Special Education
Educational services and programs for students with abilities ranging from giftedness to MENTAL RETARDATION, and including various physical, emotional, or learning differences.
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, in more modern times special education was practiced in the 16th century when Pedro Ponce de León taught deaf Spanish children to speak, read, and write. In the 18th century Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard developed special education techniques with Victor, the so-called Wild Boy of Aveyron. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, special education procedures for teaching some school skills to pupils with sensory handicaps were supported 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 behavioral disorders increased in number and success, as exemplified in the work of the American educator Samuel Gridley Howe. Successful attempts to educate the deaf and blind led to scientific methods to teach the mentally retarded in Europe. For example, Maria Montessori, a pediatrician and innovative educator, used multisensory methods to teach mentally retarded and culturally deprived children in Rome in the late 19th century.
In the 20th century, the enactment and implementation of compulsory education laws led to an increasing need for special education services. In the latter half of the 20th century, great gains have been made in special education. In most developed countries, addressing the educational needs of the disabled has become universal. However, it was not until the mid-1970s, with the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (PL 94-142), that the education of disabled children carried the force of law in the United States. This revolutionary legislation, guaranteeing a free and appropriate education for all children, paved the way for a rapid expansion of the field of special education that continues to this day.
Public Law 94-142, renamed Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990, requires students with disabilities to be placed in the least restrictive environment (LRE) available in order to avoid segregating students with disabilities.
Schools that comply with the laws receive more money 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 special education students they serve. During the 1989-90 school year, more than four-and-a-half million children received such services. About 85 percent of these children were between the ages of six and 17.
Special equipment is used extensively with students who have problems with vision or hearing. Such equipment might include computers to convert printed materials into synthetic speech. Special desks, chairs, writing devices, and school buses may help students with physical handicaps. Special ramps and wide doors, swimming pools, and schoolrooms specially equipped with hearing aid transmitting equipment are all part of special education.
Special services for exceptional individuals include speech training, physical and occupational therapies, counseling, and vocational training for students with mental retardation. The most common elements of special education are the specialized instructional techniques, such as:
• sign language
• programmed instruction procedures designed to present information in small steps
• behavior modification techniques such as token economies
While most special education takes place in regular public schools, some classes are provided in special public or private day or residential schools, public or private hospitals, and, in some cases, the homes of individuals whose disabilities prevent them from attending school. Most individuals with disabilities do not require an entire program of services apart from conventional instruction but rather only a modification of features.
When children are considered able to benefit from participation with other children, they are usually taught in the normal school program. This process, known as mainstreaming, was believed to be consistent with the legal mandate for education in the least-restrictive environment. More than two-thirds of students with disabilities receive most of their education in regular education classes.
If a child’s handicap is not severe, a special education teacher works with the regular classroom teacher to develop skills. In other cases, an assistant teacher may be able to care for a student’s specific needs. For individuals with more serious problems, special education may be provided in a separate classroom for part of the school day; students with severe learning and behavioral problems may remain in a separate special education room all day. The ratio of students to teachers is usually much lower in a special education classroom than in an ordinary classroom.
With the development of assistive technologies, the field of special education continues to evolve, although its goal remains the same as it was from the beginning—to educate and integrate individuals with disabilities into society.
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, in more modern times special education was practiced in the 16th century when Pedro Ponce de León taught deaf Spanish children to speak, read, and write. In the 18th century Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard developed special education techniques with Victor, the so-called Wild Boy of Aveyron. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, special education procedures for teaching some school skills to pupils with sensory handicaps were supported 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 behavioral disorders increased in number and success, as exemplified in the work of the American educator Samuel Gridley Howe. Successful attempts to educate the deaf and blind led to scientific methods to teach the mentally retarded in Europe. For example, Maria Montessori, a pediatrician and innovative educator, used multisensory methods to teach mentally retarded and culturally deprived children in Rome in the late 19th century.
In the 20th century, the enactment and implementation of compulsory education laws led to an increasing need for special education services. In the latter half of the 20th century, great gains have been made in special education. In most developed countries, addressing the educational needs of the disabled has become universal. However, it was not until the mid-1970s, with the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (PL 94-142), that the education of disabled children carried the force of law in the United States. This revolutionary legislation, guaranteeing a free and appropriate education for all children, paved the way for a rapid expansion of the field of special education that continues to this day.
Public Law 94-142, renamed Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990, requires students with disabilities to be placed in the least restrictive environment (LRE) available in order to avoid segregating students with disabilities.
Schools that comply with the laws receive more money 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 special education students they serve. During the 1989-90 school year, more than four-and-a-half million children received such services. About 85 percent of these children were between the ages of six and 17.
Special equipment is used extensively with students who have problems with vision or hearing. Such equipment might include computers to convert printed materials into synthetic speech. Special desks, chairs, writing devices, and school buses may help students with physical handicaps. Special ramps and wide doors, swimming pools, and schoolrooms specially equipped with hearing aid transmitting equipment are all part of special education.
Special services for exceptional individuals include speech training, physical and occupational therapies, counseling, and vocational training for students with mental retardation. The most common elements of special education are the specialized instructional techniques, such as:
• sign language
• programmed instruction procedures designed to present information in small steps
• behavior modification techniques such as token economies
While most special education takes place in regular public schools, some classes are provided in special public or private day or residential schools, public or private hospitals, and, in some cases, the homes of individuals whose disabilities prevent them from attending school. Most individuals with disabilities do not require an entire program of services apart from conventional instruction but rather only a modification of features.
When children are considered able to benefit from participation with other children, they are usually taught in the normal school program. This process, known as mainstreaming, was believed to be consistent with the legal mandate for education in the least-restrictive environment. More than two-thirds of students with disabilities receive most of their education in regular education classes.
If a child’s handicap is not severe, a special education teacher works with the regular classroom teacher to develop skills. In other cases, an assistant teacher may be able to care for a student’s specific needs. For individuals with more serious problems, special education may be provided in a separate classroom for part of the school day; students with severe learning and behavioral problems may remain in a separate special education room all day. The ratio of students to teachers is usually much lower in a special education classroom than in an ordinary classroom.
With the development of assistive technologies, the field of special education continues to evolve, although its goal remains the same as it was from the beginning—to educate and integrate individuals with disabilities into society.
