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Special Education

Notes oral language should be very simple and interesting and of the standard expected of normal
kindergarten-age children.
(4) If some retarded children are in need of special class instruction the following principles should
be followed.
(i) The younger the children, the smaller the class.
(ii) The more heterogeneous the group, the smaller the class.
(iii) Special class should always be organised within the regular primary school.
(iv) Special class instruction should be given by the resource teacher or the itinerant teacher only.
(v) Adequate diagnosis should be made before they are placed in the special class.
(vi) The resource teacher should have considerable freedom in adapting the curriculum to the
needs of individual children.
(5) Whether the retarded child is educated in the regular classroom or resources room, instruction
should be systematic and sequential in nature.
(6) As the child makes progress in the class less and less emphasis should be placed on readiness
skills and more and more emphasis should be given on academic skills and the basic tool subjects
such as reading, writing and arithmetic.
(7) Emphasis should be gradually placed on work-habits, vocational training, and family life
education as the child makes progress from primary education to the secondary education.
This should be particularly emphasized for older retarded students.
Vocational training should actually pass through five phases, such as vocational exploration,
vocational evaluation, vocational training, vocational placement and follow up. In the phase of
vocational exploration, the MER student is familiarized with the nature of various occupations
and their skills requirements. In the second phase the retarded student is exposed to experiences
with different job skills in order to determine the vocational abilities and preferences of the
student. In the third phase emphasis is given on developing job skills and on preparing the
student for a range or occupations. This is the stage of non job experiences. The fourth stage
consists of locating a job for the student and placing him in the job. The last stage entails
counselling and further training or replacement.

What is the EMR?

15.4 Role of The Teacher

A large number of mildly and some moderately retarded children do enter the regular primary
schools. They remain unidentified and unnoticed for some years until their problems become so
serious that they experience failure and frustration and later drop-out from the school. This calls for
early identification, diagnosis and assessment and making instruction systematic and sensitive. The
regular classroom teacher has to play a significant role in teaching such children in the regular
classroom.
1. The regular teacher should be familiar with the behavioural characteristics of MR children for
purpose of identifying and referring them to the psychologist for assessment.
2. He should develop a positive and optimistic view about the educability of such children.
3. He should avoid as far as possible labelling the child, passing on damaging remarks and also
see that the non-retarded peers behave in a positive way with the child.
4. He should create favourable conditions in his class and the schools for social and academic
integration of EMR children.

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