Role of Various Professionals for CWSN

Children with special needs form one of the largest groups still outside the fold of the general education system, and Inclusive Education gives them the opportunity to enter formal schooling. This makes it necessary for a school to employ a range of professionals — such as a school counsellor, occupational therapist and physiotherapist — for CWSN. Together, these professionals help children reach their full potential physically and academically, improve their motor skills, enhance their communication skills, and promote their mental and physical health. Because a child's needs are interconnected, no single professional can meet them all, which is why CWSN are best served by a coordinated team.

The textbook names six professionals.

1. School Counsellor

The school counsellor is the specialist who works with students with special needs and provides a comprehensive programme that helps them with their academic goals and their social, personal and career development. School counsellors involve parents, teachers, other school personnel and members of the community in assisting students to become effective members of the community, and work to create a positive school climate in which children can learn. It is their duty to ensure a coordinated team effort and student access to school and community resources. More specifically, they use individual and small-group counselling to help students develop:

• skills in communicating, cooperating and resolving conflict;
• the ability to adopt behaviours that foster good physical and mental health (and avoid those that harm it);
• skills in planning and decision-making, building self-efficacy and personal responsibility;
• an awareness of educational and vocational opportunities and how to access them;
• positive attitudes towards oneself, as both a student and a future worker;
• an appreciation of both genders and of cultural diversity; and
• a comprehensive plan for school and work experiences through high school and beyond.

2. Physiotherapist

The physiotherapist is probably the best known of the therapists who work with CWSN. They use exercises to help children gain and keep the best possible use of their bodies, try to improve breathing, prevent the development of deformities, and slow the deterioration caused by some progressive diseases. A physiotherapist evaluates a child's bodily movement with particular attention to physical mobility, balance, posture, fatigue and pain. Their role includes:

• assessment of the mechanics of the body;
• improvement of mobility in terms of joint movement, and of gross- and fine-motor movement;
• management of children and young persons with movement disorders and disability;
• maintenance and conditioning of bones, joints and muscles to prevent degeneration; and
• rehabilitation through different therapies, including massage, manipulation, exercise and movement, electrotherapy, cryotherapy and hydrotherapy.

3. Occupational Therapist

An occupational therapist trains CWSN in assisted daily-life skills and self-care, and in activities related to fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination; they also help children participate and interact with others in play. Their role includes:

• training for activities of daily living — toilet training, eating, dressing, bathing and grooming;
• training for fine-motor skills — buttoning shirts, tying shoelaces, handwriting, finger movements;
• helping with writing and other classroom activities, such as grasping and releasing objects;
• sensory intervention and sensory integration to help a child cope with a sensory disorder (for example, techniques to minimise self-harm, or a sensory diet to meet visual and vestibular needs); and
• improving skills such as hitting a ball or copying from the blackboard.

4. Physical Education Teacher

The physical education teacher needs to determine the abilities of students with special needs, and to find ways to support their participation in sports, games and fitness through general, modified and specially designed PE programmes. Their role is to:

• improve general movement, movement skills and movement patterns;
• improve hand-eye coordination, flexibility, muscular strength and endurance;
• develop sport-specific skills (in basketball, soccer, swimming, etc.);
• improve social skills — listening, understanding, implementing, playing in small to large groups, taking responsibility and leadership; and
• provide psychological support by channelling energy to reduce anxiety, hyperactivity, tension and depression, developing self-esteem and reducing feelings of isolation.

5. Speech Therapist

A speech therapist provides treatment, support and care for students with special needs who have difficulties in communication. They help students gain the ability to communicate through speech and language, provide training for those who struggle to produce sounds or syllables or who say words incorrectly, and help those with fluency disorders such as stoppages, repetitions and prolonging of sounds. They also modify the ways of making two-way communication using different tools and strategies.

6. Special Educator …