Introduction to Children with Special Needs

1. Introduction to Children with Special Needs Philosophy of Early Education

2. Best Practices • The professional treats special education field with an attitude of science • Respect data-based information • Evaluate the effects of new procedures • Evaluate the effects of materials • Evaluate the effects of interventions • What is the impact on childrren and families

3. Best Practices • Early childhood professional values inclusion in the natural setting • Age appropriate activities • Peers of diverse backgrounds and abilities

4. Best Practices • Effective professional is culturally sensitive • Prepared to work with various populations and cultures • Respectful and supportive

5. Best Practices • Professional in early childhood education recognizes that very young children are a part of their larger family support systems and the environments that surround them • Direct services (Physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy) provided in context of family needs in ways that do not disempower families

6. Best Practices 5. Early childhood professional works collaboratively with experts from other disciplines to provide comprehensive services

7. Best Practices • Early childhood special educators must have the highest ethical standards • Serve as advocates for parents and children • Both politically and professionally • Through service to their communities

8. Attitude of Science • Parsimonious • Empirical

9. Attitude of Science • Parsimony: look for the simple explanation before investigating more complicated possibilities • Example: small infant wakes crying in the night, first see if they are hungry or wet instead of thinking they are experiencing separation anxiety or have an intestinal infection

10. Attitude of Science (cont) • Many methods of intervention evolved from complicated, unobserved, and untestable theories • Example: patterning or neural training • Experts claimed if parents did rigorous exercises a specified number of times a day at specific intervals their children would “be normal” • Later found to be ineffective (not to say anything of the stress on families, especially when their children did not improve and it was “their fault” because they missed the exercises one day a year ago!)

11. Attitude of Science (cont) • Deal with facts rather than what someone says about the facts • Be willing to accept facts even when they are opposed to wishes or personal beliefs (Skinner, 1953)

12. Attitude of Science (cont) • Rely on “empirical” evidence • Something you can observe • Something you can experiment with • Based on the outcome of “empirical evidence”, decide to continue or discontinue a procedure

13. Attitude of Science (cont) • Empirical evidence attempts to discover order • Empirical evidence attempts to show the relatedness of events

14. Attitude of Science (cont) • Teachers and researchers attempt to “replicate” results • Get the same result as others before

15. Attitude of Science (cont) • Theory or principle has predictive ability that is helpful in deciding what to do • If something is predictive, and replicatable, we have confidence in the theory • Then that theory becomes part of a “conceptual system” • Historically somebody’s “collection of tricks” are difficult to expand systematically, especially if the tricks are extensive, difficult to learn, and difficult to teach

16. Attitude of Science (cont) • Applied Behavior Analysis is a data-based conceptual system that is of great value to educators • They are “parsimonious”

17. Attitude of Science (cont) • For a behaviorist, all learning principles are defined on the basis of what is actually happening, not what we think is happening • Observation is critical

18. Attitude of Science (cont) • Scientific teacher builds on natural talent for working with children and families • Draw from a knowledge-base of concepts that work • Parsimonious • Empirical • Replicable

19. Attitude of Science (cont) • Science must never replace values • Values should not replace empiricism • Professionals must balance both • Professionals must embrace a philosophy of advocacy that determines, explains, and is effective

20. Inclusion • Least restrictive environment • 1975 legislation, Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) • Prior to 1975, 1 million children were excluded from public schools • Children who did go to school received inadequate services in isolated settings

21. Inclusion (cont) • Goal of instruction is to move students closer to being successful in the regular classroom • Mildest disabilities have greatest success in inclusive settings • Learning disabilities • Health impairments • Orthopedic impairment • Hearing impairment

22. Inclusion (cont) • Students with more “difficult” disabilities have had less progress toward moving to the regular classrooms • Mental retardation • Deaf-blindness • Only a small percentage are educated in the regular classroom

23. Inclusion (cont) • Multiply disabled have made least progress toward moving into less restrictive environments

24. Inclusion (cont) • New language: “Natural Setting”, it is hoped that now educators and decision makers cannot misinterpret the intent of the law from 1975

25. Inclusion (cont) • Special education is a service • Special education is NOT a place

26. Inclusion (cont) • Controversy over inclusion • Preschools are easiest to include • Full inclusion: general classroom teacher is primary interventionist • Frequent and regular consultation with educational specialists, administrators, parents to make decisions • Controversy: teachers don’t feel adequately trained and often have an attitude of resistance

27. Justification for Inclusion • Been justified with arguments in all of the following areas: • Social reasons • Philosophical reasons • Ethical reasons • Legal reasons • Empirical arguments

28. Justification for Inclusion (cont) • Children who are educated together learn important lifelong lessons and skills, whether they have a disability or not • Children have to have opportunities to develop skills to get along and need appropriate social models

29. Justification for Inclusion (cont) 2. When people are segregated, labeled, or treated in any way that sets them further apart for their differences, their worth is devalued • The person begins to see themselves as less valuable • Their behavior matches their devalued status

30. Justification for Inclusion (cont) • Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution provided the legal basis for the “Civil Rights Act of 1965” • 1973 Section 504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act: “No person can be discriminated against solely on the basis of their disability”

31. Justification for Inclusion (cont) • Identify strategies to improve the student’s success within natural settings • Children must not prove that they are ready for regular classrooms, we do not ask that of nondisabled children • Research indicates that children with and without disabilities perform at least as well in integrated settings

32. Justification for Inclusion (cont) • Personnel issues, segregated settings are the greatest challenge • Wide range of ages • Wide range of disabilities • Significant behavioral problems because all children are disabled, learning new behaviors from each other, most of which are not helpful behaviors • Limited language skills • High teacher resignations or burnout

33. Opposition to Inclusion • Lack of input or initiative from regular educators • Lack of empirical evidence • Currently only small or suggestive research due to programs not willing to try • Teacher resistance, therapist resistance • Educational reform • Protective feelings, want to protect the disabled from hurt feelings, ridicule • Impracticality

34. Opposition to Inclusion (cont) • 27 studies surveying 10,000 teachers found: • Most generally favor inclusion • Fewer than 1/3 felt inclusion was best placement • 30% felt including children with disabilities would be too disruptive • Fewer than 25% felt they had sufficient time to include • Not properly prepared • Would not be given sufficient training

35. Opposition to Inclusion (cont) • Some educators feel full inclusionists are too uncompromising and presumptive • Some educators feel full inclusionists are too unrealistic • Some individuals with disabilities resent the idea that special education is immoral • Deaf community • THE DEBATE CONTINUES

36. Summary of Inclusion • Research demonstrates that regular and special education teachers who have sufficient training for inclusion felt more confident and had a positive attitude for inclusion, learned effective strategies

37. Summary of Inclusion (cont) • Effective strategies: • Team teaching with regular and special education teachers • All services delivered in the regular classroom with all children • Cooperative learning • Peer tutoring • Parallel curricula • Use of technology • Accompanied by paraprofessionals