Children with Special Educational Needs - Essay Example

?Children With Special Educational Needs Children with certain mental and physical disabilities have been present in the world since the beginning of the world. Such people who were mentally or physically disabled were often referred to as mentally handicapped people or children. These people were deprived of the basic rights and privileges that they truly deserved. The society did not include such people as the part of the society and even if these handicapped people tried to mingle into the normal people, the people would insult them and treat them with disgust and insult them (Hallahan & Kauffman, 1988). The handicapped people would be treated differently as if they have landed from outer space. Children with such disabilities had to face an extremely tough time as they could not fit themselves in the school, nor in the social life (Gabbitas Educational Consultants, 2012). The normal children avoided befriending such disabled or physically or mentally challenged children and these children could not find a suitable position for them in the society. In earlier times the teachers did not used to pay extra attention to these handicapped children and often became victims of punishments and severe taunting and insults by the teacher which eventually lead the children to insult them as well (Culatta & Tompkins, 1999). As the world revolutionized and modernized things and the behavior and attitude of the people towards such disabilities started to change. Till the middle of the nineteenth century people’s behavior hadn’t changed, this was mainly because of the fact that the government had not taken any step in order to provide these disabled children with special care and protection. The government was totally ignorant to this major issue and had not made any policies or taken any initiatives for the rights of these disabled children. It was after the late nineteen fifty’s that some non-governmental organizations and religious groups put in their effort and finances to build certain schools which would give special attention to the handicapped children and would teach the children according to their requirement. Soon these schools opened by non-governmental and religious organizations gained official status and were brought under the government. It was then things started to improve for the mentally and physically disabled children. Instead of calling the mentally and physically challenged children as handicapped, these children were then referred as special educational needs children; a more respectable name. The government of the United Kingdom started to design policies and take initiatives in order to provide equal status to these special needs children. It was undertaken by the department of education to look after the matter of special needs children and build schools accordingly (Gabbitas Educational Consultants, 2012). After the late nineteen fifties, the government of many countries started to make effort to give the physically and mentally challenged people their deserved rights and status in the society. The children with mental and physical disabilities also have the right to study, play, and work and do whatever normal children are allowed to do in the society and at school. These physically and mentally challenged people also have feelings and are in fact more sensitive and delicate than normal children. These children must be taken under extra care and a very friendly environment so that their self-confidence is not sabotaged and harmed, so that they can grow up to become strong and responsible citizens of the society. It is a general thought that these physically and mentally challenged people are of no use for the society but in fact this is not the case, if these children are brought under proper care and guidance and are given the liberty to do whatever they can do best like any other normal children, there is no doubt that they can also do wonders for the society. Now many countries have government as well as private institutions solely for the education of children with special needs (Gulliford, 1971). These children cannot study with the normal children because there mental levels and capacities are not the same, in order to make the special needs children gain and acquire education special schools have been designed which are equipped with all the needs and requirements of the special children and the teachers and instructors who are there to guide and train the physically and mentally challenged are well educated and well trained to handle these special children and educate them in the right way. The instructors and teachers are people who have been bestowed with extreme patience and gratitude. It is certainly a difficult task to train, educate and groom these physically and mentally challenged children (Gabbitas Educational Consultants, 2012). Generally these special needs schools are expensive as the teachers are paid good salary and the different equipment required are also of huge prices, but still there are some schools which work on funds and teach these mentally and physically challenged children free of cost. The United Kingdom has been making great efforts for the education of special children. The government of the United Kingdom has itself taken the responsibility to provide free education to the children that require special needs in order to acquire education (National Association for Special Educational Needs (Great Britain), 1985). The government has classified the special children into three categories, that is children having mild learning disability, moderate disability and severe disability. According to the various categories the severity of disability vary and according to the severity the requirements required for handling the child also vary. The government of the United Kingdom has taken all the three categories into consideration and has designed schools and institutions keeping in consideration all the three cases as all the three cases of disability require different level of attention and care (Gabbitas Educational Consultants, 2012). The government has provided the facility by opening schools and institutions in various towns and cities and the schools are equipped according to the different categories of disability that exists in children. In places where the schools cannot be built by the government, the government has opened special side wings in the schools for the normal children which are specially designed to educate the children having physical and mental disability and require special means of getting educated. The government of United Kingdom has also designed a proper and complete curriculum for the children with special needs. Separate curriculums have been designed for the mild, moderate and severe cases of mental and physical disability. The curriculum has been designed by the department of education that works under the government of United Kingdom. The department has been assigned the task of revising and reviewing the curriculum on