Preschool & Special Education

[rileysamm]

Hi, My name is Samantha & I would like to know your views or what you know about the preschool system and special needs education in your country. For example, Does your country practice inclusion (aka inclusion of children with special needs into mainstream schools) or is it more segregated?

Note: I will be starting my degree in Early Childhood Educational Studies soon, so I just wanted to get a rough perspective on what other countries practice.

Thanks!

[ViCtoria*]

Hi Samantha! Well, I live in Peru and things are a bit different here. I don't think there's much inclusion here, but I do know that there are some schools for children with special needs. I do not know many people with disabilities to tell you the truth (maybe it's because they are not included in my society?)

The problems with the educational system are somewhat different. What the government has been trying to do for a while is to end segregation. There are many kids who are from rural areas and speak a language that is not Spanish (quechua and aymara for instance), so the material they receive at school is not suitable for them. Also, classmates who do speak Spanish and have a biiit more money or are from a lighter colour may treat them differently. They can't learn so they leave school, among other reasons of course. That's why there is a high index of illiteracy in the country

[alyssamilanofan]

We have segragated education systems but in the Netherlands we're experiencing more and more inclusion of kids who need special education. The governement is trying to include special needs children more and more into the 'regular' education system. This is actually part of the policy they have going now to include as many people into society as possible. While I think idealistically it's a great idea, I think our governement forgets that society these days isn't very accepting.

For example at my college we need to solve cases, like they would happen in real life (I do social work) and we have a group of mentally impaired people, who get placed in a house in a regular neighborhood, these people don't get accepted by the rest of the neighborhood and are pointed at and stared at. They even formed a commitee to get these mentally impaired people out of their neighborhood. I think that while yes there are definitely positive sides to inclusion, there are also a lot of negative points.
People don't get accepted and they feel that. It brings a feeling of being different to them. They get insecure and their progressions slows or even stops, at least that's what I have experienced so far.

And I think the same goes for special needs kids.. I think they should caution a little more, because in the end these kids will suffer from it.

[rileysamm]

Thanks for the replies! I really appreciate you guys telling me what you can.

I kinda feel very sheltered (in terms of education) in Singapore because our society focuses (almost everything) on academics. I agree with alyssamilanofan - societies today, although very much modernized, still has trouble accepting overall diversity. In Singapore, I've observed the elderly and older folk asking others to stay away from a certain person because he/she is "crazy" when in fact that person has special needs or a disability.

[chloe]

Where I live, England, some children with special needs go to mainstream schools and some go to special schools...I'm not really sure of the system but I think it's up to their parents to decide. The other day a special needs school visited my school. I think it was better for the children (who all had quite severe special needs) to be at this school as it had so many facilities which you could see greatly benefited the children there, but the school managed to be very involved with other schools in the area - they often had schools visiting them and had even had a big performance at a local theatre with many other schools.
However, I don't think all special schools are like this...the headteacher was very motivated and had organized all of this since she had started working there.

[forsah]

In Cameroon,the government is doing all it can so that all children,irrespective of their social and physical conditions get educated as early as possible so as to make them actors in the development of our world.for instance my university (univrersity of BUEA),THERE IS A FACULTY OF SPECIAL EDUCATION FOR THE DUMB ,DEAF,BLIND AND LAME.There is also a UNESCO CHAIR to assist this faculty in training and educating teachers and the disabled themselves

[bearspotsurfy]

Hi,

In the U.S.A. special education is a huge focus in schools, etc. At public schools they are integrated, although they go to the special ed. room throughout the day. There is also a hospital a half hour away from my home in which they put severely disabled kids in, and they get 24/7 care. For kids with things such as ADD, there are teachers who help them and they go to certain classes for kids like them. Some kids also take speech therapy in my school and occupational therapy. When I was 9 there was a disabled girl that couldn't talk or write in my class, but they let her do certain activities with her, and I became friends with her. So overall the U.S.A pays quite a lot of attention to special education.

-Shelly

[unique07]

You just face this trouble, if the children have any different quality, then you just takes the benefits of that quality and make solve yours problems...
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