Introduction: What is Special Education?
Special education (SE) is a broad category of services offered to children and adults with physical, emotional, or behavioral disabilities. These services range from intensive support (e.g., speech therapy, physical therapy, and occupational therapy) to less intensive ones (e.g., child development, social skills, and self-help). They are defined by the type of disability they help prevent or treat.
Within SE itself, the term “disability” can refer to physical impairment, cognitive impairment (the ability to perform a task or process at an acceptable level), emotional or behavioral impairment (a behavioral problem that does not interfere with daily life), or cognitive disabilities like learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and personality disorders. In some cases, the term disability may be more inclusive of all these types of impairments and may also be used for people who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
The purpose of this post is to introduce you to Special Education. The first thing you need to know is that it is a broad topic that covers an extremely wide range of service offerings; so don’t worry if you don’t know all about it right now. The second thing you should know is that there are many different types of services, each tailored for specific needs in different situations — here we will focus on the three most popular ones:
•Speech Services: Speech therapists provide specialized training in speaking and/or reading methods for children with specific communication disorders such as dyslexia. Their training includes both formal classroom training in reading and writing as well as working one-on-one with children in their homes. The goal of speech therapy is to increase your child’s vocabulary so he/she can read more effectively.
•Physical Therapy: Physical therapists provide treatments for those who have sensory issues like those which affect movement through touch or vision. This means they can work on your child’s body but also learn how to understand what he/she feels through touch instead of thinking about what he/she sees. This can also mean working on your child’s balance when they walk, etc.
•Occupational Therapy: Occupational therapists use techniques such as occupational therapy programs designed specifically for people with autism spectrum disorder, which teach them how to do activities that make sense, what they feel when they do them, etc. The goal here is generally not just helping them take part in everyday life but teaching them how things work at a deeper level than most mainstream programs
1. What are the different types of services offered?
Special education is a broad term that includes many different services, including:
• For students with intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, or learning disorders.
• For students with emotional and behavioral disorders.
• For students with speech and language disorders.
• For students who are pregnant or nursing.
• In order to access Special Education services you need to have a disability (either intellectual or physical). Some services are only available to those people who are legally disabled (called ‘legal’ because the student must meet all of the state’s requirements for a disability).
Others can be accessed by anyone who meets the eligibility criteria for access (called ‘access’ because the student does not need to meet all of the state’s requirements for disability, but must have an acceptable reason for not meeting them). As a result of these differences, there are both legal and non-legal special education services available as well as some which are only available in specific locations.
These differences stem from several different sources: federal government requirements; state government requirements; local government requirements; and funding structure – each of which has its own rules that determine what is covered by what type of service. Once you get past them though, there are two types of special education services:
those which require educational intervention plan(s), and those which do not (you might say that they call these “non-educational” services). The first type will be more likely to require a plan than an educational intervention plan because it really is a specialized service that requires expertise on the part of teachers, support staff, etc.,
whereas an educational intervention plan is much more like the kinds of things you might see other districts use when they provide regular services. The second type generally doesn’t require anything at all – they just do it themselves (with support from parents or other local administrators).
So if you work in a district where there is no school district standard for Special Education then you could go ahead and call them what you want – it doesn’t matter much one way or another, but if your school district uses up most of their funding on staff salaries then suddenly your teacher may think twice about having your child go through regular coursework at school instead of just having her home tutored.
And while some schools will definitely use this terminology in their annual reports, others may simply choose not to use it because they don’t think it matters and prefer to keep things simple so that parents don’t get confused about exactly why
2. How to access Special Education services.
Special Education is one of the most misunderstood and under-appreciated aspects of education. It’s not what you think it is. And we’re here to explain it to you.
While there are many different special education services, they can all be broadly classified as “special education curricula” in schools. These curricula are taught and distributed by private companies or educational institutions.
You might think that all special education services are the same because they are all the same things: an educational curriculum that is delivered by schools. This isn’t true. Special Education curricula vary significantly in terms of priorities, methods, approaches to learning, student outcomes, and methods of teaching (assessment).
The chart below shows a variety of different types of Special Education services offered by companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Google — all offering completely different levels of support for children with disabilities:
While there may be some overlap between these types of services, each provider has its own area of expertise and their own set of clientele — which means that people with disabilities can find a Personal Support Worker who understands their needs and wants to work with them. We’ll go into some detail about each type below:
Special Education Curriculum Types
There are two main kinds of Special Education curriculum used today: K-12 curriculum (Kindergarten through Grade 12), and personalized services (grades K-12). If a company wants to offer a K-12 curriculum on its platform, it must either offer a fully inclusive curriculum or else provide the option for parents to buy curated content online (which we will discuss in detail later).
