Special Education--No Longer on the Margins?

Tien-tien is currently in her fifth year at elementary school. Because of her physical and emotional problems, she's had a tough time both at school and at home. It's been a road of discovery with many setbacks and frustrations.

The main goal of special education classes is to teach social adaptation. For artistic subjects and general activities, the children join the students from mainstream classes.

Meet Tien-tien

At the age of three or four months, Tien-tien showed no expression, and had poor muscle tone. She was still unable to sit upright at nine months, and could only stand at the age of two. "I felt like she didn't love me, like she was looking through me," says her mother. It wasn't until Tien-tien was in the older class at kindergarten that she was given a vision test and found to be severely far-sighted.

Her early childhood was eventful. She was impulsive and loud, and would often scream. In kindergarten, she would pinch, bite, and yell at her classmates, and was rejected by them.

The situation only got worse when she entered elementary school. The environment was more complex and the pressure was greater, so her "symptoms" got worse. Her first-grade teacher said she was too "egotistical," and claimed to be unable to deal with other students because of her disobedience. Because of this, her mother began to accompany her daughter to class every day.

Tien-tien has a very difficult time with switching environments. When the school bell rings, she doesn't know it's time to go into the classroom, and her teacher often has to call for her over the intercom or go searching for her. Sometimes when they are on the way to PE or music class, Tien-tien is nowhere to be found. Her mother asked her teacher to appoint a "buddy" to stick by her side and remind her, and things got better.

However, in third grade, Tien-tien got a new teacher and new classmates, and things took a turn for the worse. The new teacher wanted Tien-tien to learn self-control and independence, so she was often scolded. This put her under so much stress that she chewed the skin off the tips of all ten fingers.

Her mother decided to take her up north to see a doctor. A psychologist told her Tien-tien had a biological problem. A genetic consultant said her condition did not appear to be hyperactivity or autism, and thought perhaps it was either a rare genetic disease called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome or else Marfan Syndrome. In any case, the symptoms were atypical.

The whole family moved from Pingtung to Taipei because of her frequent hospital visits. But even in the new environment, her condition stayed the same.

Once after music class, she couldn't make it to the restroom on time because of her bladder control problem, so she couldn't help but take her pants down right there and go even as she held her violin. The teacher, who didn't understand her special needs, yelled at her and called her "shameless." Tien-tien was very upset over the incident, and her mother pulled her out of school.

"It was only after I took her out of school that the teacher asked whether I wanted to put her in a special class, or whether I wanted to file a report with the school or something. But the damage had been done, and it was all too late," Tien-tien's mother says with a shake of the head and a sigh.

She put her daughter in an elementary school outside the public school system-the Seedling School in the mountains of Taipei County's Wulai Township. "There's more space there for the kids to work at their own pace, and to feel respected and accepted," she says. "Tien-tien was never one to deliberately make trouble, it's just that before she was an outsider to the group. Even though she's still often alone now, at least she's not ostracized." She knows it's a long road in front of her daughter, but she says for now it's best if she can just be accepted.

Special-needs students by category (including gifted), 2004 school year

None left behind?

Though educators say they should "leave no child behind," children like Tien-tien are often seen in schools, scolded by their teachers and ostracized by their peers.

Perhaps it's due to liberalized education, or perhaps it's the product of advances in diagnosing children's disorders, but it seems that there are more and more "challenged" kids in schools these days. But whatever the reason, with improvements to the educational system and environment, educators are making it their goal to meet the needs of every child. They are breaking down the barriers between "special" and normal education with the concept of integrated education, in which children with special needs have those needs met in the same classroom as their average classmates. The idea is to close the gap and allow all students to develop an understanding of one another.

Integrated education has been the global trend in recent years. As early as 1985, UNESCO declared that every nation should push to give special children the chance to learn in classrooms with their average peers. In 1997, Taiwan's Special Education Law was amended so that those special students would gradually be mainstreamed.

Mainstream educationIntegrated education Special education Separation leads to indifference and even prejudice. he purpose of integrated education is to break down barriers andpromote understanding and tolerance between teachers, mainstream students and special-needs children.

