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Benefits of Teaching Children within Special Education

Carol Trehearn

Working with children with learning disabilities can be extremely rewarding and a fantastic role for the right candidate. If you have a special interest in teaching children with special needs, read below to find out the many benefits and see if this role is right for you.

The Skills Needed to Become a Special Education Teacher

When working with special needs children in a classroom, you need a number of specialist skills to be able to educate and calm children with a range of learning disabilities. You will have full training on this if you choose to take on this role, but you do need to have the following attributes:

  • Intuitive – not all children with special needs can tell you how they’re feeling. Due to this, you need to be intuitive and understand why a child may be acting a certain way

  • Deadline-orientated – many children with special needs thrive in a space where everything is task and detail-orientated, so they know what is going to happen throughout the day

  • Patient – teaching requires patience, and even more so when working with special needs children who can be harder to calm, especially when you have just met and have yet to make a connection

  • Caring – every teacher should be caring, but no more so than one with special needs. Parents will not want to leave their child with anyone who doesn’t have a caring nature

  • Creative – it may be that you have to come up with new and creative ways to teach the same thing to different children, as many children have their own unique, learning style. You are likely to use a lot of sensory learning when teaching those with learning disabilities

  • Calming – classroom environments provide many multi-sensory distractions that can often be distressing to those with special needs. You must have a calming nature to help children feel safe at all times

The above skills will help you greatly when educating children with learning disabilities.

The Benefits of Teaching Children within Special Education

If you have the skills needed to work with special needs children, you will find the job rewarding. You must have a great passion for teaching and understand the many types of learning disabilities.

Teaching children within special education has many benefits such as:

  1. Higher certification – to become a special needs teacher, you often need to study for an extra qualification such as a master’s degree. This further enhances your teaching knowledge and provides you with a fantastic degree and provide better salaries.
  2. More job opportunities – not every teacher is ready to teach special needs children. It really does take a unique and talented teacher, so if you have what it takes, there will be plenty of job opportunities waiting for you. Whether you choose to work in mainstream schools or in a special needs school, the teaching world is your oyster.
  3. Highly rewarding – there is no better feeling than forming a connection with a child with learning disabilities. You have to work harder to understand their emotions and how they react to different situations, meaning a breakthrough in teaching feels highly rewarding.
  4. Appreciation from families – while teaching any child can make an impact on their life, families of special needs children will be eternally grateful for your education and support to their child. Teaching a special needs child means putting in more time and determination to understand them.
  5. Educating others – being a special needs teacher provides you with the ability to recognize and understand learning disabilities, meaning you can teach others regarding the subject. Whether this is speaking to teachers within the school about how they can make a difference, or using your skillset outside of work, having an education in special needs is always advantageous.

Special needs education is highly advantageous to the right candidate.

How to Become a Special Education Teacher

If this job opportunity sounds like one you’d be interested in and you are wondering how to become a teacher in special needs, then look no further. The University of Redlands provides an outstanding master’s degree which can be completed online and allows you to work with children with learning disabilities in K-12 classrooms. Online degrees are a great option for teachers who cannot take time off work while studying.

Gaining a master’s degree which covers special education will allow you to be qualified to teach children with learning disabilities.

For teachers looking to advance their learning skills and be there for the children that need it most, teaching children with learning disabilities can provide a new, exciting teaching opportunity to those with the right skillset and degree.