Special needs education

What is it? Who needs it? Where can you find it? Notes gets some answers

In a busy office, Pranav Lal types at a speed which will put professional typists to shame.

He takes care of the enterprise resource planning for one of India's leading educational organisations and is an integral part of the technology team.

He codes, decodes, bugs and debugs. He is also passionate about teaching: he teaches vocabulary to MBA aspirants preparing for entrance exams.

Mark Wellman, former park ranger and professional rock climber, and now a motivational speaker was shown in his wheelchair modelling a milled wool and nylon jacket and wool trousers in a fashion supplement to the New York Times.

Heather Whitestone, a talented 21-year-old, won the Miss America contest.

These individuals come in for a special mention because they are men and women with special needs.

Pranav Lal is visually challenged and one of his arms is not fully developed; Mark Wellman is paraplegic and Heather Whitestone cannot hear.

Here we have a sportsman, a technologist and a model empowered to compete with the rest of the world through special education.

Special education enables the physically and mentally challenged to face the challenges of the world. Notes takes a look at the various aspects of special education.

What is special education?

Special education refers to a range of services provided through the public school system to individuals, ages 3-21, with disabilities. It includes social work and rehabilitative counselling and instruction given in the classroom, at home or in special institutions.

The special education system is supported by governments, non-governmental organisations and various private bodies. Progress is relatively slower in this field of education, unlike other streams.

Dedicated teachers at the micro level and organisations such as the United Nations at the macro level are trying to accelerate the pace of growth with the help of wellwishers and social activists.

Who needs special education?

Children's disabilities are defined under 13 categories: autism, blindness, visual impairment, deafness, hearing impairment, deaf-blindness, orthopaedic (movement) impairments, multiple handicaps (several disabilities), mental retardation (also called developmental disability), serious emotional disturbance, speech and language disorders, specific learning disabilities (e.g., dyslexia), and specialised health care needs (e.g., oxygen dependence). Traumatic brain injury also qualifies.

The exact statistics of those affected in the UAE is not known.

Steps involved in special education

As the name suggests, the education provided is very special. A customised solution has to be provided to a student after necessary screening and evaluation.

The programme offered to a special student must be drawn up through the following three steps.

Step 1: Identify the existing abilities and skills in the student.

Step 2: Plan cognitive (reading, mathematics) and behavioural (self-discipline, social skills, physical mobility) objectives that are unique to the needs of the individual student.

Step 3: Choose the mode of education to be provided and outline specific actions that will be taken to achieve the objectives.

Key role players in facilitating special education?

They are parents, teachers, the government, non-governmental and social organisations.

Role of a parent

Parents must be informed about the educational facilities available and be supportive of their child who is undergoing special education.

One of the biggest hindrances in the growth of special education is a parents' tendency to overprotect their child from the world.

It has to be understood that if they have to live in this world normally, they have to be with the normal world. By keeping them at home and trying to be overprotective, parents are only doing more harm than good.

Do not make false promises to the children, such as saying ‘you will get well soon'. They are not suffering from any disease. They are normal. They are special and need a special mode of education to lead successful lives.

Always approach the right people and organisation for help and don't do things on hearsay.

Development may seem slow initially but let your child know that both of you are in it together.

Interact with people who have children with special needs and join groups that support special education. Listening is the key to communicating and enhancing their learning.

Rather than trying to mould their language into the normal way of communication, listen and try to talk their language.

Apart from facilitating their special education, parents must take an active role in bringing up their children.

They must move beyond books and turn routine tasks into valuable teaching moments for their child.

Washing dishes or driving to the grocery store is the perfect time to teach them.

The supermarket is an ideal place to develop a child's mathematics, reading and categorising skills. Let the child participate by having her write the grocery list. Encourage her to read the aisle signs to understand how things are organised.

Younger children can find items by matching pictures from circulars, coupons or magazines; older kids can read labels or the shopping list to help their parent select items.

Also have them weigh fruits and vegetables and figure out the cost by estimating or using a calculator.

Children learn best when parents take advantage of moments in everyday life to teach them.

Involve them in indoor or outdoor sports, fine arts and performing arts. These activities will not only help build character, but also act as channel to reveal their skills.

Role of teachers

In any form of education system, teachers play a critical role. But in special education, teachers are the backbones. Without their interest the entire system will collapse.

The ideal character traits of a good special education teacher are:

Compassion: This will ensure that they keep their cool even when things get slow.

Passion for teaching: This can make a lot of difference. In fact, if a teacher has it, any shortcomings as far as the other traits are concerned will not be an issue.

Sensitivity: I read about an interesting training method used to train teachers about disabilities. Participants take out their pens and take off their shoes and pile it in the centre.

All of them are blindfolded and then asked to pick out their pen and shoe using the four senses apart from vision.

They are also made to walk around in crutches and a wheelchair to understand the disability better, so that they will be sensitive while helping students learn.

Comfort with technology: Almost every field of special education involves hi-tech gadgets. Thus for effective communication, you must be adaptable to technology.

Special education requires the representation of data in various methods to suit the needs of an individual student.

Teachers with an interest in entering this domain need to undergo special training which is specialised and ever evolving. The teacher has to learn and adapt to new concepts all the time.

Most special education teachers come from families with individuals who have a disability or they might have themselves undergone special education.

But we should not ignore the 30 to 40 per cent of teachers who embrace this profession ou