Bierneza, April Danica A.

PROFED03
CED-02-201P March 22, 2019
History of Special Education in the World
The history of Special Education begins with the 18th century. Before that
time, persons with disabilities were not taken in consideration, and were often mistaken
as being possessed by evil powers, cursed, or simply stupid (Blackhurst 13, 14). With
the beginning of the 18th century, and also of the period known as the Enlightenment,
ideas about education started to arise.
The Enlightenment period influenced Special Education is many ways. To
start, Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) publishes his Emile, a book about the
education of children. According to Rousseau, learning should happen in agreement
with a child’s cognitive speed, with minimal outer stimuli from society, which is known
for praising social roles, and wealth. This idea of teaching children in their own pace set
the ground for many educators (Johnston).
Charles Michel L’Epeé was one of the pioneers in the 18th century in what
concerns the education of the disabled. In 1760 he founded the first public school for
people with disabilities in France. He was concerned with language and phonetics being
taught in a different way as a tool for the education of deaf and blind students. Following
L’Epeé’s path, Valentin Haüy founded the “Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles” in
1784, which is recognized as the first school in the world for the education of blind
people. Haüy was inspired by many people: Rousseau, L’Epeé, and Madame Von
Paradis, who was blind, and helped him develop the methods used in the school. Using
these methods, Haüy was able to educate a blind boy who later became a teacher in
the same school (Safford 38-46). Another person who was also concerned with the
education of people with special needs, Jean Marc Gaspard Itard was concerned with
different methods in order to educate disabled children. He tried to educate a boy, who
was found in the wild, for about five years. With no actual improvements, Itard gave up
on the attempt and let the boy go back to his wild life. Still, his researches and efforts
were of great influence on the works of special educators, especially in the United
States.
On the 19th century special education became more palpable, with efforts
from people such as Rev. Thomas Gallaudet, and Samuel Howe in taking action on the
matter of special education. In Hartford, Connecticut, Rev. Thomas Gallaudet
implemented the first school for the deaf in 1817. The school was called American
Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, and it is nowadays the American
School for the Deaf. Another person of equal importance in the history of special
education is Samuel Gridley Howe. Howe was interested in the education of blind
students, and in 1829 founded the first school for blind children in the United States.
The school nowadays is called the Perkins School for the blind, and it is located in
Massachusetts. Howe also was the founder of the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and
Feebleminded children in 1848. Following the example of these two people, other states
started opening institutions that aim to educate disabled children. In 1851 a school
opened in Albany; in 1853 the Pennsylvania Training School fro Feebleminded Children
opened as well; in 1857, Ohio State opened the Institution of the Feebleminded Youth;
and in 1858 the first school for retarded children was open in Connecticut (Kanner 63,
64). With special education becoming more important through the years, in 1876 the
Association of Medical Officers of American Institutions for Idiotic and Feebleminded
Persons was found, and in 1878 two more special education classes opened in
Cleveland.
Changes were made also in what concerns the law of implementing
special education in schools. In 1890 it was the states’ responsibility to provide
institutions for the special children, and in 1897 the Department of Special Education
was created by the National Education Association.
The 20th century is characterized by the implementation of laws to assure
that people with disabilities would have their rights to education guaranteed. In 1906,
the New York University included in the courses offered by the school a training
program for special education teachers. In 1908 the French researcher Alfred Binet,
along with Theodore Simon, created the intelligence scale: a standardized intelligence
test in order to identify mentally retarded children. Later on, the test would be applied to
the American standards, and the idea of Intelligence Quotient was introduced in 1916
by Lewis Terman, renaming the test from Simon-Binet scale to Stanford-Binet scale.
Continuing the wave of implementations, in 1918 all states recognized that all citizens
have the right to education, and in 1922 the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) was
founded by Elizabeth Farrell. This Council plays an important role in providing laws to
protect those with disabilities. In 1931 the United States Office of Education established
a section on the exceptional children, and in 1936 blind persons are included in the
Social Security Act of 1935. Despite some efforts, the attention from special educational
issues was shifted to other concerns such as the Great Depression and the Second
World War. However, in the 1950s the number of changes made in the governmental
area was significant (Winzer 373-375). To start, in 1950 the National Association for
Retarded Children (NARC) was founded by parents of children with mental disabilities.
This association ignited the idea of public law 94-142, by asking that every mentally
retarded child has the right to education, and that such would occur depending on each
person’s needs. In 1954, in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, it was stated by
the supreme court of the United States that all children have the right to education in
equal terms. Finally, in 1958, President Eisenhower signed public law 85-926, which
provided grants to colleges and universities to make sure that courses would be offered
to prepare teachers for special education. After this, a snowball effect ran through the
sixties and seventies.
In 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed, and it
provided funds for schools in order to have a proper environment for children with
disabilities. In 1966 it was the turn of the Education of Handicapped Act, which was
passed in order to grant funds to schools to train teachers, but also required a Bureau of
Education for the Handicapped in the Office of Education.
 In the early seventies two important cases started a revolution in Special
Education: the case of the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children vs.
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1971, and in 1972 the case of Mills vs. District of
Columbia Board of Education. The first case fought for the right of children with
disabilities to a free and appropriate public education, and the second served to
reinforce the ideas of the previous. Both cases though required that children and their
families had the right to a procedural due process when it comes to protecting the rights
of those with disabilities. After these two cases, thirty six other cases followed (Ballard
2, 3).
The ideas to protect children with disabilities, and to guaranteed education
for such were becoming overwhelming, and it was coming time to put all those small
accounts in one effective law. In 1973, the Rehabilitation Act was passed and assured
the rights of people with disabilities in respect to a non-discriminative environment in
education, employment, and housing. It is though, in 1975 that the sum of all small acts
towards the education of handicapped children emerged in one law: Public Law 94-142.
This law guarantees that people with disabilities have the right to free and appropriate
public education, in a least restrictive environment; also, it required that each individual
had his or her own educational plan (IEP), and that all people with disabilities had the
right to a fair due process.
In 1990 after being revised, Public Law 94-142 became known as IDEA,
Individual with Disabilities Education Act, and has been revised again in 1997. Also in
1990, the American with Disabilities Act was passed guaranteeing that implementation
would be made to people with disabilities in the work environment, as well as in public
transportation, and telecommunications.
 History of Special Education in Philippines

