The purpose of special education is; The aim is to provide individuals with basic life skills so that they can become self-sufficient. For this reason, it is very important not to waste even a minute during the sessions and to evaluate the session in the most productive way. Maybe at that moment the individual; With the ability he has gained, he will be able to survive in the future when his parents are not with him. At the same time, continuity and cooperation are indispensable in special education.
So how professionally is this service, which is so important for the struggle for life, provided? Although the way private education is implemented for each individual is as special as a fingerprint, which people direct this service? While school-family-specialist-physician cooperation is so important, how much importance is given to this issue in special education? How successful can special education be, with the child only being placed at a desk and guided by constant painting, mounting and dismantling, do-do-not instructions?
To be good people for special education; experience, patience, practical intelligence, foresight, solution-oriented behavior, etc. It brings with it many abilities. So, is it important to take the individual into a session for a long time to get to know him? With his experience, a person who is competent in this field can more or less predict the individual he has taken into the session from the first moment he enters the door, even with a short observation, and can form a prediction about him. Sessions, observations and interviews can have predictive power regarding the individual's future developmental characteristics. Issues such as what the individual should gain, what precautions should be taken, where it is essential to direct him/her are of great importance.
If there is no diagnosis made for the individual in the first session, he/she should be approached with an appropriate approach (neither making the situation seem too serious nor unimportant). ) referral should be made to the relevant specialist in a way that the parent can best understand. A medical opinion, including a psychiatrist, neurologist, physical therapist or all of them, is very important for the specialist. Family education should be initiated by determining information about the situation and the road map to be followed, starting from the meeting with the physician after the diagnosis. If available, a meeting should be held with the school psychologist and teacher for cooperation regarding the situation. Physician checks and testing techniques should be applied at regular intervals regarding these. The special training team that the individual needs determines the goals. Special education services should be started immediately based on cooperation. For example; In order to work with a diagnosis of Down syndrome, experts such as special education specialists, psychologists, physiotherapists and speech-language pathologists must carry out coordinated work in the institution. Efforts should be made to reduce the anxious wait of the family through family education and therapy. There must be some level of anxiety so that the family does not cut off the doctor's support and does not see special education as an unnecessary practice.
Special education; It is not about sitting the individual at a desk and constantly working on puzzles and plug-ins. Education place; When necessary, there should be a cafe that will support socialization or a toilet environment that will help students learn self-care skills. One-on-one shopping from the market with an expert should aim to reduce impulsivity, as well as increase socialization and improve numerical skills by providing the concept of money. With drama activities, survival skills such as how to call an ambulance and give the address for a parent who is sick at home, etc. supportable. While the therapist and the child are on the road, the therapist can pretend to leave the child and conduct instructive exercises on how the child should behave in real life in such situations. Studies; should progress from the concrete to the abstract. The concept of numbers should not be entered by drawing three dots with a colorless pencil. First, the concept of "grain" should be given to the child so that he can establish a relationship between numbers and objects. An object-number relationship can be created by placing three candies on a cardboard on which the number three is written. The child can improve his drawing skills and direction concept by tracing numbers with his finger on a card where the number three is drawn with an object such as sandpaper. Then, you can practice drawing numbers on dots with a thick, colored pencil, as if you were playing a game.
In vocabulary studies, one should also move from the concrete to the abstract. For example; For the concept of a car, you should first work with a model car, then take a photo of the car, and then proceed with the car drawing. The concept of letters should be given to the child by giving meaning to the letter. For example; The letter "t" should be associated with the door knocking sound of "knock, knock, click". "Eh" A card with the letter "e" written on it should be placed in front of the child who shakes it in the form of "e, eee, eee" so that he can establish a relationship between the action and the letter. This shows that letters are signs used to express some sounds and objects in life.
The basis for special education is; The aim is to ensure that the child and young person acquire the basic skills to survive without their parents, and then begin the process of acquiring secondary skills. Can the child eat and drink water on his/her own, and can he/she take off and put on clothes independently? Efforts should be continued gradually to acquire these basic skills. For example; Before trying to put on the suit, work on removing it should be done. You can start the removal process with a loose t-shirt with one sleeve sticking out. Because special education always progresses from easy to difficult. Parents must be informed through the studies carried out and the family must be activated by receiving support from the family. Coordinated action should be taken by sharing the subject of the studies with the teachers at the kindergarten or school. Appointments made with a doctor such as a psychiatrist or neurologist and the medications used should be followed by the institutional psychologist and a constant dialogue should be maintained with the doctor. In special education, which is a fingerprint, it is very important to predict what stage the child will reach in the future. For example; If a child diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder has an interest in letters, reading and writing activities can be started through play. Thus, the child, who will have social problems when he starts school, will start school with a plus in reading and writing skills and will have higher self-confidence. The child who becomes the teacher's assistant will try to teach things to his friends and his socialization will increase. It may also be possible to solve articulation problems and treat problems accompanying specific learning disabilities through reading and writing studies. At the beginning of these studies, the child's ability to follow the letter and direction made with dough and sandpaper is reinforced to prevent the child's tendency to write and draw things upside down. building intelligence capacity through tests Relationships between mental areas of individual functions can be observed. For example; While the child's visual spatial ability is very advanced, if there is a significant developmental difference between the subsequent cognitive processing area accompanying short-term auditory memory, a relevant cognitive intervention program should be initiated. The child who is constantly tried to be corrected by the family's constant words such as "study" or the teacher's "actually, he is a smart child, he can do it if he studies" needs a cognitive intervention program and expert support. A low basic academic level will lead to a difficult educational life in the future.
As a result; Special education is extremely important because it provides the individual with skills that will enable him to survive. This service, which is so important, can only be provided by competent and dedicated people. In order to fully benefit from this service, it can be achieved by cooperation with the school, family, specialist and physician, and by constantly following the innovations and adapting them to life.
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