Starting with discovery

"Discovering" special students by keeping them in mainstream classes and at the same time giving them special care and not allowing them to be regarded as being in the margins-that's the starting point for integrated education.

Some more alert parents will have already noticed their kids' problems before they start school. Other kids' problems should be recognized by teachers or by schools' special education systems.

At least that's the theory. Actually most teachers have only taken one one-semester, three-unit course on basics of special education, and have only a rough idea about the subject. Yang Tsung-ren, head of National Taipei Teachers College's Special Education Center, says that most teachers run into a student who won't follow the rules or finish classwork on time. Some of them will stick with their initial impression that the student is "spoiled," or think that the student "can be trained," and end up wasting valuable time that could be spent appraising and treating the student's condition.

Professor Hung Li-yu of National Taiwan Normal University's Special Education Department has appraised many students. She says that in Taipei City and Taipei County, it only takes one semester for a special student to be formally identified and start receiving special care. "That's a rate up there with those of advanced nations in Europe and North America," she says.

After being recognized by medical and educational specialists, special children do not need to be placed in concentrated classes unless highly impaired. They remain in mainstream classes, and in addition receive extra help in a "resource class."

Resource classes are held either using some of the time of regular courses, during first period or during noon recess, and offer the kids the extra guidance they need. Each student needs a different amount of time in the resource class, but the classes should ideally take up less than half of a child's total class time.

According to the Ministry of Education's Special Education Unit, there are currently 70,000 students in special education in Taiwan, including those in traditional special education classes and those with resource classes. Sixty three percent of them attend normal classes. In Taipei City, the rate is even higher-75%. Integrated education is taking root.

Looking at their problems, the largest group are those with mental disabilities (some 23%). Most of those students have reading difficulties. Next are students with learning disabilities (12%) (see figure).

Schooling arrangements of special-needs children in Taiwan, 2004 school year

Confusion over "disabilities"

However, even though teachers of the normal classes have the ability to discover special students, many times parents do not want their children labeled and resist further evaluation.

The mass media often reports on successful people who had disabilities in their childhood. For example, the inventor Thomas Edison, Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore, British prime minister Winston Churchill, American vice-president Nelson Rockefeller, and movie star Tom Cruise and all had some sort of learning disability. These success stories lead some parents to sigh in relief, thinking their children just are "late starters" and not in need of special education. But such false hope can sometimes have an adverse effect on the children's development.

Huang Shaw-hwa, head guidance counselor at Taipei's Chungshan Elementary School, tells of the case of one first-grade student who was diagnosed as autistic. The student was in regular classes and had obviously fallen behind. He acted out in class and was disruptive. The teacher suggested to the parents that he receive special education services, but they were unwilling. After many conferences, the parents were finally willing to visit a community for sufferers of autism in Hualien County called Kanner Garden. They finally agreed to enroll the child in a special education class, where he could get the help he really needed.

Hung Li-yu says that according to regulations, children may only be evaluated with parental consent, and even parents who are willing to spend big money on cram schools to bring grades up are unwilling to pay for special education.

"'Disability' has become a dirty word," Hung laments. As soon as parents hear "special education," their next thought is something negative like, "It's hopeless," or "They're giving up on my child." Furthermore, the parents don't know about the positive results special education can bring, so they avoid it for as long as they can.

In Taipei City, for example, every year over 500 junior high students are evaluated, many of whom had already had symptoms in elementary school. It's just that their parents didn't want to "give up," sending them to cram schools or even subjecting them to physical punishments in hopes their grades would improve, and only facing the facts when they reached junior high.

Special-needs students by category (including gifted), 2004 school year

Emotional integration?

Integrated education is designed to bring together special students and mainstream students. It may be a good idea, but in actuality, the feelings of students might not become as "integrated." That's especially so when, as is often the case, schools lack the resources and manpower necessary to offer adequate special education programs. Teachers feel pressure and frustration, parents of special children feel anguished, and the children themselves find themselves on the margins. Their classmates may feel sympathetic and resentful at the same time. That's the situation at many schools.

Yang Tsung-ren points out that the constitution guarantees every child the right to an education, and that integrated education not only helps impaired students learn to interact with society, but also teaches the other students how to care for others. Teachers also receive a lesson in how to manage their classes. It should be a situation where everyone wins, but it is tough to put into practice.

