Special Educational Needs in the Early Years

Ruth Wilson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• eBook ISBN: 9781134411986
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This volume adopts a holistic approach and focuses on the child with special educational needs as an active learner, rather than on how to cope with a disability. Young children with special needs can be very active learners when provided with environments that encourage alternative ways to explore and experience the world around them.

Part I
ESTABLISHING THE FRAMEWORK

The discussion in Part I of this book emphasizes the twofold mission of early intervention services—that of providing successful learning experiences for young children with special needs, and providing effective and timely intervention before a handicap or at-risk condition undermines the development and future capabilities of these children. Specific topics addressed in Part I include an overview of who, what, where and how early intervention services are provided. Also presented is a discussion of why early intervention for young children with special needs is important and what data we have to support effectiveness claims relating to early intervention services. A brief historical overview is also provided, as well as some information about social and legal support for early intervention services. Finally, some basic understandings and recommended practices are presented.

1
SURVEY OF THE FIELD

Who is served?

Special education during the early years is not about an intervention system or a special curricular model. Special education during the early years is about children who have special needs. Such children cannot be categorized, or thought of, as an homogeneous group. Children with special needs vary tremendously. Not only do they have the same type of variances as the general population (e.g. different interests, likes, dislikes, temperaments, abilities), they also vary by type and extent of disability.

A concept often stated and rarely challenged is that ‘no two people are alike’. While we all know and accept this statement to be true, we still seem, in some ways, to be troubled by the notion of ‘differences’. Once and begin judging individuals in relation to ‘better’ and ‘worse’. While differences are identified, we tend to think in terms of ‘we’ versus ‘them’ some lip-service is given to ‘celebrating differences’, many of our attitudes and behaviours fail to reflect this orientation.

It is true that people with disabilities are, in some ways, different from those who do not have disabilities. These differences challenge not only the people with disabilities, but everyone else as well, including parents, teachers, programme planners, school administrators, architects, playground designers and peers. Rising to the challenge often requires an understanding of the conditions causing, or relating to, the disability. Rising to the challenge also requires an understanding of the potential impact of the disability on the child’s overall development and learning. It is this potential impact that gives special urgency to early intervention for children with disabilities.

Teachers of children in the early years serve a wide range of students. Some of these children have obvious disabilities or handicaps, some may be developmentally delayed, and others are at risk of future academic failure. While the needs of these children differ widely, as a group they are sometimes referred to as ‘children with special educational needs’ and require an educational programme customized to their unique needs. It is estimated that approximately 20 per cent of children will have some form of special educational need at some time. In England, according to the revised Special Educational Needs Code of Practice, children are considered to have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for them (Department for Education and Skills, 2001a). The learning difficulty is manifested when children (1) have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age; or (2) have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for children of the same age in schools within the area of the local education authority, and (3) are under compulsory school and fall within the definition at (1) or (2) above or would do so if special educational provision was not made for them (Department for Education and Skills, 2001a).

For some children, their exceptionalities, or special needs, are readily apparent; for others, their special needs are not immediately obvious. Many children with cerebral palsy have motor difficulties which prohibit or greatly hinder walking; thus their disability would soon be obvious to any observer. Conversely, however, the disability of a 6-year-old who is developmentally delayed and functioning at a 4-year-old level may not be noticed immediately by a visitor to the classroom.

Whether obvious or not, it is to the young child’s advantage to have his or her disability identified and understood. However, it is also crucially important to recognize that a child with a disability is first a young child who is more like his or her typically developing peers than different. It is for this reason that ‘person-first’ language should be used when referring to children with disabilities. ‘Person-first’ language puts the child first and the disability second. Instead of saying ‘deaf child’, the preferred terminology would be ‘child who is deaf’; likewise, instead of saying ‘disabled child’, the preferred terminology would be ‘child with a disability’.

Another important understanding in relation to terminology has to do with the terms ‘disability’ and ‘handicap’. While the general public tends to use these terms interchangeably, they have distinctly different meanings. Referring to a child as having a disability indicates that he or she is unable to do something in a certain way. A disability, then, is an inability to perform as other children do because of an impairment in some area(s) of functioning (e.g. physical, cognitive, sensory). A handicap, on the other hand, refers to the problem an individual with a disability encounters when attempting to function and interact in the environment. While attention to the quality of the environment is important in all educational programmes for young children, it is particularly significant for children with disabilities, in that the quality of the environment determines, in large part, the extent to which a disability becomes handicapping.

