What are special education needs?
Children with disabilities and learning problems are legally called “special educational needs”. They are children with cognitive, behavioral, emotional, physical, communication, etc. disabilities.
Read further below.
Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are likely to need extra or different help from that given to other children their age. This help is known as special educational provision.
Disabilities fall under the13 categories mentioned below:
- Intellectual disability:
Commonly they have difficulty in simple daily activities such as washing hands. Teachers should go on by using a scheming teaching approach and engaging games.
- IQ below 70. In general, intelligence is significantly below average.
- Comprehension and life functioning difficulty.
- Difficulty in adaptive behaviors.
- Deaf-blindness:
This disability affects the child at birth with a syndrome called the Usher syndrome; loss of sight and hearing.
This disability cannot be cured and sometimes amplifiers and aided hearing sets aren’t even that effective. Teachers should use brail notes and enlarges print books.
- Specific learning disabilities:
Those are students with difficulty in a specific academic skill or subject such as reading writing speaking, doing Math…etc. they mainly face difficulty in realizing specific subjects.
In this category specifically, teachers should use IEP (individual education program)
- Deafness:
The inability to comprehend verbal language due to lack of hearing ability, loss in pitch, and loudness (greater than 90 decibels. These children are assisted by “speech assistive technology” and/or notepad for voluntary mate “student” assisting.
- Developmental delay:
Children through age 3-9 with developmental delay in physical, cognitive, social, emotional, or adaptive development are often given early intervention services for their specific needs, such as assistive technology, and medical, nursing, and nutritional services.
- Other health impairment disability (OHI)
Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD), disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; and there are quite a few disabilities and disorders that fall under the umbrella of “other health impairment.” And those disabilities are very different from one another. This makes it difficult for us to summarize “other health impairments” and connect you with more information and guidance on the subject.
- Emotionally disturbed:
Learning inability due to continuous behavioral problems. Children with this disability could be bipolar, depressed, anxious, and have psychological problems as well. They are considered to be tempered, anxious, and withdrawn. Teachers should have a behavior intervention plan in place for each student as this type of students are difficult to teach, without a prepared plan of action.
- Speech-language impairment
Stuttering, impaired articulation, and language, or voice impairment. They have trouble in communication, doing class presentations, and participating. Teachers should communicate and work with the speech-language pathologist regularly.
- Traumatic brain injury
An acquired brain injury caused by external physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability. They experience memory difficulties and concentration problems. Teachers should modify the work, provide extra time and use clear worksheets.
- Hearing impairment:
The term “hearing impairment” refers to a hearing loss not covered by the definition of deafness. This type of loss can change over time. The difficulty of hearing is not the same thing as having trouble with auditory or language processing.
- Visual impairment, including blindness
A child who has eyesight problems is considered to have a visual impairment. This category includes both partial sight and blindness. If eyewear can correct a vision problem, then it doesn’t qualify.
- Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
- Orthopedic impairment
Identification of disabilities
1 Billion/ 15% of the world population experience disability in some sort of way and disability prevalence is higher for developing countries. One-fifth of the estimated global total, or between 110 million and 190 million people, experience significant disabilities. (bank, 2021) U.S. Congress established disabled children’s educational rights in the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of1975, which made parents responsible for defending those rights. To that end, parents were given the right to grant or deny permission for their children to be evaluated for disabilities, to attend meetings where their disabled children’s educational placements would be determined, and to challenge those placements in the federal courts. You can know more about personally assessing your child here.
Skills development activities for SEN (special education needs)
Here are 5 activities to support you with developing your child skills:-
- Personal care
SEN students need to be taught the importance of a balanced diet, exercise, and good dietary habits. You can use visual schedules to help them with their daily routine. View examples below.
- Essential Math
You can count money, make correct change, tell time, and make a personal budget. Encourage them to learn to manage their finances and monitor their spending and the importance of saving money.
- Self-Awareness and Self-Confidence
Children with special needs should be able to identify their emotional, physical, and psychological needs. Encourage them to acknowledge and receive praise and criticism. Focus on developing their sense of self-esteem.
- Household skills
Cleaning, repairing household, arranging and organizing, and, shopping for groceries are some of the things they can be taught to do. They can also learn how to store food properly, and check the expiration date of meat, canned food, and other edible items.
- .Essential Reading
Since the internet has become an indispensable part of our lives, people with special needs can be taught how to use search engines to look up information. They can also be trained to read maps and signs, so that they can travel within the community by themselves. They can also learn to read and understand important documents.
Assistive development in education
Task analysis
Task analysis is a process for breaking down any given task into its component parts. For example, brushing teeth includes finding a toothbrush, toothpaste, and cup. Then it involves putting toothpaste on the brush, brushing the bottom teeth, brushing the top teeth, rinsing, cleaning the brush, and putting all the equipment away properly.
Video Modeling
Many children with disabilities are visual learners, and most learn well through videos. Video models can be purchased off the shelf, downloaded from the Internet, or created for an individual child.
Prompting and fading
Primarily children with a disability may need help in remembering and properly completing tasks.
Prompting: physical/handover & Verbal.
Fading: after they’ve recognized the task start gradually fading the prompts.