NAVOTAS POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE

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Foundation of Special and Inclusive Education

Module 2
Background of Special Education

Intended Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this module, the learner should be able to:

1. Enumerate and explain the range of special education program and services.
2. Explain key terms and concepts that describe special education.
3. Distinguish the difference between accommodation and modifications.
4. Define and explain the purpose and importance of Inclusive Education.
5. Identify the categories of disabilities, types of services that students with disabilities may receive, and the
individuals who may participate in educating students with disabilities.
6. Explain the Principles of Normal Development in Infancy and Childhood
7. Identify the Major Principles in Organizing and Implementing Special Education Programs
8. Explain the roles and responsibilities of Outline the role of general education teachers, special education
teachers, and parents in the services of special education.

Introduction

As a teacher, we may encounter students who have difficulties in learning. Every student is different from one
another. They have different needs. As general education teachers, we have to be knowledgeable about the
various services that we can offer as well as the other professionals that we can work with to help our students
especially those with special needs

This module discusses the range of special education and services, the definition, and the salient features of
inclusive education. It also tackles the different support services for individuals with special needs and
professionals who may participate in educating students with disabilities.

Discussion

Special Education - specially designed instruction provided by the school district or other local education agency
that meets the unique needs of students identified as disabled according to federal and state eligibility criteria.
 Range of Special Education Programs and Services
1. The Special Education Center
– A service delivery system which operates on the “school within a school”
concept.
– Functions as the base for the special education programs in a school
– SPED Principal
– Special Education Teachers
2. The special class or self-contained class
– The most popular type among the special education programs.
3. Integration and Mainstreaming programs
– Allowed children and youth with disabilities study in regular classes and learn side by side with their
peers.
2 Types of Mainstreaming
1. Partial mainstreaming - children who do not have moderate or severe forms of disabilities.
2. Full mainstreaming - children with disabilities are enrolled in regular classes and recite in all
the subjects.
4. Special day school
– Serves one or more types of disabilities.
– Taught by trained teachers
– A comprehensive array of services is available
5. Residential School
– Provides both special education and dormitory services for its students.

Special Education
- Individually planned, systematically implemented and carefully evaluated to help exceptional children
achieve the greatest possible personal self-sufficiency and success in present and future environments.
(Heward, 2003).

Basic Requirements of IDEA for IEP

1. The child’s present level of performance, academic achievement,
social adaptation, prevocational and vocational skills, psychomotor
skills, and self-help skills
2. Annual goals describing the educational performance to be achieved
by the end of each school year.
3. Short-term instructional objectives presented in measurable,
intermediate steps between the present level of educational performance and the annual goals.
4. Specific educational services
5. Needed transition services from age 16 or earlier before the student leaves the school setting.

Students with disabilities may also receive:

A. Related Services
- Assistance required to enable students to benefit from special education.
B. Supplementary aids and services
- This means they must receive, as needed, supports such as preferential seating, access to computer
technology, and instructional adjustments that enable them to be educated with their peers who do not
have disabilities.

Accommodations - changes in how the student learns key curriculum.

Modifications - refer to what the student learns and usually implies that some curriculum is removed.
Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs
1994 Conference on Special Needs Education
o Salamanca, Spain
o The participants reaffirmed the right to education of every individual (1984 Universal Declaration of
Human Rights)
o The reaffirmation served as a renewal of pledge made by the world community at the 1990 World
Conference on Education for All.
o The Department of Education adopted the policy of inclusive education in 1997.

Inclusive Education

Inclusion
- Describes the process by which a school accepts children with special
needs for enrolment in regular class where they can learn side by side with
their peers.
- The school organizes its special education program and includes a
special education teacher in its faculty.

Salient features of inclusive education

1. Inclusions means implementing and maintaining warm and accepting classroom communities that
embrace and respect diversity or differences.
2. Inclusion implements a multilevel, multimodality curriculum.
3. Inclusion prepares regular teachers and special education teachers to teach interactively.
4. Inclusion provides continuous support for teachers to break down barriers of professional isolation.

