Students with special needs represent a unique group of learners who require the special attention of a teacher and the school administration in general. As a special educator, I can say that I open the curtain of special education but do everything possible to mind my language and communication. It is very clearly stated that the language and communication must be organized in a mutually convenient way for all parties. Thus, we have to work and communicate with different people during the day, so negative responses and abusive remarks may come from other people. The main difficulty for me is to change the situation or a tone of conservation to avoid abusive and harsh remarks related to a special education environment.
I suppose that problem of the open or closed curtain of special education misunderstanding of special education needs and abilities of students. Some school-age students have difficulty writing complete sentences; others may be unable to organize facts in a logical order. The problem often results from getting too involved in the details of the writing practice; the student is likely to get sidetracked and be unable to complete the task on time. I do not perceive special education students as low-skilled or stragglers, but see them as students with “special” needs who require additional support and attention from a teacher. Of all the learning difficulties a child may display, reading problems are the most common. A student may have difficulty in word recognition and analysis (word attack skills) and listening comprehension. When a student reads orally or silently he may use his finger to guide him across the page. You may notice that a student is having little success decoding words phonetically or extracting the main idea of a paragraph.
In special education, the skills and professionalism of a teacher are the main determinants of success. and the skills of special education students depend upon the professionalism of a teacher and his ideology. I never see students as children with special needs but perceive them as those children who require guidance and support. Students with learning disabilities are most likely to have problems in either language or visual perceptual-motor functioning. From my personal experience I know that for a student to develop adequate speaking and listening skills, as well as to perform at or above grade level in basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, he/she must be able to perform rudimentary skills such as copying objects correctly (numbers, letters), cutting with scissors following a line, and matching simple geometric forms, to name a few. In order to show learning progress, I simplify some assignments and underlines that all students do their best to finish all tasks on time. I try to avoid conversations with other teachers during the lesson or when students can hear our conversation.
The role of the special education teacher is to develop a strategy (what tests should be given) that will be used to determine discrepancies between child’s abilities and his current performance in the classroom. A special education teacher has to determine a child’s ability to learn from experience and solve problems. A teacher who suspects a problem may bring up the subject with colleagues (probably not disclosing the student’s name), either formally or informally, before meeting with this student or his parents. Usually the teacher will prepare a list of problem areas. The group may make suggestions on different methods to take when teaching a concept to a special education student (e.g., peer teaching). The teacher may try this new method of teaching, but perhaps it does not seem to help. He or she may then decide that the appropriate course of action and new strategies is to refer a student for further learning.
References
Smith, R. M., Salend, S. J. Ryan, S. Watch Your Language. Teaching Exceptional Children 33 (4), pp. 18-23.