SPECIAL EDUCATION EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

Chapter 17

SPECIAL EDUCATION EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

The Chapter at a Glance

The Exceptional Child.

Significance of Special Children.

Problems of Special Education.

Types of Exceptional children.

Equality of educational opportunity.

            Some of the prominent categories of exceptional children and the problems associated with their education are to be discussed in the following chapters. An attempt has throughout been made to analyze the dynamics of thought and behavior characteristic of the exceptional child. Specific abilities and handicaps of these children have been highlighted. Practical suggestions have been offered to teachers and parents. It is hoped that these will enable them to meet the educational re­quirements of exceptional children more adequately and more efficiently.

The Exceptional Child

            Individuals differ immensely from one another in many aspects. Modern psychology reveals that such individual differences manifest themselves in physical, emotional, intel­lectual, social and cultural spheres. We have referred to these differences in Part Two of this book. Detailed discussion of such differences has been made in a preceding chapter on Individual differences?

            Slight variations and deviations in various human traits are commonly observed among the normal children. An excep­tional individual, however, is a person in whom these variations reach the extreme. He is thus exceptionally different from the average or normal child in a particular good or bad trait or traits. This extreme difference of disability is so intensified in him that he feels handicapped in making a successful ad­justment to people and situations.

            It may be remembered that though the term exceptional child applies to all children who are handicapped intellectually, emotionally, physically or socially, it also includes those children who are exceptionally superior intellectually, e.g., the gifted children.

Significance of Special Education

Placing of all types of exceptional children in schools meant for normal children is not a sound educational policy. Such a practice is likely to harm the educational progress of both the normal and the exceptional children. In such an inadequate arrangement, the teacher too is most liable to encounter a num­ber of insurmountable difficulties. If, for instance, he attends to the exceptional child the majority of normal children suffer. Should he ignore him, he does him immense harm. He cannot possibly pay equal and uniform attention to all of them for the obvious reason of their extreme mental differences.

Need for Special Education

  Exceptional children, therefore, require what is known as special education. It is a program of education which is specifically planned and designed for various categories of excep­tional children. Such a special form of education is usually conducted in separate classes in ordinary schools or in specialized institutions exclusively meant for exceptional children. These institutions are staffed by teachers with special academic and practical training in the teaching and guiding of exceptional children.

            The contemporary world is becoming growingly alive to the needs and requirements of exceptional children. Useful research and experiments are being conducted to work out adequate types of special education most suited to the physical and intellectual level of various categories of exceptional children.

            Unfortunately, we have been rather slow to realize the necessity and urgency of attending to the educational problems of our exceptional children. Consequently, our exceptional children are being badly neglected at the moment. The Commission on National Education has emphasized the necessity and utility of the education of the handicapped children.

Educational Significance

            Looked at from an educational angle the problem appears to be very important. The number of exceptional children in our country is quite large. The number of institutions spe­cially catering for such children, on the contrary, is ridiculously meager. Consequently, the majority of our handicapped children do not get any schooling opportunity at all. A large number of them are obliged to go to the schools for normal children who usually do not provide them with any special facilities.

            What needs to be done, therefore, is obvious. We need to start separate and specialized institutions for seriously handi­capped children. Starting of specialized classes for less seriously handicapped children in schools for normal children is also equally imperative.

            Successful teaching and guidance of the exceptional child whether in a special class or a separate institution requires that the teacher should get elaborate training in special instructional methods exclusively meant for such children. Knowledge of the principles and methods of special education will add to the teacher's professional ability and efficiency. It is also bound to contribute immensely towards the educational betterment of both seriously and mildly handicapped children.

Socio-Economic Significance

            Socially the problem presents itself in the form of a serious challenge. A welfare state should provide all the necessary facilities for the treatment and education of its exceptional and handicapped population. It should also aim at the prevention of their disabilities. The presence of handicapped individuals in a country affects the health and well-being of many others as well. It also involves a burden on the state exchequer. A lot of money is spent on the maintenance of special institutions, supervision, detention, etc. of various types of handicapped individuals. Such expenditure and all the complicated bother could be reduced considerably if proper and timely preventive measures are adopted in this direction.

            A well-planned system of special education, focusing on understanding, education and prevention is bound to result in improving the lot of such children tremendously. By making them better adjusted and more useful such an education ulti­mately results in promoting general well-being and a lot of national saving.

            In addition to all these advantages special education brings immense relief, satisfaction and a sense of achievement to the individual child who is otherwise handicapped from gaining these satisfying experiences from an average program of education meant for normal children. It enables him to under­stand, accept and remedy his handicap in an educational en­vironment which is most congenial, individualized and the least straining for him.

Problems of Special Education

            It may be remembered that the aims and ideals of special education are the same as those of other forms of education. The only differentiating features of special education are the special emphasis placed on the specific abilities or handicaps of the exceptional child, the dynamics of their operation as obstacles in his educational progress and the specialized tech­niques of guidance and instruction, treatment, etc. required.

