Studia Filologiczne UJK

Summary

Determinants of special educational needs have been identified by the provisions of law and include: disability, social maladjustment, special talents, specific learning difficulties, lingual communication disorders, chronic diseases, crisis or traumatic situations, educational failure, environmental negligence, adaptation difficulties related to cultural differences, etc. Almost every situation requires a unique approach, and individualized instruction. However, it is possible to specify a range of methods that could prove fruitful in work with SEN students, which shall be the subject of this article.
The choice of methods and activities should be closely related to the type of special educational need each individual student has been diagnosed with. Therefore, some of the proposed approaches may find wide application, while some other might be relevant only to a limited set of highly specific cases. The efficiency of discussed methods shall vary as well as it is associated with age and psycho-developmental stage of a child as much as it is influenced by the teacher’s willingness to address the challenges of teaching. A teacher is expected to be able to determine a child’s developmental level, to distinguish his or her strengths and weaknesses, to understand behavioral patterns and recognize skills as well as to be fully aware of student’s individual needs. Hence, such individualized treatments have been coined: a program for autistic children, for children with disabilities, also multiple disabilities, for students with dyslexia, for pupils with logopaedic problems but also for specially gifted ones. Among the many useful methods there are: activating methods, art therapy, pedagogy of fun, Marta Bogdanowicz’s Good Start Method, Veronica Sherborne Developmental Movement, Nondirective Fun theory, ten finger painting method. Some of these have been widely discussed with particular emphasis on the supportive role they have for the development of a child.