The Importance of Special Education Research Paper

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Special education allows children with special needs to gain knowledge and develop skills that can help them lead normal lives and gain independence. Although some consider special education as separate from the total educational enterprise, it is not. It is an integral part of it and serves the community in more ways than one. The specific function of special education in schools is to recognize the needs of children that suffer from mental and learning disabilities and help them get the services they need to thrive in an academic setting. Early childhood special education services provide parents and children with the tools to promote success in education early on, giving these students early access to support and services that will help them throughout their childhood and into adulthood.

Because every child has needs, the special education aspect of schools provides extra assistance so every child can be aided versus only a select group within the school population. However, with cases of special needs children, especially early on, there can be many obstacles. These obstacles can result from bad teaching methods brought on by poor prior training, bad parenting, and lack of support from schools. Every child needs a good head start when it comes to early education. From having an IPE to communicating and collaborating with the team in charge of assessing the child and helping the child meet his or her goals, everyone is instrumental in the success of a special needs child.

A main goal of educators is to help form accommodative learning opportunities for every child regardless of disability. The problem with most educators however, is their lack of training in handling the needs of disabled students. Special education programs have educators experienced in handling children/students with special needs and can provide them the assistance they need. Should a child require placement in a special education program, professionals are there to assess, plan, and place a child in a program that suits his or her needs. One such professional is a child psychiatrist or physician. They help by evaluating the child and seeing which symptoms or signs they present with and providing accurate diagnosis.

Once the child is assessed by a professional and given an official diagnosis, that child is given, under federal law, an IEP. An IEP is an Individualized Education Program. With an IEP, a multidisciplinary team has to determine the level of disability and if the child requires special education and other related services. They also measure the performance level of the child and set goals accordingly. For a family, this is a big help because with clear goals and the support allotted to the child, the family can then move forward in making sure their child is healthy and progressing. "An effective facilitator makes a group's work easier -- or at least, less difficult -- by supporting clear communication among prepared parties in a structured and focused process. Put more simply, "A facilitator's job is to support everyone to do their best thinking" (Hedeen, Peter, Moses, & Engiles, 2013, p. 1).

Aside from the IEP, schools also have to provide an environment that gives students access to all aspects of school without feeling separate from students having a regular education. Special education has to function as part and within the regular public school framework. This is so that special education can help create and maintain a total education environment any child could learn and properly develop in. All children have unique needs and varying degrees of skill and talent. By incorporating special education within regular education, children that may need to transfer to either part will be able to seamlessly and without stress or difficulty. When this does not take place, especially in early education, the children placed in special education may feel 'different' and feel unmotivated to learn or grow.

Teaching is a major part of special education services. However so is homebound instruction, especially early on. Several service providers are a part of the overall teaching process for the disabled child. From speech pathologists to physical therapists, to homebound instructors, these services provided need to come from experienced service providers and if possible, from an inter-collaborative setting where medical professionals work together to make sure the child is getting adequate assistance. This is especially the case with homebound instruction as one study pointed out the lack of training in homebound instructors. "Although homebound instruction is often provided as an interim placement, students receiving these services are nonetheless entitled to a well-structured, instructionally sound, and accountable program" (Petit & Patterson, 2014, p. 49).

When an IEP or IFSP involves a team of professionals that cannot communicate with one another and provide the kind of care a child needs, the child will experience slow progress towards his or her goals.

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Collaborative teaming practices is a fundamental requirement in early intervention and early childhood intervention. It consists of three models:

multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary. multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams are known for having clear hierarchies of power and providing isolated assessment, planning, and intervention processes for each profession represented on the team. Research has shown that transdisciplinary teams provide the best framework for implementing interventions across developmental domains for young children with disabilities (Hong & Shaffer, 2015).

Although hard to achieve, the transdisciplinary approach gives teams the ability to create and adjust goals more suited to the child. Below is an example of what a transdisciplinary team can achieve for a disabled child.

Sarah, a three-year-old little girl was diagnosed with autism and neuromuscular disorder. The parents felt overwhelmed with the number of appointments she had. However, a transdisciplinary early intervention program that offered one primary therapist helped to simplify the process. They were able to get a speech pathologist, a child psychiatrist, a physical therapist, and a nurse come in through collaboration with the primary therapist and help Sarah achieve the goals she needed to transition successfully into special education classes in a regular school with some homebound instruction two times a week. There other potential team members of a transdisciplinary team. They range from community health workers, to social workers, dentists, health educators, interpreters, mental health providers. Nurses, registered Nurses, nutritionists, pharmacists, physicians, physician assistants, occupational, physical, and music therapists, and even volunteers. All these professionals and in the case of volunteers, nonprofessionals, are meant to get the child ready for a brighter future. Therapists help with mobility and function. Nurses and doctors help with medications and tests. Social workers and community workers help with referrals and access to other programs. All these things are necessary to ensure the health of a disabled child.

Early-childhood interventions can be the most important interventions in a child's life. (Rossin-Slater, 2015). Teachers need adequate training material to provide quality curriculum young disabled children can learn from and grow with. LEAP may provide the kind of support and mindset that can help teachers instruct children. LEAP involves placing with ASD in a typical learning classroom and having non-disabled children interact with the student (WWC, 2012). These kinds of programs and support models not only make it easier for the teacher instructing special needs kids, but also helps promote well-being as the core need for children with disabilities to integrate with the non-disabled population.

Another aspect of special education that people tend to ignore is the separation children in special education and children in regular education have. In a qualitative study identifying problems parents and students had with special education, one child and parent noted the feeling of isolation.

Special education students had separate entrances and morning procedures from the broader school community. In terms of relationships within the school community, both among parents and between parents and the school, Ms. G encountered a dramatic shift toward isolation, unable, for confidentiality reasons to contact or communicate with other parents in his class unless she encountered them randomly around the school (Steeley & Lukacs, 2015, p. 25).

Not all schools have such stark delineation of special education programs. There are programs that offer an integrative approach. Nevertheless, many parents and students experience frustration from such isolation and it can contribute to the lack of well-being on the part of the student, hindering achievement in school and delaying individual development.

School life without adequate tools or instruction may play a part not just in the child's stress, but the family as well. Stress and difficulty is commonplace in a family that has children with special needs. While children with special needs are wonderful gifts, they can also be difficult to handle. Sometimes a child may suffer from one or more disabilities and the family of the child has an especially hard time dealing with all the demands of the child. Children with learning disabilities for example, may not respond well to authority. They may kick, scream, and cause constant disturbances. It takes tremendous patience at times to handle these children. That is why every part of the support network from teachers to parents to schools to the students themselves must….....

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