Teaching Plans for Handicapped Children

Franz Morgenstern

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138594647
• eBook ISBN: 9780429949579
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

First published in 1981. Teaching handicapped children confronts us with the challenge of having to plan, deliberately and systematically, how to teach a child to look, listen, move, explore, play, relate to others and to understand and speak their own language – all skills which do not normally have to be taught at all. This book, based on a lifetime's experience of working with handicapped people of all ages, provides a basic understanding of the effects of a handicap on a child's development.

1 Handicaps and learning: theory and practice

A normal child enters school at the age of 5 years and may be unable to read or write when he comes into the class. In the course of the first year he acquires the rudiments of both skills without anyone really knowing how this takes place. It is easy enough to describe the exercises he has followed: that he has done a lot of drawing, copying and filling in colours or that he has had practice at articulating from written material or using the class reading books. A list of activities, however, does not add up to an account of the learning process. It would give no indication of the kinds of errors he made, how these were corrected (other than the fact that they were corrected on some occasions) or how faulty responses changed into correct responses. Detailed observations of this kind are not necessary, since normal children appear to make progress provided that some general conditions are met, that there is sufficient incentive and, particularly, that there is adequate feedback in the way of ‘knowledge of results’.

For handicapped children this situation is different. Certain skills are taught systematically, and for this reason there is a noticeable advance in these areas. Others are not, and without guidance the children make no spontaneous advance. There could be a simple reason for this in terms of a lack of feedback concerning the outcome of the child’s work. When teaching is intensive, there is a constant stream of confirmation and correction from the teacher. At points of uncertainty, when the pupil needs to make a choice, he may be unable to gauge whether his choice is appropriate without assistance. Writing is a good example: it involves choice of word for meaning, choice of letter for writing, and the ability to maintain concentration for long enough to span the duration of the task. As long as the child has the teacher’s attention, he obtains the necessary confirmation which allows him to pass with confidence to the next stage of the process.

It is, of course, impossible to maintain attention on one child or a small group of children continuously. Even if this could be achieved, the children’s attention span sets a limit which has to be accepted. In the normal classroom, feedback is by no means limited to the teacher; it is also available from the other children in the class. The tasks are varied, and success is reinforced by all the numerous interactions which occur among children. It is this extended opportunity for gaining information and for testing choices and acting on them which provides the mainstay of the normal classroom. The necessary impetus is more than the sheer enthusiasm of the teacher.

For a normal class, the teacher’s enthusiasm may well be the significant factor which encourages the pupils to work with each other. In the field of special education, such enthusiasm is only appropriate if the children can meet the relevant demands. Since their capacity, by definition, is limited, insight into the nature of the children’s learning becomes essential. The individual becomes vital, rather than helpful, and the group observation and group expectations which tend to dominate teaching in a normal school have to give way to a much more detailed approach. Instead of asking what to teach the children, the question is: why does this child not learn this skill? – a basic question for this book.

Before looking more closely at the obstacles which may be preventing the child from learning, it is important to identify those conditions which always need to be fulfilled if there is to be any learning at all. Some of these are conditions which apply to any response, i.e., the child needs to:

1. Be aware of the demand to respond and of the relevant aspects of the situation which he will need to take into account in order to achieve his aim (input).
2. Maintain his concentration for long enough to complete the necessary observations and actions called for by the task (processing).
3. Be able to apply the necessary skills to achieve his aim (output).
4. Recognize when his aim is being or has been achieved (feedback).

In addition, learning means that responses change in some ways. The change might be an increase in level of skill, for example when an infant who could only roll around on the floor makes successful attempts to crawl; or it could be more subtle and take the form of perfecting movements which had been clumsy or uncertain, or gaining greater speed in performing certain actions. Changes of this kind also mean that there are adequate motives to do the work entailed and that pleasure is linked to the achievement.

