Introduction
High incidence disability is a category of people with disabilities who experience severe difficulties in attending to their duties. Students with high incidence disabilities make up more than eighty percent of the students living with disabilities. High incidence disabilities include speech or language impairment, behavioral disorders, intellectual disabilities, and social-emotional disorders (Blanton et al., 2017). Learners with a high incidence of disability undergo their learning process and spend most of their time in general education classrooms. Students with high incidence disabilities should be accommodated in modified classrooms to help them succeed.
Nevertheless, they should also spend time with their special education teacher or other related service providers like occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech therapists or get involved in other activities outside the classroom setting. It becomes an extreme challenge when high-incidence disability learners start schooling in ordinary schools where education facilities do not cater to their needs. An unfriendly environment for high-incidence disability students lowers their attention span, thus lowering their academic skills in specific areas or subjects.
Research Question and Objectives
The demand for teaching high-incidence disability (HID) students in the United States is increasing. Teaching students with severe and moderate intellectual disabilities experienced increased challenges, which have been addressed severally. Severe and moderate disability teachers require the best education to avoid the challenges facing special needs education. Nevertheless, for special education to succeed, good instructional material and resources are essential to enhance smooth learning. The research conducted in several American schools was aimed at the following. What are learning disabilities? How does learning disability help HID learners? Which are the common social disorders among high-incidence disability students? What is the exceptional education teacher’s experience? Which do autism spectrum disorder students face the challenges? What are inclusive education and its impact on special needs education? How does attention deficit disorder affect learners in their education? Are there any recommendations on how to handle high-incidence disability students?
Article One: Learning Disability
Learning disability is an individual’s reduced intellectual capability to attend to everyday activities. High incidence disability (HID) personnel attend to everyday activities, such as socializing and managing their basic needs. Nevertheless, high-incidence learners have the right to undergo schooling like any other student (Blanton et al., 2017). Since these students take longer to learn, they require close support to develop new skills, understand complex concepts and interact with other learners in a school setting. A learning disability occurs when the brain is still developing before, during, or soon after birth. Various occurrences cause learning disabilities, like an accident during pregnancy or birth. There are various types of learning disabilities which range from severe, moderate, or mild. In all instances, a learning disability is lifelong. The total support required by an HID learner depends on the individual (Blanton et al., 2017). For instance, a learner with a mild disability may only need support in job searching.
In contrast, learners with persistent and profound learning disorders require close support and full-time care to get the explained concepts. Learning disability also affects learners with physical disabilities when they are not well-taken care of. Physically challenged students require special treatment to reach the far-placed classrooms. Nonetheless, deaf, hard of hearing, and visually impaired learners require special tools to aid them in seeking knowledge. For instance, visually impaired learners need to be provided with braille to help them in learning.
Most states in the USA have adopted special need education by preparing special education teachers aligned with the curriculum (Blanton et al., 2017). For instance, new courses in special education are added at the end of the general education program. These programs are essential in equipping the enabled learners to know how to handle HID students. Teachers are encouraged to be inclusive in their teaching strategies. They should include all learners in the learning process, whether enabled or disabled. The government should provide teachers with adequate time for pre-service preparation. According to Blanton, special needs education teachers should work alongside general education teachers who interact with the majority of the learners in the school (Blanton et al., 2017). Special education teachers’ interaction with general program teachers is essential in maintaining uniformity, like the content delivered to learners. It is pre-said that the two types of teachers rarely meet in confirmation and consultation of the nature of the education program to be administered to learners. However, state leaders emphasize separating special education programs from general education programs recommending a single course on every disability. It remains a challenge for the HID students since they require interaction with general education learners to support them where necessary.
Article Two: Special Education Teachers’ Experience
This study aimed to examine the experience and perception of trained special education teachers over the last ten years (Gee & Gonsier-Gerdin, 2018). The teachers were trained to deliver integrated services, support, and high incidence disability for students with severe and moderate disabilities. In the study to examine the employed teachers’ experience, a case study was implemented to follow special education teachers in their first year of training. One excellent way to learn more about special education teachers’ perceptions and experiences is by interrogating fresh first-year educators. Few scholars have followed new teachers’ first experience attending to their duties. The study discovered that many teachers undergo numerous hardships in their first interaction with learners. Numerous scholars have published articles about the challenges faced by teachers in their first year of interaction with HID students. The experience of new teachers in the field of special need education is determined by the influence of the school and the classroom context (Gee & Gonsier-Gerdin, 2018). Secondly, teachers’ experience in the school is determined by sharing vision between teachers, state leaders, and the guardians and parents of the respective school. More challenges are faced by fresh teachers educating HID students at the elementary level. HID students at the elementary level require a wide variety of support, diagnosis managing professionals, scheduling their duties, and encouraging guardians’ and parents’ involvement.
