Welcoming Children Who Have Special Educational Requirementns

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Welcoming Children Who Have Special Educational
Requirementns

• Chapter 5

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Two Important Congressional Act

• IDEA Individuals With Disabilities Education
  Act
• ADA Americans with Disabilities Act
• These laws mandate that such children are
  entitled to a free, appropriate public education,
  and they are to be educated in the most
  facilitative, least restrictive educational
  environments

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The Teachers Role

• Help for children with disabilities is more
  readily available than it was in the past
• Because of the laws, many more children who have
  disabilities are attending regular schools, and
  each of them will come with individualized
  education program (IEP)
• The teachers are expected to join the treatment
  teams engaged in working with such children
• Know about typical child development

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Identifying Children Who have special Needs and
Finding Help for Them The Teacher as a Screening
Agent

• Identify potential disabilities early
• Referring children for special help calling the
  difficulty to the familys attention
• It takes time to bring about a referral
• The teacher should have the reasons why the
  child needs special help clearly in mind before
  raising the issue with the family provide
  evidence such as, anecdotal observati0ns,
  photographs, videos.
• It is not the teachers place to diagnose

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Finding the Appropriate Referral Source

• Before referring families, know the variety of
  referral sources available in their community
• Know agency in your state administers IDEA
  Typical names are
• the State Health department,
• Department of Human services,
• Office of children, youth, and families
• Other recourses include directories of community
  services public health nurses, pediatricians,
  local childrens hospitals, school counselors,
  county medical societies, and mental health
  clinics
• Most common is Child Care Resource Center (CCRC)
  www.ccrcca.org 818-717-1000 and Regional
  Center www.regionalcenter.org

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• Observing Professional Ethics
• Do not diagnose childs disability
• The teacher must obtain a parent consent before
  talking to the specialist
• Gossiping is a violation of the familys privacy
  (NAEYC, 1998b)

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Including Children Who Have Disabilities

• What the Lows says Every child with disability
  is entitled to a free public education, and shall
  be provided with IEP(Individualized education
  program, ages 3 and up) or IFSP (individualized
  family service plan ages 0-3 years)
• When planning the IEP, it is essential to have a
  careful assessment of the childs accomplishments
  and abilities available

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Learning to Work as a Member of the Team

• Transdisciplinary approach incorporating
  services into the setting, along with the child
  and to encourage the teacher and the other
  specialist to combine their skills (ex. Instead
  of removing the child from the classroom for
  speech therapy, integrate their work into the
  ongoing school program
• The specialist and teacher must work together
  (build relationships, respect each other
  expertise)

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Getting Started with a Child Who Has a Disability

• Welcome the child and family Reggio Emilia,
  Italy consider children with special needs as
  children with special rights.
• It is important to make it clear to the family
  that the staff has great goodwill but also has
  certain limitations staff should have a training
  in working with children who have exceptional
  needs

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• The staff will have to come to terms with how
  much extra effort the child will require them to
  expend every day (change their clothes, attention
  for emotional disturbance)
• It will be necessary for the staff to examine
  their feelings about children with disabilities

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• Families and teachers can solve problems during
  the trial period come up with ways such as,
  build a ramp over the stairs, family member may
  attend the program in the beginning to help the
  child adjust)
• Begin with short day then gradually expand
• Have a conversation with the childs physician or
  other team members

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• Many disabilities will pass unnoticed by other
  children in the group, but some will require
  explanation

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General Recommendations for Working with Children
Who have Disabilities

• See through the exceptional to the typical in
  every child feeling sorry for children weakens
  their character and ultimately does them
  disservice
• Try to steer a middle course, neither
  overprotecting not overexpecting encourage the
  child to participate in every activity with
  modification provided
• Be realistic help the parents and the child
  accept the fact

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• Keep regular records of the childs development
• Remain in constant contact with the family
  collaborate with families on planning and
  practices

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Identifying and Helping Children Who Have
Physical Disabilities and Illnesses

• Speech and hearing problems speech is likely to
  be noticed, but hearing loss my be overlooked as
  a possible cause of misbehavior. Refer the child
  to specialist for examination (may be a result of
  infection)

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• Difficulties of vision symptoms are crossed
  eyes, rapid movement of the eyeball, holding
  objects close to the eyes, awkward eye-hand
  coordination, complaints about vision
• Attention deficit disorder (ADD)/Attention
  deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms
  are impulsivity, inattention, over activity

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• Children with asthma teachers should talk with
  the families and physicians to be well informed
  about the particular childs condition and
  triggers and be trained on using the inhaler

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• Seizure disorders individual loose
  consciousness. It is important to remain calm
  and remember that a seizure is not painful to the
  child. Clear the area and do not interfere. It
  is not advisable to force anything between the
  childs teeth. Allow the child rest after the
  attack

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• Sickle-Cell Anemia It is a disorder, not
  infectious, and can be treated. The child may
  lack energy and may get tired easily. The red
  blood cells stiffen because of lack of oxygen
  and can be painful. Vigorous activities must be
  prohibited
• Admitting children who are HIV positive to the
  school
• Autism Spectrum Disorder inability to socialize,
  speech/language delay, repetitive behaviors

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Identifying and Helping Children Who Have
Emotional Difficulties

• Signs of emotional disturbance that indicate a
  referral is needed emotional outburst, temper
  tantrum, aggressive acting out, inability to give
  or receive affection. This signals that the
  child is going through stress

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• Short-term techniques
• Offer tension-relieving activities and
  aggression-relieving activities
• Meet with the family to identify possible causes
• Help child to work through these feelings using
  different techniques

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• Long-term techniques with children who are more
  severely disturbed
• Provide one-on-one services
• Treat children who are chronically disturbed as
  much like the other children as possible, and use
  their strength to bring them int0 the life of the
  group
• Anticipate that progress will be uneven
• Provide support for those who are working with
  the children (group meetings)