yearly basis. It is a necessity that the curriculum be revised time and again so that the topics that have become old can be removed and some new topics can be included so that whatever the children are studying are up to date and by no means they lag in education with the normal children. The syllabus and curriculum of the normal schools are also revised on yearly basis and so the same procedure is followed for schools for special need children (Gabbitas Educational Consultants, 2012). The curriculum also includes that the special children must be given physical education in order to keep them healthy and fit. As the normal children are given physical education, the special children must also be given the same facility (Groves, 1979). Similarly the special children must be given the facility of computer education as the normal children are given and so in the curriculum that was designed separate computer classes for the special children were organized I order to make them equally capable as the normal children (Goldenberg, Russell & Carter, 1984). The minister of the department of education has also announced to take certain initiatives. One of the initiatives is in which the government has started a campaign to train the teachers that are appointed to teach the special children. Teachers must be constantly given training to learn new techniques and methodologies that can be adopted in order to improve teaching methods and to enhance and improve the learning process. With development in technology new techniques and equipments are being designed to improve and ease the life of children with physical and mental disabilities. In order to make the teachers and instructors aware of these advancements it is necessary that seminars and training sessions be held on a regular basis and the government of United Kingdom has been complying with this methodology. The government also initiated a campaign to hire new, young, energetic and enthusiastic teachers who are willing to spend time with these special children and make efforts to improve the life and make their life better. A proper hiring process is followed to hire the right person and the government itself carries the process under the supervision of qualified personnel so that the right person is hired and a capable person is hired who can give proper training and education to the special children (Gabbitas Educational Consultants, 2012). It is a necessary that the teacher must know the strengths and weaknesses of the child so that the teacher can work accordingly and put in the efforts in the right direction so that fruitful results can be obtained (Lickey & Powers, 2011). The government also have started a program that constitutes a group of several educated people who are assigned the job to take trips to the normal schools and identify the children who are suffering from some mental disability and are finding it difficult to study and move forward with the same pace as the normal children, (Meisels, 1979).then they are given the task to consult with the concerned teachers and make conclusions and then contact the child’s parent and guide them correctly. In this way no child can remain deprived of education and every child will get equal chances and opportunities to explore the world without any discrimination. A research conducted by the government has shown that children within the age of three and six years require more special attention and are in need of more special education as compared to disabled children of higher ages so the government has established a separate body which has been made responsible for providing special education to children within the age of three and six (Wilson, 1998). Early Childhood Education Agency (Gabbitas Educational Consultants, 2012) is the name given to the governmental body that has been given the job to educate children with mental and physical disabilities in the younger ages. A survey was also conducted in order to make the government officials aware of the different needs, requirements and complain that special children need (Lilly, 1979). An act was passed by the government that is the duty of the government bodies to identify the children who require special education and then carry out a complete investigation regarding their health, family and psychological background and make conclusions and appoint the right school accordingly (Mittler, Brouillette & Harris, 1993). It is also the duty of the government bodies to make sure that the special children are being taught and educate din the proper way and are being helped out with whatever disability they have. The government has made supervising teams whose job is to travel different schools without prior notice and observe the teaching method and curriculum being followed and the way the children are being treated and taken care of (Rouse & Mclaughlin, 2000). There are numerous other small and large scale initiatives that have been taken by the government in order to make education available for all and give every child equal status and privilege without any discrimination on any grounds (Gabbitas Educational Consultants, 2012). References Gabbitas Educational Consultants. (2012). Schools for special needs, 2012-2013: the complete guide to special needs education in the United Kingdom. London, Kogan Page. Rouse, M., & Mclaughlin, M. J. (2000). Special education and school reform in the United States and Britain. London, Routledge. Hallahan, D. P., & Kauffman, J. M. (1988). Exceptional children: introduction to special education. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice Hall. Groves, L. (1979). Physical education for special needs. Cambridge, [Eng.], Cambridge University Press. Goldenberg, E. P., Russell, S. J., & Carter, C. J. (1984). Computers, education, and special needs. Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. Culatta, R., & Tompkins, J. R. (1999). Fundamentals of special education: what every teacher needs to know. Upper Saddle River, N.J., Merrill. Lilly, M. S. (1979). Children with exceptional needs: a survey of special education. New York, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. National Association for Special Educational Needs (Great Britain). (1985). British journal of special education. [Oxford], Blackwell Publishers. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/servlet/useragent?func=showIssues&code=bjsp Meisels, S. J. (1979). Special education and development: perspectives on young children with special needs. Baltimore, University Park Press. Mittler, P. J., Brouillette, R., & Harris, N. D. C. (1993). Special needs education. London, Kogan Page. Wilson, R. A. (1998). Special educational needs in the early years. London, Routledge. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10095173. Lickey, D. C., & Powers, D. J. (2011). Starting with their strengths: using the project approach in early childhood special education. New York, Teachers College. Gulliford, R. (1971). Special educational needs. London, Routledge and K. Paul. Read More