What do you think when you hear the term special education?
Can you imagine students alienated in a classroom alone away from their peers? In the past, students with special learning difficulties often acquired names and descriptions such as lazy, naughty, does not understand letters, does not care or even worse… Responsibilities were transferred to either the teacher or the parents, which managed to increase stress on both sides at the same time and instead of trying to educate the child, they are in a frequent quarrel with each other. These students were often marginalized, isolated, or even bullied by their peers or other school children, and either left school early or dropped out without sufficient knowledge to find jobs that matched their true potential. , since they never managed to reach them.
The society…
Fortunately, society and the sciences have now reached a level where elementary education is a human right for all students, regardless. All students, with or without special needs, coexist in the same school environments, in the same classrooms as the other children of their age, and each one individually, depending on the possibilities and needs, participates in the teaching process as well as the other students. With common teaching and learning that direction has the unique value of each individual, emphasizing individual needs and acceptance of their diversity. All children have the right to be included in a “normal” classroom and to receive the same curriculum as other children, but with the same differentiations.
What is Special Education?
Special education is a set of educational services provided to students with special educational needs that today aims to help people with special and educational abilities to be educated without this meaning that they will be marginalized. A carefully personalized approach to proven strategies and activities that are specifically selected to target specific learning needs, giving students the opportunity to grow to their full potential. In essence, it is a combination of teaching and student support that together with the creation of appropriate conditions aim at the effective treatment of difficulties and the satisfaction of his/her educational needs. Aims to analyze and describe the weaknesses of a student compared to children of typical development of the same age and at the same time, designed practices that will help and improve the quality of life of the student with special educational needs.
Its objectives…
One of the main goals of Special Education is the development of the student’s personality. Through teaching the student is redefined, socialized, learns to work with his/her peers and slowly becomes independent. This in turn fulfills another key goal, which is the integration of the student in the context of general school and later in social and professional life. Having learned to coexist smoothly and effectively within a school classroom, he/she integrates just as smoothly into society through the profession he/she will follow but also through his/her social interactions.
What does it seek?
The special education seeks the harmonious development of the students’ personality, the utilization but also the improvement of the skills and possibilities so that they manage to integrate as much as possible in the general school, where this is possible. It also seeks their harmonious coexistence with society and their equal social development by ensuring their access to all infrastructure of the school environment.
How does it work?
There is no one rule that can be applied to all children independently, so special education is adjusted according to the needs and abilities of each child individually. The special educator works with people who face difficulties in learning, emotional, mental and physical level, adapting the teaching to serve the needs of each individual. He/She usually works with parents, counselors, teachers, psychologists and other professionals who work with this individual to organize and draw up an individual education plan which is a cornerstone of each student’s educational path.
The result…
With the help of special education we help every person who faces difficulties, to reach the maximum of his / her possibilities, offering support and appropriate help for his / her smooth integration in the society. Special education enhances the acquisition of skills and knowledge to help the child develop independence and personal responsibility. It includes academic learning, socialization, adaptive skills, communication, improving intervention behaviors and generalizing skills in many environments.
Stephanos Antoniou
Special Educator