CREDENTIALS OF TEACHERS FOR INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED STUDENTS
Students with mild to severe intellectual disabilities such as autism, down syndrome, cerebral palsy, emotional disturbance and other related disability may find it harder to study in school when separated from their family and be included from others with the same condition, this is the reason why there are growing needs for teachers who would have a desire and qualification to teach this children. To be able to qualify as a teacher for intellectually disabled students the teacher should possess such qualification or equal teaching experience about the job.
They should have a degree in Psycho therapy, Social Science, Applied Psychology, a Master’s degree in education or alternative licensure program for Special Education can also be accepted in this teaching job and other allied field of expertise. They also need to remember the job requires more than educational but a combination of clinical methodology and a direct caring responsibility. Their role would also require so much focus on improving the quality of life and transformational changes for the students.
Teachers should be willing to work and care for students with a variety of disability primarily teaching them basic literacy and values formation. They may be able to identify and modify the education curriculum as needed to meet the individual needs of children. They should be able to handle and teach with various techniques in learning including basic effective communication and social interaction. Teachers must be active to demonstrate intensive training to set personalized goal and in case for older students a more skilled teaching strategy and plan of action.
Special education teachers should also learn to cooperate with parents so they can ask more information about the behavior of their students and they should be able to report the activities performance and progress of their students to their parents. This will encourage their parents a home schooling practice and create an in dept family relation and interpersonal skills to transfer the development of a child even at home.
They must learn to develop practical skills development including simple life skills training of hygiene, household chores, planting, computer training and more. Practical training can be manifested and developed even in school through proper guidance, this is sometimes more important than other academic program. In today’s global economy teachers must also learn to teach basic information and communication technology and technology advancement to their students. Students may feel excited to learn cell-phone, I-pads, laptop internet and other social networking websites and electronic gadgets that is useful nowadays.
Special education teachers should learn to teach in a variety of settings; usually they can teach in the classroom where most of their equipments and materials are available but sometimes they may need to learn to teach outdoors for a more realistic approach in learning, they may even teach home based as needed by their students, or if the school may provide additional locations they should be the first to learn to adopt such changes in their education settings much more than their students.
They must learn to accept job teaching beyond age brackets, they can teach toddlers through pre- school teaching that associate play and learning method to adult that requires a higher skills teaching or teenagers who have been experiencing late or early puberty changes in their life. Teachers may also be assigned according to their qualification and experience but if by chance they are assign to a certain age bracket, they must learn to adjust their skills to reach their students level of thinking.
The least but most required qualification they need to possess is their personality and behavior about treating students. They should be highly tolerable about student’s characters, therefore they must practice high patience and discipline especially in communication process, interaction and dealings. They should not abuse their students even physically and verbally.
During the start they usually be given basic salary including some forms of allowances depending on their experiences but they can also earn additional income if they prefer to teach home based during weekends as requested by parents. Usually their performance is based on years of existence to the school institution they represent and their school evaluation about their job practice.
Basically all these requirements must be practiced by special education teachers for intellectually disabled children. Teachers who would like to apply and accept the challenges of being an educator in a different world of learning must be genuinely interested more than the monetary value but must have passion and desire to teach. Students and parents usually learn to love and appreciate this kind of teachers who value their effort to teach children who really need their services.
NOTE: The following qualification, job requirement and other information requirements for Special Education Teacher above is provided by the United States Bureau of Labor in cooperation with Personnel Improvement Center and the Council for Exceptional Children.
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