Support Services for Children with Special Needs

1. Medical and Clinical Specialists
a. Clinical Psychologist, School Psychologist,
Psychometrician
b. Medical Doctor and Dentist
c. Ophthalmologist
d. Otologist or Otolaryngologist
e. Neurologist and Child Psychiatrist Speech
f. Therapist
g. Physical and Occupational Therapist
h. Interpreter for the deaf
i. Orientation and Mobility Instructor

2. Assistive devices
a. For blind students: braille writer, braille slate and stylus, braille books
b. For low vision students: large print books, magnifying lenses
c. For deaf students : individual hearing aid, sign language book, speech trainer
d. For children with physical disabilities: mobility devices such as wheel chair,
braces, adjustable desk, table and chair
Exceptional Children or Children and Youth with Special Needs

Four points of view about special education (Heward, 2003)

1. Special education is a legislatively government enterprise.
2. Special education is part of the country’s educational system.
3. Special education is teaching children with special needs in the least restrictive environment
4. Special education is a purposeful intervention

Categories of Exceptionalities among Children and Youth with Special Needs

1. Learning Disabilities - A disorder related to processing information that leads to difficulties
in reading, writing, and computing; the most common disability, accounting for almost half
of all students receiving special education.
2. Speech or Language Impairment - A disorder related to accurately producing
the sounds of language or meaningfully using language to communicate.
3. Intellectual Disability - Significant limitations in intellectual ability and adaptive behavior; this
disability occurs in a range of severity.
4. Giftedness and talent - Refers to high performance in intellectual, creative or
artistic areas, unusual leadership capacity, and excellence in specific academic field.
5. Emotional Disturbance - Significant problems in the social-emotional area to a degree that
learning is negatively affected.
6. Hard of Hearing/Deaf - A partial or complete loss of hearing
7. Visual Impairments - A partial or complete loss of vision.
8. Orthopedic Impairments - A significant physical limitation that
impairs the ability to move or complete motor activities.
9. Autism - A disorder characterized by extraordinary difficulty in social
responsiveness; this disability occurs in many different forms and may be
mild or significant.
10. Deaf-Blindness - A simultaneous significant hearing loss and significant
vision loss.
11. Traumatic Brain Injury - A medical condition denoting a serious brain injury that occurs as a result of
accident or injury; potentially affecting learning, behavior, social skills, and language.
12. Other Health Impairments - A disease or health disorder so significant that it negatively affects learning;
examples include cancer and diabetes.
13. Multiple Disabilities - The simultaneous presence of two or more disabilities such that none can be
identified as primary; the most common is the combination of intellectual and physical disabilities.
14. Developmental Delays - A nonspecific disability category that states may choose to use as an alternative to
specific disability labels for students up to age 9.

Advantage of using the term developmental delay:

1. It avoids the use of more stigmatizing labels for young children
2. It acknowledges the difficulty of determining the nature of a specific disability when children are
rapidly growing and changing.

Basic Terms in Special Education

Developmental Disability
 Refers to a severe, chronic disability of children five years of age or older that is:
 Attributable to a mental or physical impairment or a combination of mental and physical impairments.
 Manifested before the person attains age 23
 Results in substantial functional limitations in three or more of the areas of major life activities
  Reflects the person’s need for a combination and sequence of special care, treatment or other services
that are lifelong or of extended duration and are individually planned and coordinated.

Impairment or Disability
 Refers to reduces function or loss of a specific part of the body or organ.

Handicap
 Refers to a problem a person with disability or impairment encounters when interacting with people,
events and the physical aspects of the environment.

At risk
 Refers to children who have greater chances than other children to develop a disability.

