Introduction to Special

Education
Special education

 Special Education is the design and delivery of teaching and learning strategies for
individuals with disabilities or learning difficulties who may or may not be enrolled in
regular schools. Students who need special education may include students who have
hearing impairment or are deaf, students who have vision impairment or are blind, students
with physical disabilities, students with intellectual disability, students with learning
difficulties, students with behaviour disorders or emotional disturbance, and students with
speech or language difficulties. Some students have a number of disabilities and learning
difficulties.
Special education

 There are students who require special education of some kind in most elementary and
primary school classes, and with changing social values, increased acceptance and
tolerance, and growth in the provision of services and resources for special education
across Papua New Guinea, it is likely that the numbers of students with special educational
needs attending regular schools will increase rapidly. Consequently, it is essential that all
teachers develop practical and effective special educational skills so that they may ensure
that all students in their classes, including those with special educational needs, learn
effectively.
Impairment, Disability, Or Handicap

 The terms disability, impairment, and handicap have been used synonymously within the
education, counseling, and health literature. Although, each of these three terminology can
be used when discussing disabling conditions, they convey three different meanings. To
promote the appropriate use of these terms the World Health Organization (WHO)
provided the following definitions in their International Classification of Impairment,
Disability, and Handicap (1980):
 Impairment – any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or anatomical
structure or function.
 Disability – any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within
the range considered normal for a human being.
 Handicap – the result when an individual with an impairment cannot fulfill a normal life
role.
Impairment, Disability, Or Handicap

 Based on these definitions, it should be understood a handicap is not a characteristic of a

person, rather a description of the relationship between the person and the environment.
Consider the following. A person who is born blind (the impairment) is unable to read
printed material, which is how most information is widely disseminated (the disability). If
this person is prevented from attending school or applying for a job because of this
impairment and disability, this is a handicap. This person may be able to perform the daily
activity (reading) using some type of assistive technology to overcome this handicap. By
attributing the handicap to the environment as opposed to an individual, the emphasis is
placed on using AT to produce functional outcomes as opposed to focusing on functional
limitations.
(Falvo, 2005; Cook + Hussey, 2002; WHO, 1980)
Segregation, Mainstreaming, Integration &
Inclusion
Segregation, Mainstreaming, Integration &
Inclusion
Segregation, Mainstreaming, Integration &
Inclusion
 Mainstreaming refers to placement of a student with disabilities into ongoing activities of
regular classrooms so that the child receives education with nondisabled peers — even if
special education staff must provide supplementary resource services.
 Integration includes mainstreaming into regular classes and access to, inclusion, and
participation in the activities of the total school environment. Integration combines
placement in public schools with ongoing structured and non-structured opportunities to
interact with nondisabled, age-appropriate peers. A student with severe disabilities should be
able to participate in many general school activities such as lunch, assemblies, clubs, dances
or recess. The student should also be able to participate in selected activities in regular
classes such as art, music, or computers. The student should also be able to participate in
regular academic subjects in regular classes if appropriate curriculum modifications are made
and adequate support is provided. The student should be able to use the same facilities as
nondisabled students including hallways, restrooms, libraries, cafeterias and gymnasiums.
Segregation, Mainstreaming, Integration &
Inclusion
 Integration can refer to integration of a special education student into a regular education
classroom in the same sense as in “mainstreaming.” However, “integration” also refers to
placement of students in special education classes located on integrated school sites (that
is, sites that have both special and regular education classes). An “integrated” placement
includes systematic efforts to maximize interaction between the student with disabilities
and nondisabled peers.
Segregation, Mainstreaming, Integration &
Inclusion
 Full inclusion refers to the total integration of a student with disabilities into the regular
education program with special support. In full inclusion, the student’s primary placement
is in the regular education class. The student has no additional assignment to any special
class for students with disabilities. Thus, the student with disabilities is actually a member
of the regular education class. She is not being integrated or mainstreamed into the regular
education class from a special day class. The student need not be in the class 100% of the
time, but can leave the class to receive related services such as speech or physical therapy.
For a proposed list of characteristics of a “Full Inclusion” approach to integrated special
education programming, see Indicators of Fully Inclusive Programs for Students with
Disabilities, Appendices Section, Appendix O.
Segregation, Mainstreaming, Integration &
Inclusion
 Reverse mainstreaming refers to the practice of giving opportunities to interact with
nondisabled peers to a student who is placed in a self-contained or segregated classroom
(or school) or who lives and attends school at a state hospital. It brings nondisabled
students to a self-contained classroom, segregated site or to state hospital classrooms for
periods of time to work with or tutor students with disabilities. School districts should not
attempt to fulfill the LRE mandate by using reverse mainstreaming exclusively.
Least Restrictive / Barrier Free Environment

