Quality Education for Children with Special Needs - Essay Example

? Special Needs and the General Education Curriculum Special Needs and the General Education Curriculum Children with special needs are not society outcast and therefore are entitled to education. The question is; does the current general education system favor them? That is why special needs program was established and as such, it is a program seeking to identify those individuals with special needs and that those needs are in every way unique and takes a different perspective as compared to those of other students and thereby addressing them in a different way (Karger, 2010). The special need program encompasses the most efficient arrangements aimed at ensuring education standards of the highest order are accessed by these students. These arrangements includes teaching procedures that are special in nature, unique areas and scope of teaching as well as any other teaching resources that can be uniquely attributed needed to execute this special program. The special needs entailed may be subsequent from certain bodily conditions, which includes; being physically disabled, challenges in learning and problems related to communication among others (Karger, 2010). The special needs are identifiable if such aspects as medical history concerning a specific student’s special need and assessments as well as observable features as detailed by the teacher are put into consideration. As such, the factors result to the student with the special need to lack both the ability as well as the capacity to learn in traditional schools and therefore, it is necessary that the special program was established. These special need programs of education are usually customized such that each student’s need is catered for irrespective of the degree of the need (Karger, 2010). Thesis Statement The purpose of this paper is to access the benefits, the pitfalls as well as the challenges that a student with special needs face while accessing the general education set up. Benefits In most cases, these students are usually given a special kind of training to facilitate the preparedness to civilian life, that is, life after school. Usually, civilian life does not encompass special programs to individuals who do not live a normal life (Koga &Tracey, 2010). As such, it is essential that the students with special needs to be offered a chance in the traditional education curriculum, which is inclusive. This will in turn help them to learn methods by which they can facilitate their survival concerning the society, which is inclusive. It is held that every student regardless of having a disability of or not, must pass through formal education so that they can in future be able to live a sustained life, for themselves as well as for their families (Koga &Tracey, 2010). In addition, the presence of special needs students in the general education curriculum ensures that other students as well as the society learn to respect the disabled and therefore developing positive attitudes towards them. Such would not be if the students with special needs were put under an isolated learning program delivered through a special need facility. As such, they would be looked down upon and thereby undermining the potential of the special needs students. If there were interactions between the normal students and the students with special needs, then this case would not be. Both the special need and the normal students will at one point in life come to meet, since they will not be isolated forever, and as such, the negative intrinsic attitude will continue its domination and hence unethical and unconstructive society (Vaughn & Fuchs, 2012). When a special need student is allowed to access the general education curriculum, then interactions will be inevitable. Consequently, the enthusiasm level in the students with special needs will be high and as a result, they will become motivated to put aside their inferiority complex due to their bodily states and develop a life just like the normal students. Still, these interactions are essential, as there is a big likelihood that ideas are shared and thus, encouraging not only creativity but also innovativeness, which is key aspects if at all a society intends to develop to the next level. Nobody in the world can survive autonomously and therefore, students, be it normal or with special needs need each other’s ideas to live a desirable life. As such, this state of affair can be achieved if at all there were no limitations on the kind of students accessing the general education facilities (Vaughn & Fuchs, 2012). It is usually argued that those students who learn in the general education facilities are not only accepted more readily but also the individual differences are appreciated and understood concerning the diverse contemporary society. According to Hitchcock et al.,(2012) putting up facilities to isolate the students with special needs from the normal students leads to massive discrimination from the individuals in the society especially coming from the normal students. Further, they assert that this condition is subsequent of failure of the general education facilities to establish appropriate standards by which the normal featured students can be taught how to understand, accept, and understand the less fortunate as well as the individual differences in the society. As stipulated in the human rights act, it is an offence to discriminate and therefore, the penalty imposed on those individual caught discriminating especially against people with special needs is usually heavy (Hocutt, 2010). We can infer from the aforementioned benefits that both the students, with special needs and without can only be derived from a common learning facility whereby they interact freely. There is a great importance of integrating the general learning facilities to accommodate the students with special needs as not only do the student learn how to appreciate them but also improves the collaboration of the staff and