Investigating the Language of Special Education

Listening to Many Voices

M. Farrell

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781137434715
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teacher Training

Utilising a wide range of theoretical traditions from philosophy, sociology and anthropology, this book aims to raise the reader's awareness of the power as well as the limitations of language in relation to special education.

1

Past Voices: Historical Terminology

Introduction

Language previously used in early special education reflects the way disabilities and disorders were seen in former periods. This chapter considers such historical language and looks at changes in terminology over time in various types of disabilities and disorders, especially in the United States and England. The chapter examines possible reasons for name changes, such as shifting aspirations towards special students.

Historical changes

To understand the nature of historical changes, one must consider the nature and remit of history. Essentially, history is a branch of knowledge systematically examining evidence of the past. It records facts such as events and analyses, interprets, explains, or comments on them. Historians present empirical evidence, put forward causal arguments and hypotheses, and offer plausible explanations of events and situations. They interrogate primary or secondary source material. Debate circulates about the extent to which history is more scientific or artistic in its methods. Some claim that history has much in common with craft learning and skill development (White, 1995, p. 243).

By historical changes, I mean ones that take place over decades (or longer) in which some kind of pattern or trend can be discerned. Changes over time are considered to relate to intelligible shifts in the terms used for aspects of special education and disabilities. Gradual social realisation that deaf individuals do not invariably lack speech would be expected to parallel a decline in the use of the phrase ‘deaf and dumb’.

Intellectual disability

Reports and institutions

In the US, categories of disability were amended in 1997 (20 United States Code 1402, 1997) under federal law to be followed by ‘designated disability codes’. These codes referred to being ‘mentally retarded’, which is further partitioned into mild, moderate, severe, and profound mental retardation. In England (Department for Education and Skills, 2005, passim), the equivalent terms are moderate, severe, and profound ‘learning difficulties’. South Australia (Government of South Australia Department of Education and Children’s Services, 2007) uses the term ‘global developmental delay’. More recently, an alternative expression used in the US, as well as some other countries, is ‘intellectual disability’.

The provision for individuals considered to have intellectual disability today involved many changes in understanding and terminology. General terms such as ‘feeble-minded’, ‘mental deficiency’, and ‘mental defectiveness’ were used. Particular levels of intellectual disability were indicated in expressions such as ‘idiot’, ‘imbecile’, and ‘moron’.

In England, these terms are reflected in reports, commissions and acts of parliament, and in the names of institutions. The Idiots Act passed in 1886 allowed existing institutions to admit ‘idiot children’ if parents wished it. Three years later, the Egerton Commission reported on the education of the blind and the deaf and dumb, also making recommendations for idiots, imbeciles, and the feeble-minded. The 1913 Mental Deficiency Act concerned the identification of ‘defective’ children through the ‘mental deficiency committee’. An asylum for ‘idiots’ opened in Highgate in London in 1847 and another in Colchester in 1859, while the Darenth School (from 1878) provided for ‘imbeciles’. In Sandlebridge, Cheshire, a residential school for the ‘feeble-minded’ started in 1902.

‘Mental deficiency’ and modern definitions

In England, the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act provided definitions of ‘mental deficiency’ in general and different levels of ‘deficiency’ in particular. Mental deficiency was defined as ‘ ... a condition of arrested or incomplete development of mind’. As well as ‘moral defective’, which did not concern cognitive impairment, mental deficiency comprised the categories: idiot, imbecile, and moron.

Today, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2013, pp. 33–41) characterises ‘intellectual disability’ by ‘deficits in general mental abilities such as reasoning, problem solving, planning, abstract thinking, judgement, academic learning, and learning from experience’ (Ibid., p. 31). These deficits lead to impairments in ‘adaptive functioning, such that the individual fails to meet standards of personal independence and social responsibility in one or more aspects of daily life ... ’ (Ibid.). Intellectual disability is described as including both intellectual and adaptive functioning deficits ‘in conceptual, social and practical domains’ that start (have their ‘onset’) during the developmental period (Ibid., p. 33). Reference is also made to recreational activities and vocational skills.

