Also, are the requirements for a special education teacher the same for regular techers?
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Also, are the requirements for a special education teacher the same for regular techers?
.
You will find it helpful. Quite a few special ed students use or would benefit from learning sign language, either because of a hearing or speech impairment or because they are not yet at the verbal level. In addition to deaf/hard of hearing classrooms, signs are used in many classes for severely impaired students or students with autism.
It will help if you plan to teach either 1) the deaf or 2) the mentally retarded or 3) nonverbal students, such as some students with autism or other disorders which impair language use.
There are more & different requirements for Special Ed, but you get out of school in approximately the same number of years.
Learning anything extra on top of what you’re being trained to do as part of your degree is a bonus. I’ve just finished a degree in Education Studies and theology along with another 150 odd people. What makes me stand apart from them? The more skills you have the more marketable you are particularly if they are skills no one else has.
I would say that sign language would completely be a bonus to any teacher especially a special needs one also Makaton is another good thing to learn as some special needs children use that. It’s a set of hand signs and pictures based on sign language.
But a definate yes to it being a benefit. I wish I’d learnt!
I think the requirements are the same. as they are for mainstream teachers it’s just that when you do the degree you learn to specialise in that particular form of education just as I have done with R.E. with my Theology specialism.
I agree with PinkyMoo…her answer is very accurate and detailed.
I am a Teacher of the Deaf working in a mainstream regular education setting with special education teachers. When my students move into the district and come into their classroom, they (the sped teachers) panic because they have never learned or experienced sign language…and it leaves them scrambling to learn basic communication. You wouldn’t believe how many sped teachers I have worked with say, “I wish I would have taken a basic course”. It’s always a bonus to learn it, no matter what area of education you’re in.
Yes, it’d be very helpful.
No, the classes and test you’d take are different. Similar but you’d take a few different classes than other types of teachers.