Virtually everyone in the society has a desire to achieve the best in education. However, this ambition encounters a myriad of challenges in the form of financial and physical ability. In as much as the physical disabilities contribute to impossibility to realize these goals, there is hope for people with special needs. This paper explores the role of special programs in enabling people with special needs to realize their inherent learning potentials.
Developmental disability is a mental or physical condition or a combination of the two that results into impairment of the daily functioning (Odom, Horner, & Snel1, 2009). It may be in the form of autism, mental retardation, Down syndrome or even cerebral palsy. Parents are compelled to work closely with the medical specialists by availing the children for check ups and regular screening. This is because early diagnosis helps the subjects to survive and overcome their challenges, thus pursuing and realizing their full potentials (Odom et al, 2009).
Early intervention refers to a medicated attempt to check and counter a disability so as to prevent it from developing and rendering one handicapped. It may be taken as the act of building a social network to help the children’s parents and family directly or indirectly in administering therapeutic programs. According to Jubish and Khuram (2010),early interventions lead to improved cognitive, language, socio- emotional, and motor growth and better relationships with the family. However, there is a need to apply proper preventive strategies to some of these disorders at the very early age of the child, especially when it comes to the genetic abnormalities. Some of these can be easily evaded by proper nutrition at early ages or even precautions during the pregnancy.
Special education programs should be fully fledged in every country through the support of both the government and donors. There is a need to cater for the individuals with special needs so as to exploit their potential. Given resources, the disabled are able to realize their goals in life just like any other normal person could. This may be in terms of creating extra time during their teaching sessions, use of teaching aids such as Braille, and offering a one-on-one assistance to them. It is, thus, necessary that special abilities are identified at an early age and utilized for the benefit of the entire society.
Transition refers to the shifts that occur in the programs and various services directed to the disabled. There is a need to have a master plan for the transition period so as to ensure that the services to these young ones are not interfered with. Furthermore, the parents, the child, and even the service providers would then gladly feel part of the transition. A proper plan would help in endorsing the new service in the life of the disabled. The child’s transition process would be faster if there are consistent follow ups by both the parents and new service providers in light of the desired goals of transition.
Assessments of the children are aimed at evaluating their progress as compared to the rest. These assessments have a lot of significance, which includes improvements of language, social skills, and the academic skills of the disabled (Reisec, 2012). However, inadequacy in the resources used to assess, lack of proper training of the assessors, and in some cases the assessments and interventions’ non-inclusion of some key areas in the development may be a challenge. The assessors should be properly trained to make them accountable to administration and assessments. On the issue of irrelevant assessments, there is a need to realign the curriculum objectives in light of the need for development.
In conclusion, identification of the special needs of people with disability is essential for programming and educational assessments that are sensitive to the needs of the target beneficiaries. Consideration of the diversities in the levels of gifting of learners is, thus, critical to the success of any educational programs.