Classifications of mental deficiency: ‘Idiot’ and modern definitions

Under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act, ‘idiots’ experienced ‘mental defectiveness of such a degree that they are unable to guard themselves against common physical dangers’.

Echoes of the functional description of a hundred years earlier are heard in the current definition of ‘profound intellectual disability’ provided by the APA (2013). For example, in the practical domain, the individual is ‘dependent on others for all aspects of daily physical care, health, and safety’, but may be able to participate in some of these activities. He may help with some daily work tasks at home, such as ‘carrying dishes to the table’, and participate in some vocational activities (with high levels of ongoing support) through a basis of simple actions with objects (Ibid., p. 36). In England the term ‘profound and multiple learning difficulties’ is used.

Classifications of mental deficiency: ‘Imbecile’ and modern terminology

An ‘imbecile’ under the 1913 Act was a person ‘ ... in whose case mental defectiveness, while not amounting to idiocy, is yet so pronounced that they are incapable of managing themselves and their affairs, or in the case of children, they are incapable of being taught to do so’.

In the US, current classification describes moderate to severe intellectual disability (APA, 2013, pp. 33–41). For example, with regard to moderate intellectual disability, in the conceptual domain, conceptual skills are ‘markedly’ behind those of peers. For preschoolers, this refers to language and pre-academic skills; for those of school age, it encompasses progress in reading, writing, and mathematics. For adults, academic skills development is typically at an ‘elementary level’ and support is necessary for all use of academic skills in ‘work and personal life’ (Ibid., p. 35).

Where there is severe intellectual disability, generally all domains are more effected. For example, in the practical domain, the individual requires support for ‘all activities of daily living, such as meals and dressing, and requires “supervision at all times”’, being unable to make responsible decisions regarding the well-being of self or others. Long-term teaching and continuing support are needed for the individual to acquire skills in different domains. Maladaptive behaviour ‘including self-injury’ occurs for a significant minority (APA, 2013, p. 36).

In England, the term ‘severe learning difficulties’ is used to refer to the range from moderate to severe intellectual disability.

Classifications of mental deficiency: ‘Moron’ and modern terminology

Under the Mental Deficiency Act, a ‘moron’ was a person who was mildly mentally defective. The parallel term in England is ‘moderate learning difficulties’, while in the US the term is ‘mild intellectual disability’. Current guidance (APA, 2013) states that in the social domain, in comparison with peers, the individual is ‘immature in social interactions’, and communication, conversation, and language are ‘more concrete or immature’. The individual may have difficulties ‘regulating emotion and behaviour in age-appropriate fashion’. There is ‘limited understanding of risk in social situations’ and ‘social judgement’ is immature for the person’s age. The individual is at risk of being ‘manipulated by others’ (Ibid., p. 34).

Subsequent acts and reports relating to cognitive impairment

In England, the Handicapped Pupils and School Health Service Regulations of 1945 replaced the expression ‘mentally defective’ with ‘educationally subnormal’, indicating that the child was statistically below the typical performance of other children of the same age in education. Children who were ‘severely subnormal’ were the responsibility of health authorities and were considered ineducable in schools. They tended to be provided for at home or in subnormality hospitals, training centres, or special care units.

Under the Education (Handicapped Children) Act 1970, responsibility for such children was transferred to local education authorities. The children were then considered ‘educationally subnormal – severe’ to distinguish them from other children in the educationally subnormal category who had become ‘educationally subnormal – moderate’. The terms ‘profound learning difficulties’, ‘severe learning difficulties’, and ‘moderate learning difficulties’ continue to be used in England (Department of Education and Skills, 2005).

Visual impairment

In the US, the ‘designated disability codes’ include ‘visually handicapped’ and the England has a similar classification (Department for Education and Skills, 2005, passim) that includes ‘visual impairment’. South Australia uses the term ‘sensory disability (vision)’ (Government of South Australia Department of Education and Children’s Services, 2007).

The expression ‘blind’ has persisted over many years. The definition of blindness is that level of sight loss requiring the predominant use of non-sighted methods for reading, for example the use of Braille or Moon (a system of embossed letters). Terminology has reflected the increasing accuracy of assessments of vision so that ‘visual impairment’ is used as a broad term that includes blindness, as well as lesser loss of vision known as ‘partial sight’ or ‘low vision’.

