Special education school - School for mentally and physically challenged

Both a mentally challenged child and a physically challenged student need special care and guidance for learning and education. Special children have their individual set of needs and hence when it comes to education they are needed to be given proper support. The mentally challenged children face some basic challenges of learning like behavioral disorders, emotional disorders, developmental and communication disabilities. These children need special help and they are thus provided with more than a conventional classroom education.

This type of special education is imparted to the mentally challenged children by special educators in a school for mentally challenged students by means of special teaching methods and various objects and equipments, modified mainly to meet the separate set of special needs of these special children. Love, care and individual attention are what these children need.

A wide number of NGOs, supported by funds and donations, run school for mentally challenged children and emphasize mostly on perception and sensory training. Apart from education, care is taken to involve them in small tasks that they can perform on their own. Many of these NGOs run vocational centers for the mentally challenged adults and youngsters where they are trained to make various handmade decorative objects like paper bags, handmade papers, candles, greeting cards, toys and many more. These items are sold to the visitors and also at open exhibitions. These organizations also provide employment to mentally challenged adults who have completed their vocational training. Many of these special education schools also offer day care facilities for the special children.

Generally both mentally challenged and physically challenged children do not go to the same special education school. A school for physically challenged child has a different set of services to offer, which is not the same to that provided to a mentally challenged child. But there are many schools that take care of both the mentally challenged and physically challenged students.

A school for physically challenged children looks after children with physical disabilities like Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Poliomyelitis, genetic deformities, deafness, impairment of speech, blindness, amputated conditions and burns. The school supports these children with physical and psychological treatment, medical assistance, hearing aids, orthotic workshops, equipments for free movement and special educational and vocational guidance, apart from the residential facilities that they offer. Free education and separate residential facilities for boys and girls are provided to these physically challenged students, as many of them have weak financial background. Charitable funds and donation from various sources support these special education schools for the physically challenged students.