Fresh out of school and in her second year of teaching at Chungshan Elementary, Huang Ching-chu has 25 students in her sixth-grade class. One of them is hyperactive and has emotional problems, one is hyperactive, one is anti-social, and one has a phobia of school. Though she took courses in special education, she still finds herself with her hands full. When she gets into a predicament in class, she needs to call the resource class teacher in to "put out the fire."

"Once a kid got up on the banister and acted like he was about to jump. I just about lost it!" she recalls, with a hint of fear in her voice.

Another problem is, in addition to keeping class order and staying with the pace of the syllabus, she also has to deal with complaints from parents of other students. She says that on the school's open house day, the parents were talking about how to get rid of a class "troublemaker" who hit other students, threw fits, and caused disruptions. Huang told the parents about the "zero reject" policy, which says schools may not refuse education to anyone, but she found it difficult to get them to accept the child.

Some years ago in Chiayi, a hyperactive child who hit a classmate was forced to be home-schooled. Huang thinks that such a punishment is unjust: "There are dangerous elements in society, and children have to learn how to get along with every kind of personality. Especially when education is a right, you can't strip a child of the right to study with others because he or she hit another child."

With the help of teaching assistants and parents, the concentrated special education class at Chungshan Elementary School is able to provide almost one-to-one teaching.

Parents' dilemma

"Troublemaking" kids are forced to be home-schooled without any outside help and to learn on their own, and the prejudice and uncertainty of the whole situation causes parents of special students to worry before they even start school. To tell or not to tell the teacher of their child's condition-neither way is easy.

One mother of a child with Asperger's Syndrome felt panicked before her child entered school. Not only did she conduct extensive research about school districts, but also thought over whether she wanted to inform the school. She asked around, and some told her that she should, so that the school could best prepare for her child. Others told her it would be better to wait and see how the child performed in class first. She couldn't decide, and in the end held her child back a year, hoping a little maturity would keep the symptoms from flaring up.

Hsu Neng-hsien, head guidance counselor at Taipei's Kuangfu Elementary School, says that most schools operate on an "adopting" system, in which the counselors take into account teachers' willingness to take on special students as well as their current burden. Should they be willing to take one special student into their class, they can reduce their class size by two mainstream students-a "two-for-one" trade. If no teacher is willing, they draw straws and the only rule is that the students with special needs must be distributed among different classes so as to minimize the impact on the classes.

Chungshan Elementary resource class teacher Liang Chiu-yueh believes that teachers can only properly respond to students with special needs when told of their conditions beforehand. They won't scold or blame the students out of ignorance and thereby damage the teacher-student relationship. They also won't waste their time with ineffective methods. Some teachers become upset after being deceived by parents, and that also throws the relationship out of balance. Liang also says that school open houses present an opportunity for parents of special students to communicate with other parents and help them understand the situation.

Yang Tsung-ren urges parents to be realistic. "When others will obviously be affected, it's best to inform the teacher. When a child's behavior is obviously different from others, it's best to use available services. That's the real way to help kids.

Administrative integration is not the same emotional integration. Emotionally or intellectually challenged children are often disheartened by their inability to master some skills no matter how hard they try. They need to be accepted.

Towards the goal

"Separation brings unfamiliarity, and unfamiliarity brings prejudice," says Hung Li-yu, and implementing integrated education is the right step. Owing to the limitations of Taiwan's educational system and society, and the incapabilities and attitudes of parents and teachers alike, a few students are still struggling at the margins. But Hung believes things are improving, and though it's not perfect now, she says hope is on the horizon.

Schooling arrangements of special-needs children in Taiwan, 2004 school year

Mainstream educationIntegrated education Special education Separation leads to indifference and even prejudice. he purpose of integrated education is to break down barriers andpromote understanding and tolerance between teachers, mainstream students and special-needs children.

After class, "buddies" from senior mainstream classes go to the special education class to help the special-needs children with going to the toilet and eating their meals.

Mainstream educationIntegrated education Special education Separation leads to indifference and even prejudice. he purpose of integrated education is to break down barriers andpromote understanding and tolerance between teachers, mainstream students and special-needs children.