Transcript Historical Special Education

Mild/Moderate
Educational Needs
•Mild Mental Retardation (DH, EMR)
•Learning Disabilities
•Behavioral Disorders
•Other Areas
Moderate/ Intensive
Educational Needs
•Severe Mental Retardation
•Severe Behavior Handicapping
Condition (emotional disturbance)
•Other Severe Disabling Conditions
Influences in Special Education
The Foundation Phase: Early Brain Research
Phrenology: abnormal behavior and brain function could be predicted by examining the
shape of the skull
Paul Broca
- loss of the ability to speak is often called Broca’s aphasia
John Hughlings Jackson (1874)
- added to this knowledge by showing that the areas of the human brain are intimately
linked, so that damage to one part will reduce overall general functioning
Sir Henry Head
-aphasia, or the loss of speech
James Hinshelwood
- word blindness: the inability to interpret written or printed language despite normal
vision.
Historical Overview
•Antiquity: prior to 1700
• Emergence of and Early Disillusionment of a Field: 1700-1890
• Facilities-Based Orientation: 1890-1960
• Services-Based: 1960-1985
• Supports-Based: 1985-present
Stanford-Binet Test
In 1911, Henry Goddard translated the Binet-Simon scales into
English, and in 1916, Lewis Terman of Stanford University
refined the mental scales into the instrument known as the
Stanford-Binet.
With the beginning of World War I, the military services needed
a way to obtain information relatively quickly about large groups
of people for use in assigning personnel. Thus, the first group of
intelligence scales (the alpha and beta tests) was developed. The
results of this testing fed alarmist tendencies by suggesting that
mild mental retardation was more widespread than anyone had
previously believed. Yerkes's 1921 work on the intellectual
capacities of World War I soldiers supported this assumption,
further exacerbating negative feelings about retardation.
Facilities-Based Orientation: 18901960
As the 19th century came to a close, disillusionment
began to take on a more reactionary tone. A change
from concern for caring about individuals who had
special needs to one for protecting society from them
was evident. Institutions originally designed to serve
as training facilities from which individuals would
leave to return to community settings now began to
assume a new custodial role.
Services-Based Orientation: 19601985
•Trends in Service Delivery
The concept of normalization, which originated during the
1950's in Scandinavia, was finding much support in the
United States. N.E. Bank-Mikkelsen and Bengt Nirje were
eminently responsible for the development and dissemination
of this principle in Scandinavia, while Wolf Wolfensberger
was instrumental in championing it in the United States.
The right-to-education issue was sparked in 1971 by a
celebrated class action suit, Pennsylvania Association for
Retarded Children [PARC] v. Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania.
Supports-Based Orientation: 1985Present
This supports-based perspective promotes as a
basic tenet the notion of maintaining individuals
with mental retardation in inclusive settings,
accompanied by appropriate supports when
needed. Supports might include personal
supports, natural supports, various services, and
other technical supports.
1940’s - 1950’s
Goldstein & Sheerer (1947) - traumatically brain-injured World
War I soldiers
Four characteristics of brain injury in adults:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Catastrophic reaction
Rigidity
Distractability
Concrete mode of thinking
Strauss, Werner, Lehtinen, Kephart
•Presented a research study that related Goldstein’s finding
on brain injury to children
William Cruickshank- “Strauss Syndrome”
1.
2.
3.
4.
Erratic and inappropriate behavior on mild provocation
Increased motor activity disproportionate to the stimulus
Poor organization of behavior
Distractibility of more than ordinary degree under ordinary
conditions
5. Persistent faulty perceptions
6. Persistent hyperactivity
7. Awkwardness and consistently poor motor performance
Doman & Delacoto- neurological organization theory
Kephart & Frostig- motor/vision theories
Kirk, McCarthy, Johnson- diagnostic testing
Stephens- direct instruction
Kauffman, Hallahan, Hammill, etc.
•Minimal brain dysfunction (MBD)
• 1960’s a movement from medical to educational models
Sociopolitical Forces
Blatt (1987) states: " Mental retardation is a concept
that developed with history. It has changed through
time in its nature and in its significance".
Sarason (1985) suggests that mental retardation
cannot be understood fully unless one examines the
society, culture, and history within which it occurs.
Related Sociopolitical Influences
•Franklin D. Roosevelt, influenced this country's attitudes toward
the welfare of all its citizens. Roosevelt's New Deal philosophy was
responsible for much social change through legislation and the
formulation of new programs. One such piece of legislation that
affected individuals with special needs was the Social Security Act
of 1935.
• 1950- National Association for Retarded Children (NARC). This
organization, composed mostly of parents of children who were
retarded, became an important advocate for these children. Over the
years, social attitudes toward people with retardation had changed
from fear and revulsion to tolerance and compassion.
Related Sociopolitical Influences
•President Eisenhower in a 1954 message to Congress:
We are spending three times as much in public
assistance to care for nonproductive disabled people
as it would cost to make them self-sufficient and
taxpaying members of their communities.
Rehabilitated people as a group pay back in federal
income taxes many times the cost of their
rehabilitation.
•By 1952, 46 of 48 states had enacted legislation for
educating students who were identified as mentally
retarded.
Major Phases in the Field of Learning Disabilities
Foundation phase: 1800-1930
Brain Research
Transition phase: 1930-1960
Clinical study of children
Integration phase: 1960-1980
School programs
Current phase: 1980-present
Emerging Directions