Fundamentals of Special Education

Special Education is specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parent, to meet the unique needs of a handicapped child, including classroom instruction, home instruction, and instruction in hospitals and institutions. All of the following are included in the definition of special education:

Classroom instruction
Instruction in physical education
Instructional services such as pre-primary, teacher consultant, speech and language, homebound and hospitalized, and juvenile detention facilities
Ancillary and other related services such as occupational, physical, recreational, music, art or other therapy, mobility and orientation, school psychological and school social work services.

Children who require special education are often those with some disability. It can be difficult for parents whose children have been repeatedly viewed as "bad" or "spoiled" by school officials to accept that their children may be labeled if they were to qualify for special education. Parents often feel that being categorized as "disabled" may sound as though their child is being stigmatized. Yet, it is important to recognize that simply having a label should not change your view of your child's uniqueness but conversely, having a Special Education label always changes your child's legal rights under several laws.

While the spectrum of special education has spanned to cover several disabilities, on very broad levels the following disabilities are usually recognized:

Autism
Deaf-Blindness
Deafness
Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED)
Hearing Impairment
Mental Retardation (MR)
Multiple Disabilites
Orthopedic Impairment
Other Health Impairment (OHI)- includes Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) & Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Specific Learning Disability (LD)
Speech or Language Impairment
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Visual Impairment (VI)