If any phase of this complex is lacking or insecure, there is a parallel weakness of learning. Different obstacles are created by the various handicaps, and the form they take changes with age and maturation. A more detailed discussion is developed in chapters 5, 6 and 7. For the present, the aim is to illustrate how the very earliest stages of learning can be disrupted or blocked by obstacles when they are not recognized and left unattended.

Obstacles to learning

Awareness of demand and of relevant data (input)

Awareness of demand requires awareness of self, of others as individuals and of objects as specific entities. Though part of the same general process of identification, failure of any one part calls for corresponding, specific training. It cannot be assumed that a child can generalize spontaneously from one specific experience to others.

The child needs to be aware of himself as agent in order to understand that a demand is directed toward him. One of the most elementary acts of learning in infancy is to respond to one’s name, or at an earlier stage, to respond to one’s image in a mirror. Even this basic response may be lacking and cause failure in cases of severe handicap. If it is, the child does not only lack self-awareness as shown by his failure to respond to name or image, but he is also indifferent to many attempts to stimulate him. The counterpart of awareness of self is awareness of others: of the other person who makes the demand. To do so, he needs to identify a given individual from others who may also be present. Children who fail to make such distinctions are not affected by who handles them or how they do so; they show the same pleasure or indifference to anyone without expressing specific preferences. They are children who remain unperturbed when a familiar routine is changed. Until they can distinguish between one agent and another they cannot plan or adapt to a course of action; the child has no incentive to learn if he remains passive and does not interact.

Lack of preference for particular toys and the like is part of the same continuum: lack of discrimination of objects. Children who are oblivious to the identity of objects only seem to show preference if parents always use the same toy in their attempt to stimulate the child, but the choice is the parent’s, not the child’s. Children at this stage also fail to search for toys, do not attempt to retrieve them and take no active part in familiar routines like washing, dressing or even feeding.

At a somewhat later stage, lack of awareness of a demand or of an object may cause problems when the child can respond appropriately in the right situation but fails when the circumstances are changed. At that stage, recognition of the function of an object depends almost as much on its setting as on its physical properties. Children are often confused when they come across a familiar object in a strange or unexpected setting, and it is well known that handicapped children may need to be taught to recognize the identity of an object again after it has been merely rotated. It is not surprising that this is often attributed to lack of attention or carelessness. In many cases, however, such failure is due to lack of experience and adaptation, and this calls for special practice. A comb might be recognized when it is next to a hairbrush but overlooked if it is stuck in the bristles.

What applies to objects is equally true for actions. Familiar and well-practised routines often go to pieces in the presence of strangers. Any child on his first day at school may completely ignore the most strenuous attempts of the teacher to call him by name, or he may stand bewildered when a familiar game is attempted in the classroom. He has not lost the skill to apply himself but has not learnt to do so in the new situation. Again, as with objects, the obverse is also true. An unexpected action required during the familiar routine can throw the whole course of events out of balance, as when a young child is asked to wave bye-bye while drinking a cup of milk. Handicapped children meet both problems more often than normal children and may have more difficulty in overcoming them because of the limitations imposed by their handicap.

Children may also fail to respond to events if they occur at an unfamiliar time. This used to be a common experience in hospital wards when children were admitted for observation or investigation. Having a bath or going to bed mid-morning was simply not part of their experience and led to conflict and distress. The children were unable to undress, wash or settle, though all these processes were well within their capacities.

When handicapped children fail to adapt it is worth asking whether in fact they have simply failed to recognize an otherwise familiar event.

The need for sustained concentration (processing)

The obvious case of a child who cannot concentrate is that of the hyperkinetic, or extremely overreactive child. The degree of distractability of such children varies, but the basic situation is the same: every change in the environment leads to a response, and every response is interrupted by further distractions. There is no selection of stimuli and therefore no plan of action can develop, and without such a plan or purpose, there is no learning.

