A PAPER ON SPECIAL EDUCATION

SPECIAL EDUCATION

Introduction

Teachers in the field of special education need to incorporate certain unique elements when teaching their students. Some children may have physical disabilities like hearing disorders, lack of sight and movement disabilities. These may impair them in one way or another when trying to absorb what their teachers are saying. Teachers need to make sure that they do not overlook certain aids that can help those students in the learning process. Special education also encompasses children with mental disorders or disabilities. More often than not, these children will have serious difficulties in reception and subsequent comprehension of information. It is therefore necessary for such teachers to equip themselves with skills and qualities necessary in educating such children. (Daniels, 2000)

How instructions are differentiated to adapt to the diverse needs of all the students in the class

In order to conform to the needs of special children in the classroom, teachers should have specific goals at a time. Sometimes trying to achieve too much all at the same time can deter the learning process of the child with special needs because they may assume that things are too hard for them to comprehend. For example, a teacher dealing with children with mental disabilities must understand that all the children in the classroom differ in their learning capabilities. It is therefore the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that they identify the needs of each child and change instructions to suit them. For example, one teacher was dealing with a child who happened to have cerebral palsy. This child had difficulties in understanding basic instructions. So the teacher decided to work on one small step at a time. She first taught the child how to respond. This took her a period of four months but she was able to reinforce those ideas. She trained this child how to gesture when they mean no or yes. The teacher continuously reminded the child that when he needs to say no, then he should nod his head laterally. She also taught him how to respond in the affirmative by raising his hands. Although other children in her class were able to understand those simple instructions, this child could not. It took extra effort and attention to achieve that goal.

Another way in which teachers can adapt to the diverse needs of their classroom is through technology. There are numerous learning aids that are getting dispensed day by day. Some help students in mobility, for example, automated wheel chairs. Others can help students perform tasks, for example amputated children can acquire artificial hands that will help them in the writing process. There are also computer packages in Braille to enable children with visual impairments to access this useful learning tool. It is the responsibility of the teacher to make sure that they can keep up with the times and make the lives of those children better through those devices. In one of the interviews, a teacher admitted that were it not for her attendance of workshops on special education needs she would not have been able to help a child with a hearing disorder through the technology that she acquired from that workshop. (Reynolds and Fletcher-Jansen, 2007)

In case teachers are dealing with a diverse pool of disabilities, they should learn ways in which to communicate with their students. One teacher said that she had a student who was dumb and blind. It was the duty of the teacher to identify certain learning techniques that were suitable for the child. One of them was through touching and speaking. This teacher had to be very practical in class. When teaching the class about simple words. She would have to make tangible objects to represent those words and then she would make the child feel the texture and shape of the object. Afterwards, this teacher would repeat the name of the object over and over until the child was able to relate to it. In a scenario where a teacher has to deal with children with multiple disabilities, it is their duty to get creative. They must work out a teaching procedure that will suit their students and go out of their way to reinforce those ides. (Daniels, 2000)

Teachers need to have a high degree of patience when presented with a diverse class. Sometimes, a child may be suffering from emotional disturbances and lacks the ability to concentrate. One of the teachers admitted that the first time she dealt with a child having this problem, she felt like simply walking out of class. This child kept shouting other students’ names and running from one corner of the classroom to the other. It was almost impossible to control him. But this teacher realized the child could concentrate only for an hour, afterwards he wanted to do something else. It took the teacher a high level of patience and tolerance before she could identify learning patterns of the child. Another regular tutor might have dismissed the child claiming that they are unreachable. But this was not the case with this particular teacher because she practiced patience.

On top of that, teachers must also enjoy teaching children with special needs. They need to be able to appreciate the small steps they make every day; for example when they can teach a disabled child something that they could not do before. They need to encourage those children to pursue more skills after they have learnt a simpler skill. For example, during one of the interviews, a teacher was able to train a child with speech impairments how to pronounce the word ‘boy’ because previously it would come out as ‘thoy’. She congratulated the child for making that milestone and continuously reminded the child of what great progress she had made.

