Educating special needs children provides it own challenges and rewards. Children with mental retardation, autism, severe disabilities, and multiple disabilities need special education that focuses on their current developmental levels. By focusing on their current levels, instead of the information normally provided in their chronological age/grade level, the children can be given goals that they can obtain, which can lead to more successful accomplishments. Here are some ideas to help children with special needs succeed in school:
Educating Special Needs Children with Intellectual Disabilities
Intellectual disabilities include a disability characterized by significant limitation in both intellectual functioning and conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. It is also characterized by people at or below the IQ range of 70 to 75. There are more than 250 identified causes of intellectual disabilities. They include prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal factors that may be influenced biologically and/or environmentally. Children with intellectual disabilities may have complications learning because they can have difficulties differentiating important issues/material from unimportant issues/material. They may also have problems generalizing experiences from one setting to a universal application. Because of this, it maybe helpful for teachers to stimulate real world experiences into the children’s classroom education.
The strategy of picking curriculum should include:
- being team-oriented
- set curricular goals
- being socially valid and practical
- reflecting priorities from ecological assessment
- requiring active student participation in learning
- fostering self-determination
- be individualized so that the curriculum can achieve increased priority skills related to ecological assessment
- expanded relationships with schoolmates
- foster membership in the school and community
- real world experiences that help them generalize information
- By coming up with an individualized plan and strategy, the teacher can get the most out of the child’s learning experience.
Articles Related to ‘Educating Special Needs Children’
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Special Education System: An Introduction