Understanding Segregation, Inclusion, and Special Education Concepts
Segregation, Inclusion, and Exclusion
Segregation: It means that a group of people with special needs is taken away from the ordinary group since they are not considered the same and they need different treatment. Ex: ASD Rooms in an ordinary school. There is equality, since there is access to services, but there is no equity.
Inclusion: It takes place if the group of people with special needs is brought to ordinary spaces, making sure this environment is adapted to each of their needs. Ex: Children without special needs and children with ASD in the same class painting with their hands. It is the only one that has both equality and equity.
Exclusion: It refers to not including people with disabilities in society. Ex: Rejecting a child with ASD in an ordinary school. There is not equity and equality.
Integration: It happens when people with special needs are included into an ordinary space without taking the necessary measures to make a safe environment for them. Ex: A child with ASD working with a PT and significant curricular adaptations in an ordinary class. It has equality because it shares environment with others, but it does not have equity.
LOMLOE: Special Educational Needs
ACNESS: Special Educational Needs. Developmental Delay / Language and communication development disorders / Attention or learning disorders / For a serious lack of knowledge of the language necessary to develop the learning process / Being in a situation of socio-educational vulnerability / High capacities / Ability students / Late Entry / Integration into the Educational System / For personal conditions or schooling history.
Psychopedagogical Assessment Procedure
- Detection in the classroom (tutor) or at home (family) or (if previously diagnosed), at the beginning of school year or after appearance of added difficulty.
- Tutor: protocol of derivation
- Counsellor + specialists (PT/AL): assessment. Ex. Speech therapist or psychomotricity therapist.
- Counsellor: report.
- Counsellor: dictamination: to Inspection (Public Educational Inspectorate).
- Specialists + Counsellor + Tutor and Teachers: Curricular Adaptation.
AGENTS: EATs- EOEPs- Specific Motor Disabilities, Visual Impairment, Hearing Impairment and Serious Developmental Disorders- Regional teams- Private psychology centres- Psychiatrists.
Deficit, Disability, and Handicap
Deficit: (externalized-organic) Permanent consequences of diseases at the bodily, physiological and organic level. EJ: A person loses vision in one eye due to a genetic disease.
Disability: (objectified-personal). Restrictions in the activity of an individual due to any deficiency. EJ: A person cannot read without a magnifying glass because of partial vision loss.
Handicaps: (socialized-social). Situations of disadvantage, derived from impairments or disabilities, that limit or prevent participation in any daily event. EJ: The person has difficulty playing board games that require visual perception.
Non-Significant Curricular Adaptation in Foreign Language Class for a Child with ADD
Input: The teacher uses interactive videos and songs with subtitles to teach English vocabulary, rather than just a list of words on the board. He also divides the explanations into shorter chunks.
Output: Instead of asking the student to write an essay about his or her daily routine, the student is allowed to record an audio or video describing it orally, using a script or key words as support.
Time: In a reading comprehension exercise, the student is given more time to read the text and answer questions, or is allowed to perform the task in two parts: first read and then answer.
Difficulty: In a grammar exercise, while other students must create complex sentences in English, the student with ADD can work with simpler sentences or complete multiple-choice exercises.
Level of Support: During a paired activity, the student with ADD is assigned a partner to help him or her stay focused. Also, the teacher monitors more closely and provides frequent reminders.
Size: If the vocabulary activity involves learning 15 new words, the student with ADD focuses on only 7 of the most relevant or practical ones.
Degree of Participation: In a role-play where students practice dialogues in English, the student with ADD is assigned a simpler role, such as repeating key words or acting as an active observer rather than participating in a full dialogue.
Alternative Goals: While the other students write a long text describing their day in English, the goal for the student with ADD is just to identify and write down 3 key activities from their routine.
Substitute Curriculum: Instead of working on an advanced grammar exercise with the rest of the class, the student with ADD practices basic English vocabulary through an interactive game on their tablet, adjusted to their specific level and needs.
Bimodal Language vs. Sign Language
Both are visual-gestural, using hands, facial expressions, and movements. They facilitate communication and comprehension in people with hearing difficulties. They represent words and concepts, reinforcing the meaning.
Differences:
Bimodal Language:
- Augmentative communication system – combines oral speech with key signs.
- Follows the order of spoken language.
- Use educational tools to reinforce concepts.
- Supplements oral language.
Sign Language:
- Alternative communication system – Complete and linguistic system.
- Has its own grammar.
- Main means of communication for the deaf community.
