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Special needs education is designated to facilitate learning by individuals who, for a wide variety of reasons, require additional support and adaptive pedagogical methods in order to participate and meet learning objectives in an education programme.

Education designed to facilitate the learning of individuals who, for a wide variety of reasons, require additional support and adaptive pedagogical methods in order to participate and meet learning objectives in an educational programme. Reasons may include (but are not limited to) disadvantages in physical, behavioural, intellectual, emotional and social capacities. Educational programmes in special needs education may follow a similar curriculum as that offered in the parallel regular education system, however they take individuals’ particular needs into account by providing specific resources (e.g. specially trained personnel, equipment, or space) and, if appropriate, modified educational content or learning objectives. These programmes can be offered for individual students within already existing educational programmes, or be offered as a separate class in the same or separate educational institutions.

(See also Special educational needs)

Education or training designed to facilitate learning by individuals who require support and adaptive pedagogical methods to participate in an education programme and meet learning objectives.

Comment

• Special needs may be linked (but are not limited to) disadvantages in physical, behavioural, intellectual, emotional and social capacities;
• education programmes in special needs education may follow a similar curriculum as that offered in the parallel regular education system, but they take individual needs into account by providing specific resources (e.g. specially trained personnel, equipment or space) and, if appropriate, modified educational content or learning objectives.