Who are children with special needs?

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Exceptional children/children with special needs are those who experience difficulties in learning as well as those whose performance is so superior that modifications in curriculum and instruction are necessary to help them fulfil their potential

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Exceptional/ special needs children is an inclusive term that refers to children with learning and or behaviour problems, children with physical disabilities or sensory impairments, and children who are intellectually gifted or have special talent.

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What is Special Education?

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Special Education is individually planned, specialised, intensive, goal directed instruction. When practiced effectively and ethically, it involves the use of evidence-based teaching methods and evidence which is guided by direct and frequent measures of student performance

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What does Inclusion mean?

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Inclusion means that students with exceptionalities are taught in the general education classroom alongside their typically developing peers. The learning experience will be tailored to meet the needs of students. Adaptations in the form of accommodations or modifications increase the chances of students maximising their potential.

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What is Universal Design for Learning?

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All new curricula materials and learning technologies should be designed to be flexible enough to accommodate the learning styles of a wide array of individuals including children with disabilities. The three principles of UDL are:

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• Multiple means of representation

• Multiple means of action and expression

• Multiple means of engagement

 

What is Differentiation?

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Adjusting teaching environments, curricula and instructional practices to create appropriately different learning experiences for students with different needs, interests, readiness, and learning profiles

 

Individualised Education Plan – IEP

 

Specialised plans developed and implemented to meet the needs of students with exceptionalities. These plans contain statements of the individual’s present levels, targeted levels, strategies to be employed to meet the desired outcomes and timelines within which these goals will be met.

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Functional Behaviour Assessment

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A systematic process of gathering information about the purposes a problem behaviour serves an individual. The assessment is used to create intervention plans.

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Behaviour Intervention Plan

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A statement of specific strategies and procedures to prevent the occurrence of a child’s problem behaviour and to intervene when necessary based on the results of a functional behaviour assessment.