However, despite the extended challenges facing the fresh teachers, it was found that the teachers shared the success in increasing skills in communicating with the families and people surrounding high incidence disability students of the academic progress (Gee & Gonsier-Gerdin, 2018). The study conducted in a junior high school in California found that a fresh teacher was experiencing a great challenge of handling a large caseload of thirty-one students with moderate intellectual disabilities. The class included autism, traumatic brain injury, disruptive behavior, seizures, and cerebral palsy. The trainers expressed frustration with inadequate instructional resources, materials, and space. They also expressed their lack of support from the state leaders, segregation, and the poor acceptance of the learners by the general education teachers and students in the region (Gee & Gonsier-Gerdin, 2018). Despite the challenges, the trainers also expressed their success stories and improvements in learners’ skills and social behavior. According to the article, the high incidence of disability students’ acceptance in society is the first achievement. HID learners undergo hardships in their interaction with general program students. Nonetheless, when exceptional trainers take their professions in a self-contained classroom, there is tension between the graduates and the systematic nature of the segregation in the school system. Many trainers lack the skills to use some special needs education resources that are not provided during their training.
Article Three: Promoting Full HID Students Inclusion
High incidence disability students should be included in daily activities. For instance, education is a microcosm of society. Every child has the right to get educated. More than one million students in America receive education services (Kirby, 2017). However, students living with disability change when attending the same classes as physically enabled students. Historically, oppressed and marginalized communities accessed education at very low percentages. During the times, education was used as an oppression tool for one community to control others in society. Discrimination in acquiring education was based on race, language, ethnicity, or the disabled (Kirby, 2017). These social barriers block some citizens from accessing public services such as education, healthcare, and participation in civic opportunities. For the disabled, the journey to equity in society requires much commitment. HID students in society are pre-assumed, thus denying them their legal rights. In poor HID cases, learners get poor-quality education since they take their classes in regular class programs.
High incidence disability students should be engaged in special need education, which favors their disabilities (Kirby, 2017). Inclusion education is the type of education that favors both the enabled and the disabled. In a class setting where the two groups are mixed, the trainer should make efforts to involve the HID students in the classical operations. For instance, deaf and hard-of-hearing students should be provided with an interpreter to translate for them using sign language. If the institution has not provided a special need teacher, the existing trainers should the responsibility and learn some basics to guide the HID students (Kirby, 2017).
Nevertheless, in the case of physically impaired learners, classes should be placed accessible areas where they can reach on their own using wheelchairs. The installation of an inclusive class is essential to support all disabled learners. An inclusive classroom’s availability helps the learner locate and move to classes on their own. The visually impaired students should be provided with braille to help them write notes and assess tests. A walking stick will be significantly used among visually impaired students since they walk independently in and out of classes.
Thirdly, HID students should be included in societal activities (Kirby, 2017). Society should be educated on how to live with disabled people. All types of disabilities personnel should exercise their rights in society. For instance, they should participate in democratic affairs, such as choosing their political leaders and being given a chance to vie for various positions in the government. Similarly, they should have a political representative in the ruling government. People in society should be taught how to live with the disabled. For instance, mockery and abusive words used directly to refer to them appear discouraging (Kirby, 2017). The old system of education, which tends to pre-assume the disabled, should also be abandoned. Creation of a new model of special education which is more inclusive, thus changing society’s negative assumptions. However, it is recorded that the completion rate of high schools and the graduation rate of HID students have been slowly rising over the past years. The recorded change is due to practicing inclusivity at all education levels.
Article Four: Preschool Attitude Towards Inclusion
Preschool teachers hold a positive attitude towards including young students with disabilities (Rakap, Cig & Parlak‐Rakap, 2017). Most parents are yet to accept their disabled children. The effect of rejection extends from family settings to schools where teachers manage them. Many elementary teachers have huge classes to handle. Thus they have minimal time to handle every learning on their own. Overworking in preschool hinders inclusive education from taking place effectively. Although the challenge of overworking has been addressed in many scholarly materials, critical stakeholders in special education emphasize inclusive education at higher levels of education, forgetting the lower levels of education.
