The subject of this study is Seoul's special schools for students with more than one disablity and to find out what conditions are needed to be provided for these special students for a better learning environment. We sent questionaires to 18 special ...
The subject of this study is Seoul's special schools for students with more than one disablity and to find out what conditions are needed to be provided for these special students for a better learning environment. We sent questionaires to 18 special (state, public and private) schools, directing the questions to the teachers of these students. Eight of the eighteen schools have responded, giving us a pool of 1869 students.
Out of the 1869 students, 1490 (79.72%) have more than 2 disablities. The number of female students is small compared to the number of male students. There are 1237 male students (51.09% more than female students) and 632 female students. There is a lack of schools especially for students with speech impediments and learning disabilities. There is a need for schools tailored to children with speech disabilities (deafness/blindness) and learning disablities. Students need to be correctly classified before being sent to special schools.
The student's special disablity and severity of the impediment must be known in order to sent the child to the right school. Many students have the 1st degree of their particular disablity and have been going to schools that are not tailored to those specific disablities. There is a problem in the classification of students due to either the student's parents choosing the wrong school or due to a misinterpretation of the student's exams before entering school. Because of these findings, we discovered that students cannot obtain a good education.
1786 (95.56%) of the students need to be enrolled in more than one special program (e.g., speech therapy, play therapy, and occupation therapy) depending upon the characteristics of their disablities. As blind students need to learn Braille, and deaf students need to learn sign language, and physically disabled children must undergo physical therapy, the teachers also believe that all students should have exposure to art, music, and physical rehabilitation and exercise as means of therapy.
Due to the findings of this study, special schools must offer improved cirriculm for these students so that the students may heighten their maximum abilities. If it is possible, the teachers should try to go to other special schools to observe and learn different types of therapy in order to deal with the disabilities of the students. Also, students should also attend different schools for the same reasons. If the special students go to schools that are specifically tailored to their disablities (eg., a mentally disabled child attending a school for the mentally disabled) and are able to interact with teachers who are specifically trained to teach them, it is likely that the students' disablities will lessen in severity.