Categories of Children at Risk

1. Established risk
2. Biological risk
3. Environmental risk

2 Categories of Disability
1. High-incidence disabilities
- Those that are most common, including learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, mild
intellectual disabilities, and emotional disturbance.
2. Low-incidence disabilities
- Those that are less common and include all the other categories: moderate to severe intellectual
disabilities, multiple disabilities, hearing impairments, orthopedic impairments, other health
impairments, visual impairments, deaf-blindness, autism, traumatic brain injury, and developmental
delays.

Principles of Normal Development in Infancy and Childhood

1. Normal development progresses in orderly step-by-step sequence.
2. All areas of development are interrelated.
3. The skills acquired earlier determine how well later skills will be learned.
4. Individual differences.

Gross Motor Skills

Activity Approx. Age
Raises chin while lying on stomach 1 mo.
Raises chin while lying on stomach 2 mos.
Reaches for objects but misses 3 mos.
Head set forward, steady lumbar curvature 4 mos.
Turns over from lying to supine position 4-6 mos.
Sits on lap, grasps objects 5 mos.
Sits on high chair, grasps objects 6 mos.
Sits alone with good posture 10 mos.
Creeps and crawls, pulls to standing position 11 mos.
Walks with help, walks alone 12 mos.
Climbs stairs steps 13 mos.
Walks alone unsupported 18 mos.
 Sits self in small chair 18 mos.
Walks carrying large objects 20 mos.
Raises self from sitting position with hips first 22 mos.
Runs well without falling 2 yrs.
Kicks ball without overbalancing 2 yrs.
Jumps with both feet on place 2.5 yrs.
Picks up objects from floor without help 2.5 yrs.
Stands on one foot without falling over 3 yrs.
Pedals tricycle 3 yrs.

Receptive Language
Activity Approx. Age
Understands few words 11 mos.
Points to 1 named body part on request 1 yr.
Stops activity to name objects 1 yr.
Stops activity to respond to “no” 1 yr.
Points to familiar persons, objects on request 1 yr. 3 mos.
Follows one-step simple command 1 yr. 3 mos.
Points to 3 named body parts on request 1 yr. 5 mos.
Follows two-step command 1 yr. 8 mos.
Points to 5-6 pictures of common objects on request 1 yr. 9 mos.
Points to 5 body parts on self or doll 1 yr. 10 mos.
Follows 3-step command given once 2 yrs.
Understands 200-400 words 2 yrs.
Understands 800 words 3 yrs.
Verbalizes past experiences 3 yrs.
Points to big, little, soft, loud 3 yrs.
Follows commands with 2-3 actions 4 yrs.
Understands app. 1,500 words 4 yrs.

Expressive Language
Activity Approx. Age
Says first word 10 mos.
Shakes head and says “no-no” 11 mos.
Imitates sounds of others 1 yr.
Uses 3 words in speaking vocabulary 13 mos.
Use of verbs appear 14 mos.
Uses at least six words 17 mos.
Refers to self by name 21 mos.
Uses me and you 2 yrs.
Says 50 to 200 words 2 yrs.
Knows full name 2 yrs.
Uses plurals 2 yrs.
Asks questions 2 yrs.
 Uses negatives in speech 2.5 yrs.
Enunciates vowel sounds 2.5 yrs.
Enunciates consonant sounds 3 yrs.
Speech is about 75 to 80% intelligible 3 yrs.
Uses 3 to 4 syllable words 3 yrs.
Says 6 to 8 word sentences 4 yrs.
Speech is about 90 to 95% intelligible 4 yrs.

