While many parents aim for their children to access mainstream
schooling, it is often feasible to consider special needs school as a
stepping stone towards that goal.
Why Special School?
Your child will be allocated to a classroom that is conducive for his learning needs. The teacher to student ratio is low, enabling more teacher and student contact which means more learning hours. Your child will also be able to focus better due to lesser distraction as opposed to a large mainstream classroom setting.
The learning goals set for your child are realistic and achievable. As the programs set for your child is individualized, you are assured that she is learning at a pace that she can cope. Placing high expectations on a child may impede learning process as she may feel adverse towards learning in the long run.
The child is gradually equipped with the necessary skills to advance to learning environments that will place greater expectations on her. However, as she is allowed the time to learn and develop the necessary skills while attending special school, she may not find learning as adverse as if she was to be chucked into an environment which she is not ready to be in.
The Stigmas Associated with Special School.
"Special school impedes my child's learning progress".
You will instead be doing a great disservice to your child by placing her in a mainstream setting. Understand why it is difficult for your child to get the support she needs when she is in a mainstream classroom from my earlier post, Teaching Students with Autism: In the Classroom. Furthermore, special school teachers are trained to teach your child with special needs while mainstream teachers usually are not trained in this area. Who will you choose to work with your child? Someone with experience dealing with your child's needs or someone who is unsure of what autism or special needs is all about?
"My child cannot learn social skills in a special school"
Neither will your child be able to learn social skills in a mainstream setting. While integration is greatly beneficial for children with special needs and autism in learning social skills, with no fundamental skills in place, no amount of integration is going to help these children communicate effectively with their peers. These fundamental skills include language, understanding social cues and social rules. Children with special needs ate probably better off learning these skills from special education teachers who are trained and experienced in delivering these lessons. Furthermore, more often than not, your child's peers in the special education classroom may be more likely to communicate with your child in a level that is mutual and patient. Also, there are speech pathologists and psychologists attached to special schools. Your children will be able to access these professional services which most mainstream schools may lack.
"My child won't be able to keep up with his peers of the same age academically if he doesn't enroll for mainstream schooling now"
Children who access the mainstream school through the typical educational pathway are not guaranteed success for everything that they do. The ones who join mainstream schooling at a later age might not lose out as it is very common for people regardless of needs, to complete their tertiary or university education at a much later age than the common standard set. Placing a child in the mainstream school system to fail at every level because she is not ready for it yet is a waste of resources that could be better channel towards intervention services that are more beneficial to the child in the long run.
If parents are still worried about their children's progress or are concerned about the curriculum not challenging enough for their children's development, perhaps they hiring supplementary therapy or tutoring services might be a viable option. Usually these services will target skills that the children are still lacking and thus speed up their learning progress according to their learning needs and coping level.
With all the above being said, integration for the child with special needs into the mainstream environment may be viable in the long term. However, it is always important to measure the pros and cons before making a decision based on fear of losing out. Attending mainstream school can be a very stressful event for children with autism. How they are able to cope with the expectations placed on them and how they react emotionally to the mainstream surroundings are factors to deeply consider.
If you have any suggetions or questions, please do not hesitate to email me. You can also visit my website, www.triumphantkids.com to find out more about the services I provide.
Why Special School?
Your child will be allocated to a classroom that is conducive for his learning needs. The teacher to student ratio is low, enabling more teacher and student contact which means more learning hours. Your child will also be able to focus better due to lesser distraction as opposed to a large mainstream classroom setting.
The learning goals set for your child are realistic and achievable. As the programs set for your child is individualized, you are assured that she is learning at a pace that she can cope. Placing high expectations on a child may impede learning process as she may feel adverse towards learning in the long run.
The child is gradually equipped with the necessary skills to advance to learning environments that will place greater expectations on her. However, as she is allowed the time to learn and develop the necessary skills while attending special school, she may not find learning as adverse as if she was to be chucked into an environment which she is not ready to be in.
The Stigmas Associated with Special School.
"Special school impedes my child's learning progress".
You will instead be doing a great disservice to your child by placing her in a mainstream setting. Understand why it is difficult for your child to get the support she needs when she is in a mainstream classroom from my earlier post, Teaching Students with Autism: In the Classroom. Furthermore, special school teachers are trained to teach your child with special needs while mainstream teachers usually are not trained in this area. Who will you choose to work with your child? Someone with experience dealing with your child's needs or someone who is unsure of what autism or special needs is all about?
"My child cannot learn social skills in a special school"
Neither will your child be able to learn social skills in a mainstream setting. While integration is greatly beneficial for children with special needs and autism in learning social skills, with no fundamental skills in place, no amount of integration is going to help these children communicate effectively with their peers. These fundamental skills include language, understanding social cues and social rules. Children with special needs ate probably better off learning these skills from special education teachers who are trained and experienced in delivering these lessons. Furthermore, more often than not, your child's peers in the special education classroom may be more likely to communicate with your child in a level that is mutual and patient. Also, there are speech pathologists and psychologists attached to special schools. Your children will be able to access these professional services which most mainstream schools may lack.
"My child won't be able to keep up with his peers of the same age academically if he doesn't enroll for mainstream schooling now"
Children who access the mainstream school through the typical educational pathway are not guaranteed success for everything that they do. The ones who join mainstream schooling at a later age might not lose out as it is very common for people regardless of needs, to complete their tertiary or university education at a much later age than the common standard set. Placing a child in the mainstream school system to fail at every level because she is not ready for it yet is a waste of resources that could be better channel towards intervention services that are more beneficial to the child in the long run.
If parents are still worried about their children's progress or are concerned about the curriculum not challenging enough for their children's development, perhaps they hiring supplementary therapy or tutoring services might be a viable option. Usually these services will target skills that the children are still lacking and thus speed up their learning progress according to their learning needs and coping level.
With all the above being said, integration for the child with special needs into the mainstream environment may be viable in the long term. However, it is always important to measure the pros and cons before making a decision based on fear of losing out. Attending mainstream school can be a very stressful event for children with autism. How they are able to cope with the expectations placed on them and how they react emotionally to the mainstream surroundings are factors to deeply consider.
If you have any suggetions or questions, please do not hesitate to email me. You can also visit my website, www.triumphantkids.com to find out more about the services I provide.
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