Reflection of Special Education
INTASC Principle #2:
The teacher understands how children learn and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social and personal development.
In special education, understanding a child's development is crucial to their education. Each student's individual disability effects the way they develop. By understanding development during childhood, I can implement assessments and intervention that fit the student's development along with their disability. By understanding how children develop, I can observe which students are experiencing any type of delay or difficulty early on. The developmental standards ensure that I not only understand how a child develops, but that I use that information to provide an appropriate learning environment, but also be able to manipulate their learning process according to their development.
I struggle with creating assessments to fit students' disabilities. However, with the knowledge I have gained this semester, I plan on researching all my future student's development, behavior, and IEP in order to provide them with an appropriate assessment catered especially to their needs. I also have a weakness of not addressing inappropriate and disruptive behavior. As a special educator, I plan on using this knowledge of children's development to mediate and alleviate the disruptive behavior as soon as it starts.