In general, however, special education curricula tend to focus on skills that are relevant across different grades — so while they may include math problems in Grade 1 that aren’t relevant in Grade 2, they’re unlikely to have any math problems at all in Grade 3 or 4 (though they could certainly have problems at any stage).
They also tend to emphasize language development over other skills such as math and writing skills — so while you may see some general language training offered for ages 4 through 6, it’s unlikely you’ll see any specific language training for older students until much later. With this in mind, it’s important to note that Universal Design for Learning resources isn’t just targeted towards students from kindergarten onwards but rather families from day one onwards too. Some companies like Apple also offer blended learning options where your child’s activities aren’t tied specifically to
3. How Special Education can help your child.
Special education is for children who have a learning disability, and who need extra help in their everyday lives. It’s not for everyone, but when you are looking for special education to help your child find the right path, we can help you find it.
Special education is the term used to describe services that specifically help children with specific types of learning difficulties. The most common types are Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Dyslexia (also known as Reading Difficulties). There are other types of learning disabilities too and they will get a separate post soon.
We have been offering special education services at our school since 1995, and I’m pleased to announce that we have just expanded to offer certain services at home too! Our current list of services includes:
• Parenting Plans – We recommend carefully planning your child’s day based on their strengths and interests so that he or she has the most enjoyable time possible. This helps your child succeed in school and on the playing field too. It also gives you peace of mind knowing that you made the right decision by choosing us as or your special education provider.
• Parenting Plans – We recommend carefully planning your child’s day based on their strengths and interests so that he or she has the most enjoyable time possible. This helps your child succeed in school and on the playing field too. It also gives you peace of mind knowing that you made the right decision by choosing us as your special education provider.
• School-Based Support Services – Our team works closely with our teachers to identify areas where you may need additional support so that we can provide it at home if necessary. These include an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), Individualized Support Plan (ISP), Individualized Health Plan (IHP), Parenting Plan, Parenting Checklist, etc., which are all designed with our clients in mind so they can focus entirely on their child’s needs without worrying about another meeting with their teacher or an additional task list.
All these services include up-to-date curriculum materials and training so parents can use them effectively themselves without having to be involved in or their daily activities at home (and still be able to be involved in everything else). They also come with a full set of professional development training — from how do I start teaching my own children how I would teach my own? all the way through to how should I teach my own children? etc.—so
4. The benefits of Special Education.
Special education is a very broad term. It is used to describe all services for children who were born with congenital physical or mental impairments, or who had any learning disabilities which prevent them from successfully participating in mainstream society. The word special can be misleading since it suggests that the child in question has a unique disability, rather than an acquired disability. However, in the early 90s there was an explosion of interest in special education and research.
The first school curriculum to be developed by the Special Education Department of the State University of New York at Albany was the Curriculum of Special Education (CSE) in 1991. This curriculum was developed by educators who saw that children with special needs often had unique needs, both academically and socially. They set out to develop a curriculum that could be used across all state-run schools and others for use with specific populations such as deaf children and those with disabilities other than hearing impairment.
Over time we have seen a number of different changes to this curriculum, most notably the introduction of individualized instruction (I.I.) which came about after decades of research and development into how best to meet each child’s needs for instruction and support (and not just ‘teaching back’ what they already know). Note that this is NOT a ‘one size fits all’ approach to special education; each child’s needs will differ from one school to another even though they are similar in some respects.
5. The challenges of Special Education.
Special education is an increasingly larger part of our lives. People with special needs are more than just a set of disabilities, they are a series of challenges that have unique characteristics. So, let’s explore what makes them special – and how you can help them succeed.
Conclusion: The importance of Special Education.
Special Education is a term used to describe services offered to children with special needs. These can vary from the service provider & individual level to the state & federal level, and even globally.
It is important for parents & educators to understand what services are available and which ones are best for their child. It is also very important for schools to have a clear understanding of what services are available so that decisions about which ones you feel comfortable using in your classroom can be made with confidence. This post will provide you with an overview of all the different types of services that are available and how they can best help your child
Special education is not just about education; it has many other benefits including:
•HELPING CHILDREN EXPRESS THEIR RIGHTS ON ISSUES OF DISADVANTAGE
•INFLUENCE THE CLARITY OF THE CHILD’S LANGUAGE SKILLS AND LEARNING ORIENTATIONS
•PRIORITIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSE LANGUAGE SKILLS AND LESS SHAREABLE SKILLS
•MAINTAIN AUTHORITY IN ENSURING THAT YOUR PRACTICES ARE LEGAL AND CORRECT
This post will cover some of those topics in more detail. In addition, there will be a section on which schools offer special education services, how they should be accessed, how they can help your child flourish, and how they should prioritize their learning or social life. Finally, there will be a brief overview of the differences between private school & public school special education programs: different kinds of policies, cost differences & approaches to learning. Want to learn more? Click here!
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