What is Special Education?

Special education is the practice of providing individualised instruction to students with disabilities or different learning needs who may not be performing at the grade level and require additional support to build the skills needed to access the curriculum in the classroom. Every school has students from diverse cultures, linguistic backgrounds, socioeconomic status, and various abilities in academic, social, emotional, and behavioural domains. The school also has students with high-incidence disabilities, such as learning disability or other developmental disabilities that may affect their milestones in terms of academic and social/behavioural skills. The main objective of special education is to cater to these students. Special education helps build skills required for greater independence and success in academics, along with language, motor, socio-emotional, and behavioural development as needed. While special education focuses on academic skill development, such as in language, literacy, and numeracy, some students may need additional support in social-emotional and behavioural domains. Special education has individualisation at its core. Areas of work depend on the student’s needs and proficiency level in each domain.