It’s easy to misidentify special needs and learning difficulties!

cae Special Education, Special Needs , ,
It’s easy to misidentify special needs and learning difficulties!

As parents and educators, we often do our homework on the various disabilities of special needs students. With the best of intentions, we sometimes make personal assessments of our children and students that look correct, but in some circumstances, these impromptu assessments end up incorrect a great deal of time.

The Guardian reported that half of some students identified as requiring special needs education and attention may not have special needs at all.

In many cases, misbehaving students and children are mistakenly assessed to have special needs. Part of the reason for this confusion is that many of the most normal behaviour of children can look like the child may require special needs attention.

Some ways to ensure we are assessing and diagnosing children and students properly include:

  • Making sure the diagnosis of learning disabilities are not only based on the child’s weaknesses, but also their strengths. Different children have different strengths and weaknesses and often, in multiple areas. This does not mean a child that is having a difficult time in some areas have a learning disability. It could very well mean they need more attention in those areas, especially if they are performing well in other areas.
  • Ensuring the diagnosis is based on a comprehensive assessment, and to include various activities and procedures to make sure the diagnosis isn’t overly reliant on too few or limited data points. For example, assessments should look at whether the child has issues with listening, speaking, reading, writing, or social issues.

CAE offers our 12-month Advanced Diploma in Special Education to train educators and parents in the identification, diagnosis and treatment of these needs and the basic principles and practices of effective teaching and learning. The programme is highly practice-oriented to ensure that what you learn in class can be applied to children with special needs under your charge.

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