Text 25 Diagnostic patterns

Children with a particular kind of handicap do not necessarily form a homogeneous group, so diagnosis must go beyond merely classifying the children according to their major deviation. A child with cerebral palsy, for example, has a motor handicap, but in intelligence he may be superior or average or mentally retarded. Hence children with certain labels of impairment—cerebral palsy or deafness or blindness—must be carefully assessed before they can be properly placed in a particular group.

For the gifted and the mentally retarded, the primary criterion of identification is an individually administered intelligence test. If the child is high (for the gifted, generally above 125 IQ) or low (for the mentally retarded, below 75), he is considered for the special program. The determination is made by psychologists who in most cases must certify the child for eligibility for special programs. In making their assessment, psychologists also take into account other criteria such as school achievement, personality, and the adjustment of the child in the regular grades.

For children with sensory handicaps the evaluation of the problem is made by medical personnel. Orthopedically and neurologically impaired children are assigned to special programs upon the results of orthopedic or neurological examination by physicians, with supplementary assessment by psychological and educational diagnosticians. Children who have learning disabilities are assessed primarily by psychoeducational diagnosticians, who through educational and psychological diagnostic tests determine the child's potential for learning and his level of achievement. Ancillary diagnoses by medical, psychological, and other personnel are considered in the determination of eligibility for special programs and in the kind of programs that are required. Socially and emotionally maladjusted children are generally referred by parents or by regular teachers when they find it difficult to manage the child at home or in school. Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists, together with social workers and educational personnel, determine the children's eligibility for assignment to special programs.

Text 26 Patterns of instructional adaptation

The goals of special education are similar to the goals for ordinary children; only the techniques for attaining them are different. An effort is made, for example, to teach all exceptional children (except those unable to profit at all from school experience) to read. Most gifted children have little difficulty in learning to read, many of them having learned to read at home before entering the first grade. The mentally retarded, on the other hand, obviously require prolonged periods of more intensive and more individualized instruction, which includes more techniques to maintain interest, more active participation, and much repetition of similar material in varied form. Children with severe sensory handicaps (the deaf and the blind) must learn to read through other sense modalities. The deaf learn to read through a visual method not involving the sense of hearing. The blind learn to read Braille through the tactile and kinesthetic sense.

The most specialized teaching techniques are required for deaf children, who, because of their hearing loss and their inability to develop auditory language, are inhibited in the ability to speak and to learn to read. The inability to read well inhibits other educational endeavours. Special techniques involve learning to speak by kinesthetic and visual methods, learning to “hear” others through lip-reading, and learning to read by special visual techniques to compensate for their deficiency in oral language. General information is sometimes obtained by the deafthrough manual language and finger spelling. For several centuries, the major controversy in the education of the deaf has been whether to use manual or oral methods to educate the deaf. There are thus some schools that teach primarily by the oral method (speech and speech reading) without the use of manual language and some that educate by a combination of oral and manual methods.

There is no major controversy about the education of the hard-of-hearing. These children are generally educated in regular classes with ordinary children but receive special instruction from visiting teachers in auditory training and the use of hearing aids, speech correction, and speech reading.

The blind are educated through the sense of hearing and the use of the tactile sense. Books are prepared in Braille, a code of embossed dots over which the blind person runs his fingers and translates the sequences of dots into meaning—much in the same manner as the average person translates sequences of seen letters into meaning. Many textbooks, much literary material, and quantities of information are also transcribed onto tapes and records for the blind. Mobility training has been developed to the point that it is being widely used to help the blind move about comfortably in their environment by using senses other than vision.

Partially seeing children, on the other hand, are educated primarily through the visual, auditory, and haptic (touch) senses, using magnification of their limited sight, training of visual perception, and utilization of various large-type printing.

For children who have motor handicaps, the required academic adjustments are minimal. Unless the child has additional problems such as learning disabilities, mental retardation, or speech problems (which are often found among the cerebral palsied), crippled children learn like other children, and they can follow the same classroom materials. Special techniques are necessary, however, to help such children to adaptto their environment and to adapt the environment to their disability. Wheelchairs, modified desks, and other apparatus aid the child in mobility and the manipulation of classroom materials. One of the most important aspects of the education of the orthopedically handicapped is attitudinal—that is, preparing the child for adapting to the world outside the classroom and facing his handicap in such a way as to permit him to lead a relatively normal life.

Children with learning disabilities and those with speech defects require highly specialized techniques, usually on an individual basis.

For children with social and emotional problems, special therapeutic and clinical services may be provided. Psychotherapy and behaviour therapy by clinical psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists are generally a part of the educational program. Academic teachers in these classes stress personality development, social adjustment, and habits of interpersonal relations. With this group of children, these factors are prerequisite to academic achievement. Academic work is, however, sometimes therapeutic in itself and is promoted as much as possible.