EDUC 331 Module 1 Assessment Arimas BSED 3 PDF

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This document contains an in-depth review of an article about children with special needs in the Philippines....

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Glenn Arimas, BSED III

September 20, 2021

Educ 331 | Foundations of SPED and Inclusive Education Module 1 | Assessment Article Review Look or research for a published article related to SpEd. Summarize the article and make your analysis.

Learners with special education needs require face-to-face instruction but are vulnerable to the coronavirus disease. Parents and teachers have no choice but to make distance learning work.

Winona Sadia on September 30 last year wrote for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) an article about how Elena Elpedez, 44-year-old mother of two, continues to give her elementary son the education he needs and deserves and a consolidation of ideas on how special education should run amidst the pandemic. The difficulties of distance learning amid the coronavirus pandemic did not stop Elena in enrolling her ten-year-old bunso Enzo who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD for the school year for special education or SpeD at Parang Elementary School in Marikina. “Para ma-instill sa kaniya na dapat continuous pa rin ang pag-aaral niya. Ayaw ko kasing isipin niyang bakasyon lang siya, baka matagal ko na naman siyang mapapayag magschool,” she said. Elena makes their dining table into a makeshift study area for Enzo’s online class simulation. Enzo also benefits from recycled reviewers and worksheets from his mother’s printing business customers as Enzo is refreshed with what he had learned the previous school year. Other problems like weak internet connection burden SpEd parents and teacher in their effort to make distance learning work for learners with special education needs. What’s stopping SpEd? Perhaps special education is at a slow pace. Data from the Department of Education (DepEd) shows that of the 5 million Filipino children with disabilities nationwide, only 1.4 percent or more than 71,000 non-graded learners were enrolled for the upcoming school year as of September. With millions more that are out of schools, stakeholders cannot afford more students to be left behind, thus a call for a face-to-face class for in-school SpEd students. Former DepEd secretary Bro. Armin Luistro opts for face-to-face classes among learners with special education needs, or LSENs, despite the current situation. “SpEd should continue and it has to be face-to-face. There are only a few students and they need the equipment and special teachers in the schools. Barangay (village) leaders and DepEd should work together on it,” Luistro told the PCIJ. This is indeed an ideal plan in strengthening special education programs. However, Genevieve Caballa, executive director of the Alternative Learning Resource School Philippines

(ALRES-Phils)—a school offering SPED and therapy programs— said she would rather stick to distance learning, a cautioned notion against further pandemic-related problems. “Many of them are immunocompromised, so they are more at risk than neurotypical children. [We] don’t want to endanger learners. They could get easily infected,” she added. A tricky teaching. While Elena and other SpEd parents battle the problems of weak internet connections, she is also pushed to act as a real teacher during distance learning despite her to be not that confident in doing so. “Hindi katulad ng teacher, may sarili silang style, may mga visual aid pa sila, which is hindi talaga magagawa ng parent,” she said. With the absence of a SpEd teacher, both parents and students will have a hard time in the teaching-learning process. This also causes a disadvantage for the learners because they will experience a less competent style in teaching. Later, without a SpEd teacher around to properly guide learners, this situation will attack the developmental and social factors in a SpEd learner’s education. Although SpEd parents spend a lot of time with their child, there still may be a chance for educational mishandling that could stir the learner’s behavior towards learning. Parents turned teachers in special education might not lack teaching knowledge compared to professional SpEd teachers who have undergone specialized particular training in handling special education leaners. Since SpEd learners have unique ways in taking in information, a less teacher-dependent education is unideal. According to Caballa, children have a critical window for development and learning opportunities and if this is taken for granted, there is no turning back. “For learners with disabilities, if they don’t study or are not given just a little stimulation, they easily regress academically and behaviorally,” Caballa said. In the new learning context, it is best to empower the SpEd parents because there is no other available substitute to teach the child. With most of their time spent on household chores and other equally important business, moral boosts could enable the parents to a least integrate learning even if their SpEd students are not having virtual classes or not yet answering modules. “It’s not just paper and pencil. It’s integrated in home routines. In cooking, for example, we incorporated functional math and reading, reading a recipe, measurement, procedure,” Caballa said. What’s more to SpEd? To make distance learning work, there should be simultaneous changes from high authorities in special education programs and to the SpEd teachers and parents. A mutual act of development, even if face-to-face classes would take over, is badly necessary to resolve SpEdrelated problems starting from the low number of enrollments.

While the government is opening opportunities for SpEd learners, parents should not take these for granted and while the parents are in need of any sort of support for their kids’ education, the government should not play deaf and blind and immediately address these pleas. Perhaps one of the reasons behind the not that many SpEd enrollees is the parents who lack awareness about their child’s situation. So, the need to further educate parents in handling special education should also be a top priority especially in distance learning so that they can be more confident in a less teacher-involved learning context. Special education programs should also give light to the public. Mass awareness is not anymore difficult in today’s age of technology. Special-education-related, video informercials, and radio programs are just a few ways to advocate SpEd awareness amongst people so that they can understand what SpEd learning are going through.

Source: https://pcij.org/article/4328/for-kids-in-special-education-lockdown-learning-a-must...