Eating Skills
Activity Approx. Age
Sucks and swallows liquids birth
Gagging reflex birth
Sucks and swallows liquids from spoon 2 mos.
Eats strained baby foods from spoon 3 mos.
Brings hands against bottle when eating 3 mos.
Sips from a cup that is held 4 mos.
Gets excited at sound of food preparation 4 mos.
Holds spoon with assistance 5 mos.
Can feed self-soft food 6 mos.
Begins to bite and chew food 6 mos.
Holds own bottle 7 mos.
Can chew small lumpy food 8 mos.
Can take bottle out of mouth & put it back 9 mos.
Can use fingers to feed self 10 mos.
Holds cup with two hands 1 yr.
Chews table food 1.3 yrs.
Grasps spoon & places in mouth with some spilling 1.3 yrs.
Can manage spoon without help with little spilling 1.5 yrs.
Requests for food when hungry 1.11 yrs.
Requests for liquid when thirsty 1.11 yrs.
Can hold small glass with one hand without help 2 yrs.
Can use fork to get food 3 yrs.
Can spread butter on bread 3 yrs.
Can help set table 4 yrs.
Can use a fork to separate food 4 yrs.
Can pour water from pitcher to glass 4 yrs.
Can use a knife to cut food 5 yrs.
Can set the table without assistance 6 yrs.

Dressing Skills
Activity Approx. Age
Can pull and tug clothing 3-4 mos.
Holds out limbs when dressing 1 yr.
Can remove shoes by self 1.2 yrs.
 Can pull up pants 1.6 yrs.
Can unzip 1.7 yrs.
Attempts to put on own shoes 2 yrs.
Pulls up pants 2 yrs.
Undresses self 30 mos.
Can put on shirt and coat 30 mos.
Attempts to place feet in shoes 30 mos.
Can choose own outfit 3 yrs.
Can unbutton clothes 3 yrs.
Places clothing on in correct direction 3.6 yrs.
Can dress and undress with supervision 4 yrs.
Can button front buttons on clothing 4.8 yrs.
Can zip up and down/snap simple snaps 5 yrs.
Can tie shoes with bows 5.6 yrs.
Can unlace bows on shoes 5.6 yrs.
Dresses self completely 5.6 yrs.

Grooming Skills
Activity Approx. Age
Cries when removed from bathroom 5 mos.
Splashes water with hands and feet 6 mos.
Grimaces when face is washed with cloth 6 mos.
Exhibits resistance to washing face 8 mos.
Can open and pull out drawers 1.6 yrs.
Can wash hands and face but not well 2 yrs.
Can wash front body while in bath 2 yrs.
Can run a brush through hair 2.5 yrs.
Can brush teeth with assistance 3.6 yrs.
Can wash and dry face with towel alone 4 yrs.
Can brush teeth alone 4 yrs.
Can put away toys with suspension 4 yrs.
Can hang up clothes on hook 4 yrs.
Brushes hair alone 5 yrs.
Hangs up own clothes alone 5 yrs.
Washes self alone 6 yrs.

Toileting Skills
Activity Approx. Age
About 4 bowel movements a day associated with 1 mo.
waking up
2 bowel movements a day either at waking up or after 2 mos.
being fed
Some delay shown between feeding and elimination 4 mos.
Stays dry for 1 to 2 hours interval 7 mos.
 May awaken at night & cry to be changed 1.5 yrs.
May indicate wet pants 1.5 yrs.
Has only occasional accidents 1.10 yrs.
Uses same words for both functions of elimination 1.10 yrs.
Begins to differentiate between elimination functions 2 yrs.
Climbs on to toilet by self 2.6 yrs.
Can control bladder up to 5 hours 2.6 yrs.
Begins to develop a routine for elimination 3 yrs.
Attempts to wipe self but fails 3.6 yrs.
Stays dry at night 4 yrs.
Can toilet self without assistance 5 yrs.
Washes & dries own hands after toileting 5 yrs.
One bowel movement a day 5 yrs.

A deviation from the developmental milestones from four to six months is enough ground to suspect that there
might be a disability.

Pros and Possible Benefits of Labeling

1. Categories can relate diagnosis to specific types of education and treatment.
2. Labeling may lead to “protective” response.
3. Labeling helps professionals communicate with one another and classify and assess research findings.
4. Funding of special education programs is often based on specific categories of exceptionality.
5. Labels enable disability-specific advocacy groups to promote specific programs and spur legislative
action.
6. Labeling helps make exceptional make exceptional children’s needs more visible to the public.

