The first part of the Special Needs Education task, writing a reply to the following email:
“Dear Eki,
I’m writing this letter
because I’m starting to worry about my son’s future. At the moment he is a
happy, 16 year old student on a special class, where he has studied since he
started school. My son is autistic (communicating with him is difficult and his
behaviour and speaking are often repetitive) and has always had problems in
math. I think that part of the learning disability can be just because he is
not interested I math and the teachers during the years have not always been
qualified. His intelligence is anyway a bit above average and he is very
talented in geography. Also his memory is extremely good. He has still a year
to go before making decisions about the future, but I have some questions I
would like to have answered, to calm my nerves:
1. Is it possible that he
could continue in normal vocational education or upper secondary high school
with an assistant? He has had one since he was three. What requirements there
are in his case? Are there some other options if the normal vocational school
is not a possibility?
2. What laws and standards
there are concerning special needs in vocational education? What rights (f.ex.
inclusion, special support) my son has as a student of a vocational school?
Daddy -71”
And my response:
Dear Daddy
-71,
Thank you
for your letter. It’s always good to receive questions from parents about their
children and we do our best to provide the answers you are looking for.
In answer to
your first question, yes it is possible that your son should be able to
continue in vocational education and there are a number of avenues open to him
in that area. There are courses which are entirely set up for special needs students
and then there is the possibility to enroll in other courses with a personal
study plan so as to overcome any specifically challenging subjects.
There are,
as with all vocational education dreams, some limitations about exactly what subjects
one can study and where, so it’s sensible to keep in mind the locations of
those possibilities and see what your son is most interested in and where those
places can be applied from.
For the
second question, it is very much worth noting that everyone living in Finland
legally has the right to education, regardless of mental or physical state. That
your son has been able to lean on support thus far in his education should only
go to underscore this fact and put you at ease. Nothing changes beyond any point
and I hope and trust that you will always find people willing to help find
solutions to the challenges you face.
The next
step, I suggest, would be coming in for a meeting, with myself, your son and the
careers councellor all present, so we can together weigh up the best options.
For further
information, you can check out the following links:
I hope this
response has proven useful and I look forward to hearing from you again in the
near future.
All the
best for now,
Christopher
(Eki) Smith
For the second task, I interviewed one of my colleagues, Tuija Niinisalo, about what it's like to work with secial needs children, the day to day challenges and how she overcomes them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAFOr9PtQkU
For the second task, I interviewed one of my colleagues, Tuija Niinisalo, about what it's like to work with secial needs children, the day to day challenges and how she overcomes them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAFOr9PtQkU
