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Learning Together: Chapter IX - Special Education

Providing appropriate Special Education programs, ones that are both "inclusive" and suitable for meeting the individual needs of children with disabilities, is a major concern for U.S. schools. The Israeli programs described below are unusual in the way they use technology, combine the resources of the school with those of a rehabilitation center, utilize instrumental music or provide services for the elderly while training the developmentally retarded.

I Have a Secret — I Can Read is a comprehensive program for teaching reading skills to special education students, utilizing courseware and unique hardware components to provide a stimulating visual and audio experience that generates interest and increases motivation. The program is currently used in more than 100 Israeli schools.

The Special Music Education program uses instrumental music to provide an emotional, social and intellectual experience for mentally retarded students, and extends their connections with the outside world. The Hadas Group program identifies special education students who are having difficulty coping with vocational school work and brings them to the Center for Rehabilitative Work for three days per week and returns them to their school for the other three days. At the Center, they are observed and evaluated for further training. The Yehudi Halevi School in Netanya runs the Home Repairs for the Elderly program, which provides repairs by children with special needs.

Tlalim is a volunteer program to help children who are kept out of school by illness keep up with their studies.

 


I Have a Secret — I Can Read

Contact:

Ophrah Razel
Centre for Educational Technology
16 Klausner Street
Tel-Aviv 6l394, Israel
Tel. (03) 6460l60, Fax. (03) 6422619

Objective:

This program is designed to teach reading skills to children with learning disabilities, mental retardation or emotional disturbances.

Target Populations: Primarily children ages 7-10 who are in special education programs and children in normal education classes who are experiencing difficulties in learning to read.

Program and Activities:

I Have a Secret-I Can Read is a comprehensive reading program for teaching initial reading skills to children with learning disabilities. It integrates computer courseware and written materials tailored to the specific needs of special education pupils. The program includes review and diagnostic components, 70 short stories, practice games and more than 200 learning units that are graduated and easy to grasp. The computer that runs the I Have a Secret-I Can Read program is equipped with hardware components (e.g., an audio card, touch screen and advanced color graphics) that convert reading into a multi-sensory experience. The computer "talks" to the pupils, creating an association between the spoken word and its written form. Students respond by touching the screen — painting areas, moving words and constructing sentences. Because of parental interest, a special version of I Have a Secret-I Can Read has been prepared for home use.

 


Special Music Education

Contact:

Noa Blass
15 Baltimore Street
Tel Aviv 62194, Israel
Tel. and Fax. (03) 6950127

Objective:

To provide a structured meaningful, emotional, social and intellectual experience for mentally retarded students through the use instrumental music.

Target Population:

Mentally retarded children.

Program and Activities:

The Special Music Education Program is based on the concept that mentally retarded individuals have limited connections with the outside world so that their conscious personality is often undeveloped but the inner world of even the profoundly and severely retarded can be reached by the use of instrumental music together with step-by-step organized stimuli.

First, there is a program of objects to form a basic contact with the retarded individual and the teacher, music and other pupils. When pupils enter the class, they are greeted with a song repeating their name and given a plastic spring or pipe or a rubber band to hold. Music accompanies play with the "instrument" and basic concepts such as near-far, up-down and around are repeated. Music gives emotional tone and tempo to the activity.

The second program, "Animals in Music," is more structured stage and consists of 12 lessons, each focusing on one animal, as well as dramatization of instrumental music. The objects of each lesson are animals and other characters from folklore and children's tales. The animals represent various dynamic characteristics, make it possible for pupils to identify with different types and to act out central parts of their personality. The lessons progress from simple factual auditory and visual stimulation toward more complex emotional experiences. The atmosphere is easy, playful, encouraging. Pupils react to all of the subjects but usually identify more strongly with some.

The third program, "Me, You and the World," employs gongs as a stimulus together with stories, discussions, films and creative activities connected to common, everyday elements. The basic assumption is that sounds raise the individual's awareness and facilitates development of new associations. The program includes the playing of gongs — earth, water, sun, moon, heart and head. Six stories accompany the playing of the gongs with such other activities as group discussion, viewing films of nature, pantomime, playing of fabric collage, creative drawing and improvisations with piano, gongs and other instruments.

Experience indicates that work with these programs helps to develop self-awareness as well as sociomotor and verbal skills. It gives retarded individuals an experience by which they can express themselves fully in different ways and exercise creative and spontaneous behavior.

 


Hadas Group — Integrating Children with
Special Needs in Employment Rehabilitation

Contact:

Eli Gannott or Yehudit Shimoni
Center for Professional Rehabilitation
Migdal HaEmek, Israel
Tel. (06) 540 764

Objectives:

The program is aimed at providing a study program for each child individually, taking their difficulties into account in conjunction with the Rehabilitation Center, enabling the child to acquire vocational experience and prepare for entry into the labor force.

Target Population:

Children between the ages of 14-16 in special education who are unsuited for the vocational streams in school.

Program and Activities:

Begun in 1987, the program is aimed at youth who have been identified as having difficulty coping with vocational school work, but whose level of functioning does not justify their being referred to the Center for Rehabilitative Work. The program is designed to provide an individual study program that takes into account each child's difficulties and thereby enable them to acquire vocational experience and prepare for entry into the labor force. The focus is on improving children's self-confidence, teaching them individual and group study skills and involving their parents in providing them with appropriate support.

The children go to the Rehabilitation Center for three days (four hours daily) and are at school for three days. A representative from the school or a volunteer stays with them. Each pupil has a social worker from the Rehabilitation Center assigned to them who is responsible for tailoring the program for them. While at the Rehabilitation Center, students undergo various tests, including psychological tests, and are observed and evaluated in a multi-purpose workshop.

 


Home Repairs for the Elderly

Contact:

Principal, Yehudi Halevi School or
Netanya Municipality Services for the Elderly
5 Stamper Street
Netanya, Israel
Tel. (09) 349 33

Objective:

To prepare children with special needs for life outside school while helping the elderly with home repairs.

Target Population:

Children with special needs at the Yehudi Halevi School.

Program and Activities:

Under the supervision and tutelage of a skilled adult worker (e.g., carpenter, painter or plumber), children with special needs help carry out home repairs for the elderly. The children acquire skills and habits that will enable them to function in the labor force and the elderly have needed repairs made in their homes.

 


Tlalim, Educational Support for the Sick Child

Contact:

Atara Rozik-Rozen
18 King David St.
Jerusalem 91002, Israel
Tel: (02) 259389; Fax: (02) 259497

Objective:

To enable students who fall seriously ill to continue their studies while bedridden.

Target Population:

Students from 6 to 18 who are confined to their homes and cannot attend school for a period of over three weeks.

Program and Activities:

Bedridden children must overcome enormous obstacles, both physical and emotional. In addition, when they return to school they face the challenge of catching up with missed work. Tlalim provides the needed educational support to help students keep up with their classwork during this period of confinement, and return to school upon recovery without undergoing further crises caused by falling behind.

Names of children in need of help are submitted to Tlalim through the educational framework along with detailed information on each student's academic level. Tlalim workers — professional teachers and volunteers with educational backgrounds — bring learning aides and equipment to students' homes and accompany them through an individualized study program throughout their illness while maintaining close contact with the school.

The Distant Learning Center in Tel Aviv enables teachers to relay coursework and other material by means of telecommunication to bedridden students. The ability to communicate with housebound students is especially important in relatively remote areas such as the outskirts of Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and distant Arab villages in the north.