Possible Disadvantage of Labeling

1. Because labels usually focus on disability, impairment, and performance deficits, some people may think
only in terms of what the individual cannot do instead of what he or she can or might be able to learn to
do.
2. Labels may cause others to hold low expectations for and to differentially treat a child on the basis of
label, which may lead to a “self-fulfilling prophecy”.
3. Labels that describe a child’s performance deficit often mistakenly acquire the role of explanatory
construct.
4. Labels suggest that learning problems are primarily the result of something wrong within the child,
thereby reducing the systematic examination of and accountability for instructional variables as the
cause of performance deficit.
5. A labeled child may developed poor self-concept.
6. Labels may lead peers to reject and ridicule the labeled child.
7. Special education labels have a certain permanence.
8. Labels often provide a basis for keeping children out of the regular classroom.
9. A disproportionate number of children form diverse cultural, ethnic and linguistic groups have been
inaccurately labeled as disabled, especially under the category mild mental retardation.
10. Classification of exceptional children requires the expenditure of a great amount of money and
professional and student time that could better be spent in planning and delivering instruction.
 6 Major Principles in Organizing and Implementing Special Education Programs
1. Zero reject
2. Nondiscriminatory testing
3. Appropriate education
4. Least restrictive environment
5. Due process
6. Parent participation

 General Education Teachers

 Special Education Teachers
 Related Service Provider and Other Specialists
 School Psychologist
 Counselors
Professionals in Special Education  Speech and Language Therapists
 Social Workers
 Administrators
 Paraprofessionals
 School Psychologist
 Counselors
 Speech and Language Therapists
 Social Workers
 Administrators

 Paraprofessionals
 Other Specialists
 Physical therapist
 Occupational therapist
 Adaptive physical educator
 Nurse
 Bilingual special educator
 Mobility specialist
 Sign language interpreter
 Professional from outside
agencies
 Advocate

General Education Teacher

- Elementary or high school teacher whose primary responsibility is teaching one or more class groups.

General Education Teacher Responsibilities

1. Identify students with learning, behavior, or other needs serious enough to seek
input from colleagues.
2. Contribute to discussions of students as a member of an intervention assistance
team.
3. Provide evidence–based day–to–day instruction.
4. Implement strategies and gather data as part of a response to intervention
procedure.
 5. Participate in writing IEPs as a member of the multidisciplinary team.
6. Communicate with parents regarding their child’s strengths and needs.

Special Education Teacher

- Teacher whose primary responsibility is delivering and managing the delivery of special education
services to students with disabilities.

Responsibilities of Special Education Teachers

1. Responsible for managing and coordinating the services a student receives, including writing and
implementing the individualized education program (IEP).
2. Provide direct and indirect instruction to students who are assigned to them.
3. Consult regarding a student suspected of having a disability and work to determine whether a referral
for assessment for possible special education is necessary.

Special Education Teachers

1. Consulting teacher - Special education teacher who meets with general education teachers to problem
solve and monitor student progress but who typically has little or no direct contact with students.
2. Inclusion specialist/facilitator - Special education teacher responsible for providing a wide variety of
supports to students with disabilities and general education teachers who teach them. Inclusion
specialists most often work with students with low-
incidence disabilities.
3. Resource teacher - Special education teacher who
provides direct services to students with disabilities
either in a special education or general education
classroom and who also meets to solve problems
with teachers. Resource teachers most often work
with students with high-incidence disabilities.
4. Itinerant teacher - Special education teacher who
provides services to students with disabilities and
teaches in two or more schools.
5. Transition specialist - Special educator who helps prepare students with disabilities for post school
activities, including employment, vocational training, or higher education.
6. Job coach - A special education professional who accompanies students with disabilities to job sites and
helps them master the skills needed to perform the job. keyword method

