1. Current Trends and Issues in Sped

2. Normalization
• The key principle toward more integration of
people with disabilities into society
• Espoused in Scandinavia in 1969
• means a philosophical belief in SPED that every
individual, even the most disabled, should have
an educational and living environment as close to
normal as possible.
• both means and ends for disabled children
should be as much like those for nondisabled
students.

3. Deinstitutionalization
• A social movement of the 1960’s
• Based on a pictorial essay “Christmas on
Purgatory” on the squalid conditions of
institutional life of students with mental
retardation
• this caused more and more children with
disabilities to be raised by their families.

4. The Regular Education Initiative
• Introduced by former Assistant Sec. Of
Education, Madeline C. Will (1986)
• A philosophy that maintains that general
education rather than special education
should be primarily responsible for educating
students with disabilities.
• The result of advocates’ view regarding the
half-hearted attempt to integrate students
with disabilities (mainstreaming)

5. Full Inclusion
• Advocated by REI
• Elements of Full Inclusion
– All student with disabilities no matter the types or
severities of disabilities attend all classes in
general education
– All students with disabilities attend their
neighborhood schools
– General education not special education, assumes
responsibility for students with disabilities

6. Premises of Full Inclusion
• Labelling people is harmful
• Special education pull-out programs have
been ineffective
• People with disabilities should be viewed as a
minority group
• Ethics should take precedence over empricism

7. Arguments against Full Inclusion
• General educators, special educators, and
parents are largely satisfied with the current
continuum of placements
• General educators are unwilling and /or
unable to cope with all students with
disabilities
• Justifying full inclusion by asserting that
people with disabilities are a minority is
flawed

8. Arguments against Full Inclusion
• Full-inclusion proponents’ unwillingness to
consider empirical evidence is professionally
irresponsible
• The available empirical evidence does not
support full inclusion
• In the absence of date to support one service
delivery model, special education must
preserve the continuum of placements

9. Mainstreaming Practices
• Prereferral teams
• Peer collaboration
• Collaborative consultation
• Cooperative teaching
• Cooperative learning
• Peer tutoring
• Partial participation
• Curriculum materials designed to change
attitudes

10. Early Intervention
• A term used to refer to a range of services
provided to children, parents, and families
during pregnancy, infancy and/or early
childhood.
• Previously known a nursery schools or
preschools in 1930’s
• Supported by PL 99-457 IFSP for children ages
5 yrs. old and below including infants

11. Why Early Intervention?
• The early the program of intervention the
more complex skills the child will learn
• Avoiding developmental delays
• Preventing additional delays
• Help families adjust to having a child with
disabilities thus giving parents the skills they
need to handle the child

12. What Puts Children at Risk?
• Genetic disorder
• Events during pregnancy and birth
• Child abuse or neglect
• Lower socioeconomic condition
• Substance abuse

13. What are Early Intervention Programs
• IFSP
– A statement of infant’s or toddler’s present level of
physical development
– A statement of the family’s resources, priorities, and
concerns relating to enhancing the development of
the family’s infant/toddler
– Statement of major outcomes expected to be
achieved for the infant/toddler
– Statement of specific early intervention services
necessary to meet the unique needs of the
infant/toddler

14. What are Early Intervention Programs
• IFSP
– Statement of natural environment in which early
intervention services shall appropriately be provided
– Projected dates for initiation of services and the
anticipated duration
– Identification of the service coordinator from the
profession most immediately relevant to the
infant/toddler services
– Steps to be taken to support the transition of the
toddler with a disability to preschool and other
appropriate services

15. Education Programs
• Early Childhood Intervention Center
• Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP)
• Day-Care and Early Childhood Centers
• Assessment and Curriculum
• Curriculum Options