Special Education Definition

Difinations:
The people who are handicapped/impaired(mentally, physically etc) are known as “Special Persons” and the study of the method of education for these special persons is known as “Special Education”.

OR

Education of physically or mentally handicapped children whose needs cannot be met in an ordinary classroom

OR

Any of several educational services designed for students with learning difficulties, mental health problems, or other disabilities.

OR

Means specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parent or parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including instruction conducted in a classroom, in the home, in hospitals, in institutions, and in other settings and instruction in physical education

OR

Programs designed to meet special learning needs of students.

OR

Specialized instruction based on educational disabilities determined by a team evaluation. It must be precisely matched to educational needs and adapted to the child's learning style.

Explanation:
From the philosophical point of view, all individual are unique so we call these people specials but our concern is not with those specials because in our community society, there are some persons who by virtue of their physical and intellectual or mental abilities require a more relevant or appropriate instruction than is usually available within formal or informal educational structure. We call these people as exceptional or specials and we have constructed the domain of education to satisfy their learning requirements and social philosophy to justify it. This domain is called special education and the people who need special education are called as special people.

Types of special education
Following are the types of special education.
1. Intellectual deviation
a. Gifted children
b. Mentally retarded or slow learners.
2. sensory handicapped
a. Hearing impaired disorder.
b. Visual handicapped disorder.
3. behaviour disorder
a. Emotional disorder
b. Social maladjustment.
4. communication disorder
a. Children with speech disorder
b. Children with language disorder
5. health impairment
a. Children with neurological defects.
b. Children with orthopedic conditions.
6. children with hearing disabilities
7. severe and multiple handicapped
a. Children with cerebral palsy and mental retardation.
b. Deaf blind children
c. Children with physical and intellectual or mental disability

Major disabilities
There are five major disabilities.
i. Hearing impairment (H.I)
ii. Visual impairment (V.I)
iii. Mental retardation (M.R)
iv. Physical handicapped (P.H)
v. Multiple handicapped (M.H)