One such assessment is that of visual acuity. Distance vision is commonly tested using the Snellen test chart, consisting of letters, numbers, or pictures arranged in rows of descending smallness. Assuming letters are used; each row is designed to be recognised at a certain distance by a person with normal vision, say 60, 36, 24, 18, 12, 9, 6 or 5 metres. If a child stands 6 metres from the chart and can read all the letters down to the row typically read at 6 metres, vision is said to be 6/6. Should he only be able to read to the row typically read at 18 metres, while standing 6 metres away, visual acuity is 6/18. This range of visual acuity represents normal vision. If the child is unable to read the top line of the chart (typically readable at 60 metres) from 6 metres away, vision is less than 6/60 and the test is continued at a shorter distance. Should he be able to read the top line from 3 metres away, 3/60 is recorded. This range of worse than 6/18, but better than or equal to 3/60, represents ‘low vision’. If visual acuity in the better eye is 3/60 or worse the individual may be registered ‘blind’ (Candy, Davies and Ross, 2001, p. 105).

As well as distinctions in degree of sight, terms also historically reflected one’s ability to work (being ‘industrious’). The year 1765 saw the opening of the Asylum for the ‘Industrious Blind’ in Edinburgh, Scotland. Another distinction was whether blind individuals were poor and needy (‘indigent’). In 1791, Henry Dannett founded the School for the Instruction of the ‘Indigent Blind’ in Liverpool, England.

Hearing impairment

Regarding ‘hearing impairment’, previously the terms ‘deaf and dumb’ and ‘deaf-mute’ were used. A book arguing for early education for deaf children written by John Arrowsmith, published in 1819, was called The Art of Instructing the Infant Deaf and Dumb. The Royal Cambrian Institution for the Deaf and Dumb opened in 1847 in Aberystwyth, Wales. There was an adult Deaf and Dumb Institute in Manchester, England. It is unclear whether the assumption linking ‘deaf’ and ‘dumb’ was that deaf children would tend to be unable to speak or whether the term referred to individuals who were deaf and who did not use widely intelligible spoken language. In any event, as sign language was developed enabling deaf people to communicate, and as developments such as cochlear implants allowed deaf children to be able to ‘hear’ spoken language, the supposed link between ‘deaf’ and ‘dumb’ was eroded.

In the US, ‘designated disability codes’ include ‘hard-of-hearing’ and ‘deaf’. In England, the classification (Department for Education and Skills, 2005, passim) is ‘hearing impairment’, while in South Australia the terminology is ‘sensory disability (hearing)’ (Government of South Australia Department of Education and Children’s Services, 2007). Sometimes, the word ‘Deaf’ in written form is given an initial capital letter. This signals that the user considers deafness to imply a sense of community with other deaf people, and a shared culture and set of beliefs about themselves and society linked to the historical and current use of sign language.

Pause for reflection

Celebrating Deaf culture and the notion of cure

Search the internet under ‘videos’ for ‘The World of Deaf Culture’. Watch part 1 of the video.

What are the main points made about not assuming deafness to be negative?

How do you respond to the accounts of difficulties of some of the contributors using spoken language when they find sign language much more effective to communicate?

Search the internet under ‘videos’ for ‘Jesus heals at deaf and dumb school Ghaziabad, India’.

Watch the video.

The pastor tells the students, ‘Those who cannot hear yet don’t give up’.

Is there an assumption that a ‘cure’ is the best thing for these students?

What evidence is there of improvements in the students’ hearing?

Is there any way to reconcile the views depicted in these two videos?

Physical disability

In England (Department for Education and Skills, 2005, passim) and in South Australia (Government of ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction: The Importance of Language in Special Education
• 1  Past Voices: Historical Terminology
• 2  Present Voices: Current Language in Special Education
• 3  Grand Designs: Constructing Social Meaning
• 4  Labelling: New Labels for Old?
• 5  Disability Memoirs and Student Voice
• 6  Problematizing Meaning: Deconstruction
• 7  Immersed in Language: Discourse
• 8  Analysing Concepts in Special Education
• 9  Persuasive or Misleading Language
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index