A disability may or may not be a handicap, depending upon the specific circumstances or demands of the environment. For example, a 7-year-old child with cerebral palsy may have a great deal of difficulty standing by a blackboard to draw or write. When seated at a table with support for balance, however, his or her creativity and talents may be easily expressed and recognized. In this instance, the child experiences a handicap at the blackboard but not at the table. One major goal of intervention is to minimize the extent to which a disability puts the child in a handicapping situation. For educators to provide such intervention, however, they need some understanding of the different types of disabilities and the ways the disabling conditions may impact on development and learning. Discussions throughout this book are designed to help educators develop and/or deepen this understanding.

Some people believe that all children have special needs, in that each child, regardless of abilities and background, has unique needs and deserves special adult attention. The term ‘special needs’, however, refers generally to children with disabilities or developmental delays. In this book, the terms ‘children with special needs’ and ‘children with special educational needs’ (SEN) will be used interchangeably with ‘children with disabilities’. These terms will refer to those children whose well-being, development and learning are compromised if special intervention is not provided.

As stated above, children with disabilities are similar in many ways to their typically developing peers; yet many children with disabilities also have special needs that children without disabilities do not have. These needs include: (1) environments that are arranged specifically to minimize the impact of the disabilities, and (2) professionals who are competent in promoting learning and the use of skills critical to the specific needs of children with disabilities.

A discussion of who is served in early intervention cannot be complete without some reference to the families involved. All families play a critical role in the early development of a child and are faced with many challenges in the process. These demands and challenges, however, certainly escalate when the child has a disability. Thus while the child is usually considered to be the focus of educational programmes designed for children and youth, for children with disabilities such programmes should also focus on the family. This is especially necessary during the first few years of the child’s schooling.

Who provides services?

Early intervention services are provided in a wide variety of settings, representing both public and private providers and diverse disciplines (e.g. education, medicine, psychology, social work). This means that the formal education system (i.e. the schools) represents just one of the providers of services for children with disabilities. While the school’s focus is on the educational needs of the children served, other needs (e.g. medical, recreational) and various forms of intervention (e.g. medication, therapies) certainly impact on a child’s growth and development. Educators, then, need to be aware of who else is involved in providing services for young children with special needs and should be entitled to receive the necessary training to work as effective members of interdisciplinary and interagency teams. Because of its importance to meeting the special educational needs of young children with disabilities, an entire section of this book (Part III) is devoted to the issue of teaming. The following discussion addresses some of the current thinking and concerns related to who provides services in early intervention.

Early intervention, according to Dunst (2000), is an environmental variable. He says that ‘children and their parents and families are the recipients of many different kinds of social support that can and often do function as a form of early intervention’ (Dunst, 2000, p. 95). According to this perspective, the information and guidance needed by parents for promoting child learning and development come from both informal and formal social support network members. Thus, according to Dunst, ‘Interventions should emphasize mobilization of supports from informal network members rather than relying solely or primarily on formal supports from professionals and professional help-giving agencies’ (ibid.). This perspective leads to a resource-based versus service-based model of early intervention, in that the emphasis is on access to desired resources rather than the provision of services which may or may not be consistent with family and child priorities.

For many young children (with or without a disability), childcare is considered one of the most important and frequently used community service providers. While educators have, at times, worked in relative isolation from childcare providers, it is becoming increasingly clear that the education of a young child is not confined to what takes place in the classroom. This understanding has led to relatively intense interest in ‘partnering’ with childcare providers to enhance the learning opportunities for young children with special needs. This interest is reflected in the network of Early Years, Development and Childcare Partnerships (EYDCPs) recently established in England. EYDCPs bring together private, voluntary and independent settings which receive government funding to provide early education with Local Education Authorities (LEAs), Social Services departments, health services and parent represen-tatives in the planning and provision of early intervention services (Department for Education and Skills, 2001a). Local EYDCPs must include in their plans how children with SEN will be cared for both within child-care and early education (Wolfendale, 2000). The UK Schools Standards and Framework Act 1998 also outlines a statutory framework for ensuring a coherent and equitable provision of early education and childcare services for children under 5.