Related Service Provider and Other Specialists

 School Psychologist - Specialist with expertise to give individual assessments of students in cognitive,
academic, social, emotional, and behavioral domains.
 Counselors - Specialist with expertise in meeting students’ social and affective needs.
 Speech and Language Therapists - Specialist with expertise in meeting students’ communication needs,
including articulation and language development.
 Social Workers - Specialist with expertise in meeting students’ social needs and fostering working
relationships with families.
 Administrators - Professional responsible for managing some aspect of schools
 Paraprofessionals - Noncertified staff member employed to assist certified staff in carrying out
education programs and otherwise help in the instruction of students with disabilities.
 Other Specialists
 Physical therapist - Specialist with expertise in meeting students’ needs in the area of gross motor
skills.
  Occupational therapist - Specialist with expertise in meeting students’ needs in the area of fine
motor skills, including self-help skills such as feeding and dressing.
 Adaptive physical educator - Specialist with expertise in assessing students’ motor needs and
designing and delivering physical education programs that accommodate those needs.
 Nurse - Specialist who has expertise in understanding and responding to students’ medical needs
and who sometimes serves as a liaison
between medical and school professionals.
 Bilingual special educator - Teacher who
teaches students whose native language is
not English.
 Mobility specialist - Specialist who helps
students with visual impairments learn to
be familiar with their environments and
able to travel from place to place
independently and safely.
 Sign language interpreter - Specialist who
listens to instruction and other
communication and relays it to students with hearing impairments through sign language.
 Professional from outside agencies - Provides services away from school (for example, private
school, hospital, juvenile justice system) and serves as the liaison between such services and school
personnel, especially during transitions from such services back to school.
 Advocate - Individual who works to ensure that parents understand their rights and that school
professionals provide an appropriate education for parents’ children with disabilities.

Parents and Students

 Parents are strong allies for general education teachers.
 They can assist teachers by reviewing at home what is taught in
school, rewarding their child for school accomplishments, and working
with school professionals to resolve behavior and academic problems.
Activities

Activity 1 Check your Understanding

A. Discuss the following terms in two to three sentences.
1. Special Education

2. Assistive Devices

3. Developmental Disability

4. Impairment or Disability

5. Handicap

6. At risk

7. General Education Teacher

8. Special Education Teacher

B. Enumerate and explain the range of special education program and services.
C. Enumerate and explain the major principles in organizing and implementing special education programs.

D. Using a diagram compare and contrast accommodation from modification.

Activity 2. Grid and Matrix

Complete the grid and matrix below

What is Inclusive
Education?

Who is qualified for

Inclusive Education?

What is the role of the teacher

in Inclusive Education?

What is the purpose of

Inclusive Education?

What are the qualities of

Inclusive Education?

What is the importance of

Inclusive Education?

Why do we have to support

Inclusive Education?
Activity 3 Misconception Check.
Read the given statements about the principles of development and tell whether you agree or disagree and
discuss your answer.

1. Children's development and learning in one domain are influenced by what takes place other domains.

2. Individuals develop uniformly.

3. Development precedes certain types of learning.

4. The speed of development is even.

5. Development proceeds towards greater complexity.

Activity 4 Concept Mapping
Using a concept map, show the role of general education teachers, special education teachers, and parents in
the services of special education.
Activity 5 T-Chart
Using a T-Chart present the pros and cons of labeling

Pros Cons
Activity 6 Complete the table
Fill in the following table with your responses.
Categories of Disabilities. Characteristics Support Services Professionals who may
that may be given help
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.
 Readings and Other References

 Inciong, T., Quijano, Y., Capulong, Y., Gregorio, J., and Gines, A. (2007) Introduction to Special Education.
Rex Bookstore, Inc., Manila.
 Friend, M., & Bursuck, W. (2015). Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Classroom
Teachers (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon

Deadline of Submission of Activities:

October 17, 2022

Format for the file name of your activity:

Course Yr. & Sec.-Name- Module No Subject
(BEED 2A - Senrose Zaspa - Module 1 Foundation of Special and Inclusive
Education)

Gmail Account: [email protected]

(Subject: Course - Activity No. – Module No. - Subject)

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