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 By
special education is meant the use of special methods,
equipment and measures to provide education for
handicapped people (the blind, the deaf-mute, the
mentally retarded and the physically handicapped).
Its objective is to make up for their physiological
and mental deficiencies, enable them to acquire
labor skills of varying degrees, gain viability
and develop the ability for social communication
and adaptation. In China, the provision of special
education for students with exceptionally well-developed
intellect and for students with a special talent
in certain areas is still at an exploratory, experimental
stage. By contrast, special education for the handicapped
is quite prevalent.
Yang Yang,
who works for Chinese Association for the Handicapped,
became deaf at the age of five following the injection
of gentamycin, an antibiotic. Half a year later,
she could no longer communicate with other people.
After trials and errors, Yang Yang's father, who
worked as a teacher, found a method to teach his
daughter to speak, by way of Chinese pinyin (the
phonetic alphabet). When Yang Yang was seven years
old, her father sent her, who could read and engage
in simple dialogues, to a common, rather than a
special, primary school. Experts
maintain that attending a common school to study
with handicap-free students is an active way of
education for deaf-mutes because this can narrow
the gap between handicapped and normal children.
There are about six million handicapped children
in China. According to handicap types and the abilities
of the handicapped, education departments provide
common education and special education for handicapped
children. In the case of common education, handicapped
children are enrolled either in special education
classes attached to some common primary schools
or in ordinary classes of common primary schools
if such children can keep pace. Schools for blind
children, schools for deaf children and schools
for mentally retarded children provide special education.
The length of schooling at special education schools
is usually nine years. Students enter such schools
at the age of 7-9; and the age of enrolled students
does not exceed 18. |
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