Introduction to Special Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Introduction to Special Education - Essay Example These include reading disability, problems with expressive language, receptive language, poor hand-eye coordination, visual confusion, problems with socialization, behavioural difficulties, possible depression, social isolation, difficulties in visual motor skills, and over all learning disabilities. Each of these conditions would lead to disparate variety of educational needs for the student, and it seems none of these can be addressed at home, given the fact that Juan's mother is suffering from severe depression, and she needs Juan's help for her own care. Although his socialization, visual motor skills, and language had not developed, there is no help, supervision, or guidance at home that can help him improve. As is known, special education centres on a process of evaluation of Juan's development of skills in this area; it seems Juan is eligible for an individualized education programme. Examining the legal criteria for eligibility to be included in a special education programme, it must be stated that Juan satisfies the following criteria which qualifies him to be a child with disability. Juan is an individual between ages 3 to 22. He may have mental retardation, which has not been clearly mentioned in this case history. He has definitely established speech and language imp airment. Although he is not blind, he has visual impairment. Although there is no indication in the history about any serious emotional disturbance, from the case it is apparent that he might as well have depression. His socialization skills might have been lacking due to this. He was observed to be a loner in the class without any friends. His reticence in the class is pointing to this fact with stronger possibility. This may be due to his basic learning possibility, but a mental health assessment is necessary to rule out whether this is a mental health problem or a result of emotional disturbance. Fortunately, he does not have any orthopedic impairment. These disabilities are affecting Juan's academic performance. It appears from the very beginning, Juan was suffering from such problems, and these were affecting his learning and academic performance. Juan had severe discrepancy between achievement and intellectual ability in oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skills, reading comprehension (Wolff Heller et al., 1996). It appeared that his mathematical calculation and mathematical reasoning was just age-appropriate. Assessing the student's needs and designing the modifications in instructions form the basis of special education. When Juan has been diagnosed with learning disability, he will need special education services, and it can also be expected that scientifically validated interventions against his problems in the rural primary school was not able to result in an expected positive response. This also indicates presence of some unique and individualized learning needs. This analysis does not point to the presumptive cause of this disability. Therefore, a comprehensive evaluation of the cognitive abilities, processes, and deficits in Juan must be available before a final decision. This would also need to include an assessment and correlation with the academic achievements and the forms of psychosocial functioning. His ability has been attempted to be characterised by the estimates of his IQ. For the reference of this discussion, his WISC-III profile indicated his verbal IQ to be 82 and the