Special education

Special education or differential education is the set of scientific knowledge and educational, psychological, pedagogical, social and medical interventions aimed at optimizing the potential of people with disabilities. At present, Special Education is considered as a scientific discipline framed in the educational space, within the field of Educational Sciences, whose object of study would be people with disabilities. Where the knowledge that it builds is carried out collaboratively from a multidimensional perspective, of a transversal nature. This means that it draws on other disciplines within this educational field: such as didactics, educational sociology, educational psychology, etc. But this does not imply that Special Education is reduced to the contributions and knowledge elaborated from these disciplines or that there is a hierarchy of disciplines. This interdisciplinary perspective alludes to the complementation, to the joint and cooperative action of different disciplines, in order to contribute to the construction of the school of diversity.

In the last years of the XX century, the replacement of the term has been proposed in Spain and in other countries special education for special educational needs, following the recommendations of the Warnock report, published in 1978 and disseminated throughout the following decade. This new definition means emphasizing the conception of Basic General Education as a service that is provided to citizens so that they reach their maximum potential and therefore the obligation of the system to provide support and technical and human means to compensate for the deficits of the students in accessing the essential basic learning to face adult life.

Europe

Historical evolution

In Antiquity, the rejection of handicapped children, as they were previously called, was widespread, even leading to extermination in Greece. At this time, the vision that people had regarding these individuals was that they were demon-possessed, possessed or bewitched, who had to be made to disappear. It was not until the French Revolution that its educability was raised, albeit in a segregated way. In the Enlightenment period there was no minimally educational treatment for people with intellectual disabilities, and this identity was diluted along with other disorders such as madness or dementia. People with intellectual disabilities were separated from society and were treated in a purely welfare manner. People with disabilities were considered "ineducable", unable to learn, "possessed," therefore exorcist methods were justified, and equated to insane or people with psychosocial disabilities.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, educational attention to people with visual or hearing disabilities has been provided in Spain since the XVI century.

In France in the 18th century, an institute for blind children Haüy was created, in which Louis Braille was educated, who later invented the Braille Literacy system.

It was not until the 19th century that special education began to develop in Europe, especially in the case of people with sensory deficiency, in which the aforementioned existed. Throughout this century, authors such as Philippe Pinel (1745-1826), Jean Étienne Dominique Esquirol (1772-1840), Jean Itard (1774-1836) and Eduardo Séguin (1812-1880) developed methods applied to disabilities that will later be perfected in the XX century by Ovide Decroly and María Montessori.

The contemporary conception of special education arose in the XX century and has come to replace others still in force in certain Latin American countries, such as defectology, which has obvious negative connotations.

From 1960 to today

Nirje, in Sweden, and Bank-Mikkelsen, in Denmark, were the first to enunciate the principle of normalization and, as an application of the same, they advocated the integration of people with disabilities in the ordinary center, to attend to it according to their needs.

In 1975, the UN formulated the Standard Rules on equal opportunities for people with disabilities, in which the dignity of the person is cited as a fundamental right, from which the rest of the rights will be derived.

In 1978 the UK Department of Education published the Warnock Report. It popularizes the term "special educational needs" (SEN), which would take precedence instead of "special education" (EE). Likewise, this report distinguishes 3 types of integration:

• Social integration: it is about sharing extracurricular activities or spaces like the courtyard. There is no common curriculum.
• Physical integration: it is given in ordinary centres with special education classrooms, or when pupils without disabilities and pupils with disabilities share some services in the centre. There is no common curriculum.
• Functional integration: it consists of sharing the curriculum in whole or in part.

Although this report proposes a truly simple integration model, it can be considered the basis of the contemporary conception of EE, since for the first time the problems of the student are approached not only starting from their limitations, but focusing on the provision of the necessary support resources and services that compensate them for the achievement of equal minimum capacities for all students.

Shortly after the publication of the Warnock Report, the conference A school for all was held in Denmark, which emphasizes the individualization of educational services as the basis for successful integration. If until then integration was understood as the adaptation of more or less homogeneous groups to regular school, now people with disabilities -like those who do not present it- are not equal to each other, but have very different needs, which must be evaluated and compensated by the educational center, making use of various resources and instruments. The student can thus present a continuum of situations that will generate multiple types of response and different modalities of schooling. Thus, the concept of inclusive school is generated, which accepts all students as basically different, whatever their personal and social circumstances.

