Special Needs Education History
Special education provides unconventional instructional services to individuals who would not receive maximum benefit from conventional educational practices or access to conventional instruction for individuals whose disabilities prevent them from procuring it otherwise. Included among these individuals are those with physical handicaps, sensory disabilities), differences in intellectual capacity, speech disorders, emotional or behavioral disorders, and Learning Disabilities. Special instructional services include special teaching techniques, materials, equipment, facilities, and adjunctive services.
Plato
Although the history of special education can be traced at least as far back as Plato's recommendation that children with extraordinary intellectual ability should be provided special leadership training, the beginning of special education is often marked by the work of Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard (1775-1838) with Victor, the so-called "Wild Boy of Avalon." During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, special education procedures for teaching some school skills to pupils with sensory handicaps were championed by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. For example, individuals with profound hearing loss were taught meanings for printed words by repeated simultaneous presentations of a printed word and a picture of what the word represented. About the same time, attempts to educate individuals with mental retardation or with emotional or behavioural disorders increased in number and success, as exemplified in the work of the American educator Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-76). Also during the 19th century many children and youths with severe handicaps were taught self-help skills. Special education did not grow extensively, however, until schooling became common. In the 20th century, the enactment and implementation of compulsory education laws, which put or kept more students in schools who otherwise would not have been there, led to an increasing need for special education services.
Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard
In the latter half of the 20th century, legal and legislative action in the United States, particularly the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1974, resulted in specific requirements for the education of pupils with disabilities. These actions compelled educators to provide to students with disabilities a free and appropriate public education that takes place in the least-restrictive environment, that is, in an educational environment as similar as possible to that experienced by students who do not have disabilities. Furthermore, legislation stipulates that an individualized education program must be developed on the basis of a student's need for special education, and that no students may be denied services because of their handicaps.
Local education agencies that comply with the legal standards receive additional funds from the federal government to offset part of the costs of providing special education services. The federal government also requires that schools report the number of students who are identified as needing special education services. During the school year 1989-90, over 4.5 million children received such services. About 85% of these children and youths were of school age (between the ages of 6 and 17 years), and they represented nearly 10% of all resident, school-age children and youths. These students were taught by almost 15,000 special education teachers.
Special equipment, one part of special education services, is used more extensively with individuals who have sensory or physical handicaps. Such equipment usually makes it possible for people with handicaps to benefit from otherwise conventional instruction. Computers to convert printed materials into synthetic speech are often used in educating individuals with visual handicaps. Special desks, chairs, writing devices, and school buses may be used with individuals who have physical handicaps. Special facilities including ramps and doors wide enough for wheelchair access, swimming pools for physical education, and schoolrooms strung with wire for transmitting sounds to special hearing aids worn by the deaf are part of special education.
Special adjunctive services are provided to exceptional individuals in addition to regular and special education. These services include speech training for students who have difficulties related to speaking, physical and occupational therapies for students with physical handicaps, counselling for students who manifest emotional or behavioural disorders, and vocational training for students with mental retardation.
By far the most common element of special education is the adoption of specialized instructional techniques. Often teachers of individuals with hearing impairments will use sign language as a part of instruction. Programmed instruction procedures that are designed to present educational content in small, easily acquired steps are frequently used with pupils who have disabilities. Behaviour modification techniques such as token economies may be adopted to help teach students to complete assignments, to work more neatly, and not to disrupt other students. Techniques that provide experiences with concrete rather than abstract representations of concepts are common. Over 90% of special education takes place in regular public schools, but some is provided in special public or private day or residential schools, public or private hospitals, and, in some cases, the homes of individuals whose disabilities preclude them from participating in school. For most individuals with disabilities, it is not necessary to provide an entire program of services that are different from conventional instruction, but rather only to modify those features of the educational program from which the individual is unable to benefit. Thus, certain aspects of school programs must be changed to meet the unique needs of the exceptional individual. These specific changes are delineated in the individualized education program required by law. In general, the smaller the degree of deviation from normal, the fewer special education services are required, and the more likely it is that these services will be provided in normal settings.
When children are considered able to benefit from participation with other children, they are usually taught in the normal school program. This concept, sometimes called mainstreaming or integration, was widely advocated as being consistent with the legal mandate for education in the least-restrictive environment.
Over two-thirds of students with disabilities receive most of their education in regular education classes. Where the handicaps of students are minor, a special education teacher works with the regular classroom teacher to develop needed abilities, such as reading skills. In other cases, students may be provided an assistant teacher who can care for their specific needs so that they can participate in virtually all regular education activities. For individuals with slightly greater handicaps, special education may be provided in a separate classroom for part of the school day; or, for severe learning and behavioural problems, students may work full-time in a special education room. As in special residential and day schools, the ratio of students to teachers is usually much lower in a self-contained special education classroom than in an ordinary classroom.
Special education for gifted and talented students attempts to meet their unique needs, also. It includes special activities beyond the regular curriculum, progress through conventional courses at a faster-than-normal pace, and, often, the opportunity to take college-level courses at early ages. As is the case with individuals with disabilities, schools must differentiate instruction for individuals with unusual intellectual capabilities.