The Education of Children With Special Education Needs

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The Education of Children With Special Education Needs

In the UK and most other countries the law states that all children should be educated to a certain degree. However, until recently those children with special education needs have been educated outside the realms of ‘mainstream’ education. This is changing quite rapidly and it is now becoming more important both here and in the United States that children of all capabilities should be integrated into mainstream schooling.

ADHD is one of the most common childhood learning disorders with almost 5% of the population suffering from it                      .because of the increasing numbers of children in our schools being identified with ADHD it is important that educators should understand the special learning needs of these children so that they can create safe and appropriate learning environments for such children.

ADHD is a huge and complex subject therefore for the purpose of this essay I shall briefly outline five main points, these are  

1.What ADHD is and how teachers and educators can recognize it

2.How it feels to suffer from ADHD

3.Drugs and medications that can be used to treat ADHD

4.ADHD and school discipline

5.Suggested classroom accommodations and teaching tips

What is ADHD and how can it be recognized?

The correct diagnostic label for ADHD is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder otherwise termed as ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder. Both disorders are the same other than one includes hyperactivity while the other does not. Biochemically ADHD is likely to be caused by a deficiency of dopamine, which is a chemical that the brain produces to activate the frontal lobes. One of the most important functions of the frontal lobes is to integrate thoughts, feelings, and sensory information and updated feedback about current motor activity. The frontal lobes are active in choosing the next task to achieve goal completion. (Excerpt from the manuscript “It’s Your Chemistry” Charles E Grant)

It is little wonder then that when dopamine is deficient that a person becomes unfocused and distractible.

ADHD has a classic defining triad of symptoms that may include impulsivity, distractibility and hyperactivity or excess energy. About 15 million Americans suffer from it and many of them are unaware that they have it. (Hallowell and Ratey p6)

This condition occurs in children and adults, in both sexes and across all social strata and has nothing whatsoever to do with IQ or intelligence levels, infact many sufferers are of above average intelligence. It used to be believed that this disorder affected children alone but it has since been discovered that only a third of those suffering outgrew it so therefore two thirds live with ADHD all through adulthood. (p6)

Although ADHD symptoms do include inattentiveness it is important to remember that although this can cause serious problems in education many sufferers have the opposite problem of hyper focusing which can cause problems when the task in hand needs to move on to the next level.

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Because there isn’t a clear line between the normal behaviour of all children and those children suffering from ADHD it is important that the final diagnosis should always be made by professionals specially trained in the disorder

“In addition to making sure that no other medical condition is causing the symptoms, one must recognize that ADHD is a comparative diagnosis. It depends not just upon the presence of symptoms but upon the intensity and duration of those symptoms. Most children are distractible, impulsive, and restless some of the time. The vast majority of children do not have ADHD, and one ...

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