Special educational needs are a term that recently appeared in modern society. Abroad, he went into mass use earlier. The emergence and dissemination of the concept of special educational needs (PLO) suggests that society is gradually growing up and is trying in every way to help children whose life opportunities are limited, as well as those who, by the will of circumstances, have found themselves in a difficult life situation. The society begins to help these children adapt in life.
A child with special educational needs is no longer the one with anomalies and developmental disabilities. The society is moving away from dividing children into “normal” and “abnormal,” since there are very ghostly borders between these concepts. Even with the most ordinary abilities, a child may experience a developmental delay if he is not given due attention from his parents and society.
The essence of the concept of children with OOP
Special educational needs are a concept that should gradually supplant such terms as “abnormal development”, “developmental disabilities”, and “developmental disabilities” from mass use. It does not determine the normality of the child, but focuses on the fact that he is not very different from other members of society, but has the need to create special conditions for his education. This will make his life more comfortable and as close as possible to that led by ordinary people. In particular, the education of such children should be carried out using specific means.
Note that “children with special educational needs” is not only a name for those who suffer from mental and physical disorders, but also for those who do not have them. For example, when the need for special education arises under the influence of some sociocultural factors.
Borrowing term
Special educational needs are a concept that was first applied in a London report in 1978 that focused on educational issues and the learning difficulties of children with disabilities. Gradually, it began to be used more and more often. Currently, this term has become part of the educational system in European countries. It is also widely distributed in the USA and Canada.
In Russia, the concept appeared later, but it cannot be argued that its meaning is merely a tracing-paper of the western term.
Groups of children with OOP
The contingent of children with OOP, modern science divides into three groups:
- with characteristic disabilities due to health reasons;
- faced with learning difficulties;
- living in adverse conditions.
That is, in modern defectology, the term has the following meaning: special educational needs are the conditions for the development of the child, which requires workarounds in order to achieve the tasks of the development of culture, which under ordinary conditions are carried out by standard methods, rooted in modern culture.
Categories of children with particular mental and physical development
Each child with OOP has its own characteristics. On this basis, children can be divided into the following groups:
- for which hearing impairment is characteristic (complete or partial lack of hearing);
- with problem vision (complete or partial lack of vision);
- with intellectual anomalies (those with a mental retardation) ;
- who have impaired speech;
- having problems with the musculoskeletal system;
- with a complex structure of disorders (deaf-deaf-mute, etc.);
- autistic
- children with emotional-volitional disorders.
OOP common to different categories of children
Specialists distinguish OOP, which are common for children, despite the difference in their problems. These include needs of this kind:
- Education for children with special educational needs should begin as soon as abnormalities have been identified. This will save time and achieve maximum results.
- The use of specific tools for the implementation of training.
- Special sections should be introduced into the curriculum that are not present in the standard school curriculum.
- Differentiation and individualization of training.
- The ability to maximize the process of education outside the institution.
- Extension of the study process after graduation. Providing opportunities for young people to go to university.
- The participation of qualified specialists (doctors, psychologists, etc.) in teaching a child with problems, involving parents in the educational process.
Common deficiencies observed in the development of children with OOP
Students with special educational needs have common characteristic flaws. These include:
- Lack of knowledge about the environment, narrow horizons.
- Problems with general and fine motor skills.
- Inhibition in the development of speech.
- Difficulty in arbitrary adjustment of behavior.
- Uncommunicative.
- Problems with cognitive activity.
- Pessimism.
- Inability to behave in society and control their own behavior.
- Low or too high self-esteem.
- Self-doubt.
- Full or partial dependence on others.
Actions to overcome the common deficiencies of children with PLO
Work with children with special educational needs is aimed at eliminating these common shortcomings using specific methods. To do this, some changes are made to the standard general educational subjects of the school curriculum. For example, the introduction of propaedeutic courses, that is, introductory, concise, facilitating the understanding of the child. This method helps restore missing segments of environmental knowledge. Additional items can be introduced to help improve general and fine motor skills: physiotherapy exercises, creative circles, modeling. In addition, all kinds of trainings can be held to help children with PLO realize themselves as full members of society, increase self-esteem and gain confidence in themselves and their abilities.
Specific disadvantages characteristic of the development of children with OOP
Working with children with special educational needs, in addition to solving common problems, should also include resolving issues arising from their specific deficiencies. This is an important nuance of educational work. Specific disadvantages include those caused by damage to the nervous system. For example, problems with hearing and vision.
The methodology of teaching children with special educational needs takes these shortcomings into account when developing programs and plans. In the curriculum, specialists include specific subjects that are not part of the usual school system. So, children with vision problems are additionally taught orienteering in space, and in the presence of hearing impairment, they help to develop residual hearing. The program for their training also includes lessons on the formation of oral speech.
