Teaching Exceptional Children

Foundations and Best Practices in Inclusive Early Childhood Education Classrooms

Mojdeh Bayat

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317623854
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Teaching Exceptional Children isan ideal textbook for introductory graduate and undergraduate courses on early childhood special education and teaching in inclusive classrooms.Bayat's clear and accessible writing, a visually appealing design, and focused pedagogy in each chapter help make it possible to cover a significant amount of material. This powerful text identifies specific behavioral characteristics and presents theoretical information grounded in neuroscience and child development research for a wide range of disabilities. Research-based best practices for effectively working with children with various disabilities in inclusive classrooms are provided in each chapter. The second edition has been fully updated based on the DSM-5, and includes new sections on contemporary issues in inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood classrooms, such as challenging behaviors, using technology, at-risk children, promoting mental health, and family issues.

A robust pedagogical program, along with online resources for instructors and students, provides full support, including:

• 
  
  

• Chapter Objectives and Key Terms help frame each chapter
• Discussion, Critical Thinking, Essay/Short Answer, and Review Questions at the beginning, throughout, and concluding chapters prompt students to fully engage with the material
• Homework/Field Assignments provide opportunities for students to apply their knowledge to real-world situations
• Real-Life Vignettes illustrate concepts in action
• Color Photos, Figures, and Tables clarify concepts in a visually engaging way
• Recommended Resources and References offer guidance for further study

• The companion website, http://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138802209, includes instructor resources for teaching and planning, including an Instructor's Manual with additional ideas for assigntments and projects, web links, and video links with reflection questions; a test bank; and PowerPoint lecture slides. The site also includes tools for students to engage with and master the concepts and terminology introduced in the book.
  
  

Part I
Foundations of Early Childhood Special Education

An Introduction to the Field of Early Childhood Special Education

1

Objectives

Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Describe who children with exceptional needs are;
• Understand the various programs under Early Childhood Education, Early Childhood Intervention, and Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) in which children with disabilities and their families are served;
• Describe the role of various professionals in the field of ECSE;
• Understand and analyze the historical developments that shaped the field of ECSE;
• Understand and analyze the legal foundation of special education and the laws which shaped ECSE;
• Evaluate the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as it relates to Early Intervention and Special Education for young children;
• Define inclusion and understand arguments for and against inclusion in early childhood education;
• Understand and analyze the important research which has shaped ECSE;
• List recommendations for ECSE and Inclusive Programs.

Key Terms

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Assistive Technology
• children at risk
• children with special needs
• compensatory/prevention programs
• developmental delay
• due process hearing
• Early Childhood Education (ECE)
• Early Childhood Intervention (ECI)
• Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE)
• Early Intervention (EI)
• Elementary Special Education
• evidenced based/scientific research based
• exceptional children
• experimental
• free and appropriate public education (FAPE)
• giftedness
• Head Start
• inclusion
• inclusive classrooms
• Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
• Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
• Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health (IMH)
• least restrictive environment (LRE)
• mixed methodologies
• natural environments
• No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
• qualitative research
• quantitative research
• quasi-experimental
• regular or general education classrooms
• Rosa’s Law
• special education
• special education classrooms
• transition

Discussion Questions

Before reading this chapter, answer the following questions to reflect upon your personal opinions and beliefs that are pertinent to Early Childhood Special Education.

1. Who are children with special needs?
2. What is special education?
3. In your opinion, what should an early childhood educator know before working with a child with special needs?
4. In your opinion, what kind of support and services should be available to teachers who work with children with disabilities?
5. What is your position about inclusion of children with disabilities? Why?

Introduction

Education, care, and treatment of young children with special needs in the United States are accomplished through interaction and collaboration between public health and education fields, both of which are related to a broader system of care and education for all young children. Children with special needs, also referred to as exceptional children, are children who because of a variety of factors, such as a diagnosed condition/disability, environmental risks, or giftedness, might require a special education, which would differ from the education provided for other children who otherwise do not have special needs.

The current early childhood special education system in the United States is a result of a number of historical developments in education of children with disabilities, several landmark legal decisions and laws regarding the civil and educational rights of individuals and children with disabilities and their families, and the research in early education and intervention. In this chapter we will examine the historical and legal forces that have shaped the field of early childhood special education today and establish a framework for working with young children with special needs. Additionally, we will present information about programs and services in which children with special needs are educated.

Both throughout this book and in this chapter, the terms regular and general education classrooms are interchangeably used to refer to the educational settings in which typically developing children are educated, where no specific adaptations are made to the curriculum. The term inclusive classrooms is used to describe classrooms in which diverse populations of children, such as children with and without special needs, are educated. Finally, the term special education classrooms refers to specialized and highly structured classrooms in which usually children with disabilities are educated.

