Special education inclusion signifies the participation of special education students in regular education classrooms and providing support services to these students. The main objective of inclusive education is that all students in a school, regardless of their strengths and weaknesses in any area, become part of the school community. Every student feels belonging with other students, teachers, and support staff.
In segregated special education, children will not learn how to function in a non-disabled world. For instance, children who are disabled regarding communication and are emotionally distressed would not communicate and might remain in a more emotionally disturbed state in segregated settings. The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) makes it mandatory for schools to educate children with disabilities in general education classrooms.
The principal advantage of special education inclusion is that disabled and non-disabled students are brought together in an environment of togetherness. Children learn to accept individual differences in inclusion education, leading to the development of new friendly relationships. Inclusion education also enables the active participation of parents in their child’s education. The law also states that students with disabilities have a legal right to attend regular classes and receive an appropriate education in the least restrictive environment. Although there are many advantages, inclusion education creates uncertainty regarding the roles and responsibilities of regular classroom teachers and special education teachers.
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Special education refers to alternative education services designed to cater to the needs of individuals suffering from physical and mental drawbacks such as physical handicaps, sensory (visual and hearing) impairments, intellectual capacity (mental retardation and autism), learning disabilities (reading and writing skills), speech impairment and those with behavior disorders. It seeks to address the individual’s problems and provide effective solutions through formulated instructions, service aids and supports, learning techniques, and transition services.
History of Special Education
Over the last 20+ years, I have been on both sides of education. I have seen and felt what it was like to be a regular mainstream educator dealing with special education policy, special education students, and specialized teachers. I have also been on the special education side, trying to get regular education teachers to work more efficiently with my special education students by modifying their instruction and materials and having more patience and empathy.
Furthermore, I have been a mainstream regular education teacher who taught regular education inclusion classes, trying to figure out how to best work with some new special education teacher in my class and their special education students. In contrast, I have been a special education inclusion teacher intruding on the territory of some regular education teachers with my special education students and the modifications I thought these teachers should implement. I can tell you that none of this give-and-take between special education and regular education has been easy. Nor do I see this pushing and pulling becoming easy any time soon.
So, what is special education? And what makes it so special and yet so complex and controversial sometimes? Well, special education, as its name suggests, is a specialized branch of education. It claims its lineage to such people as Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard (1775-1838), the physician who “tamed” the “wild boy of Aveyron,” and Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936), the teacher who “worked miracles” with Helen Keller.
Special educators teach students with physical, cognitive, language, learning, sensory, and emotional abilities that deviate from those of the general population. They provide instruction specifically tailored to meet individualized needs. These teachers make education more available and accessible to students who otherwise would have limited access due to whatever disability they are struggling with.
It’s not just the teachers, though, who play a role in this country’s special education history. Physicians and clergy, including Card- mentioned above, Edouard O. Seguin (1812-1880), Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876), and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851), wanted to ease the neglectful, often abusive treatment of individuals with disabilities. Sadly, education in this country was, more often than not, very neglectful and abusive when dealing with students who are different somehow.
Even rich literature in our nation describes the treatment provided to individuals with disabilities in the 1800s and early 1900s. Sadly, in these stories and the real world, the segment of our population with disabilities was often confined in jails and almshouses without decent food, clothing, personal hygiene, and exercise.
For an example of this different treatment in our literature, one must look no further than Tiny Tim in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (1843). Also, people with disabilities were often portrayed as villains, such as in the book Captain Hook in J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan” in 1911.
The prevailing view of the authors of this period was that one should submit to misfortunes, both as a form of obedience to God’s will and because these seeming misfortunes are ultimately intended for one’s good. Progress for our people with disabilities was hard to come by at this time, with this way of thinking permeating our society, literature, and thinking.
So, what was society to do about these people of misfortune? During much of the nineteenth century and early in the twentieth, professionals believed individuals with disabilities were best treated in residential facilities in rural environments. It is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind kind of thing if you will…
However, by the end of the nineteenth century, the size of these institutions had increased so dramatically that the goal of rehabilitation for people with disabilities wasn’t working. Institutions became instruments for permanent segregation.
Process of Special Education
Special education has come a long way from the days when it was all about hiding children away that could not be classed as normal. Children in the system went from relative isolation to integration to inclusion, and today, we are moving to encourage empowerment and self-determination. It has become a well-established system that caters to the needs of students with an IQ within a certain range (too high or too low) or behavioral disorders that dictate their need to receive additional attention.
Also, it caters to those who have learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, other health impairments, multiple disabilities, hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments, autism, visual impairments, traumatic brain injury, developmental delay, deaf-blindness, etc.
Values To Guide Dealing With Children In Special Education
In their book Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today’s Schools, the authors (Turnbull, Turnbull, Shank, Smith, and Leal) developed several guidelines for dealing with people who require additional help.
(1) Envisioning Great Expectations
We are not to place limitations on students’ capabilities. It is always in the student’s interest to develop new visions of what is possible and strive to see these visions become a reality.
(2) Enhancing Positive Contributions
Seek opportunities for students to contribute positively to those close to them. This will awaken individuals’ empowerment, especially if it includes their families, schools, and communities.
(3) Building On Strengths
Everybody has strengths, whether we know them or not. One key focus should be finding these strengths and building on them. Another idea is to find a person’s weaknesses and strive to turn them into strengths.
(4) Acting on Choices
Families and their children need to know that they have the right and the opportunity to direct their lives. They are not confined to the limitations set by anyone else; rather, they can build self-determination by acting on their preferences.
Specialized Method of Special Education
Special education aims to address the needs of these special individuals (children, youth, and adults) and ensure that they gain equal access to quality education regardless of their condition. In effect, it encourages them to keep up with the challenges of regular education and helps improve their chances for success in life.
This special type of education primarily focuses on providing support and learning techniques to the individual. Children are properly educated in the most learning-conducive environment to help them discover the in-depth skills and abilities hidden behind the disabilities they might have.
However, not everyone can employ this educational service. As such, before the person can avail of it, different evaluation levels must occur. The processes can vary, though the initial stages include referral, parental consent, child evaluation, review, and recommendation of appropriate institutionalized methods.
An afterthought…
There are more than 6 million children and youth estimated to be suffering from disabilities in today’s society, and the demand for special education has grown by leaps and bounds. By properly dealing with the issues and problems and finding solutions, special education can allow them to stand up and be on equal footing with their peers, drawing out their true potential as key movers and principal contributors to society regardless of their physical and mental difficulties.
However, researchers show that inclusive education can be made effective by a strong collaboration of special education teachers and regular teachers. With the assistance of services available from the health department, physical education department, occupational therapists, speech therapists, etc., the school administration can aid the teachers in developing effective lesson plans for inclusion education. Thus, schools can create a cooperative learning environment and promote socialization.
