powerful amplification
devices, such as hearing aids, or it may use captions (printed
words that appear on a television screen or computer monitor). Many deaf or hard
of hearing students learn sign language, an organized system of
gestures for communication. Others learn to speechread (lipread), a method of
interpreting speech by “reading” the patterns of a person’s mouth as he or she
speaks. Some deaf students receive cochlear implants, which are receivers
surgically implanted behind the ear and connected to electrodes placed in the
cochlea of the inner ear, enabling individuals to hear sounds to a varying
degree
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Gifted children are often moved through the
regular school curriculum at a faster pace than their peers. Some children with
exceptionally high ability in a particular subject area may be allowed to reduce
the time they spend in their other subjects to permit more time to focus on
challenging content in their specialty. A high school student who is
particularly gifted in math, for example, may attend advanced math classes at a
local college rather than music classes at the high school. Some gifted students
may also skip grades or they may enter kindergarten, high school, or college at
an early age
The prospects for students with disabilities have never been brighter. Educators
and medical experts know much more than ever before about the prevention of many
disabilities, particularly those caused by environmental or health hazards. The
knowledge available to provide effective special education services also
continues to grow. Educators have also improved special education services for
gifted students. Children with exceptionally high academic abilities may now
participate in increasing numbers of special education programs designed
specifically to meet their needs.
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