Every Child is Special Needs

What is missing in the equation for classifying a child?

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Before I say what I am about to say, let me first give you a disclaimer: I am NOT saying anything that is “against” those we currently classify as special needs, nor am I against spending time and resources helping them. QUITE the contrary. Keep reading.

As I have learned more and more during my interaction with kids, families, and developmental research over the years, I have become less and less comfortable with categorization as a rule. If I saw us navigating the grayer areas of our classifications and diagnoses, well, I might feel more comfortable. But we are not. And no, this is not some trite indictment of teachers or the “system.” Because the system is all of us. 

I see us advocate for the “gifted”, athletically, and academically. 

• How are we making that assessment?  What is the child gifted IN? 
• Is the child who scored one point below the cut off not gifted? 
• Is the child who scored just one point above more gifted?   

We also spend a great deal of time on those who we consider to be special needs. Rightfully so, we SHOULD spend a lot of time and resources. This includes an incredibly wide swath of vastly different issues and needs. Autism Spectrum, Trisomy, various emotional disorders, etc. are all discussed as “special needs.” 

Then you have kids who are classified as “normal,” which is the widest group, and in some ways the most varied group. 

• What are their special needs? 
• Do some need more movement? 
• Do some need a little extra time? 
• Do some need more affection and attention? 
• Which kid needs more autonomy? 

If we don’t answer these questions, we will lose most in the service of the few. 

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I ask these questions not to nitpick or to be hypercritical. It is not my desire to call our wonderful teachers, or even parents out on the carpet, with some veiled accusation. I want to give the term special needs more meaning, an expanded meaning. As a college professor, I see the results of the needs of a great many children, many of whom don’t fit a classification or tracking group, not being met. We forget about those who don’t make the score or criteria to belong to a category. The problem is this description fits most children.  Most children are just children – but each of them is a special child. 

Does this detract from those we now call special needs? No. Because the crux of the solution is to make better, more sensitive assessments of what all children need, instead of concentrating so much on what extremely variant group we want to say they belong to. 

Also, I suspect that this whole equation has as much to do with routing funds in an environment of scarcity than it does with the best practices for helping children. I wonder if making the choice as a society to simply fund and prioritize the whole of child development would all but erase that “market driver” from the equation. 

Do I expect everyone to stop using the term ‘special needs’ the way it is being used now? No. I would only ask that we all pause and think about the way we classify and categorize children, and what we miss in the equation. 

What are your thoughts? 

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