Special Education Relevance of Information

Special Education

RELEVANCE OF INFORMATION FOR 21ST CENTURY SCHOOLS

Special education article review

Shah, Nirvi. (2011). Breakthroughs in diagnosing, one day preventing autism. Education Week.

Retrieved October 17, 2011 at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/

Bloom's Taxonomy of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains

Autism diagnoses are on the rise, although the extent to which this is due to improved diagnosis or an actual upward spiral in the development of the disease remains uncertain. However, one aspect of the developmental disorder is agreed upon -- the need for early detection of autism to improve treatment. This article details the finding of a recent study in Current Directions in Psychological Science. Researchers found additional early symptoms that can flag a young child as a possible sufferer of autism.

Children with autistic tendencies have difficulty paying attention to a toy and another person. An absence of joint attention behaviors means that children may have difficulty mimicking others, which can lead to impaired social skills later on in his or her academic career. These new findings also suggest possible ways to remedy some of the symptoms that may give rise to autistic behavior. When adults encourage the child to mimic others and adults mimic the child's own behaviors, the child can become more capable of socially engaged play, researchers theorized. Parents and teachers alike must both 'teach' the child that social imitation is a great, positive thing.

Imitation can take place in the ways that parents and children replicate physical and social behaviors. If the child performs these tasks, over time, the cognitive mechanisms that enable social reciprocity can be stimulated and 'learned.' The article also advocates vigilance on the part of pediatricians in engaging in early detection of autism, and also notes the existence of dual diagnoses of autism and other developmental disorders such as Downs Syndrome.

Relevance of information for 21st century schools

Education in 21st century American schools is growing increasingly standardized. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires standardized testing of all students, and teachers are often pressured to 'teach to the test' to ensure enough students pass. However, students on the autism spectrum are on the rise, and coping with the challenges of dealing with autism can be difficult in the mainstream classroom. Schools are pressed in terms of their funding, and cannot always provide as much individualized education as is necessary to help students in the classroom.

The results of this study support the notion that preschool intervention can be extremely valuable for helping children with autism, even before the children enter kindergarten. Unfortunately, early intervention programs are struggling to find financial support even more so than standard public schools. Furthermore, children who lack economic resources may not be diagnosed adequately by parents and physicians at an early enough age to fully benefit from treatment and may receive less individualized treatment in their school environment.

Personal reaction

Early interventions for 'challenged' children has consistently been shown to be valuable, and to 'pay off' in terms of the academic gains children are able to make, provided the students continue to receive support. The article's suggestion for an intervention was relatively simple, but it points to a larger problem of the need for intensive intervention even before autistic children enter grade school. While preschool children identified as disabled are entitled to early interventions under IDEA, the scope of who is identified as autistic at a young age may need to be widened even further to include 'at risk' students who do not yet have a formal diagnosis, but display autistic tendencies.