Special education and your child

Catriona MonaghanSt. Mary’s and St. Gerard’s National

School2011

Outline

• Inclusion

• Diagnosis

• Supports

• Intervention

• How you can help your child

Inclusion

• Special schools

• Automatic entitlement 1998

• Legislation EPSEN 2004

Diagnosis

• Ideal world

• Spectrum

• Limited resources

• The system

• Additional supports for the school

• Who benefits?

School support/ resources

• Resource hours (LITHs) + SNAs

• Individual Education Plan (IEP)

• General allocation (GA)

• Current position:

GA = 1 FT teacher + 15 hours

LITHs = 19 hours + 1 SNA

• Recession? -10% of LITHs

• Team

Intervention

• Withdrawal pros + cons

• In-class pros + cons

• Combination

• DES : Literacy + Maths; LSG 10%ile

• Special programmes

Special programmes

• Daily gross motor exercise programme

• Primary movement

• Speech and language groups

• Mathletics

• IT and keyboard skills

Exercise programme

• Why?

• What? Brain gym fitness coordination

• Purpose

• Who?

• Your child?

Research

• Significant relationship between academic achievement + physical fitness

• Link between control of movement + reading difficulty

• Motor learning difficulties present in large % of young people with emotional + behavioural difficulties

• Over 40% of Irish children undertake less physical activity than is desirable and 20% are critically inactive

• Gross motor development precedes fine motor

• Main areas are balance, locomotion + manipulation

Primary Movement

• Why?

• What?PMs = Movement patterns which emerge during foetal life As the central nervous system develops, they are switched offPersistence of primary reflexes after 12 months interferes with development and can effect learning

• Purpose?

• Who? Jun Inf, Sen Inf, 1st and 4th

Speech and language group

• Why?

• What?

• Who?

• Your child?

Mathletics

• Why?

• What?

• Who?

• Your child?

IT and keyboard skills

• Why?

• What?

• Who?

• Your child?

Summary

• Outline

• Inclusion benefits all

• Challenges stimulate new learning

• Parents

• School

Handouts

Questions