IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) was initially passed in 1975 by Congress to help those students who suffer from some kind of disability. It was amended in 1996 and again in 2004.

It is estimated that more than 6 million children fall into that category; they receive special services that allow them to participate successfully in regular and special classrooms. But there are millions more who have not been diagnosed and/or discovered, or who simply do not qualify even though they are in desperate need of specialized help.

There are two types of help available to those students according to the extent of their disability or disabilities. Yes, some students have more than one; for example, I have a 15 year old female student who suffers from severe hearing loss, speech disorder and mental retardation. However, the most common disability is without a doubt SLD or Specific Learning Disability. SLD is determined by comparing the child’s performance on several tasks with his actual potential. If the discrepancy is more than 15 points in any given area, for example reading comprehension or mathematical calculations, the student is classified as SLD.

The help is categorized as either Accommodations and/or Modifications. The first has to do with the way teaching is delivered to the student, for example giving him/her a written skeleton of the topic covered that day. The second is actually changing the contents of the lesson to make it more accessible and understandable. For example, the student may be given a word bank with simple explanations that are easier to understand. The main purpose is simply to level the playing field with the other students who do not have a disability.

Many parents are however bewildered by the technical terms used by the schools to explain what is being done to their sons or daughters who suffer from SLD or other learning problems. There are many good sites they can refer to and find answers to their questions. Of course, you can email me with your questions and I’ll be more than happy to try and answer every doubt to the best of my ability.

As a teacher in the special education field, I have discovered that many classroom teachers not only do not understand the concept of Learning Disability, but also reject the presence of challenged learners in their classroom. It is true that not all students with disabilities can function adequately in the general classroom; they can learn much more in special settings. But that is true only for the extreme cases, such as the young lady mentioned above who was diagnosed with three different problems.

I have worked as an inclusion teacher for 6 years, which means that I am present in the classroom to help those challenged students follow and understand the regular teacher. It is essential that I work closely with the regular teacher in coordinating our teaching strategies. It has been shown that special education children function much better when they are given the opportunity to work with other students their own age in a regular classroom. It not only helps them learn the core skills needed in life, Math, Science, English and Social Studies, but also the social skills that are essential in reaching a certain level of success in the community.

The strategy of including another teacher in the regular classroom may be an inconvenience for some regular teachers. Sometimes there are clashes between the two due mostly to incompatible personalities, which of course results in learning deficiencies for the students. Some teachers are insecure; others fear that the inclusion teacher will report their inadequacies to the administration. But the inclusion strategy is here to stay and schools must take into account the teachers’ preferences when pairing them. Unfortunately, very few schools actually give the necessary importance to the inclusion process to make it a success. The only people hurt as a result are the learning challenged students and that is unacceptable.

By: Jacques Sprenger