Objectives of teaching children with OOP
- Organization of the educational system in such a way as to maximize the desire of children to learn the world, to form practical knowledge and skills with them, to broaden their horizons.
- Differentiated education for children with special educational needs in order to identify and develop students' abilities and inclinations.
- Stimulation of independent actions and making their own decisions.
- The formation and activation of cognitive activity in students.
- Laying the foundations of a scientific worldview.
- Ensuring the comprehensive development of a self-sufficient personality that could adapt in the existing society.
Learning Features
Individual training for children with special educational needs is designed to perform the following functions:
- Developing. This function assumes that the learning process is aimed at developing a full-fledged personality, which is facilitated by the acquisition by children of relevant knowledge, skills.
- Educational. No less important function. Education of children with special educational needs contributes to the formation of their basic knowledge, which will be the basis of the information fund. There is also an objective need to develop their practical skills that will help them in the future and greatly simplify their life.
- Educational. The function is aimed at the formation of a comprehensive and harmonious development of the individual. For this purpose, students are taught literature, art, history, physical education.
- Correctional. This function involves exposure to children through special methods and techniques that stimulate cognitive opportunities.
The structure of the correctional pedagogical process
The development of children with special educational needs includes the following components:
- Diagnostic and monitoring. Diagnostic work is one of the most important in teaching children with OOP. In the correction process, she is assigned a leading role. It is an indicator of the effectiveness of all activities for the development of children with PLO. It includes a study of the characteristics and needs of each student who needs help. Based on this, a program is developed, group or individual. Also of great importance is the study of the dynamics with which the child develops in the process of learning in a special school according to a special program, assessing the effectiveness of the educational plan.
- Fitness and fitness. Since most children with OOP have deviations in physical development, this component of the development process of students is extremely important. It includes classes for children with physiotherapy exercises, which helps them learn how to control their body in space, work out the clarity of movements, bring some actions to automatism.
- Educational and educational. This component contributes to the formation of comprehensively developed personalities. As a result, children with OOP, who until recently could not exist normally in the world, are becoming harmoniously developed. In addition, in the learning process, much attention is paid to the process of educating full-fledged members of modern society.
- Correctional and developmental. This component is aimed at developing a full-fledged personality. It is based on the organized activities of children with PLO, aimed at obtaining the necessary knowledge for a full life, assimilation of historical experience. That is, the learning process should be based in such a way as to maximize the desire for knowledge of students. This will help them catch up in the development of peers who have no developmental disabilities.
- Socio-pedagogical. It is this component that completes the formation of a full-fledged personality, ready for independent existence in modern society.
The need for individual education of a child with OOP
For children with OOP, two forms of educational organization can be applied : collective and individual. Their effectiveness depends on each individual case. Collective education takes place in special schools, where special conditions are created for such children. When communicating with peers, a child with developmental problems begins to actively develop and in some cases achieves greater results than some absolutely healthy children. In this case, an individual form of education is necessary for the child in the following situations:
- It is characterized by the presence of multiple developmental disorders. For example, in the case of severe mental retardation or when teaching children with simultaneous hearing and visual impairment.
- When a child has specific developmental abnormalities.
- Age features. Individual training at an early age gives a good result.
- When teaching a child at home.
However, in fact, individual instruction for children with OOP is extremely undesirable, as this leads to the formation of a closed and insecure personality. In the future, this entails problems in communicating with peers and other people. With collective training, most children reveal communicative abilities. As a result, the formation of full-fledged members of society.
Thus, the emergence of the term “special educational needs” indicates the maturation of our society. Since this concept translates a child with disabilities and developmental abnormalities into the category of normal full-fledged individuals. Education for children with PLO is aimed at expanding their horizons and forming their own opinions, teaching the skills and abilities that they need to lead a normal and fulfilling life in modern society.
In fact, special educational needs are called needs that differ from those that are offered to all children in secondary schools. The wider the possibilities of their satisfaction, the higher the child’s chance to get the maximum level of development and the support he needs at the difficult stage of growing up.
The quality of the education system for children with PLO is determined by an individual approach to each student, since each “special” child is characterized by the presence of his own problem, which prevents him from leading a full life. And often this problem can be solved, albeit not completely.
The main goal of educating children with PLO is to introduce previously isolated individuals into society, as well as to reach each child who is ranked in this category as the maximum level of education and development, to activate his desire to learn about the world around him. The formation and development of full-fledged personalities from them, which will become an integral part of the new society, is extremely important.