Education of Children with Additional Support Needs

Course objectives: 1. sensitizing students and enabling them to understand the meaning of additional support needs/special needs within the socially inclusive model; 2. acquainting them with the experiences of inclusive education; 3. developing initial skills for designing individual plans for the support of children with special needs in regular schools; 4. developing skills for establishing and maintaining partnership relations with the family of a child with additional support/special needs.

Course description: Theoretical instruction 1. Children with additional support needs. Conceptual approach, basic concepts. Classification and incidence. Psychological characteristics of particular categories of children. Team assessment. 2. The development of children with special educational needs. Early child development. Biological and social factors of development. The rights and needs of children with disabilities. Play in the development of children with additional support/special needs. Intellectual, emotional and social development of children with additional support/special needs. Life phases and processes of personality integration. 3. Children with additional support/special needs and other people – family, peers, teachers (nursery school/kindergarten/school). 4. Preparing schools for children with additional support needs, preparing children and parents. Following children`s progress and encouraging their adaptation. What is implied by inclusive programmes and how to carry them out. How to motivate children with special educational needs to learn. Individual educational plans. Support programmes. 5. Local community resources. Practical instruction 1. Introducing students to relevant educational, health and social care institutions. 2. The use of the Inclusion Index. 3. The Partnership Model. 4.Designing Individual Education Plans (IEP).

Learning Outcomes: Upon completion, students will have acquired initial skills needed for designing individual plans for the support of children with additional support/special needs in regular schools and will have gained an understanding of the principles underpinning inclusive education, as well as the meaning of additional support needs within the socially inclusive model. Apart from the above, students will have understood the significance of team work, as well as the importance of parents’participation on an equal basis.

Literature/Reading:

• Šekspir, R. (1979). Psihologija ometenih u razvoju. Beograd: Nolit.
• Hrnjica, S., i saradnici (2008). Škola po meri deteta – Priručnik za rad sa učenicima redovne škole koji imaju teškoće u razvoju. Beograd: Save the Children, UK.
• Rajović, V. (2004). Psihosocijalne determinante učenja i razvoja mentalno retardirane dece. Beograd: Institut za psihologiju.
• Rajović, V., Stanimirović, D. (2006). Odgovornost prema profesiji i klijentu (u oblasti rada sa osobama sa posebnim potrebama). Primenjena psihologija, str. 205−217.
• Hilton, D. (1996). Savetovanje roditelja hronično obolele ili dece ometene u razvoju. Beograd: Institut za mentalno zdravlje.
• Mitić, M. i saradnici (2011). Deca sa smetnjama u razvoju – potrebe i podrška. Beograd: Republički zavod za socijalnu zaštitu.