Who invented special education

By the end of the nineteenth century, pessimism about cure and emphasis on physiological causes led to a change in orientation that would later bring about the "warehouse-like" institutions that have become a symbol for abuse and neglect of society's most vulnerable citizens. The practice of moral treatment was replaced by the belief that most disabilities were incurable. This led to keeping individuals with disabilities ininstitutions both for their own protection and for the betterment of society.

Although the transformation took many years, by the end of the nineteenth century the size of institutions had increased so dramatically that the goal of rehabilitation was no longer possible. Institutions became instruments for permanent segregation. Many special education professionals became critics of institutions.

Howe, one of the first to argue for in stitutions for people with disabilities, began advocating placing out residents into families. Unfortunately this practice became a logistical and pragmatic problem before it could become a viable alternative to institutionalization. At the close of the nineteenth century, state governments established juvenile courts and social welfare programs, including foster homes, for children and adolescents.

The child study movement became prominent in the early twentieth century. Using the approach pioneered by G. Stanley Hall —; considered the founder of child psychology , researchers attempted to study child development scientifically in relation to education and in so doing established a place for psychology within public schools.

The treatment offered in this hospital, as well as most of the other hospitals of the early twentieth century, was psychodynamic. Psychodynamic ideas fanned interest in the diagnosis and classification of disabili ties. In the first institution for research on exceptional children opened at the University of Illinois and began what was to become the newest focus of the field of special education: the slow learner and, eventually, what we know today as learning disability.

Although Itard failed to normalize Victor, the wild boy of Averyon, he did produce dramatic changes in Victor's behavior through education.

Modern special education practices can be traced to Itard, and his work marks the beginning of widespread attempts to instruct students with disabilities. By the middle of the nineteenth century, special educational programs were being provided in many asylums. Education was a prominent part of moral therapy.

By the close of the nineteenth century, special classes within regular public schools had been launched in major cities. These special classes were initially established for immigrant students who were not proficient in English and students who had mild mental retardation or behavioral disorders. Descriptions of these children included terms such as steamer children, backward, truant, and incorrigible.

Procedures for identifying "defectives" were included in the World's Fair of By the s special classes for students judged unsuitable for regular classes had become common in major cities. In Rhode Island passed a law mandating compulsory education for children, but not all states had compulsory education until With compulsory schooling and the swelling tide of anti-institution sentiment in the twentieth century, many children with disabilities were moved out of institutional settings and into public schools.

However, by the mid-twentieth century children with disabilities were still often excluded from public schools and kept at home if not institutionalized. In order to respond to the new population of students with special needs entering schools, school officials created still more special classes in public schools. The number of special classes and complementary support services assistance given to teachers in managing behavior and learning problems increased dramatically after World War II.

During the early s there was also an increased attention to mental health and a consequent interest in establishing child guidance clinics. By child guidance clinics and counseling services were relatively common features of major cities, and by special education had become an identifiable part of urban public education in nearly every school district.

By special educators were instructing their students in a continuum of settings that included hospital schools for those with the most severe disabilities, specialized day schools for students with severe disabilities who were able to live at home, and special classes in regular public schools for students whose disabilities could be managed in small groups. During this period special educators also began to take on the role of consultant, assisting other teachers in instructing students with disabilities.

Thus, by the field of special education was offering a variety of educational placements to students with varying disabilities and needs; however, public schools were not yet required to educate all students regardless of their disabilities. During the middle decades of the twentieth century, instruction of children with disabilities often was based on process training—which involves attempts to improve children's academic performance by teaching them cognitive or motor processes, such as perceptualmotor skills, visual memory, auditory memory, or auditory-vocal processing.

These are ancient ideas that found twentieth-century proponents. Process training enthusiasts taught children various perceptual skills e. After many years of research, however, such training was shown not to be effective in improving academic skills. Many of these same ideas were recycled in the late twentieth century as learning styles, multiple intelligences, and other notions that the underlying process of learning varies with gender, ethnicity, or other physiological differences.

None of these theories has found much support in reliable research, although direct instruction, mnemonic memory devices, and a few other instructional strategies have been supported reliably by research. Although many contend that special education was born with the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act EAHCA in , it is clear that special educators were beginning to respond to the needs of children with disabilities in public schools nearly a century earlier.

This landmark law naturally evolved from events in both special education and the larger society and came about in large part due to the work of grass roots organizations composed of both parents and professionals.

These groups dated back to the s, when the American Association of Instructors of the Blind and the American Association on Mental Deficiency the latter is now the American Association on Mental Retardation were formed. In the Council for Exceptional Children, now the major professional organization of special educators, was organized.

In the s and s parent groups began to band together on a national level. These groups worked to make changes in their own communities and, consequently, set the stage for changes on a national level.

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, advocacy groups were securing local ordinances that would protect and serve individuals with disabilities in their communities.

For example, in , in Peoria, Illinois, the first white cane ordinance gave individuals with blindness the right-of-way when crossing the street.

By mid-century all states had legislation providing for education of students with disabilities. However, legislation was still noncompulsory. In the late s federal money was allocated for educating children with disabilities and for the training of special educators.

Thus the federal government became formally involved in research and in training special education professionals, but limited its involvement to these functions until the s. In , this support was reinforced and extended to the state level when the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children PARC filed a class action suit against their Commonwealth. This suit, resolved by consent agreement, specified that all children age six through twenty-one were to be provided free public education in the least restrictive alternative LRA, which would later become the least restrictive environment [LRE] clause in EAHCA.