History of Education of Young Children With Special Needs

The history of special education began with ideas brought forth by the Renaissance philosophers, activists, religious leaders, philanthropists, and intellectuals who had some revolutionary ideas—for their times—about the education of children and individuals with disabilities. The interest of a variety of such individuals, which had been sparked by the development of scientific method and philosophical enlightenment beginning in the early modern period—14th through 16th century—set the stage for the development of what we know today as special education.

The formal education of exceptional children has often been cited to have begun sometime in the mid-18th to early 19th century (Burdett, 2014; Goodey, 2011). Prior to that time, children and adults with disabilities were rarely tolerated. No matter what disability they had, these children were lumped together under the broad category of “idiots,” who were considered to be inferior and not worthy of having rights and privileges in the society (Goodey, 2011).

There is no specific date as to when children with special needs began to receive special education and training. The first schools for deaf and blind children opened in Spain and France in the early 1800s. Pedro Ponce de Leon, a Benedictine monk, is credited with being the first teacher of deaf children, who apparently utilized a kind of manual alphabet to teach the deaf children of wealthy Spanish families. Abbe de l’Epee, a French priest, established the first public residential school for deaf persons in Paris in 1755 (Burdett, 2014). Special schools for deaf and blind children grew throughout the 19th century, and gradually children with physical and intellectual disabilities were also included in special schools.

Advances in medical science changed public opinion regarding the nature and treatment of disabilities in the late 19th century. A medical model of treatment for children with disabilities became popular during this time, which advocated separation of children with special needs from the public and their education in specialized classes (Ferguson, 2014). From the late 19th century through the early 20th century, special and segregated classes for children with disabilities grew in number and by 1927, 218 U.S. cities had special classes for about 52,000 children with disabilities (Ferguson, 2014). With the expansion of special classes came advances in psychology and cognitive testing, which resulted in welcoming a new group of specialized professionals and clinicians, such as psychologists, social workers, and speech and occupational therapists to the field of special education (Ferguson, 2014).

Early Pioneers in Special Education

The field of special education has been influenced by the works of a number of pioneers who devised methods of working with children and individuals with special needs for the first time. A brief description of some such pioneers and their work follows.

Itard

Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard (1775–1850) has been known as the father of special education. Itard was a young French physician who joined the medical staff of National Institution for Deaf Mutes in Paris when he was 25 years old (Humphrey, 1962). In 1799, a boy was found in the outskirts of the forest of Aveyron in Southern France. The boy appeared to be about 12 years old, was naked, and apparently had lived in the forest without any human contact all his life. The boy had no language, was dirty, and “trotted and grunted like animals” and was named Victor (Humphrey, 1962, p. 6). He was brought to Paris, and people from all over France came to see the “man in the state of nature,” or the “man-animal” (Humphrey, 1962).

Despite the beliefs of his contemporaries that severe sensory deprivation left Victor uneducable, Itard set out to do just that. Itard recorded the account of his experience with Victor’s education in a diary, which was later published in a book, The Wild Boy of Aveyron, in 1828. The case description of Victor, along with the educational methods used by Itard in his diary, provide one of the first well-documented case studies of a child who might have been diagnosed with autism had he lived in the 21st century (for a discussion, see Carrey, 1995; Frith, 1989).

Devoting five years of his life to the education of Victor, Itard provided an individualized instruction for Victor based on what might be considered as the first Individualized Education Plan (IEP) in history. Victor’s IEP consisted of five basic goals (Itard, 1962):

• To interest him in social life by making it more pleasant to him,
• To help him experience different sensory stimulations,
• To extend the range of his ideas by giving him new needs and by increasing his social contacts,
• To lead him to use speech through imitation,
• To help him use problem-solving skills.

Itard used a combination of what we know today as visual strategies, sensory stimulation, and behavioral methods to help Victor learn speech, cognitive, social emotional, and self-help skills. His educational methods have formed the foundations of many educational techniques that are used to educate young children with special education needs today.

Although Victor made significant progress, he learned only minimal speech and was never able to become fully independent. However, Itard’s work triggered further successful interventions for children with intellectual disabilities by his predecessors, such as Seguin and Howe (Burdett, 2014).

Seguin

Edward Seguin (1812–1881) was Itard’s pupil. He expanded Itard’s sensory techniques into what he called “physiological method,” which included sensory-motor, intellectual, academic, and speech training (Goodey, 2011). Seguin’s work with children who had mental disabilities eventually became standard worldwide, and many schools for such children opened around the world as a result. Seguin’s methods focused on self-help skills and vocational training for children and individuals with cognitive and intellectual disabilities. He moved to the United States in 1850 and introduced his methods to U.S. specialized institutions.

Howe

Samuel Howe (1801–1876) supported Seguin’s methods and envisioned a set of training efforts, which would result in the integration of children with disabilities into their communities as independent and productive members of their society. He founded a number of trai...