Lastly, the European Constitution establishes the bases, in its articles II-81.1 and II.86, for the action of the public powers in the promotion of non-discrimination and positive action as bases to ensure social integration of individuals.

All European countries are adapting special education in accordance with the principles of normalization, integration and inclusion, and with the conception of education as a service provided to citizens. However, there are small nuanced differences that give rise to the following trends:

• Integrated systems: seek to integrate persons with disabilities into the ordinary school. It is the model of Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark.
• Separate systems: aim to develop the EE field, as a subsystem as specific as possible, adapted to the maximum of the characteristics of the different types of deficits. It is the system of Germany, Belgium, Holland or Luxembourg.
• Mixed systems: the aim is to integrate within the framework of the regular and part-time special. It is the model of France, Portugal and Ireland.

Despite these nuances, common guidelines for action can be observed:

• Application of the standardization principle.
• Integration is the ultimate goal of all European educational systems.
• No individual is excluded from education.
• Integration or incorporation of special education in primary or basic education.
• Existence of multidisciplinary teams and technical means of support for integration.

Spain

Historical background

After the background of educators for the deaf from the XVI century (Fray Pedro Ponce de León, Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro and Juan Pablo Bonet) in the education of the sensory handicapped, it is necessary to go back to 1857 with the promulgation of the Public Instruction Law, which provides for the creation of a school for the blind and deaf in each university district.

In 1910, the National Board of Blind and Deaf-Mute and Abnormal was created, and later institutes derived from it were established.

In 1933, the Asilo de Inválidos del Trabajo was refounded as a special education center under the name of the National Institute for the Reeducation of the Disabled, currently known as CPEE María Soriano. Likewise, in 1941 ONCE took over the management of the National Institute for the Blind, which it had already carried out since 1928.

As features of all these centers include:

• Specialization in a single disability
• State area
• Concentration of educational, social and health services
• They usually have a section dedicated to the training of professionals.

It was not until the 1960s that a real "explosion" in the proliferation of special education centers, mostly opened by parental initiatives and the result in some cases of poor planning.

1970 to the present day

The legal adoption of the term special education, occurs from the General Education Law of 1970. In this law, special education is understood as a specific modality, that is, as an educational system parallel to that of ordinary education, governed by its own rules and by a specific curriculum other than the general one. In practice, only those less affected people who could not keep up with ordinary education had access to this system, since schooling was not compulsory. The General Education Law also provided for the creation of special education classrooms in ordinary centers for people with mild disabilities as a more advanced measure.

In 1975 the National Institute of Special Education was created, an autonomous body dependent on the Ministry of Education, and three years later the first state plan on the matter was drawn up.

In 1978, the Spanish Constitution establishes in its article 49 that:

The public authorities will carry out a policy of foresight, treatment, rehabilitation and integration of the physical, sensory and psychic impairments, to which they will pay the specialized attention they require and will protect them especially for the enjoyment of the rights that this Title grants to all citizens.

Another important legislative reference is Law 13/1982 on the Social Integration of the Disabled (LISMI), which establishes the basic principles of care for people with disabilities in all areas, including education: normalization, sectorization and integration.

Subsequently, Royal Decree 334/1985 on the Regulation of Special Education marks another milestone by establishing that the Special Education curriculum must be based in any case on the ordinary one, although taking individual differences into account. This decree marks the experimental beginning of the integration program in Spain and as a consequence of it, the National Center of Resources for Special Education, dependent on the Ministry of Education, was created in 1986.

The integration program lasted eight years, three of them on an experimental basis and five of expansion of the integration of students with special educational needs to ordinary centers.

According to Royal Decree 696/1995,

Schools of special education will be proposed for pupils with special educational needs associated with mental, sensory or motor disabilities, severe developmental disorders or multiple deficiencies that require significant curricular adaptations throughout their schooling in virtually all areas of the curriculum, or the provision of uncommon personal and material means in the regular centres, and when it is expected, furthermore, that in these centres their adaptation and social integration would be reduced.

