A Preliminary Research on the Current State and Parents' Needs of Special Education Related Services

Kim, Soo Jin; Kim, Jung Mee; Yoon, Mi Sun; Kim, Jung Yeon; Do, Yeon Ji; Lee, Soo Hyang; Choi, Eun Ah

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2005;10(1): 153-170.

Soo Jin Kim^` , Jung Mee Kim^` , Mi Sun Yoon^` , Jung Yeon Kim^` , Yeon Ji Do^` , Soo Hyang Lee^` , and Eun Ah Choi^`

ABSTRACT

The present study investigated the current state and parents’ needs of special education related services. First, in order to investigate the current state of special education related services, professionals who were in charge of providing the services from 11 randomly selected community rehabilitation centers in Seoul were asked to fill out a questionnaire. Speech and language therapy was provided by all the participant centers. The number of clients on the waiting list to receive speech and language therapy was the highest among the available therapy services. The clients had to wait about 12-30 months, on the whole. Second, to examine the needs of parents who had children with disabilities attending special classes in regular schools, 30 parents were asked to fill out a survey. Twelve parents responded that their children had been receiving therapy at least one special education related service. It was also revealed that as the children with disabilities got older, they did not receive therapeutic education services other than special education. In addition, 11 out 18 parents whose children were in junior high schools and 7 out 12 whose children were in elementary schools identified speech and language therapy as the top priority over any other forms of related services. Based on these results, issues regarding the current state of special education related services were discussed and some suggestions were provided.