Special education can be defined as specially configured instructions
and other education-related services to meet the educational, social,
emotional, and vocational needs of students with disabilities. Special
education teachers educate students who have various types of
disabilities, including speech or language impairments, mental
retardation, emotional distress, hearing impairments, orthopedic
impairments, multiple disabilities, specific learning disabilities,
visual impairments, autism, combined blindness and deafness, traumatic
brain injury, and other health impairments. A special educator has to
work with students of all ages from infants and toddlers, students in
elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as youths. The special
educator's job also involves working with a team of professionals, i.e.,
doctors, speech pathologists, social workers, orthopedists,
psychiatrists, counselors, etc. The teaching methods and techniques in
special education would vary based on the disability and it would also
vary from individual to individual.
The teaching methods include
individual instructions, problem-solving techniques, group work, and
special assignments depending upon the needs of the individual. They
can also develop individual educational programs for each student to
help with the child's activities of daily living. As technology plays
an important role in special education, a teacher is expected to
instruct the students and their parents on the latest instrumentations
and its usage in disability, as the case maybe. For instance,
interactive software and computers that talk are now available in the
market, which would be of great help for students with speech
impairments. It requires a lot of enthusiasm, optimism, patience,
tolerance, and perseverance for one to be a special education teacher as
the job involves a lot of interaction with students of all age groups
and with other people.
In the United States, all states demand
special education teachers to be licensed. The special education teacher
has to complete of a teacher's training program and must have a
Bachelor's degree or a Master's degree. As they deal with students with
mild to profound disabilities, their job demands specialization in
either one or other areas of disability, which would enable the teachers
to develop their own curriculum materials and teaching techniques to
meet the needs of the students.
