Qualitative Inquiry on Therapeutic Services Relative to Special Education

Kim, Young-Tae; Song, Young-Joon; Yook, Ju-Hye; Lee, Byoung-In; Ha, Ga-Young; Park, So-Hyun

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2008;13(3): 524-540.

Young-Tae Kim^` , Young-Joon Song^` , Ju-Hye Yook^` , Byoung-In Lee^` , Ga-Young Ha^` , and So-Hyun Park^`

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
Recently, the Special Education for Individuals with Disabilities Act was established as a law. The purpose of this study was to analyze suggestions and requests provided by special education specialists on special education and therapeutic services.
Methods
In depth individuals interviews were used for data collection. Five were professors of University and one was chief of day care center for the handicapped children. The questions were developed to guide interviews. All interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. The transcripts were analyzed by the constant comparative method of qualitative analysis.
Results
Three themes and four subthemes under each theme were emerged from the analysis: The first theme, “delivery systems of therapeutic services” included subthemes of placement of special education resource center considering access and independency, experts placement according to school types, use of community institutions, and systematic management of ministry of education and collaboration with ministry of health, welfare, gender equality and family. The second theme, “contents of therapy services” included subthemes of establishment of qualified conditions, insurance from experts and employment security, limitation for core services range, necessity for screening test. And finally, the third theme “methods of therapy services” included subthemes of merging therapy services to curriculum, collaborative work between experts, ranges of therapeutic services, and restricted introducing voucher system.
Discussion & Conclusion
There are certain implications that this study could provide guidelines upon implementing Special Education for Individuals with Disabilities Act within a school setting.