In this country, the tutor teachers of students enrolled in special education are called teachers in Therapeutic Pedagogy, who intervene both in specific special education centers and in ordinary centers as integration support teachers or tutors in the specific education classroom special. Likewise, and both in ordinary centers and, above all, in specific ones, other professionals are also involved:

• Psychologists/ Psychopedagogues: responsible for the detection, guidance and follow-up process. They can work both in sectoral teams and in special education centres, together with Social Educators.
• The logopeda or master of hearing and language: promotes communication by trying to improve both in language and in speech and voice. They are involved in the rehabilitation of major communication and language disorders derived from disability, both physical, mental or sensory.
• The occupational therapist: takes care of the user carrying out activities of everyday life in a normalized way, integrating it into society, organizing time and tasks in a healthy way and according to the person (their tastes, age, according to context): basic activities of daily life, instrumental/productive activities, leisure and free time, among others. It also helps to get an occupation in the future.
• Physical therapists
• Resident nurse: one or two per center, except in case of interns.

In specific schools or integration schools, preferably for the deaf or visually impaired, there are also sign language interpreters and advisers on said disability. The difference between one and the other is that the latter suffer from a disability and their function is not only to serve as an interpreter, but also to advise the school on specific aspects and serve as a reference figure for students with said disability.

The student remains in the special education center from the second cycle of infant education (3-6 years) until reaching the age of 21, when they must seek a place in residential centers (occupational or centers for seriously affected people with disabilities).

The curriculum taught in special education centers must be based on the general capabilities of primary education, although for students with more severe disabilities, primary areas are usually restructured into three areas of knowledge that coincide both in its objectives as in the same denomination (the term child education ). Thus, three areas are distinguished:

• Personal identity and autonomy
• Media knowledge
• Communication and representation

Special education should also include programs for adult life habits, job orientation known as Training Programs for the Transition to Adult Life and, in some centers, Social Guarantee Programs (later known as Qualification Programs Initial Vocational Training and currently as Basic Vocational Training) specific, intended for students with special educational needs who have not reached the objectives of compulsory secondary education or have any vocational training qualification.

Students enrolled in an integration regime follow the normal curriculum according to their chronological age with more or less significant adaptations, depending on the deficits they present.

Special education refers to the instruction that must be given in a particular way to that type of person.

The concept of normalcy and inclusion in special education

The concept of special education cannot be explained through the margin of the development of education in general, since it has gone through a process of infinity of contradictions generated by society itself (academic, social and power institutions).

The debate on special education in recent years has also acquired a deeper vision, since disability is a form of oppression, so that it is society that disables people by isolating them and excluding them from participation full as members of it where the need to conceptualize key elements has been seen, such as the concept of normality and inclusion. Normality is an abstract concept subject to subjective perceptions of those who try to understand it, which in some places can be called normal, in others it is completely the opposite, so it is recommended to take into account the socioeconomic conditions of each place for its definition, this, in turn, makes it pertinent to introduce the concept of diversity in the classroom; In the analysis of attention to students with special needs, the topic of diversity has been incorporated, seeing this as a factor that enriches the human condition and that is present in any educational space in the world.

This vision leads us to reflect on the situation of separation in which the lives of those who receive special education develop, how they arrive at this situation, under what situations and in what way it is considered not as a result of exclusion, but as part of the protection needed by those who cannot learn in established educational centers.

A pressing task for professionals who attend education with specific educational support needs is to attend to the differences in the classroom, and thus promote the possible enrichment through diversity; the inclusion of students with special needs, have several conditions:

• Teacher: It is necessary that these develop positive attitudes, avoiding segregation of students with special needs, only to “specialists”, they must try to make students feel members of a family and also of a community, thus increasing their self-esteem; making an effort to increase the self-confidence of the students through positive interactions among the class members (including the teacher), to meet this need is relevant that the managers and guides listen

• School centre: establishing a general criterion for the whole centre, integration needs the example; when the members of the school centre cooperate in the activities it shows a culture consistent with what is meant to be done in the classrooms, the feeling of collective responsibility is needed, which promotes the effectiveness of the solutions and prevents the personal desire of many teachers working in isolation to provide an adequate response from remaining only in an intention. It should also provide a flexible support structure, working on specialists and general professional teams, to promote the exchange of positive ideas on the pedagogical methods used and thus to modify and organize strategies regarding the needs of students. Finally, the school must develop the leadership that is committed to diversity and specialized attention, through academies, of internal control bodies that allow the constant analysis of situations in the institution and its consequent solutions.

• External conditions: some authors refer to these conditions as the role played by political leaders, creating a specific policy for addressing special needs in schooling; on the other hand, they can also be added to the role of the family, their inclusion in special education is important, as they are the primary social contact in which formal, non-formal and informal learnings are exercised and reinforced.
• Family: It is the fundamental axis for the psychoemotional development of the pupils, which will influence the educational performance, so it is of great importance that there is fluid communication between parents and/or those with the respective teachers and directors.