Schools in the UK generally take four-year-olds into Reception classes on either a part-time or full-time basis. Government policy is for EYDCPs to expand preschool services across all sectors with the private, maintained and voluntary sector providers as ‘genuine’ partners (Sestini, 2001). The UK government Green Paper Meeting the Childcare Challenge (May 1998) established a ‘National Child Care Strategy’ and proposed inclusive provision where possible for children with special needs (Sestini, 2001). It is becoming increasingly common in many communities for early education and childcare to be carried out by the same institution. Such combined services should be made accessible and appropriate for all children, including children with special educational needs.

Where and how are services provided?

In the educational realm, services for young children with special needs are typically provided in a classroom or playgroup setting—whether in a formal school programme or a more informal childcare programme. Today, best practices recommend the provision of services in inclusive settings— that is in programmes serving typically developing children, along with children with special educational needs. Not all children with disabilities are served in inclusive settings, however. Separate programming may be due to lack of access to inclusive settings or lack of community support for the inclusive model of intervention.

The different instructional approaches used in programmes serving young children with disabilities usually take some form of either activity-based instruction or didactic instruction. Activity-based instruction, designed to be conducted across the day in the context of ongoing activities and routines, is often described as a natural approach to intervention (e.g. teaching based on child interest, using child-selected materials, and using natural reinforcement). Didactic instruction, on the other hand, is usually conducted over a specified period of time and focuses on the acquisition of very specific skills (e.g. responding to a two-part command, asking for assistance, buttoning a shirt).

According to many experts (as outlined by Hemmeter, 2000), ‘successful and meaningful inclusion depends on the implementation of effective interventions in the context of ongoing classroom activities and routines to teach functional and developmentally appropriate skills to children with disabilities’ (pp. 58—59)—that is, activity-based instruction. Activity-based interventions are considered to be valuable tools in inclusive settings because they do not require teachers to step out of their role as leaders to conduct a separate individual or small group activity (Odom, 2000).

There are, however, some concerns associated with activity-based instruction. In addition to the fact that research has not provided conclusive evidence that this approach is more effective or efficient than more didactic approaches, studies indicate that it is also difficult to train teachers to use activity-based approaches to intervention (Hemmeter, 2000). These and other concerns relating to how services are provided for young children with special educational needs are discussed in Chapter 2.

What are the goals?

The term ‘goals’, when used in an educational context, usually refers to desired outcomes. Goals in early intervention represent desired outcomes for the child as well as of the programme itself. For the child, the goals are typically determined on an individual basis and usually relate to specific assessment results—that is, the child’s individual needs and strengths. Working from individualized goals and objectives is one of the major tenets of special education. There are some more global and long-term goals of early intervention, however, that should be considered for every child with special needs. Such goals include (1) preparing young children with disabilities for participation in life in the community (Odom, 2000), and (2) developing social competence and effective learning strategies (Hemmeter, 2000). These more global goals represent several of the desired outcomes for the child as well as of the programme itself. Other programme goals include minimizing the negative impact of a disability on the overall growth and development of the children involved, decreasing the need for ongoing special education services for these children, and enhancing parental competence and confidence in promoting their children’s learning and development.

In England, additional goals have been outlined. These goals, referred to as ‘Early Learning Goals’, address six areas of development (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, 2000). The following is a list of these areas along with a brief description of the types of goal associated with each area.

1. Personal, social and emotional development: covers aspects of personal, social, emotional, moral and spiritual development, including the development of personal values and an understanding of self and others.
2. Communication, language and literacy: covers important aspects of language development and the foundation for literacy, including competence in talking, listening, and becoming readers and writers.
3. Mathematical development: covers important aspects of mathematical understanding and the foundation for numeracy.
4. Knowledge and understanding of the world: focuses on children’s developing knowledge and understanding of their environment, including other people and features of the natural and human-made environment.
5. Physical development: focuses on children’s developing physical control, mobility, awareness of space and manipulative skills in indoor and outdoor environments.
6. Creative development: focuses on the development of children’s imagination and their ability to communicate and to express ideas and feelings in creative ways.

The early learning goals establish expectations for most children to reach before the age of 6. While they are not a curriculum in themselves, the early learning goals provide a basis for planning throughout the early years so that children will have a secure foundation for future learning. It is understood that some children wil...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Illustrations
• Foreword
• Series Editor’s Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I: Establishing the Framework
• Part II: Child Development Issues
• Part III: Focus On the Team
• Part IV: Meeting the Needs of the Individual Child
• Glossary
• References