Understanding Special Education

Special Education Overview

• Special Education or Special Needs Education is designed for students with special needs.
• This form of education addresses individual differences and specific needs of students.
• It is an instruction-based program specifically designed to meet the special needs of children with disabilities.
• It provides specially designed instructions that meet the unusual needs of exceptional students.
• It is a form of learning provided to students with exceptional needs, such as those with learning disabilities or mental abnormalities.
• Possible forms of special education include specialized teaching techniques, special materials, and special facilities.
• The philosophy of special education asserts that each individual with a disability is entitled to the support necessary to maximize their potential.
• Special Education aims to ensure students with disabilities are provided with an environment that allows them to be educated effectively.
• Disabilities that qualify for special education include all types of physical, mental, and behavioural disabilities.

Objectives of Special Education

• To provide appropriate educational programs and related services to each child with a disability requiring special education, from age three through twenty-one years.
• To foster social development and adjustment into regular school and community activities.
• Special education works to identify disabilities among preschool children.
• Gives children with disabilities the opportunity to participate in approved preschool programs within a reasonable distance from home.
• Works to provide a coordinated and comprehensive instructional program from kindergarten through high school.
• Provide appropriate related services to students with disabilities according to their needs.
• Encourages parental involvement and understanding of special education programs.
• Aims to provide appropriate vocational services to students with disabilities.
• Provides a healthy and friendly environment in and outside the school for each student with a disability.

Special Education Services

• Designed to help children learn skills that other children learn in general educational settings.
• Services include therapy, counseling, adaptive equipment, transportation, accommodation, and/or modifications.
• These services are provided in public/private schools and include special instruction in the classroom, at home, in the hospital, in institutions, or in other settings.

State of Disability

• An estimated 2.49% of the population is disabled (National Policy for Persons with Disabilities, 2002).
• WHO estimates a general prevalence of disability at 10%.
• Some parents conceal the fact that they have a disabled child or deny the presence of disabilities in their children.

WHO Classifications of Disabilities

• Impairment: Refers to a physical or mental defect, or the loss/reduced function of a body part or organ.
• Disability: Refers to person-level limitations in physical and psycho-cognitive activities.
• Disability: An impairment which limits the ability to perform certain tasks.
• Handicap: A problem encountered during interaction with the environment.

Special People

• Special People are those who need special education and related services.
• This includes a child who has:
  • An Intellectual Disability
  • A Hearing Impairment (including deafness)
  • A Speech or Language Impairment
  • A Visual Impairment (including blindness)
  • A Serious Emotional Disturbance
  • An Orthopedic Impairment

Autism

• Victims of Autism
• Autism or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development.
• Autism is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life. It affects a person's ability to communicate and interact with others.
• Autism is characterized by varying degrees of difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and repetitive behaviours.
• All Autism Disorders are merged into one umbrella diagnosis of (ASD) Autism Spectrum Disorder.
• ASD can be associated with intellectual disability.
• ASD can be associated with difficulties in motor coordination.
• ASD is associated with attention and physical health issues like sleep and gastrointestinal disturbances.

Traumatic Brain Injury

• Victim of the Traumatic Brain Injury.
• Child Traumatic Stress occurs when a child is exposed to traumatic events or situations.
• Traumatic Stress occurs when this exposure overwhelms the child's ability to cope with what they have experienced.
• Children respond to traumatic stress differently depending on their age.
• Many children show signs of intense distress like disturbed sleep, difficulty in paying attention or concentrating, and anger/irritability.

Key Terms in Special Education

• IEP: Individualized Education Program
• IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
• FBA: Functional Behavioral Analysis
• AR: Annual Review
• BIP: Behaviour Intervention Plan
• FBA: Functional Behavioural Assessment
• ABA: Applied Behavior Analysis
• ADD: Attention Deficit Disorder
• AUT: Autism
• ASD: Autism Spectrum Disorder
• ID: Intellectual Disability
• HI: Hearing Impairment
• VI: Visual Impairment
• ED: Emotional Disturbance
• OHI: Other Health Impairment
• SLD: Specific Learning Disability
• OI: Orthopedic Impairment
• MD: Multiple Disabilities
• TBI: Traumatic Brain Injury
• DD: Developmental Delay
• CBM: Curriculum-Based Measurements
• DB: Deaf-Blindness
• VI: Visual Impairment

Historical Views of Special People

• Seriously affected children seldom survive at birth.
• Mildly disabled children are more likely to survive.
• Belief in the supernatural lead to two views:
  • Some people believed that demons or evil spirits were the cause of disability.
  • Others believed that people with disabilities were unique and should be admired and honored.
• Those with disabilities were often isolated.

Greek and Roman

• Early Period: Shifted away from supernatural to natural causes.
• Worldly interventions involved: diet, exercise, and natural herbs
• Focused on mind, body, and spirit.
• Next Stage: Needed military superiority
• It was thought that society needed to be free of "defectives”.
• The individual was viewed as what they are, forever.
• Consequently disabled individuals faced consequences, and where:
  • Punished such as Chaining
  • Left on Hills to Die
  • Thrown off Cliffs
  • Locked away
  • Drowned
• Fathers had the right to terminate the child's life.

Middle Ages

• Had a rigid caste system
• Those with disabilities were:
  • Used as servants or fools.
  • Some were put to death.
  • Were used as jokers

Renaissance

• An era of asylum to care for people.
• The Catholic Church accepted those with disabilities as wards of the "State".
• People with disabilities were cared for in isolation.
• There was no education at first, but humane treatment.
• The belief was they were always disabled.

History of Special Education in Pakistan

• Not very old in Pakistan.
• At the time of independence, only three schools were working with children having special needs.
• The first school was established in 1906 to cater to the educational needs of children with visual impairment.
• In 1920, the second school was opened in Karachi for deaf children.
• Parents of deaf children formed a society called the Deaf and Dumb Welfare Society which established a school named Gung Mahal (Palace of Deaf).
• The National Commission presented the Education of Special People to the Government agenda in 1959.
• Progress was seen between 1983-1992 when the UNO declared this time the "Decade of Disabled Persons".
• Pakistan National Policy for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Disabled was formulated in 1985 and improved in 1988.
• The Directorate General of Special Education runs 56 institutions focused on the educational and rehabilitation of children with special needs.

Changing Perspectives of Disability

• There is a shift in understanding about the state of disability from a condition of "Abnormality" to a case of "Human Diversity" with equal rights and privileges.

Professional Preparation Standards

• Teaching profession requires knowledge, communication skills, and aptitude.
• Special Education is a specially designed instruction program to meet the educational, social, emotional, and vocational needs of students with disabilities. The professional preparation standards include:
  • Qualification of the teacher to meet the required criteria to promptly satisfy the needs of the field.
  • Specialty of the teacher in dealing with students with special needs, with insight to determine differences in the needs.
  • Being conversant of acquaintance with the latest innovation in the field.
  • Being tactful and to tackle the situation on a case basis.
  • Having a flexible and friendly personality.
  • Being able to create a positive atmosphere.
  • Ability to negotiate difficult situations and critical positions.
  • Having a sense of humor to create attraction and charm.
  • To be a facilitator rather than an instructor.
  • Dedication and commitment to the cause of the profession.
  • Having a child-centered approach, with love and affection in the process of interaction.