Editorial
The case study below is one in the series on this subject in HLT. Celina Wyppich joins Anna Hyzniak, Maciej Sienkiewicz and Anna Jarosz who have already published their case studies in HLT (March 2008, Nov. 2007 and Sept.2006 respectively). All of them and many other students from English Unlimited Teacher Training College in Gdańsk, Poland, were involved in a project in which they observed SEN children learning English and other subjects along with children with no special educational needs. The project was supervised by Hanna Kryszewska, HLT Editor.
Case Study of a SEN Learner
Celina Wyppich, Poland
Celina Wyppich has graduated from the Teacher Training College run by English Unlimited in conjunction with the University of Gdańsk, Poland. Currently she is undertaking a course for translators ( English Polish ) and in September 2008 she will start an MA course in Applied Linguistics at the University of Reading, UK. E-mail: celina.wyppich@gmail.com
Menu
School profile
Class profile
Information about Kamil
Observation of an English lesson
Observation of a Polish lesson
My reflections
I visited primary school no 18 in Gdansk-Brzezno, Poland. This school consists of several schools in fact all in one building: a nursery school, a junior high school and a senior high school. This school has been established with the aim to mix disabled ( SEN) students and the abled ones. In the school there are several ramps and 2 lifts designed for the disabled students to help them move about. The students are allowed to use them whenever they need to. However, sometimes another person is needed if a child has a very serious disability. There are also separate stairs to be used only by those with some disabilities so that they can use them without being pushed. I have found out that in the school there is a psychologist and a speech therapist and there are also several physiatrists who visit the school systematically and help the disabled students.
I attended this school when I was younger and I have noticed some changes. For example, there is a brand new gym which is adjusted to the disabled student’s needs. It is easily accessible and it consists of special rooms where when healthy students have their PE, the disabled ones can have rehabilitation or do exercises which are suitable for them. In the school there is also a canteen to which it is also easy to get to.
I observed the second grade. There are 15 students in the class, 3 of whom have some disabilities: Kamil suffers from a kind of brain hernia , Weronika cerebral palsy ( it is at a very early stage and has been diagnosed only recently) and Kryspin a boy who needs special care but he is brought up in a pathological family where his parents do not take care of him and he is a bit retarded. The syllabus in this class is at a higher level than in the other classes. Children are very active and take part in various performances or competitions. Kamil who is confined to a wheelchair also takes part. Other children change his position so that he looks as if he were dancing or acting different roles. The school organises competitions for wheelchair users, for example a race, and Kamil is very active.
At the beginning I talked to the headmistress who introduced me to Kamil’s situation and provided me with some background information about him. Generally, I learnt that Kamil is a very lively an optimistic child and she knows him as a very polite and nice student. She also told me that Kamil is one of the students who deals with the school easily and has few problems, if any. She sees him very often playing and talking with other students so he is a sociable person rather than an outsider.
Later on I observed an English lesson. I found out that the teacher is specialised in German language but because of the lack of teachers she teaches English to the young ones. I observed that the supporting teacher who helps Kryspin and Kamil is coping very well. The teacher told me that Kamil is quite good at English. She observes that other healthy students may have some problems too and he does not stand out. The point is that she just needs to explain things very carefully and later Kamil is able to do the exercises on his own. She said that he is very conscientious and always does his homework. Sometimes he finishes an exercise earlier than the other students. He behaves like other children. For example, he likes talking, disturbing others or doing things not connected with the lesson such as reading a newspaper.
I also talked to the school councillor and I must admit that I was astounded. She surprised me by her utterance that she barely knows Kamil because he has never been to her office. He copes with others very well and does not need any help. I also contacted the school psychologist and she confirmed that information. It seems that Kamil is a normal student who just uses a wheelchair. She admitted that she has mainly some problems with the healthy students rather than the disabled ones. We have also talked about the students’ parents and she said that they want their students to attend the integrating classes so that their children develop mentally and do not discriminate the mentally or physically challenged. The students are used to people using special devices to help them move about and it is normal for them. She has never had a problem concerning discrimination against the disabled such as making fun of them.
I was wondering how much socialising there is between the healthy and the disabled. Although they sit together, learn together and have fun during the breaks we can observe more social contacts among the disabled students probably simply because they commute to school together, take part in special competitions or short camps only for the disabled. However, no isolation can be observed.
