Educational Support for Students with Special Needs

Posted on Jan 17, 2025 in Primary Education

Educational Support and Attention to Diversity: A Network of Support for Special Needs

Evolution of the Concept of Educational Support

The concept of educational support has evolved alongside changes in the field of special education. Conceptions of difference have shifted from deficit-based approaches to cultural-inclusive approaches.

Initially, intervention was specifically focused on the student and their deficits, taking place outside the regular classroom in specialized settings like special education or support classrooms.

  • Initially, the individual model was restorative and focused on deficits.
  • In the 1980s and 1990s, the contextual and pedagogical model emerged.

Support Deficit Approach

  • Partial and peripheral intervention by specialists to resolve specific problems, offset, or recover student difficulties.
  • Specifically focused on the student and their deficits.
  • Located outside the regular classroom, in special classrooms or special education support classrooms.
  • Tasks focused on strengthening curriculum areas, especially instrumental ones.
  • Design and development of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) focused on the student’s deficit, regardless of the regular curriculum, leading to a parallel, distinct, and independent curriculum.
  • Specific space and hierarchical structure, potentially deteriorating the relational structure among professionals, with support staff operating outside the teacher-tutor dynamic.
  • Support structure as the axis of the educational response, with support staff being responsible.

Teaching Approach

  • Principles of flexibility, openness, and adaptability.
  • School as the axis of the educational response.
  • Proposal of a single common curriculum for all students, with options for adaptation.
  • Professional support intervention integrated into the global dynamics of the school.
  • Collaborative support in the search for creative and innovative responses to problems in the teaching-learning process.
  • Professional development for teachers and school development as an organization.
  • Innovation and change processes in organizational structures of schools, felt by professionals.
  • Network support: internal support and external support.
  • Requires innovation and change processes in organizational structures of schools, felt by professionals.

Model Guidance and Support

  • Classroom: Tutor
    • Prepare and develop a tutorial action plan.
    • Coordinate the student assessment process.
    • Facilitate the integration of students into the group.
    • Guide and advise students.
    • Work with the Guidance Department (GD) and the counseling team.
    • Address the demands and concerns of students.
    • Inform parents, teachers, and students.
    • Facilitate cooperation between teachers and parents.
  • Center: Support and Orientation Teams (SOT) (Primary Education) and Guidance Departments (GD) (Secondary Education)
    • SOT:
      • Coordination and streamlining of guidance and psycho-pedagogical support tasks.
      • Provide an organizational structure that enables teacher teamwork.
      • Psychological and educational support to students in need.
      • Advice to teachers.
    • GD:
      • Conduct pre-evaluation counseling for adaptations, diversification, and flexible curriculum.
      • Collaborate with faculty in the prevention and detection of educational problems or difficulties, and guide and assist in the development of individualized, tailored, and diversified programs.
      • Prepare the draft plan for orientation and tutorial action.
      • Collaborate with teaching departments in the prevention and early detection of learning problems, and advise on programming and implementation of curricular adaptations.
      • Assist in the development of orientation and guidance on the academic and professional future of students.
      • Make proposals to the Educational Coordination Task Force regarding psycho-pedagogical aspects of the School Curriculum Project (SCP).
  • Area: Educational Counseling Teams (external support through programs, acting in all centers of the educational area)
    • Assist in the development, implementation, and evaluation of the School Project and Curriculum Project in connection with the Orientation and Diversity Plan.
    • Address demands for psychoeducational assessment and propose the appropriate schooling modality.
    • Advise teachers in dealing with diversity and assist in the implementation of educational measures.
    • Participate in the design and development of enrichment, curricular adaptation, and diversification programs.
    • Provide advice to families, participating in the design and development of training programs for parents.