- Completely replaces oral language.
Bimodal Language vs. Cued Speech
Both are augmentative communication systems. They combine oral language with a visual component (gestures or signs) to reinforce communication. They facilitate comprehension and expression in people with hearing or language difficulties. They are used in educational environments and inclusive tools. They reinforce key concepts and improve information retention.
Differences:
Bimodal Language:
- (Visual) Uses sign language to reinforce content.
- (Focus) Reinforces meaning and key vocab.
- (Usage) Complements oral information with relevant signs.
- (Linguistic base) Sign language.
Cued Speech:
- (Visual) Uses hand gestures to represent phonemes.
- (Focus) Focuses on sounds to associate them with letters.
- (Linguistic base) It’s not a language, but a system associated with phonemes.
Circular Reactions
Primary Circular Reactions (PCR): Involve repeated actions focused on the infant’s own body, performed for pleasurable effects. Example: A baby (1-4 months) sucking their thumb repeatedly because it feels good.
Secondary Circular Reactions (SCR): Actions are now directed toward objects outside the body, aiming to recreate interesting effects. Example: A baby (4-8 months) shaking a rattle repeatedly to hear its sound.
Tertiary Circular Reactions (TCR): Intentional adaptations of previous actions to explore new outcomes. Example: A baby (12-18 months) dropping objects from different heights to observe how they fall.
Theory of Mind is the ability to understand that others have thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and perspectives that are different from one’s own. This ability typically begins to emerge around age 4-5 in children without intellectual disabilities. It plays a crucial role in emotional and moral development because it allows children to develop empathy, navigate social relationships, and engage in moral reasoning by considering how their actions affect others. An impaired theory of mind is particularly significant in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), where children often face challenges in recognizing and interpreting others’ perspectives, emotions, and intentions. This difficulty can impact their social interactions and emotional understanding, making it an important alarm sign for early identification of ASD.
Understanding Intellectual/Cognitive Deficit
Cognitive deficit, or intellectual disability, refers to limitations in intellectual functioning (e.g., reasoning, problem-solving) and adaptive behavior. According to DSM-5, it includes difficulties in academic learning and problem-solving that begin in the developmental period and impact everyday social, practical, and adaptive functioning.
3 Types of Cerebral Palsy
Spastic: It is the most common one, and it is caused by lesions in the pyramidal system. It causes hypertonicity, which means the muscles contract and suffer spasms known as dysarthria.
Athetoid: It is the less common and it is caused by lesions in the extrapyramidal system, that controls involuntary movements and causes fluctuating tonicity summed to various speech problems.
Ataxic: It is caused by a lesion in the cerebellum which causes hypotonicity and lack of coordination in voluntary movements which makes people with this type of CP slow and clumsy.
The 2 Types of Curricular Adaptation
ACIS: “Modifications of the syllabus in aims, contents, methodology, activities and assessment criteria, in order to respond to individual differences”.
Types:
Of Access:
- Physical Access: (furniture, lighting, technical aids for motor disabilities).
- Access to communication (braille, sign Lang, techn aids for sensory disab).
Of Content: Continuum of significance.
- Not significant: ordinary actions (for mild learning difficulties). They do not modify prescriptive elements of the curriculum.
- Significant: individualized actions (for SwSEN with severe learning difficulties, or late entry, or compensatory, with +2 years of curricular discrepancy). They do modify prescriptive elements of the curriculum (assessment, contents, aims.
Differences Between Dysphemia, Dysarthria, and Dysglossia
Dysphemia: Refers to stuttering, a speech disorder characterized by interruptions in the flow of speech due to psychological or neurological causes.
Dysarthria: A motor speech disorder caused by damage to the central nervous system, affecting oral movements and leading to slurred or slow speech.
Dysglossia: A speech disorder caused by organic issues in the mouth or related structures, such as problems with the lips, tongue, or palate, affecting articulation.
Differences Between Protodeclarative and Protoimperative Actions
Protodeclarative: Actions intended to share attention or interest with another person, such as pointing to an object to show it.
Protoimperative: Actions meant to influence another person’s behavior, such as pointing to an object to request it.
Attentional vs. Visual Dyslexia
Attentional Dyslexia:
- Symptoms: Change letters from place, can read short words when these are on their own (aisladas), problems with spelling.
- Alliterated module: attentional focus.
- Etiology: occipital lobe.
Visual Dyslexia:
- Symptoms: Making visual mistakes like changing a letter for another one that resembles. Can spell correctly.