I had a long conversation with the class tutor and she provided me with a lot of information about the class, the students and Kamil. The teacher explained that Kamil is not the one who needs help because he manages very well. She noted that in her class there are other students who sometimes need more attention. Despite the wheelchair, Kamil does all the things that other students do. He is not lazy and does not expect help. He behaves like the others and whenever he has got some problems he freely approaches the teacher. However, she told me that at the beginning of his development his parents might have not paid too much attention to his mental development and focused on daily activities and routines. They are very busy with their child, they have to wash him and dress and these activities take a lot of time so they were probably very tired and did not spend much time on reading, playing with him and helping him with intellectual development. Kamil has taken the preparatory year twice because he had health and learning problems. The class tutor claims that he may be underdeveloped not due to his illness but because he was neglected by his parents with regard to school matters.
As regards the healthy students’ parents, they are very understanding and if the teacher has to devote more time to revisions with the SEN children they do not complain. Kamil’s mother is very caring. She comes to the school very often to check if Kamil has taken his medicine. Even when I was observing the lessons she came to talk to him for a while. I did not want to interfere, though.
As I wrote before, the teacher of English is a German teacher by education and she is just a substitute teacher. Unfortunately, the students were working individually for the whole lesson and I could not see how he speaks English. It was the end of the school year and students have finished their books and the teacher focused on revisions. The teacher used Polish only which was a shame because again Kamil asked some questions only in Polish. They were given some handouts with exercises and if they finished they were given another one. I observed that at the beginning Kamil did the exercises slowly but later focused on the tasks and did them much faster than before. In fact here were abled students who did them more slowly than he did. He was sitting with Weronika, who suffers from cerebral palsy, but the supporting teacher rarely helped them. She was rather helping Kryspin who appeared to have problems.
The second lesson that I observed was a Polish lesson. The lesson started at 9 a.m. and the first thing that I noticed was that Weronika reminded Kamil to take his medicine. They sit together and she usually moves back the desk so that Kamil can move around his desk. Sometimes the boys do it.
The subject of the lesson was spelling and they practiced “ó”, a tricky character in Polish as it can be confused with “u”. The teacher started with a short poem whose words contained this letter. Later she asked some questions about the poem she gave out. She asked the Ss to underline all the words containing this letter and read them aloud. The first to read was a boy and he did not do it well. He had problems with reading and read very slowly. The second one was Kamil and he did the task much better. He was reading very carefully, clearly and fluently. Later on the students had to write these words in their notebooks and provide the plural forms. As the teacher said, Kamil’s mother wants her to write everything on the board because it is easier for Kamil to rewrite it. She does not do it because she wants Kamil to write less but on his own and, fair enough, step-by-step he writes more and more on his own. He had some problems with providing the plural form but as I found out he had the same problems as the other students. They ask the same questions and he does not stand out. I observed that the teacher treats Kamil like all the other student. At the beginning he wanted the teacher to pack his things and help him all the time but she didn’t want him to feel different or special, because she knew that he can do these things on his own, she asks him to do it. She does not treat him like a different person but like an equal. At the end of the lesson the teacher asked the students to sing a song and all of the students did it. Kamil got involved, he was smiling and rocking.
I liked the lesson very much, however, there was one thing which really did not appeal to me which is that I heard two girls who really liked the lesson and who said: “ We have never had such a great lesson!”
I really liked this project because I could see what it is like to work with disabled or SEN children. I had an opportunity to visit my former school and see these things from “inside”. When I attended this school there were several disabled children but I did not realise that the school is so much involved in helping these kids.
I noticed one thing which struck me most i.e. while observing the Polish lesson Kamil approached the teacher and asked her for scissors. She stated that was not the right time for it and asked him to sit down. I told the teacher about it, that I observed it and she was very grateful for drawing her attention to this fact. She did not realise that she told him so. I wanted to know if he might be offended or feel sad about it because he was already sitting down in his wheelchair and probably will till the end of his life. She said that she did not think it was a problem because he is treated like everybody else and he knows that it is just a phrase. I think in such situations one needs to be very careful which words one chooses because unintentionally we may make someone sad. I think I have learnt a lot from these observations.
Please check the Methodology and Language for Primary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Dealing with Difficult Learners course at Pilgrims website.
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