Special education is a subfield of pedagogy, which sees itself as “pedagogy under difficult conditions”. Curative educators thus operate at the interface between pedagogy, special education and psychology and devote their work to children, adolescents and adults who have behavioral problems, are developmentally impaired or are affected or threatened by disability.
What is special education?
Curative educators devote their work to children, adolescents and adults who have behavioral problems, are developmentally impaired or are affected by or at risk of disability. Curative riding, for example, is a form of therapy that can be used. Curative educators emphasize the holistic view of their clients; thus, each person affected by disability is first and foremost perceived as a complete and independent person whose disability is only one aspect of their personality. Not only a symptom or a limitation and its elimination should be in the focus of the work, but the whole person with his specific life history, psyche, physique, emotions and life reality. Disability is basically understood as a sociological construct. Accordingly, curative educators always strive to achieve the greatest possible independence, inclusion and participation of people with disabilities in society as a whole. Special educators work according to the paradigm of resource orientation. The focus of curative education work is not the elimination of diseases and deficits, but the promotion of abilities and strengths that make the person capable of acting. Furthermore, curative educators strive to view their clients’ symptoms and abnormalities as meaningful and justified in the context of the individual’s life history and to support the person in acquiring new strategies for action. Special educators are strongly interdisciplinary in their work; they are in constant exchange with special educators, medical doctors, psychologists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and other disciplines in order to achieve the most comprehensive and holistic support for their clients. A distinction is made between two ways of training to become a special educator. On the one hand, there is the possibility of building on a completed training, usually as an educator or curative education nurse, in several years of further training to qualify as a state-approved curative educator. On the other hand, universities and universities of applied sciences offer the undergraduate course of study in special education, which used to be completed with a diploma, nowadays with a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
Treatments and therapies
Special educators are entrusted with the care and treatment of children, adolescents and adults who are affected or threatened by developmental delays and disabilities and/or exhibit behavioral problems. Clients may include children with congenital or acquired mental or physical disabilities; children who have not been able to develop in an age-appropriate manner due to unfavorable developmental conditions in their families of origin; but also adults with mental disabilities or mental illness. Possible fields of work for curative educators are therefore the early intervention of developmentally delayed infants in kindergartens or specialized institutions; child and adolescent psychiatry; institutions of inpatient and outpatient youth welfare; special education after-school care, schools and kindergartens; established curative education practices; rehabilitation institutions; educational counseling centers; residential and work institutions for persons with mental and emotional disabilities and the like. Curative education can take place in therapy-like form in targeted individual and group support, as well as in the context of everyday, practically oriented education and support. Due to their strong orientation towards interdisciplinary cooperation, special educators are often found as a valuable addition in pediatric and child and adolescent psychiatric practices or hospitals. In regular kindergartens and schools, they can also complement the work of the specialists there as integration staff, since the integration and inclusion of disabled people is a core interest of special education work. Special educators see themselves as “specialized generalists” who can enrich diverse pedagogical settings through their specific attitude and working methods.
Diagnosis and examination methods
Special educators use standardized psychological testing methods to diagnose developmental delays. Here, for example, the Hamburg-Wechsler test or the Kaufman Assescment Battery for Children should be mentioned for intelligence diagnostics. Specific developmental tests, such as the Bayley Scales of Infant Development or the Six Months to Six Years Developmental Test, are used to check development in various areas (language, motor skills, etc.) in accordance with standards, in order to identify any developmental delays and to be able to provide the client with targeted support. In addition, projective test procedures are used in which the client’s emotional state and inner-psychic conflicts are expressed through creative tasks. Here, for example, the Family in Animals procedure, the Wartegg drawing test, the Sceno test or the Rosenzweig Picture Frustration test should be mentioned. In general, however, the special educator’s focus is less on norm-oriented categorizations and diagnoses, but rather on the promotion and holistic consideration of individuals. Medical examinations to diagnose organically caused developmental disabilities do not fall within the special educator’s area of responsibility; here he consults the appropriate medical specialists such as pediatricians and neurologists.
