Frequently Asked

Questions on Special

Education

oWhat is Special Education?

What are the concepts related to special education? The term special education and its related concepts are based on the law in the United States (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) (Friend, 2006, pp. 4-5).

Introduction to Special Education/Foundations of Special

Education

A. The term special education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with disability, including -

1. instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and

2. instruction in physical education.

B. What other terms are related to the definition of special education?

Two components of the definition of special education are related services and

supplementary aids and services. These are defined below:

1. Related services- The term means transportation and such developmental,

corrective, and other supportive services including speech/language pathology

and audiology services, interpreting services, psychological services, physical and

occupational therapy, social work services and recreation. It also includes school

nurse services designed to enable a child with a disability to receive free public

education as described in the individualized education program of the child;

counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling; orientation and mobility

services; and medical services, except that such medical services shall be for

diagnostic and evaluation purposes only; as may be required to assist a child with

disability to benefit from special education, and include the early identification

and assessment of disabling conditions in children.

2. Supplementary aids and services- The term means aids, services, and other supports that are provided in regular education classes or other education- related settings to enable children with disabilities to be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate… (IDEA, 2004).

o Special education is basically teaching. Heward (2009, p.36) suggests looking at the who, what, how and where of special education teaching to understand what makes special education “special”.

a. Who: Exceptional children or children with special needs, as wells as, certified general education and special education teachers

b. What: General education curriculum or combination of general and functional curriculum; the use of Individualized Educational Plan as guide for each child

c. How: Its use of specialized, or adapted, materials and methods (Examples: use of sign language; use of scaffolding to help child learn new tasks and gradually withdrawing prompts for the child to do the tasks independently; use of research-based instructional methods that work best with children who are difficult to teach)

d. Where: General education classroom or separate classrooms, residential schools, or resource room

2. What is special about special education?

o Heward (2009,p.42) suggests six defining features of special education. This implies that professionals trained in special education are able to demonstrate knowledge and skills in these areas.

a. Individually planned instruction

b. Intensive instruction

c. Research-based methods

d. Specialized instruction

e. Goal-directed

f. Guided by student performance

3. What are the defining features of special education

instruction?

Psychology of Exceptional Children

1. How are the terms impairment, disability and handicap defined? Are the terms synonymous?

The three terms are sometimes used interchangeably. However, they are not synonymous. Heward (2009,p.10) differentiates the three terms:

a. Impairment refers to the loss or reduced function of a particular body part or organ (e.g., a missing limb).

b. Disability exists when an impairment limits a person’s ability to perform certain tasks (e.g., see, walk, hear).

c. Handicap refers to a disadvantage that a person with either a disability or an impairment encounters. A person who uses a wheelchair may be handicapped in buildings that does not have access points for persons with disability, but may not be handicapped in a classroom that provide support. People with disabilities are at a disadvantage not because of their disabilities but because of the negative attitudes of people toward them. A handicap exists because of the restrictions imposed by the environment and society.

Impairment and disability have medical basis but handicapping conditions are created by societal restrictions and prejudices.

2. Who are “exceptional children” or children with “special learning needs”?

The World Bank (1994) defines children with special needs as:

…all those children who permanently or temporarily during their school careers have need of special education services on the part of the teacher, the institution and/or the system by dint of their physical, mental or multiple impairment or emotional conditions or for reasons of situational disadvantage.

Other terms synonymously used are: exceptional children, children with special learning needs (SLN), pupils with special educational needs (SEN, used in Great Britain), children with handicapping conditions, or children with disabilities. Because of “people first policy”, the words disabled children, mentally retarded children and physically handicapped children are no longer used. This is to emphasized that they are children first and their disability second and only signifies the services they are in need of. Amendments to Public Law 94-142 in 1990 (Public Law 101-476) included a change in nomenclature. All reference to handicapped children were change to children with disabilities (Dettmer, Thurston, & Dyck, 1993,p.7). The term exceptional children, however, includes also gifted children. Special education professional in the Philippines show preference for this term because it includes children who are gifted.

3. What are the types of disabilities served by Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)?

Autism

Communication disorders

Deaf-blindness

Hearing impairments

Mental retardation

Multiple disabilities

Orthopedic impairments

4. What other classification schemes are used to describe children with disabilities?

Why are these terms used instead of the disability categories?

a.Children-at-risk – refers to children who, although not currently identified as having a disability, are considered to have greater-than-usual chance of developing one. The term is usually used for:

Infants and preschoolers who, because of biological conditions, events surrounding their births, or characteristics of their home environments (poverty,

3. Students who exhibit a wide range of educational problems, including the failure to respond positively to instruction in basic academic skills, manifestation of unacceptable social behavior in school, and a limited repertoire of experiences that are necessary for formal education (Pierce, 1994,p.37).

b. Slow learners - belong to children-at-risk group. They are not eligible for special education but their educational progress is slow. They do not have mental retardation nor learning disabilities but they also need assistance in the form of remedial instruction or tutorial (Friend, 2000, p.20).

c. Cross-categorical – this approach to the study of characteristics of exceptional children pays more attention to their learning needs then to the labels.