Types of subjects

1. Children with physical conditions

 (a) Chronic diseases (Children with cancer, with heart problems...)
(b) Sensory deficit (Problems in the structure or operation of an organ).
1. Visuals.
2. Hearing.
(c) Motric problems (Some examples are cerebral palsy; tetraplegic disability caused by accidents
traffic; or lateral and multiple sclerosis).

2. Children with psychological conditions

 (a) Intellectual deficit (cognitive deficit). Cognition refers to several aspects: perception, memory,
attention or concentration, logical reasoning or divergent thought and convergent thought or creativity, and language
understood as a manifestation of thought.
b) Overdoted / Intellectual Superdots.
(c) Partial deficit (problems of understanding and/or linguistic expression [disfasia, dyslalia...], psychomotor...). It refers to a child who
has a deficit in an area (space orientation problems...).
(d) Disorders / personality problems (aggressivity, bullying, depression...).
(e) “Neurosis”: Anxiety disorders.
(f) Autistic spectrum disorder: a condition that mainly affects the intrapersonal communication of the child.
(g) Child psychosis: Serious chronic personality disorder with detached reality and loss of identity. Difference
of adults in which there are no hallucinations (perceptions without object).

3. Children with social conditions. They are those who have social problems: abuse, crime, drugs...

 (a) Children at high social risk.
(b) Children of high social risk or “pre-criminal” children.
(c) Abused children.
(d) Drug-dependent children.

Programs for children with specific educational support needs

Intellectual development program (P.D.I.)

It is a written program appropriate for each child and developed interdisciplinary in order to assess their abilities, establish goals and objectives, delimit the necessary special services, guide the most appropriate form of schooling and seek procedures for evaluation, monitoring and control of the same.

Specific educational measures

It is any adjustment that is made in the different elements of the student's curriculum. The Educational Reform refers to the three levels of curricular adaptation:

• Centre curricular adaptation
• Classroom curriculum adaptation (room programmes)
• Individual curricular adaptation

Adaptations can be:

• Access adaptations (AAC), modifies elements of access to communication, information and participation.
• Non-significant curricular adaptations (ACNS), which refer to changes in methodology, activities and resources.
• Significant adaptations (ACS), which are substantial modifications of the curriculum in the objectives and contents.
• Individualized curricular adaptations (ACI), aimed at students with special educational needs, in accordance with their individual characteristics.

Programs for students with high abilities

The first important studies on children with exceptional intelligence and abilities are due to Lewis Terman, who developed the concept of giftedness to refer to those subjects who occupied the 99th percentile on the Binet scale (Terman, 1925). The initial definition criterion was therefore purely normative (IQ score), which is maintained to this day, assuming the reduction of the multidimensionality of intelligence (Borland, 2005).

Over time, people began to talk about aptitudes, and from the eighties two components began to be included: creativity and motivation understood as commitment to the task (Renzulli et al.).

Renzulli (1985) in the Three Rings Theory, pointed out that what defines this type of person is the possession of three basic sets of related characteristics: Higher than average intellectual capacity (IQ equal to or greater than 130), great capacity for work, and high levels of creativity. It is insisted on pointing out that none of the traits separately confirms the identification of giftedness, but that it is the appropriate combination of the three that defines them.

In the review of his own model (1994), he gives more importance to environmental factors, family and school, establishing an IQ higher than 116, or a percentile higher than 75 in ability, task involvement and creativity.

Subsequently, we highlight Sternberg's and Gardner's theory:

The first has added two important components:

• The consideration of the process and not only of the product.

• Consideration of the context in which it applies.

Gardner's theory considers multiple abilities (intelligences): linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial or artistic, musical, naturalistic or bodily scientific, interpersonal and intrapersonal. For some authors (Freeman, 2005) even morality. Considering that these skills may or may not develop depending on environmental and/or cultural factors (Prieto et al. 2002).

As we can see, defining the concept of gifted is not easy, as shown by the lack of unanimity among the different experts. However, it is essential to know what giftedness is and how it manifests itself in order to identify them and provide adequate psycho-pedagogical attention to guarantee these subjects an active adaptation to the society to which they belong.

