Educating Special Children

Educating Special Children is the definitive guide to evidence-based practice and professionally informed approaches in provision for special children. Now in its second edition, this book outlines ideas of best practice that relate to various disabilities and disorders and helpfully discusses what might constitute effective provision. International in its scope, it explores issues surrounding:



communication disorders and autism and Asperger's Syndrome


developmental co-ordination disorders


reading, writing and mathematics disorders


disorders of conduct, anxiety and depression


attention deficit hyperactivity disorder


mild, moderate to severe, and profound cognitive impairment


sensory impairments


orthopaedic and motor disabilities, health impairments and traumatic brain injury.


This new edition has also been updated to cover:



entitlement to special education


global examples of distinctive provision


raising standards in your setting


basic brain anatomy and physiology


‘thinking points’ and further reading list for reflection.

Educating Special Children will be of interest to all students of special education, professionals and others interested in gaining an understanding in the challenging field of offering provision for special children.

Michael Farrell is a widely published private special education consultant. He works with children, families, schools, local authorities, voluntary organisations, universities and government ministries. He has published extensively with Routledge with recent titles including Debating Special Education, New Perspectives in Special Education and all three second edition titles in the Effective Teacher's Guide series.

Preface Acknowledgements About the author 1. Classification and provision 2. Entitlement to provision 3. Profound cognitive impairment 4. Moderate and severe cognitive impairment 5. Mild cognitive impairment 6. Hearing impairment 7. Visual impairment 8. Deafblindness 9. Orthopaedic impairment and motor disorders 10. Health impairments 11. Traumatic brain injury 12. Disruptive behaviour disorders 13. Anxiety disorders and depressive disorders 14. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder 15. Communication disorders: Speech 16. Communication disorders: Grammar and comprehension 17. Communication disorders: Semantics and pragmatics 18. Autism 19. Developmental co-ordination disorder 20. Reading disorder 21. Disorder of written expression 22. Mathematics disorder 23. Elements of special provision 24. Learning from examples of evidence based practice 25. Refining provision to raise standards Appendix: Brain basics Glossary Bibliography Index