NCERT Book Class 12 Home Science Chapter 9 Special Education and Support Services

SPECIAL  EDUCATION AND  SUPPORT  SERVICES

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing this section the learner will be able to:

• explain the concepts of special education, inclusive education and support services.
• describe the concept of disability and different types of disability in children.
• explain the knowledge and skills required for a career in Special  Education and allied support services.

SIGNIFICANCE

The term education is familiar to all of us. But, ‘special education’ may be a new expression for some of you. It is a term that refers to educational provisions for children with special needs, emerging due to physical, mental and emotional challenges. Therefore, they have Special Educational Needs (SEN). Thus Special Education means specially designed instruction for children with above mentioned challenges in all settings such as classroom, home, the street and the  rehabitation homes, etc There are children who may have unusual difficulty in walking, playing, talking, seeing and hearing, in interacting socially or in doing what one may consider usual. They are likely to have disabilities due to certain

 consider usual. They are likely to have disabilities due to certain conditions such as hearing impairment, visual impairment or intellectual impairment (a more detailed discussion about types of disabilities follows later). In order to learn, work and experience the world optimally, they have to try harder and people around them have to enable them in their endeavour.

Activity 1

Can you think of a child who has any of the above listed difficulties? If not, ask a member of your family or a neighbour if she/he knows one such child. Try to meet, observe and interact with any such child/person(s). Write down a few lines about experiences and special needs of the child. Find out if she/he goes to school. If yes, which school, if no, why not?

Children’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) are met through certain methodologies of special education. Special education is not segregated or exclusive education of students with disabilities. It is an approach that facilitates their learning and allows them to participate in different activities that they may not have had access to on account of their inability to go to school. Hence, children with special needs do not have to always study in a separate institution In fact, most of them can learn quite well in general classes of a school. However, some children who have severe difficulties, due to the nature of their disability, may benefit greatly from being educated in a classroom prepared exclusively for them, as a smaller number of students are grouped together, where the educator interacts with the students on a one-to-one basis. The educators/teachers who provide special education are called Special Educators.

When children/ students with SEN study in general classrooms with heir peers, the arrangement is called ‘inclusive education’. As the term indicates, the philosophy that guides this approach is that students with diverse needs (educational, physical, social and emotional) are placed together in age-appropriate classes/groups such that the students can optimally achieve their learning potential. The school makes suitable adjustments and modifications in its curriculum, teaching methods and physical set up to facilitate their education.

A person who chooses to become a special educator is said to have a career in Special Education. There are several models of special/inclusive education in which a special educator can work with children with SEN:

(i) Some schools impart education exclusively to children with disabilities. Most such schools offer services to children with

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