1902 - The interest to educate Filipino children with disabilities was expressed through
Mr. Fred Atkinson, the General Superintendent of Education.
1907 - Special Education was formally started in the country by establishing the Insular
School for the Deaf and Blind in Manila.
1927 - The government established the Welfareville Children’s Village, a school for
people with mental retardation in Mandaluyong.
1945 - The National Orthopedic Hospital School for the Crippled Children and Youth is
established.
1949 - Quezon City Science High School was inaugurated for gifted students.
1950 - PAD opened a school for the children with hearing impairment
1953 - The Elsie Gaches Village was established in Alabang to take care of the
abandoned and orphaned children and youth with physical and mental handicaps.
1956 - Special classes for the deaf in regular class were implemented.
1957 - The Bureau of Public Schools of the Department of Education and Culture
created the Special Education Section of the Special Subjects and Service Education.
1960 - Some private college and universities started to offer special education courses
on graduate school curriculum
1963 - With the approval of R.A. No. 3562, the training of DEC teacher scholars for
blind children started at the Philippine Normal University.
1965 - Marked the start of training programs for school administrators on the
supervision of special classes held at UP
1969 - Classes for socially maladjusted children were organized at the manila Youth
Reception Center
1970 - Training of teacher for Children with behavior problems started at the University
of the Philippines
1973 - The juvenile and domestic Relations Court of Manila established the Tahanan
Special School for the socially maladjusted children and youth.
1975 - The Division of Manila City Schools implemented the Silahis Concept of Special
Education in public elementary schools.
1979 - The Bureau of Elementary Education Special Education unit conducted a two-
year nationwide survey if unidentified exceptional children who were in school.
1980 - The School for the Crippled Children at the Southern Island Hospital in Cebu City
was organized.
1990 - The Philippine institute for the Deaf, an oral school for children with hearing
impairment was established.
1992 - The summer training for teacher of the visually impaired started at the Philippine
Normal University
1993 - DECS issued Order No. 14 that directed regional officers to organize the
Regional Special Education Council (RESC)
1995 - The summer training for teachers of the hearing impaired was held at Philippine
Normal University
1998 - DECS order No. 5 “Reclassification of Regular teacher and principal items to
SPED teacher and special schools principal item"
1999 - DECS order no. 33 “Implementation of administrative order no. 101 directing the
Department of Public Works and highways, the DECS and the CHED to provide
architectural facilities or structural feature for disabled persons in all state college,
universities and other buildings

2000 - DECS Order No. 11, s. 2000 - Recognized Special Education (SPED) Centers in
the Philippines
2002 - An ongoing mobile teacher–training program by the Department of Education
and the University of the Philippines trains regular and special education teachers on
how to educate children with special needs.
2007- Special Education Act of 2007 identifies ten groups of Children with Special
Needs
2009 - DepEd under its wing had 217 SPED Centers that cater to the needs of children
with special abilities. The department issued Braille textbooks to help especially visually
impaired children.
2010 - Special Education Act of 2010, An act establishing at least one Special
Education center for each school division and at least three Special Education centers
in big school divisions for children with special needs, guidelines for government
financial assistance and other incentives and support
2012 - DepEd has increased the funding for its Special Education program and is set to
open new centers
2013 - DepEd organized a National Conference for SPED Teachers to sharpen their
skills.
 Typical and Atypical Growth and Development

TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT
Children gather information from people, things, and events in their
environment. They organize this information in their minds, and code it in ways that
keep it usable and easily understood. They match the information with what they've
learned before, noticing similarities and differences, and store the information for future
use. Once this process is complete, children behave in ways that suggest that learning
has taken place.
Children's development usually follows a known and predictable course.
The acquisition of certain skills and abilities is often used to gauge children's
development. These skills and abilities are known as developmental milestones. Such
things as crawling, walking, saying single words, putting words together into phrases
and sentences, and following directions are examples of these predictable
achievements. Although not all children reach each milestone at the same time, there is
an expected time-frame for reaching these developmental markers.
The following points are important to understanding the nature and course
of children's development.
The course of children's development is mapped using a chart of developmental
milestones
These milestones are behaviors that emerge over time, forming the
building blocks for growth and continued learning. Some of the categories within which
these behaviors are seen include:
 Cognition (thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, understanding)
 Language (expressive and receptive abilities)
 Motor coordination (gross/fine motor, jumping, hopping, throwing/catching,
drawing, stacking)
 Social interaction (initiating peer contact, group play)
 Adaptive (dressing, eating, washing)
Some children may be very advanced in their use of oral language while
others may first be discovering the power of spoken words. Some children may be
advance in motor skills while others are reluctant to use play equipment or engage in
building activities or crafts projects.
Patterns of growth within different children can also vary
Children who show strength in one area of development might be slower
to develop skills in another. For example, a child who has wonderful ability to
understand spoken language might struggle with verbal expression.
Culture and environment contribute to the ways children behave
The course of development can be greatly influenced by cultural and
environmental factors. Behaviors that are acceptable in one environment may be
inappropriate, even strange, in another. It is important to remember that differences in
behavior do not always reflect differences in development.

Behavior Possible variations due to cultural/environmental influences

Making eye Limited eye contact may show respect; maintaining eye contact may
contact be an inappropriate way for children to interact with adults

Speaking to Responding only when spoken to first; answering questions with

adults formal titles (sir, ma'am)

Taking Waiting for adult direction; making sure to ask permission before
initiative starting an activit

Exposure to a foreign language can influence the way children learn and interact
Children who do not have a working knowledge of the primary language
used in their classroom may not be able to express their needs or fully participate in
classroom activities. Teachers can provide these children with opportunities for
successful communication and participation while learning a new language. They can:
 explain concepts using models or multi-sensory materials
 facilitate vocabulary growth using pictures accompanied by verbal cues
 provide opportunities for children to demonstrate understanding through non-
verbal play
 find alternate ways to help children communicate and participate until language
foundations are secure
ATYPICAL DEVELOPMENT
Some children exhibit behaviors that fall outside of the normal, or
expected, range of development. These behaviors emerge in a way or at a pace that is
different from their peers.
Some important thoughts about atypical development are listed below:
Some children show patterns of behaviors that are unusual or are markedly
different from their peers
Great care should be given to determining whether patterns of behavior
are reflections of children's personality, or whether they exemplify areas of weakness
and concern. Teachers and parents should note the:
 time at which skills emerge
 sequence within which skills emerge
 quality of skill level and how it contributes to children's functioning
Atypical behaviors should be noted and carefully recorded. They may be
isolated events that have little or no impact on later development. They might, however,
be early warning signs of later and more significant problems. Patterns of atypical
behavior can be useful in confirming areas of need. Teachers and parents should note
the:
 dates and times of occurrence
 duration and frequency of behavior
 type of activity: language, fine motor
 settings and activities
 interactions with peers and other influences
 Policies in Special Education
1. Education for All Handicapped Children Act
Passed by Congress in 1975, this was the first special education law directed at
students with physical and mental disabilities. The law stated that public schools must
provide children with special needs with the same opportunities for education as other
children. It also required any public school that received federal funds to provide one
free meal a day for these children.
The mission of this act was to:
- make special education services accessible to children who require them;
- maintain fair and appropriate services for disabled students;
- institute systematic evaluation requirements for special education; and
- endow federal resources to public schools for the education of disabled
students.

2. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, was created in 1990 and is a
modification of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This law ensures that
special needs students receive appropriate free public education in the least restrictive
environment necessary to meet those students’ needs. It helps students receive the
extra assistance they need but allows them to participate in the same activities as
children without special needs whenever possible.
3. No Child Left Behind
In 2001, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, commonly known as the No
Child Left Behind Act, called for schools to be accountable for academic performance of
all students, whether or not they had disabilities. The act requires schools in every state
to develop routine assessments of students’ academic skills. While it does not stipulate
that these assessments meet a national standard, the law does oblige each state to
come up with its own criteria for evaluation. No Child Left Behind provides incentives for
schools to demonstrate progress in students with special needs. It also allows for
students to seek alternative options if schools are not meeting their academic, social or
emotional needs.
4. Individualized Education Programs
The IDEA maintains that parents and teachers of children who qualify for special
education must develop an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, that helps
establish specific education for a child’s explicit needs. This requires caregivers to meet
initially to determine a child’s eligibility for an IEP and to come together annually to
develop and assess the educational plan.
The student’s educational strategy must be designated in writing and should include an
evaluation and description of the current academic status, measurable goals and
objectives, designation of an instructional setting and placement within that setting and
transition services for children aged 16 or older. An IEP gives parents the right to
dispute any issues with the school district through a neutral third party.
5. Students with Disabilities and Postsecondary School
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 forbid
discrimination in schools based on disability. This applies to colleges and universities as
well as elementary, middle and high schools. Many students with special needs go on to
study at the postsecondary level, but the laws are slightly different for postsecondary
schools. The law does not require postsecondary schools to provide a free appropriate
public education to students, but it does oblige schools to offer suitable academic
adjustments and accessible housing to students with disabilities.
Whether you’re a student with disabilities or you’re looking to teach children with
disabilities, it’s important to know special education laws. These laws preserve the
rights of students and their families and help integrate students with special needs into
society without segregating them. Although the laws differ slightly from state to state,
the acts passed by Congress help to standardize the treatment of students with special
needs across the country.
 Theories in Special Education

In special education classrooms, teachers need to apply these learning theories, so that
students in SPED classrooms can get the most out of their learning. Some of the
theories that apply to special education classrooms are: Gestalt, Connection Theory, L.
Atincronbsch and R. Snow, Component Display Theory, Gagne’s Conditions of
Learning, Cognitive Load Theory, and Sign Learning Theory.

The Gestalt theory is good because it encompasses grouping, which may make it easier
for students. It is important to remember, however, that some connections may need to
be made for students both verbally and in application because all of the students in an
SPED class may not be able to connect the dots independently. The Cognitive Load
theory and Sign Learning theory discuss this thought of simplifying and perhaps drawing
lines to fully help students learn. A way to help connect the dots for some special
education students is the Connection theory. It is based on the students learning from
the cause-effect relationship of stimuli and response. Component Display Theory and
Conditions of Learning are based on including a variety of elements to learn from both
verbal and hands-on. They also discuss a similar structure that is helpful to follow during
the learning process.

Taking all of these learning theories into account, the instructor can teach lessons
based on how the students will learn the information the best. This seems to interfere
with the beliefs of inclusive school settings. Since special needs children are different
and learn differently, a traditional teacher may not be directing her lessons at this
minority group. One of the mothers I currently work with wants to only have her child in
inclusive classrooms. She has even fought a private school to allow for this. It is
because her daughter is doing great at learning from peer example, something that the
inclusive environment is best for. However, this does not mean that the teacher will be
as well prepared to teacher her daughter. This seems to be the most difficult part of
learning theory, clumping the kids into one or two categories, when in fact each are so
individualized.

NBPTS, the National Board for Professional Standards, encourages teachers to

discover their own belief in teaching theories. This helps to provide self-awareness of
the teachers. By providing a structure for teachers to be reflective, it can help to assess
the teachers’ job at teaching and reaching their students, which in turn helps improve
the overall educational environment.
It can also allow teachers to recognize how they are learning best, so that they are
encouraged to continue expanding their knowledge. For example, I learn best from a
multi-approach, such as the Component Display theory discusses. I also learn well from
anchored instruction, Adult Learning, Social Learning theory, and Cognitive Flexibility
theory.

I talk with a couple of my families this week about their optimal learning environments
and experiences. It seems some learn best when they can apply it to rules, some when
they can group it, and some when they are actually applying it. I side with those who
learn best with application. Their seems to be a consistency between those I asked and
my own beliefs that special needs children learn best from simplified lessons, in non-
distracting environments, with fun lessons that they can see and feel the cause-effect
of. However, it is not always possible to make all lessons agree with what the child
wants to do.

It is important for both parents and teachers to remember to have patients with their
children. It is also great to remember that there is a long list of theories that can be
applied as different strategies to help teach children, so one is not working, find a new
one.
Bibliography

Special Education in the Philippines. (n.d.). Retrieved from Special Education:

https://lorainelorente.wixsite.com/specialeducation/disabilies
Disabilities, N. C. (n.d.). Early Identification: Normal and Atypical Development.
Retrieved from LDOnline: http://www.ldonline.org/article/6047/
History of Special Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from Special Education:
http://neiuelcentro.tripod.com/