Although some strategies are designed specifically for a particular group of students (e.g., large print for students with vision impairment), most of the teaching strategies can be adapted for most students.

By adopting a cross-categorical approach to planning instruction, many more service options are available foe helping students succeed (Friend, 2000,p.19).

d. Twice exceptional – This term refers to students with disabilities who are also gifted; also referred to as students with dual exceptionalities (Friend, 2006, p.20)

e. Severe disabilities – There are different ways of defining severe disabilities.

1. Based on IQ scores: Individuals who obtain IQ scores of 35 and below,

Or individuals who score in the moderate level of mental retardation

2. Students with significant disabilities in intellectual, physical, and/or social functioning, students with multiple disabilities, deaf-blindness, severe mental retardation, severe emotional disturbance, and severe health impairments.3. Functional definitions:

By Justen(1976,p.5):

“Those individuals age 21 and younger who are functioning at a general developmental level of half or less than the level which would be expected on the basis of chronological age” (Cited by Heward, 2009, p.454).

Basic skills definition:

…a student with severe disabilities, regardless of age, is one who

f. Profound disabilities – The term profound disabilities refers to:

1. profound developmental disabilities in all five of the following behavioral-content areas: cognition, communication, social skills, development, motor-mobility, and activities of daily living (self-help skills);

2. a continuous need for monitoring and observation; and

3. a developmental ceiling of 2 years of age for each area of functioning.

g. High-incidence disabilities – This term refers to a group of disabilities that are most common: learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, mild mental retardation, and serious emotional disturbance (Friend, 2000, p.19).

h. Low-incidence disabilities – This term refers to disabilities that are rare. These are severe mental retardation , multiple disabilities, hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, visual impairments, deaf-blindness, autism, and traumatic brain injury(Friend, 2000, p.19).

5. Why are classification systems used for individuals with disabilities important to the study of exceptionality?

Classification systems (example: mental retardation –mild, moderate, severe, and profound) lead directly to definition, which in turn provide the criteria for identification (Fletcher, Francis, Rourke, Shaywitz & Shaywitz in Lyon, Gray, Kavanaghh & Krasnegor, 1993, p.38)

d. What does the description “developmentally delayed” mean?

The term developmental delay is a general term for children who receive special education services, either in special education classes or general education classes, with support.

e. What are the criteria for defining behavioral disorder?

1. The National Coalition on Mental Health and Special Education defines behavioral disorder as behavioral or emotional responses so different from appropriate age, culture, or ethnic norms that they adversely affect

f. Giftedness

1. What is the common definition of giftedness?

The most commonly used definition of giftedness is the one by Sydney Marland. This definition of gifted and talented students was included in the 1972 report to Congress titled Education of the Gifted by the U.S. Commissioner of Education Sydney Marland. The definition states:

…the term “gifted and talented children” means children, and whenever applicable, youth, who are identified at the preschool, elementary, or secondary

2. When are children considered gifted?

Children could be considered gifted when they demonstrate outstanding abilities in the following areas:

General intellectual ability

Specific academic aptitude

Creative or productive thinking

Leadership ability

Visual and performing arts

Psychomotor ability

3. Are the words “gifted” and “talented” used interchangeably?

A shift from using the term gifted to using the term talented appeared in the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Act of 1988, reauthorized in 1994. the second national report on gifted education, National Excellence: A Case for Developing America’s Talent uses the term talent rather than gifted. In the report, outstanding talent can be evidenced in general intellectual ability, specific academic ability, creative thinking, leadership ability, and/or the visual arts (Gargiulo, 2003, p.319). Friend (2006, p.576) differentiates the two terms:

Giftedness is evidence of advance development across intellectual areas, within a specific or arts-related area, or unusual organizational power to bring about desired results.

Talent is extraordinary ability in a specific area; the term is used interchangeably with giftedness.

4. How is “giftedness” conceptualized?

In Renzulli’s three-ring model of giftedness, three related dimensions are identified: above average ability, task commitment or motivation, and creativity.

Using multiple intellegences, Gardner reconceptualized intelligence from the traditional notion to one that emphasizes its multidimensional nature. To Gardner, a gifted child may excel in any one of these areas: verbal/linguistic,logical/mathematical,visual/spatial, bodily/kinaesthetic, musical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, naturalist (Friend, 2006, pp.574-577).

Sternberg and Zhang proposed a conceptual theory, the pentagonal implicit theory. This model encompasses five criteria that a person must meet in order to be considered gifted”

Excellence

Rarity

Productivity

Demonstrability and

Value (cited in Turnbull, Shank & Smith, 2004, pp.1969).

5. Is giftedness “domain-specific”?

Giftedness is multidimensional (spanning several domains of giftedness) and not unidimensional (based on score alone). Domain-specific giftedness does not imply that giftedness operates in isolation. Some people may exhibit giftedness in more than one area, whereas other may excel in one area only (Turnbull et al., 2004, p. 197).