There is an ever rising concern to reshape education for children with special needs. Even though there are several different types of special needs, autism is bringing light to the educational needs of all special needs children. Autism is on the rise and affecting as many as 1 in 68 children. This rising number has brought forth the children who are not receiving enough attention in their educational environment.
With the rising number of children who are diagnosed as autistic, there is an increase in the number of parents who are learning what it means to have a child with special needs. All of these parents are determined to get their children the best education possible, but many teachers are not well trained in handling children with special needs. This indicates that families have been turning to more private schools than public schools.
Autism Speaks came around about the same time as social media, which has helped give a voice to those trying to promote awareness for autism in a world that does not know how to handle special needs. They started the trend for special education advocacy on social media and have paved the way for many people to get the word out about special needs. For example, Decoding Dyslexia has followed Autism Speaks and has been campaigning on social medias well. There has been a success in passing certain legislation that has something to do with dyslexia in over half of the United States.
Due to social media splitting up different types of special needs, education is making a stronger push to take a look at the different requirements that come with the varying conditions. Not all special needs children have the exact same needs, especially if you see that those with autism tend to have differing commitments than others with the same developmental disorder.
Board Certified Behavior Analysts are key to helping schools with the individual plans for each child with special needs. This is a career that is in high demand, and even more so needed in education. BCBAs are able to make more money in healthcare and private practice divisions than they typically do in the education sector, which makes it difficult to get BCBAs to apply to schools where they are most needed.
There are several changes that need to be made within public special education programs. They are underperforming and not meeting the needs of the children or the wants of the parents. On a positive note, special education has finally been put at the forefront of today’s society, and is starting to receive the changes necessary to help all children with developmental disorders.