Preschool teachers are unwilling to work with children with severe disabilities since they require immediate care and support. Nevertheless, teachers are willing to include learners with severe cognitive and physical disabilities over the inclusion of children with severe behavioral disorders (Rakap, Cig & Parlak‐Rakap, 2017). Physically challenged learners are easier to handle than those with severe behavioral disorders. Some severe challenges are not easier to handle. Thus practicing inclusive education in such learners becomes a challenge to the trainer who needs to attend to more than ten learners simultaneously. According to the collected data, teachers’ willingness to work with learners’ severe cognitive disabilities showed an increasing trend. The trend shows that the preschool special education curriculum and instruction course have a more positive impact when working with students with severe physical and cognitive disabilities.
Article Five: Special Education Cooperation with Different Actors
Special education involves various critical actors in achieving predefined goals (Weiss, Markowetz & Kiel, 2018). For instance, for the teachers to produce well-disciplined learners, the interdisciplinary team must be involved. Students with severe behavioral disorders require a close disciplinary team to correct their actions while reinforcing good morals. The disciplinary team not only guides disabled children morally but also sets an excellent example of quality leadership. Therefore, interdisciplinary cooperation is marked by role conflicts, diffusion, and diverging attitude and views in education. Another core actor in special education is the guardian or the parent of the disabled learner.
Teachers must cooperate with parents to produce a student who meets the diverging goals and expectations. Parents play a critical role in enforcing inclusive education for their children against teachers’ recommendations (Weiss, Markowetz & Kiel, 2018). They are also essential in decision-making and deciding on the correct type of education to be administered to their young learners. Learners with severe physical disabilities require close parental support by ensuring they get in and out of school daily. Nevertheless, networking with extracurricular support systems and other schools is essential in identifying students’ abilities by engaging them in career counseling, physiotherapists, psychiatrists, and speech therapist.
Method
After approval from the institutional board, key participants were selected to represent the whole institution in the research. Selected members were issued questionnaires to be filled out and delivered back. Teachers were the primary source of information collected in particular educational institutions. The questionnaires contained simple questions to be answered by the key participants. Some of the contained questions were: what is the primary disability of the students admitted to the institution? What are the challenges facing learners in the institution? Which are the core problems affecting teachers in the institution? Both positive and negative answers were provided, thus analyzing sample data in the paper. Secondly, open interviews were conducted in various institutions. The information acquired from the personnel involved in the interviews did not differ from the data collected using the sample questionnaires.
Recommendations
After conducting the above research in various institutions in the United States, it was concluded that there was a shortage of trainers in public institutions. The government should employ more teachers to curb overworking in special needs schools. Additionally, after the research, it was found that some special education institutions lacked enough equipment, space, and resources to support HID learners. Consultation is crucial in making sound decisions and maintaining uniformity, like the content delivered to students at various institutions. Teachers in ordinary schools should seek guidance from special education teachers to maintain uniformity. Assessment is a tool used to measure students’ understanding of the taught concepts. Equal level assessment should be given in various institutions to measure students’ level of understanding.
Nonetheless, progress monitoring can be helpful for standardized testing since it predicts the performance on state assessments. The inclusion of incentives in the learning process is vital in motivating learners. Top performing students should be given awards to encourage them to maintain the top position and encourage other students to attain the highest grades.
Conclusion
The current system used for special need education is not sufficiently serving learners with high incidence disabilities. However, the education system for special need education needs to be implemented to create room for both mild, moderate, and severe intellectuals. Teachers must have the essential knowledge and skill to deliver the best. Special education institutions must be equipped with the respective tools to support learners with different disabilities. For instance, the institution should provide braille to help visually impaired learners. Special education needs to be implemented in regular class operations. In changing special need education, the message sent to disabled students also changes, thus changing their initial positions in the schools. Inclusive education starts with the termination of labels and practicing equal service access to social services.
References
Blanton, L. P., Boveda, M., Munoz, L. R., & Pugach, M. C. (2017). The affordances and constraints of special education initial teacher licensure policy for teacher preparation. Teacher Education and Special Education, 40(1), 77-91.
Gee, K., & Gonsier-Gerdin, J. (2018). The first year as teachers were assigned to elementary and middle-school special education classrooms. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, 43(2), 94-110.
Kirby, M. (2017, April). Implicit assumptions in special education policy: Promoting full inclusion for students with learning disabilities. Child & Youth Care Forum (Vol. 46, No. 2, pp. 175–191). Springer US.
Rakap, S., Cig, O., & Parlak‐Rakap, A. (2017). Preparing preschool teacher candidates for inclusion: Impact of two special education courses on their perspectives. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 17(2), 98-109.
Weiss, S., Markowetz, R., & Kiel, E. (2018). How to teach students with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities in inclusive and unique education settings: Teachers’ perspectives on skills, knowledge, and attitudes. European Educational Research Journal, 17(6), 837-856.
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