Milder forms of distraction are less damaging, but are also less easy to recognize, and so their effects may be inadvertently passed over. Distracting effects are particularly troublesome when learning a new skill, before the distinction between relevant and irrelevant events has been established.

To achieve a complex task, it is not only necessary to master the individual steps but also to pass from one to the next in correct sequence. When a child picks up a bead to thread on a string, he has to retain the string in the hole of the bead, let go of the string to pull it out, push the bead along the string, and avoid dropping other beads while doing so. A task of this kind often reveals the sorts of weakness a child has in developing his plans of actions. He may try any of the steps out of sequence, and the task then becomes impossible.

The same kind of problem exists when two actions are to be performed at the same time, and result in a complex which is too difficult. A child may be able to stand up from the sitting posture, and be able to hold a ball, but he may not be able to keep the ball in his hands while he is getting up. Both actions require attention and make demands on his concentration, and until he can manage to combine these successfully, the task eludes him.

Lack of skill to achieve the result (output)

Whenever a demand cannot be met by the child’s existing skills, attempts to do so are bound to end in failure. Although the point is obvious, the conditions imposed on a child by his handicap call for further consideration. Handicapped children are often given help at times when their actions cannot continue because of the handicap. The result can be that a false impression of skill is created, especially when such children are particularly well cared for. This leads to frustrations when the customary help is not forthcoming if, for instance, the parents are away and someone else is looking after the child. Although the child has learned how to manage a situation (with help) he may fail to realize that his skills can only master part of the necessary process. He has not failed to learn, but his learning is incomplete.

Physically handicapped children are particularly liable to meet situations of this kind, though other children with different handicaps are by no means immune from parallel experiences; indeed this experience can be met by any child. The situation owes its special character to the fact that the child actually has learned but has done so with false assumptions. He learns about those parts in which he is actively involved, but is prevented from learning about the rest of the action. His weakness shows up when he meets further situations where it is (mistakenly) assumed that his existing skills are fully established. An example might be that of a mentally handicapped child who can colour in outlines but cannot draw a picture, or a physically handicapped child who can release a ball to let it run down a slope but cannot place the ball in position; socially handicapped children face the same problem when a game or some other skill has been learnt with the undivided attention of a teacher, but that child fails when he tries to apply it in the company of other children.

Recognition that the aim is being achieved (feedback)

An important obstacle to learning which is nearly the sum total of all the other problems can be recognized when children are confused about the outcome of their actions. This is commonly due to one of two reasons. The child could fail because he does not take note of incidental effects of his actions which spoil the outcome, or when he has not fully grasped the conditions on which the result depends.

A common example of the first case is seen when a child can place one brick on top of another to build a tower, but fails to note how he knocks it off again while moving his hand to get the next brick. Attention to the next action blots out other considerations, even if they are essential for the outcome. The second instance is the kind of failure which happens when a child puts on his coat but sticks his right arm into the left sleeve. He has learnt that he must put one arm after another into the sleeves but cannot yet deal with differences between right and left. Failure to get the coat on has no effect on his attempts until he becomes aware of right and left so that his observations can have meaning.

Each handicap can impose special conditions which prevent existing responses from changing. Mentally handicapped children resist change when they cannot foresee its effects. They cling to an established way which has a predictable result without creating uncertainty or anxiety. A change in a familiar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Handicaps and learning: theory and practice
• 2 Secondary handicaps (1): delay of general development and social interaction
• 3 Secondary handicaps (2): fragmented experience and fragmented learning
• 4 The effects of fragmented experience and learning on general behaviour
• 5 Handicaps as obstacles to the process of learning
• 6 Motives for learning
• 7 Special conditions for the development and learning of handicapped children
• 8 Teaching plans for handicapped children
• 9 Teaching plans for mentally handicapped children
• 10 Teaching plans for physically handicapped children
• 11 Teaching plans for socially handicapped children
• 12 Free play and special education
• Summary and conclusions
• Bibliography
• Index