Generally, six-year-old children can dress themselves. They show some awareness that it is unsafe to accept lifts from strangers. They might look both ways when crossing the road, or at least explain to you why it is very important to do so.
Stephen - a six-year-old with severe intellectual disability - can do none of those things. He has just learned to walk. He has no obvious interest in playing with other children and prefers to lie on the floor pushing a toy car up and down. His language is also severely delayed, only occasionally using the 20 or so words he has been heard to say.
Stephen also shows severe temper tantrums characterised by screaming and slapping his face - behaviour in some ways resembling that of a one-year-old.
The O'Donoghue case of 1993 affirmed Stephen's constitutional right to an education. The school in his locality is establishing a classroom for children with special learning needs. However, Stephen has different learning needs to most six-year-olds, and there is no equivalent curriculum for him or children like him in Irish special schools.
Education for Stephen and for many other Irish children raises several important questions. What should children with intellectual disabilities learn in school and when should they learn it? What constitutes education for our children with intellectual disabilities? What long-term outcomes do we want our children to achieve? Who should be included in this decision-making task?
The provision of educational services to children with intellectual disability has undergone dramatic structural changes in the past five years. The Department of Education and Science has introduced resource teachers to provide specialist educational services for children with intellectual disability in mainstream schools. This is a particularly welcome advance if it supports the child's right to a meaningful education alongside his or her peers.
But a resource teacher will typically provide two to three hours per week to those children with intellectual disability identified as needing specialist educational input. For many children with moderate or severe intellectual disabilities, this is not enough.
A discussion paper on special educational needs developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment last year raised the issue of curriculum development for children with intellectual disabilities. It recommends a child's age and developmental stage be considered and that emphasis be placed upon ensuring resource teachers are properly trained.
In Ireland, resource teachers who are trained primary school teachers receive little specialist training in the area of education for children with intellectual disability. In response to the need for training, St Patrick's College in Drumcondra offers a one-week induction course on special education, covering topics such as prioritising education goals and emotional and behaviour management.
Unfortunately, places are limited and there is an acknowledgement that the numbers of teachers that have attended the courses represents only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the numbers requiring such input. The result is that about 200 resource teachers working in schools with students with intellectual disabilitieshave not received any specialised training to date.
The short duration of the course offered by St Patrick'smeans that the range of topics covered and the depth to which they are covered is greatly restricted. Although the government is expanding the number of resource teachers available in our primary schools, the provision of greater numbers of professionals in special education is only one ingredient of success.
Children with intellectual disabilities typically havedifficulties in a range of domains, including receptive language,expressive language, emotion regulation, attention and memory.They mayalso have behaviour problems that often interfere withlearning.As a result,the selection of appropriate teaching methodsthat take account of these difficulties is critical and requires athorough relevant assessment of the child's functioning.
It is also vital to track the child's achievement of educational objectives. The majority of states in the USand some European countries have made individual education plans for children with intellectual disability mandatory. In the state of Virginia, for example, it is legally mandated that a child's individual education program be developed within 30 days of an assessment of intellectual disability.
The simple logic behind it is to meet the child's needs and protect their rights. These plans specify priority teaching objectives for each child based on a careful assessment of strengths and weaknesses in a variety of educational domains. Progress towards individual teaching objectives is closely monitored, and realistic timeframes are set out for their achievement. Plans are reviewed yearly or at the request of parents or schools.
The Department of Education and Science has not mandated the use of these plans for children with intellectual disability although many resource teachers develop educational plans along similar lines.
They meet significant others in the child's life, identify priority-teaching objectives and set out to meet them. But in the absence of important training resources and opportunities and a Departmental position that does not promote the development and implementation of such plans, the provision of educational services for children with intellectual disability will remain incoherent and uncoordinated.
Ireland is at a crossroads in the provision of educational services for students with intellectual disabilities. The O'Donoghue and Sinnott cases have forced the pace of change, but parents in other countries have fought for, and won, their children's rights to an education many years ago.They are now involved as partners in the development and monitoring of their children's individual educational plans. Ireland has some catching up to do.
Dr Ian Grey is a clinical psychologist with Trinity College and Stewart's Hospital Services, Palmerstown, in Dublin. He can be contacted at: igrey@tcd.ie.
Brian McClean is co-director of The Callan Institute for Behavioural Support, St John of God Brothers, Shankill, Co Dublin.