Early Childhood Special Education - Henderson State University

Early Childhood Special Education from Henderson State University is a Campus Master Early Childhood Education degree that prepares you for a Education career. The Graduate Program in Early Childhood Special Education provides graduate courses and experiences leading to licensure for teaching students with disabilities from birth through 4th grade and an MSE in Special Education. Just as special education instructors individualize programs for those with disabilities, so must graduate students' programs be tailored, as much as possible, to each person. The requirements for state licensure are now based on meeting specific competencies, not on course credit. Courses that provide instruction and practical experiences are offered to help the student meet the competencies required by the Arkansas Department of Higher Education for Early Childhood Special Education Instructional Specialist (Birth ? 4th grade). In terms of the state licensure competency-based requirements, the program is flexible enough to adapt and adjust to each graduate student's knowledge and skill level as they enter the program. Our Vision We strongly believe that every individual with a disability has the legal and moral right to be educated by reflective and compassionate professionals who value each individual's uniqueness and adapt instruction to these individual strengths and needs. Every individual with a disability deserves educational opportunities to develop to his or her maximum potential, and to become included, valued, and productive members in their schools and communities. This requires individualized learning experiences and instructional efforts that span many contexts, from the home environment to a variety of school and community settings. Thus, all educators who instruct individuals with special needs, not just special education instructors, must become reflective and compassionate professionals who are knowledgeable, sound pedagogically and who are willing and eager to effectively and compassionately instruct individuals with special needs and be their advocates for a better future. Our Graduate Program in Early Childhood Special Education not only prepares our graduate students to instruct individuals with disabilities from birth ? 4th grade, it also is an advanced program of study leading to a Masters of Science in Education degree . Therefore, we expect our graduate students to not only develop into reflective and compassionate professionals in terms of instructing individuals with special needs, but we also expect them to develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to inform the knowledge base and the profession. This requires that our students are offered instruction and experiences that prepare them to understand, use, and value advanced academic and scholarly processes of learning and inquiry across their graduate special education program. Our Mission To assist the development of reflective and compassionate professionals who are extremely knowledgeable; exceptionally skillful; ethical; and strong, tireless, and courageous advocates for individuals with disabilities and their families Our Goals Our major goals are grouped in general instructional and scholarly domains that were largely adopted from the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Guidelines for Teacher Education Programs. By the end of our program the graduate student in special education will understand and reflectively and compassionately use sound knowledge, skills, and dispositions encompassed in the following domains: 1. philosophical, historical, legal, and ethical foundations of special education; 2. characteristics of learners with diverse and special needs including human development and the effects of various disabilities and diversity on development and instruction; 3. the processes of accommodating to individual and group learning and behavioral differences in planning, instructing, managing, and assessing students with disabilities; 4. instructional content and practice, including sound models, theories, philosophies, and the methods that flow from them, that inform and comprise the knowledge base of best practices of special education; 5. sociocultural, economic, political, family, and school contexts and their influence on development, learning, and instruction; 6. communication, especially language; 7. planning, organizing, establishing, maintaining, and adjusting the academic and social curricula and the instructional and learning environment, including managing student behavior, small and whole group behavior, and social interaction skills; 8. assessment, diagnosis, and evaluation; 9. professional, legal, and ethical processes of learning and critical thinking, inquiry and scholarly activity, and personal development, reflection, and renewal; 10. effective, compassionate, and harmonious communication and collaboration with students, parents and families, educators and administrators, and other professional and community members; 11. technology used for communication, information, instruction, and the accommodation of special needs. View more details on Henderson State University . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Early Childhood Education courses.