In the Rehabilitation Act prohibited discriminatory practices in programs receiving federal financial assistance but imposed no affirmative obligations with respect to special education.

EAHCA reached full implementation in and required school districts to provide free and appropriate education to all of their students with disabilities. In return for federal funding, each state was to ensure that students with disabilities received non-discriminatory testing, evaluation, and placement; the right to due process; education in the least restrictive environment; and a free and appropriate education. Under EAHCA, students with identified disabilities were to receive FAPE and an IEP that included relevant instructional goals and objectives, specifications as to length of school year, determination of the most appropriate educational placement, and descriptions of criteria to be used in evaluation and measurement.

The IEP was designed to ensure that all students with disabilities received educational programs specific to their "unique" needs.

Thus, the education of students with disabilities became federally controlled. This was a very positive step in special education history. IDEA took many of the aims represented in EHA and brought them to life by providing applicable standards and structure to its best intentions.

In and , the No Child Left Behind Act NCLB provided further accountability to schools and added technology assistance and loan programs to help schools acquire needed special education resources. IDEA is another act that was established in but has undergone revamping to modernize the act as the definition and diagnosis of learning disability changes.

This law originated as a way to ensure that students with disabilities receive an appropriate public education. IDEA is updated about every five years, with the latest iteration in The reason for the consistent updating is to give the LDA a chance to see how the law works in practice, and what is needed to make it more clear, efficient, and effective.

In the past, schools were required to wait until a child fell behind grade level before being eligible for special education. With the release of the final regulations of IDEA , school districts are no longer required to follow this model but are allowed to intervene more appropriately and find other ways to determine if a child needs help. Now that the basic rights are set in place, advocacy groups similar to those first started in are forming to put forth legislation.

These groups work toward a number of differing goals in regard to teaching methods, the recognition of certain disabilities and greater choice in schools. IDEA has continued the long-standing federal commitment to provide an adequate supply of qualified teachers. Today, hundreds of thousands of professionals specializing in early childhood and special education are being trained with IDEA support. These professionals include early intervention staff, classroom teachers, therapists, counselors, psychologists, program administrators, and other professionals who will work with future generations of children with disabilities and their families.

IDEA has supported states and localities in meeting their identified challenges for personnel preparation. For example, IDEA has supported local communities who were developing and implementing early childhood programs; schools serving students with low-incidence disabilities, such as children who are blind or deaf or children with autism or traumatic brain injury; and schools in rural or large urban areas, where financial and other resources are often scarce.

The IDEA requires states and other public agencies to implement programs designed to improve results for infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities and their families. Additionally, the IDEA allows for the award of annual formula grants to states to support early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families, and the provision of special education and related services to preschool children ages three through five, and children and youth with disabilities.

IDEA discretionary grants award grants through a competitive process to state educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and other nonprofit organizations to support technical assistance and dissemination, technology and media services, state personnel development grants, personnel preparation, state data collections, and parent-training and information centers.

Early federal legislation supported improved programs and services. The four purposes of the EHA were: to assure that all children with disabilities have available to them…a free appropriate public education which emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs, to assure that the rights of children with disabilities and their parents…are protected, to assist States and localities to provide for the education of all children with disabilities, and to assess and assure the effectiveness of efforts to educate all children with disabilities.

The law authorized financial incentives to enable states and localities to comply with the EHA. Facts and Figures In the school year, 3,, students aged 3 through 21 were served under the EHA.

Reauthorizations The reauthorization Public Law addressed early intervention and mandated that individual states provide services to families of children born with disabilities from the time they are born. Previously, these services were not available until a child reached the age of three. It also added traumatic brain injury and autism as new disability categories. The Public Law reauthorization articulated a new challenge to improve results for children with disabilities and their families.

This included an emphasis on access to the general curriculum. The law also required parents be provided an opportunity to attempt to resolve disputes with schools and local educational agencies LEAs through mediation and provided a process for doing so. Birth Through Age 2 The s saw a national concern for young children with disabilities and their families. Facts and Figures In the school year, 4,, students aged 3 through 21 were served under EHA.

Ages 3 Through 21 The s and s saw a push to expand the opportunities for educating children with disabilities in the least restrictive environment. The IEP must also specifically designate who is responsible for each transition activity. The reauthorization called for: Early intervening services for children not currently identified as needing special education but who need additional academic and behavioral support to succeed in a general education environment, Greater accountability and improved educational outcomes, and Raised standards for instructors who teach special education classes.

The regulations also addressed other new requirements included in the reauthorization, such as: The resolution process required when a parent files a due process complaint, and Shifting the responsibility to provide equitable services for parentally-placed private school children with disabilities to the local educational agency LEA in which the private school is located. These IDEA regulations addressed: Parental consent for continued special education and related services; Non-attorney representation in due process hearings; State monitoring, technical assistance, and enforcement; Allocation of funds; and Positive efforts to employ and advance in employment individuals with disabilities.

Families From the beginning of special education legislation, families of children with disabilities have been considered important partners in meeting the needs of children with disabilities. Educators and Service Providers IDEA has continued the long-standing federal commitment to provide an adequate supply of qualified teachers.