Special Education at APIS vs. USA

I spoke with several staff members at American Pacific International School about Special Ed. Some shared their experience working with Special Needs students in US school districts, while others emphasized the referral process within APIS. Although we are an American-themed school, cultural/conceptual barriers and a related lack of resources prohibit us from making many of the provisions that would be required by IDEA in an actual US school.

 

This video provides a beautiful example of differentiation for intellectually disabled students at Rong Arun (School of Dawn). Ms. Muttamara also touches on Thai parents' reluctance to have their child assessed for SPED: they tend to believe learning difficulties can be overcome though hard work and may perceive  SPED referral as an admission of failure. Education and social status are culturally linked and parents want to see their children as "perfect".

I wasn't able to find further information on Rong Arun, but researching my Education in Thailand spreadsheet, I found that the Thai MOE licenses 51 public institutions for special education. So credit where it's due: the Thai government is apparently trying to move forward on this issue. Speculatively, the prejudice against SPED may be higher among wealthy international school parents and working-class Thais, because of the social pressures mentioned above.

Attitudes toward SPED have certainly changed in the US in recent decades, as the passage of legislation like IDEA shows.

APIS is a small (around 200 students) boarding school in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We do not have a Special Ed teacher or school psychologist on staff. All of our teachers are, however trained in differentiated instruction and we assess our students carefully, tailoring our instruction to meet their individual needs.In the US, children with mild special needs such as ADHD or dyslexia are sometimes put on something called a 504 plan, rather than an IEP. A 504 grants the student accommodations such as extra test time, having questions read aloud, special seating, or many others.

 In short, we cannot allow our lack of resources keep us from differentiating for students who may need it. This video discusses the positive effects of differentiation on a whole class:

The science behind ADHD, for one, is hardly a settled matter, nor is the US cultural norm for student behavior the only valuable one. If a teacher notices a student cannot sit still, doesn't write more than a few lines, and is overly physical with her peers, a referral and diagnosis may be less helpful than differentiated or alternate methods of instruction, such as:

• Small groups which are changed often
• Kinesthetic word/number games games: reading hopscotch, math tag, etc.
• Alternate seating
• Frequent "brain breaks"
• Scaffolding complex tasks
• Teaching self-regulation tools

Here, an educator teaches a student to express his symptoms. If the boy is able to identify when he is feeling tired or frustrated, he'll have the opportunity to raise his hand and ask for help or a break before he disrupts the class and gets in trouble.