At this point it would be important to distinguish between three terms that are often mixed together: gifted, talented and precocious.

• Learning children premature they are not superdoted, simply their mature cognitive development in a shorter time than the normal one, although they do not achieve more or better levels at the end of their development (12-13 years). They are children who also present NEE as they dominate early knowledge and skills programmed for their course (Pérez and López, 2007).

• Children talented are people who show specific skills in very specific areas of knowledge. They have an outstanding aptitude and a high performance in a specific field (verbal, musical, mathematical...). Its performance in the rest of the areas is considered to be normal and even deficit (Granado, 2005).

• From the perspective of learning, students superdoted or with high intellectual abilities they are characterized by learning at a higher rate, with greater depth. They are people who transmit a great vital energy, and they can carry many projects at once. They have a high degree of motivation and will. They retain more information than people of similar age, structure it better and show broader interests.

In general, your learning style can be characterized as autonomous, focused on the task, critical, motivated, persistent, with a great desire to achieve and above all creative. He likes abstract concepts, solving his own problems, and independent thinking.

The essential characteristics that we must include in the profile of the gifted are: extensive working memory, a high level of flexibility, a great capacity for self-regulation and a high learning potential.

It is recalled that their ability to learn is not necessarily accompanied by an equally early physical, social and emotional development. That is to say, they are early in their intellectual maturity, but not in their personal, psychological and affective maturity.

In view of such abilities, one might think that these students do not have special needs. However, this assessment is erroneous, since from their quality of being children, adolescents... like other individuals of the same age, and based on the studies carried out, they have social, emotional needs and also intellectuals (Pérez, 2006):

• Socially: they need to feel they are accepted and belong to the group. Breathe an atmosphere of respect and understanding, participate in group work and activities to exchange knowledge... Especially, they require guidance in the management of interpersonal and social relationships.

• Emotionally (psychologically): they need to succeed in a dynamic, not boring intellectual environment, flexibility in their schedule and activities. Beyond the purely academics they need, the affection of their parents.

• Intellectually: they sometimes need adapted, individualized teaching, especially in those areas where they far exceed what is intended for the learning of their reference group. Likewise, facilitating access to additional resources, encouraging them to be creative: varying activities, diversifying work dynamics, fostering a participatory working environment.

Children with high capacities may also need a curricular adaptation, which consists of an enrichment of the school curriculum, either by expanding the objectives, contents and activities of higher levels or in depth, without advancing objectives, contents and criteria of higher levels.

• Curriculum enrichment programmes for high-capacity students (PECAI): to stimulate and enhance cognitive abilities, foster creativity and promote research and invention skills.

The law admits curricular flexibility, that is, an acceleration of courses in the student.

The After School Recognition Program is a program that provides learning opportunities, outside of school hours, to students who have been identified as gifted.

Prevention and early intervention

When a child has special characteristics, they should see an educator. Social or cultural intelligence tests are usually done. The possible consequences of high-risk children must be prevented.

Prevention

Prevention is any action that eliminates or reduces the onset of a disease, disorder or deficiency.

In the early 20th century, Meyer became concerned with prevention. Three types are distinguished:

• Primary prevention. It consists of reducing the rate of disease cases of a population over a period of time, acting on circumstances to prevent the disease from occurring. This prevention takes place before the factors have acted and protects all members of the community. Factors on which you act can be physical, psychological or sociocultural. An example would be immunization through vaccines.

• Secondary prevention. Its purpose is to reduce the rate of disorders, reducing their prevalence. This prevention acts when the disorder has already been detected or when the risk factor cannot be eliminated. An example of such a programme is health precautions against AIDS-affected people in order to prevent their contagion.

• Tertiary prevention. Its purpose is to reduce the rate of disorders in a community, developing rehabilitation programs for people who already have the disorder. It aims to remedy the effects of the disorder on each individual when it is fully developed and no early intervention has been received.

Early Intervention

Early intervention, early stimulation and early stimulation are synonymous, and they all refer to acting in the early stages of child development. The objective of early intervention services is to provide support and resources to children with disabilities or some type of developmental delay in order to maximize their abilities, always taking into account the decisions and culture of the family.

For any early intervention plan to be successful, it must meet at least three requirements:

• After diagnosis, the development of the service plan should be done as soon as possible.

• Active and committed participation by the family, both in planning and in implementation.

• The purpose and objectives of the intervention should be clear and measurable for its evaluation.