 The concept of least restrictive environment (LRE) comes from the federal law called the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and is one of six principles which set
guidelines for the education of students within special education programs.
 IDEA was first passed in 1975 and has since been reauthorized several times, most recently in
2004. It governs how special education services are provided by schools and public agencies
for children from birth to 21 years old. The goal of the legislation is to ensure that all students
with disabilities receive a 'free and appropriate public education' that gets them ready for
higher education, for independent living, and for work.
 The LRE section of IDEA states that special education students are to remain in educational
environments with their non-identified peers (students not in the special education program)
unless there is a compelling reason for them to be separated from those peers. The more time a
student spends away from non-identified peers, the more restrictive the environment is
considered to be.
Least Restrictive / Barrier Free Environment

 The LRE text from Section 5A of IDEA 2004 states that:

 To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or
private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled,
and special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the
regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability of a
child is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services
cannot be achieved satisfactorily.
 An example of a compelling reason is that even with extra services, such as the help of a
paraprofessional, or supplementary aids, such as the use of a keyboard when other students are
writing by hand, the student is still not able to achieve a satisfactory education. Under those
circumstances, special education students' learning could take place in another setting, such as
a resource room or even a full-time self-contained classroom, depending on the individual
needs of the students involved.
Biomedical Model of Health

 Biomedical Model of Health

 The biomedical model of health is the most dominant in the western world and focuses on
health purely in terms of biological factors. Contained within the biomedical model of
health is a medical model of disability. In a similar vein, this focuses on disability purely in
terms of the impairment that it gives the individual. The biomedical model is often
contrasted with the biop-sychosocial model.
Medical Model of Disability

 Medical Model of Disability

 The medical model of disability is presented as viewing disability as a problem of the
person, directly caused by disease, trauma, or other health condition which therefore
requires sustained medical care provided in the form of individual treatment by
professionals.
 In the medical model, management of the disability is aimed at a "cure," or the individual's
adjustment and behavioral change that would lead to an "almost-cure" or effective cure.
 In the medical model, medical care is viewed as the main issue, and at the political level,
the principal response is that of modifying or reforming health-care policy.
Identity Model

 Identity Model
 Disability as an identity model is closely related to the social model of disability - yet with
a fundamental difference in emphasis - is the identity model (or affirmation model) of
disability.
 This model shares the social model's understanding that the experience of disability is
socially constructed, but differs to the extent that it 'claims disability as a positive
identity' (Brewer et al. 2012:5). Brewer et al. (2012) offer the following illuminating
definition, which also explains how the identity model departs from the social model's
approach - (http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/hts/v74n1/06.pdf)
Social Model of Disability

 The social model of disability sees the issue of "disability" as a socially created problem
and a matter of the full integration of individuals into society.
 In this model, disability is not an attribute of an individual, but rather a complex collection
of conditions, many of which are created by the social environment. Hence, the
management of the problem requires social action and is the collective responsibility of
society at large to make the environmental modifications necessary for the full
participation of people with disabilities in all areas of social life.
Social Model of Disability

 The issue is both cultural and ideological, requiring individual, community, and
large-scale social change. From this perspective, equal access for someone with
an impairment/disability is a human rights issue of major concern.
Minority Model of Disability

 The minority model of disability, also known as sociopolitical model of disability, adds to
the social model, the idea that disability is imposed on top of impairment via negative
attitudes and social barriers, in suggesting that people with disabilities constitute a
entitative, (relating to or possessing material existence), social category that shares in
common the experience of disability.
 The minority model normalizes the experience of disability as a minority experience no
more or less aberrant or deviant than other minority groups' experiences (sex, race, sexual
orientation, etc.). Essentially, this is the assertion that people with disabilities are, in part,
disabled not by what's going on with our bodies per se, but by the manner in which the
able-bodied majority of society views us and either molds or does not mold itself to allow
us to fit.
Religious Model of Disability

 The moral/religious model of disability is the oldest model of disability and is found in a
number of religious traditions, including the Judeo-Christian tradition (Pardeck & Murphy
2012:xvii). The religious model of disability is a pre-modern paradigm that views
disability as an act of a god, usually a punishment for some sin committed by the disabled
individual or their family. In that sense, disability is punitive and tragic in nature.
 This model frames disability as something to be ashamed of and insinuates that disabled
people or their families are guilty of some unknown action that caused their impairment.
But that mentality only serves to stigmatize disability, and the claim that praying heals
disability is based on purely anecdotal evidence.
Human Rights Based Model of Disability

 From the mid 1980's countries such as Australia enacted legislation which embraced
rights-based discourse rather than custodial discourse and seeks to address the issues of
social justice and discrimination. The legislations embraced the shift from disability being
seen as an individual medical problem to it instead being about community membership
and fair access to social activities such as employment, education and recreation.
 The emphasis in the 1980's shifted from dependence to independence as people with
disabilities sought to have a political voice. Disability activism also helped to develop and
pass legislation and entitlements became available to many people. However, while the
rights-based model of disability has helped to develop additional entitlements, it has not
changed the way in which the idea of disability is constructed. The stigma of 'bad genes' or
'abnormality' still goes unchallenged and the idea of community is still elusive
- (https://sites.google.com/site/changesintheviewsofdisability/models-of-disability)