thereby achieving the corporate goals as well as the objectives in regard to the education facilities. As such, the staff develops an aspect of togetherness as well as solidarity derived from the reality dawned on the m concerning the diversity of their students. As such, they realize that it is necessary to work closely to establish a pool of efforts necessary to satisfy every need of the students. Guided by the underlying situation, they collectively come up with the most efficient strategies they think and feel necessary for every student while at the same time archiving their set goals as well as the objectives (Hocutt, 2010). Challenges and pitfalls However, there are challenges and pitfalls that face the students with special needs when they attend the general learning facilities. First, there is a likelihood that the special need student will not get substantial support from the teachers of the learning facilities. A good example is whereby, a student with hearing difficulties may hardly grasp what the teacher is trying to address to the students in the class (Browder & Spooner, 2011). This situation calls for special teaching strategies or methods for the sake of that student. Such would be; use of gestures as well body expressions. However, this may not auger well with other students since they are from different cultural backgrounds and therefore they may not understand what some other gestures mean. In other cases, some students might be physically fit but experience adverse difficulties in communication. In reality, for an effective learning, it is necessary that a teacher develop communicate good communication attributes to ensure that information is ideally imparted on the students. In the same line of view, the student need also to be able to understand communication aspect in order to grasp what the teacher says and respond effectively, whether while giving his opinions or giving an answer to a certain question (Browder & Spooner, 2011). Where one or more students in a general facility class has difficulties in communication, then it is possible that he will not get what the teacher is saying or talking about. Still, the teacher may be unable to understand what the responses of such a student are. In essence, it is a major barrier in regards to communication and as such, effective measures need to be established to address the issue (Matt, 2011). For example, a German student who is only conversant with his native language is incapable of fitting in the general learning facility in the United Kingdom as such a facility would only tend to use English as it is the national language. Mental disabled students such as the insane are different cases, it is an acute problem, and as such, it is not appropriate that they learn in the same facility together with others. The most appropriate reason for this is that, they are said to be dangerous since at most times they are violent. They may shout and loiter aimlessly around the class and thus causing interruptions to the lessons. As such, these individuals may cause fatal ends to other students and thus it is necessary that they referred to special schools separate from other students (Matt, 2011). Teachers are also challenged by the presence of special needs students. As such, they are faced with a difficulty in trying to balance attention to both categories of students while trying to meet the set goals and objectives of the learning facilities. This results to exhaustion and thus stress develops. Consequently, they become unproductive, as they cannot deliver and therefore, the class performs extreme poorly (Matt, 2011). Conclusion From the aforementioned discussion, students can access general learning facilities and from there, they can be able to interact with other students and help them as well as the society in general that they too have the potential and thereby being respected and accepted in the society (Bay, 2010). However, it is also evident that there are challenges as well as pitfalls those special needs students who access the general learning facilities face and which necessitates establishing of special needs schools. Still, the presences of these students in the general learning facilities impose a challenge to the teachers in those institutions. As such, they are faced with increased tasks in trying to satisfy the needs of every student and as such, they develop psychological complications such as stress and fatigue. Therefore, to cap this discussion, the benefits and the challenges of the students with special needs accessing the general learning facilities can be said to prove arguments encompassing logical justifications (Bay, 2010). References Bay, R. L. (2010). Educational Research: The disabled student (5th Ed.). New York, NY: Springer. Browder, D. & Spooner, F. (2011). Teaching language arts, math, and science to students with Significant cognitive disabilities (2nd Ed.). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. Hitchcock, C., Meyer, A., Rose, D., & Jackson, R. (2012). Providing new access to the general curriculum: Universal Design for Learning. Teaching Exceptional Children, 45(5), 8-17. Hocutt, A.M. (2011). Effectiveness of special education: Is placement the critical factor? The Future of Children, 5(4), 77-102. Karger, J. (2010). Access to the General Curriculum for Students with Disabilities: A Discussion of the Interrelationship between IDEA '97 and NCLB. National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum, 44(1), 45-68. Koga, N., &Tracey, H. (2010). Curriculum Modification. National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum, 33(3), 70-79. Matt, M. J. (2011). Accessing the general curriculum: Including Students with disabilities in standards-based reform. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning Vaughn, S. & Fuchs, L.S. (2012). Redefining learning disabilities as inadequate response to instruction: The promise and potential problems. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 15(4), 137-146. Read More