Understanding the Exceptional Child

            Understanding the personality of the individual child is extremely indispensable for any teacher entrusted with the education of any type of children whatsoever. Such an under­standing is particularly indispensable for a teacher of excep­tional children obviously because their individual differences are all the more sharply drawn in certain significant respects.

            The teacher should realize that the exceptional child too is a person. With a complete understanding of the individual personality of the child, his education becomes a relatively smooth, progressive and even pleasant process. Emphasizing this point an American Educational Commission comments:

"The most important element in the approach to the solution of the problems presented to schools and communities by these groups is the recognition of the personality of though child; and his various relationships with his family, the community and general society, and of the relative part to be played by clinics, schools and other agencies of care, correction and education".

            The best possible results, therefore, can only be achieved with an exceptional child, if the teacher makes a resolute endeavor to understand the personality and the individuality of the child in its entire perspective.

Both Education and Training

            Like normal children, exceptional children also need suitable opportunities for formal academic instruction as well as practical training for crafts suited to their physique, temperament and aptitude. Limiting the educational program of exceptional children to either of the two exclusively does not appear to be a sound policy in special education.

            Forma Education: The learned American lady, Dr. Helen Keler, is a living example of a seriously handicapped person who has proved that she is capable of getting practically the same quality and quantity of formal education which can be assimilated by any normal person. Modern technology has invented ingenious apparatuses for formal education of the handicapped. With the help of these special educational instru­ments even the most seriously handicapped child can now be given instruction in most of the educational fields which till recently were considered to be the exclusive monopoly of the normal child.

                Vocational Training: Practical and vocational training is also necessary, though this should never be the sole aim of special education. Handicapped children can be trained in music, type-writing, weaving, sewing, cooking, laundry work and a host of other vocations. It would indeed be ideal for a handicapped child to learn a trade or a vocation wherein his physical disability is of no great handicap to him. It decreases his consciousness of his handicaps and yields him immense joy and satisfaction consequent upon achievement.

Types of Exceptional Children

            Most of the types of exceptional children have already been discussed in a preceding chapter on the Influence of Family. But the emphasis there centered mostly round the interaction between the exceptional child and the family. The main emphasis in the following chapters, on the contrary, is focused on the role of the teacher in educating and rehabilitating the exceptional child.

Some Conspicuous Types

            There are several types of exceptional children. Each type is characterized by certain specific features. In the following chapters of this Part, only the more conspicuous types of excep­tional children will be discussed, and according to the following scheme.

            The intellectually exceptional child has been dealt with in two chapters, one discussing the gifted child and the other the retarded child.

            This is followed by a chapter on the emotionally exceptional child__ the emotionally disturbed.

            The physically exceptional child has been the subject of the next chapter. This chapter is divided into four sections each one highlighting the educational needs of four sub-classes of the physically exceptional child, as follows:-

Section One    : The crippled child.

Section Two    : The   visually   handicapped   child   including the blind and the near-blind.

Section Three  : The auditorily handicapped child, including the deaf and the hard of hearing.

Section Four   : The speech defective child.

            The last chapter is devoted to the problems of the delin­quent child who is a type of the socially handicapped child.

The Multiple Handicapped Child

            It may be pointed out at this place that an exceptional child is not necessarily characterized by a single handicap. One and the same child might suffer from more than one handicap. Such an exceptional child is known as a multiple handicapped child. Says Doll :

            "How many blind children are also deaf, or also defective in speech? Likewise, how many feeble-minded children are deaf and blind and speech defective? It is not simply a question of double handicap —there are triple and quadruple handicaps as well. How many defects are present in the same person and what are the fre­quencies of these multiple abnormalities?"

            It is, therefore, evident that in certain cases classifying exceptional children on the basis of a single handicap might be inaccurate, misleading and even dangerous. Yet for the sake of convenience one could classify a child in a particular group or type of exceptional children on the basis of that single handicap which is relatively more conspicuous in him than his other handicaps.

Equality of Educational Opportunity

            It may be re-emphasized that none of the exceptional child­ren are to be considered as a peculiar or an inferior or a 'funny' stock. They are not at all to be discriminated against in the provision of educational facilities. They rather need extra­ordinary coaching and individualized attention in their own interests as well as the larger interests of the community. Whether such exceptional children are educated at separate classes or special institutions or are sent to the average schools for the non-exceptional children they are to be given all possible guidance and education that is usually given to a normal child.

Equal Opportunity for Every One

            A report of the National Association of Secondary School Principals advocates the same in the following word:-

        “The personal urges for affection, security, and self-realization are paramount in all groups. Certainly, good character and all the values that constitute a stable society are equally desirable for every type of individual, whatever his gifts and limitations…….

“Only in the degree to which a school can adjust its instructions to satisfy the present, real and personal needs of all pupils can it hope to provide the conditions that lead to the larger objective of preparation for an adjusted and satisfying adult life.”

Equality of educational opportunity, therefore, should be regarded as a birth right of each child whether normal, superior or handicapped.