Those teachers must also have the ability to tackle paperwork work and incorporate other members of the community. One of the teachers in the interview admitted that in the field of special education, there are many more stakeholders than in the normal teaching environment. That teacher found that she constantly had to make room for writing community liaison notes, committee notes, progress reports and modifications in the curriculum. These were all ways of including members of the community and ways of assessing children’s progress. This teacher also admitted that she had to develop a relationship with the rest of the community. There were plenty of community service agents who kept attending her sessions. There were local politicians who also took an interest in her work. Other professions are also involved in sponsorship and provision assistance. This teacher realized that those parties were the ones responsible for ensuring that materials and resources to adapt to the diversity in her classroom were provided, they were invaluable partners.

How teachers are serving the best interests of all students in the class

Teachers in the interviews admitted that it is crucial to make the learning environment as open as possible. This means that children should be allowed to explore and discover new things for themselves. They realize that children developed physically when given the opportunity to be themselves. Those teachers also admitted that special needs children developed social skills only when the environment within the classroom was accommodating. (Florian, 2006)

Teachers may sometimes be presented with the challenge of teaching children with language disabilities. The environment in the US is changing rapidly. There are plenty of cases of foreigners entering the country every now and then. This depicts that their children will also come from different countries that may not necessarily speak English. Children from such backgrounds have very low proficiency in English and may have great difficulty in understanding what their teachers are saying. Teachers must therefore identify such children and adapt their teaching practices to accommodate them. The problem is worsened by the fact that children with special needs will already have problems understanding the goings on in the class. One teacher in the interview admitted that when teaching a child with special needs, who at the same time has problems with English, may prove to be tricky. She revealed that she uses knowledge acquired from three crucial areas in the field of education;

· early childhood education

· special education

· bilingual education

What to do to enrich the learning experience of children

One of the teachers in the interviews admitted that current inclusive education programs do not accommodate all the needs of the special child. She admitted that in order to maintain the interests of the child in learning she gave that child presents and gifts every time the child made progress. For example, there was a four year old child who had been brought intro the class and had absolutely no toilet training. This teacher took it upon herself to make sure that the child leant the skill. After a couple of months, the child was able to ask for assistance whenever she felt the urge to relieve herself. Every time she came to the teacher for permission, she was given a sticker or a small toy. These ideas were quite useful to the teacher because the child was motivated by the rewards that followed thereafter. (Reynolds and Fletcher-Jansen, 2007)

Teachers must go out of their way to incorporate play into the learning experience. Children with special needs may not have much interest in the normal issues in education. But when their teachers make learning fun, then these children will be encouraged to acquire more knowledge. This can be achieved by teaching them songs about a chosen topic of study.

Teachers in the interviews seemed to agree on one issue. They believed that children with special needs need to feel appreciated and encouraged. They need to be showered with praise whenever they have achieved something. One teacher confessed that she came up with a song for one of her students. This child got very elated every time he would hear it. It was always sung after he had something good or he had followed instructions. The teacher reinforced that idea in the child’s mind and realized that the child was encouraged to do more. (Reynolds and Fletcher-Jansen, 2007)

The learning experience of a child can be greatly deterred when all they keep seeing are F-grades or failures all the time. One of the teachers in the interview claimed that she did not approve of the assessment method currently in use in the inclusive education system. She highlighted two cases of students within her inclusive education class that had problems with basic arithmetic and grammar. One of them was mentally retarded and the other was a slow learner. She said that the inclusive system in place today, required that all children should sit the same exam regardless of their abilities. This teacher was very saddened by that issue because she knew that these two students were going to fail their exam again. She made the suggestion that special exams should be designed for such children so that they would not have to be subjected to failure all the time. This would have enriched their learning experience greatly.

Conclusion

Teaching children in the field of special education requires numerous dedication and compromise. One should attend class while putting in mind that children with special needs do not have the capabilities of some of the counterparts. Teachers should expect anything from such children; some of them lack basic communication skills and cannot even make complete sentences. Others do not know basic self help initiatives like taking themselves to the toilet. It is the responsibility of such teachers to take up those roles and equip them with necessary skills. Teachers should give rewards to children with special need to encourage them. They should also work closely with their parents to ensure that all their needs are met in the all aspects of their lives. (Florian, 2006)