Abstract
This chapter will inform early-career general education teachers on a broad spectrum of special needs topics. The chapter begins with an overview of the history of special education and describes how many facets of special needs education—such as how to classify and how best to instruct special needs students—are still controversial. It then segues into a discussion of various educational service delivery models in which special education students can be educated depending on their needs. The chapter also identifies characteristics and learning traits of special needs students. Next, it presents a detailed section of specific instructional strategies that both general education and special education instructors will find useful to implement when teaching students with special needs. Finally, a brief overview discounting many of the myths about special education is presented.
TopHistory Of Special Education
Formal education of students with special needs has a dark past. Historically, adults and children who did not fit the norm of learning were dehumanized and ostracized; they were viewed by some as demons and were often feared. Frequently, children were taken away from their parents, placed into institutions, and forgotten about or even killed. Fortunately, in the late 1700s and early 1800s, attitudes toward this population started to change, thanks to the work of the French physicians Jean Marc Gaspard Itard and Eduardo Sequin (Friend, 2011). Both of these men worked to prove that students who had special needs were capable of learning when given clear instruction, rewards, and structure. The premise of their work is still used in special education classrooms to this day. Progress continued on this positive trend when, in the latter part of the 1800s, schools for special needs children started to emerge. Although compulsory education existed during this time period, many moderate to severe students with exceptionalities were denied their civil rights to an education.
During the 20th century, improvements in the education of special needs children increased drastically. Famous court cases such as Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which recognized civil rights for not only students of any skin color but also for students with exceptionalities, as well as both the Pennsylvania Association of Retarded Citizens (PARC) v. Pennsylvania and Mills v. Board of Education in 1972, which saw parents advocating for their children’s right to attend public school just like their grade- and age-level peers, assisted in bringing the education of special needs children to the forefront (Yell, 2012). As a result of these efforts, children with special needs were for the first time required to attend school like any other student. During this time, colleges also started providing teacher training programs for people who wanted to teach students with exceptionalities (Bartlett et al., 2007).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Assistive Technology: Any device, from a pencil grip to software that can read what is on the computer screen, that assists a disabled student’s learning and allows them to be educated in a classroom with their grade-level peers.
Least Restrictive Environment: A setting that is based on the flexibility and needs of students with special needs.
Collaborator: Any stakeholder who works with others for the betterment of the student. Possible collaborators include general and special education teachers teaching in the same classroom, teachers and parents working on the IEP, or the school and an outside agency working together on an agreed-upon behavioral plan.
Social Skills: Personal skills one needs in order to interact with others (e.g., shaking hands, nodding one’s head in recognition of another individual, looking at a person’s face when they are speaking, nodding and smiling when understanding what the other person is saying, etc.).
Peer-Reviewed Research: Theoretical-based research that is supported by peers within the field.
Placement: A location where a student with special needs receives services.
Direct/Explicit Instruction: A three-step teaching model in which the teacher first explains the concept to the students, then models examples while explaining each step out loud, and finally has the student complete examples on their own while the teacher walks around the classroom assisting as needed.
Social Stories: An instructional teaching strategy that demonstrates how to act appropriately to a student struggling with a specific social skill. The story typically includes pictures of the social skill and is written on a reading level that the student can comprehend.
Modifications: Needed changes to an academic, social, or behavioral program or activity.
Scaffolding: Building a lesson based on previous knowledge. Much like a house, the foundation is built first and then the various levels are taught until the students understand the entire concept.
Fidelity: Using a tool or intervention the exact way it is meant to be used. Using it in any fashion other than what is intended can cause progress-monitoring data to be skewed.