History Of Special Education

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Special education has changed in many different ways throughout the last century. The views of they way students with differences should be taught and treated have changed as people have become more open minded.
The education laws have also seen a turn about. One major area of education was in a desperate need of changed opinions and beliefs. Education for children with learning problems has emerged from no education to special funding and programs especially for those individuals with learning problems.
The first phase of special education is the largest span of time. The Foundation Phase was from 1800 to
1930, children who had any sign of learning problems were labeled as dumb, retarded, and even brain injured.
The reason students would have been labeled as brain injured is because of studies done on war victims and soldiers of war. Many soldiers had head injuries and the way they acted related very similarly to the way
“brain injured” students acted. At this time period researchers and doctors located the area of the brain related to language, or the language function of the brain. The Transition Phase began in 1930 and lasted until
1960. This phase had some turning points in the way
“brain injured” children were taught. Researchers developed instruments for assessment, analyzed specific
Atwell 2 types of learning problems and also presented a plan for teaching “brain injured” children. At this stage the labeling of the children with learning problems was not as harsh as “brain injured”. The students were called
“children with minimal brain dysfunction”.
The turning phase for the education of students with learning problems was the Integration Phase, 1960 to 1980. There was a man by the name of Samuel Kirk, who came up with the name “learning disabled”. After this term took the place of “brain injured” and “minimal brain dysfunction”, it seemed like there was hope for children with learning problems. Schools started establishing programs for the learning disabled.
Funding was provided for teachers to be trained in learning disabilities. The most important part of the
Integration Phase is the Education for All Handicapped
Children Act (PL 94-142) in 1975. This act was to ensure that all students no matter what type of problem would receive a “free and appropria...

... middle of paper ...

...ividuals who can interpret evaluation result’s, represent the school system, individuals with knowledge or special expertise about the child, representatives from transition service agencies and the student who the
IEP is being written for.

Atwell 5
Education has gone through many stages of the way a child should be taught. The law has made a path for those with learning problems and now there is no stopping them.
Children with learning disabilities finally have a chance to excel in school and gives them the opportunity to have a normal life.

Atwell 6
Works Cited

A Guide to the Individualized Education Program. U.S. Department of Education. 20 Feb. 2001. <http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP
/IEP_Guide/# A Closer Look at the IEP>.
Lerner, Janet W. Learning Disabilities: Theories, Diagnosis, andTeaching
Strategies. 8th ed. Boston: Ally & Bacon Publishers, 2000.
Levine, Daniel U., Allan C. Ornstein. Foundations of Education.
6th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.

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