History Of Special Education

Great Essays
What’s special about special education?
As I reflect upon the differences in my understanding of special education as a result of this class, three major points stand out to me. The first is a greater ability to withstand uncertainty and ambiguity. The second is a shift toward a biopsychosocial model of understanding special needs. The third, although it may sound overly simplistic, is that I didn’t know what I didn’t know. These three concepts, in my mind, are interrelated. Coming to terms with each one helps me to better understand the others. I think each of these concepts will help me be both a better aide in my current job, and in my future career as a school counselor. They help to answer questions about the students who receive special education services, their families, and the methods with which we provide these services. Sometimes there is no right answer, and that’s O.K. We have had many discussions in Introduction to Exceptional Children. For most, if not all, of these discussions, there was no patently correct way to respond. I often found that after talking to my peers I was better informed, but more conflicted than I was to begin with. I think the answer to most of questions posed for discussion in this class could be “it depends”. Each student is different, each situation is different, and so is each teacher. There are certainly some certainties in life, but there are certainly more unknowns. Although being certain would make things easier, I do not think it would make for a very fair or flexible way to live or educate children. One example of this is the discussion we had on communication disorders. The question was asking about which circumstances or settings are best for speech-language services. I started out very sure about my answer, but later after reading other student’s responses, I could also see the merits of their views. I changed my mind. I think that is a central part of what this class has done for me. It gave me a space to explore ideas about exceptional students and see other ways of viewing special education. I would say that special education teachers need to be able to see things this way. Because they need to be able to work with students from all backgrounds and so many different categories of exceptionalities, they must be able to be comfortable with the fact that the answers to questions about special education are not always certain and they most certainly can change. The Biopsychosocial Model In their 2015 book, Hallahan, Kauffman, and Pullen take readers through a short history of special education as a whole in their first chapter, and then revisit the individual history of each category of special education in its own separate chapter.
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The overarching theme is a movement from a paradigm in which children with special needs were not valued members of society- people concentrated on their differences to society - to one in which children with special needs are more often fully included in their communities and are seen as more alike than different from their peers. In fact, the Deaf community is seen as a subculture with its own traditions and language. The overall paradigm is one of inclusion and wholeness that respects both the unique challenges and the strengths of learners with disabilities.. Similarly, in her 2015 TED talk, Torrie Dunlap describes this deinstitutionalization to inclusion movement using the language of conceptual models of disability. She describes society as moving from a medical model, where disability is viewed as a problem or sickness that needs to be fixed, to a social model in which societal barriers are seen as the problem, to the holisitic approach of the biopsychosocial model. In the biopsychosocial model, in which diagnosis, medical treatment, social barriers, and inclusion are all addressed. This is the model Dunlap champions in her speech. Torrie Dunlap tells a story of when, …show more content…
I actually had to rethink the way I was conducting my Sunday school classes after all of this. I realized that sometimes even though I was well-meaning, I had employed this separate-but-equal thinking in church activities. Instead of making up lessons and then trying to figure out how to include exceptional children afterward, I’m trying to think of lessons that everyone can participate in

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