Never lose sight of the child because of a label.
Dr. christenson, 1974.
Physical handicaps for the purposes of this website include hearing impairment and deafness, visual impairment and blindness, and speech impairment. Historically speaking these impairments were put together under the same category, so although I do recognize them as their own entities, I will discuss them as one.
Chilliwack’s School District 33 has offered special classes to students since some time in 1960. These students received a mixture of 60% traditional educational topics like math, social studies, science, etc. that were modified to their learning capabilities, and 40% physical activities, arts and crafts, etc. In order to be placed in these special classes students needed to be referred for testing by their teachers, go through said tests, have medical records along with academic records looked at, and if it was recommended the student would benefit from such classes their parents would be asked permission. These special classes were meant for individual learning geared towards each student’s needs so there was a strict limit of no more than 15 students per class. This structure was seen as the most beneficial because it contributed to total education, and gave disadvantaged students the extra help they needed while simultaneously building their social skills with their “regular” peers.
Next I will be giving a timeline of the more significant developments in the physically handicapped section of special education.
– In the early 1960’s the Upper Fraser Valley Society for Handicapped Children was created because of concerns for a number of years by citizens and parents. The society helped operate a school for handicapped and hearing impaired children, along with any other disabilities that popped up, called the Sunshine Drive School. The Sunshine Drive School was a four classroom school that utilized electronic equipment such as televisions and audiovisual devices.
– In 1966 parents of pre-school and elementary aged children were offered a night course to educate them on how to deal with and education their children. This was financially supported by the Society for Children with a Hearing Handicap.
– In 1967 a class for the hard of hearing students was approved in Surrey, however because of the cost-sharing with other districts in the surrounding areas such as Chilliwack, Abbotsford, and Langley, it was a benefit to all of them.
– In 1971 School District 33 purchased an audiometer. This was a device used to check hearing, screen children for hearing issues, and assess reading and other learning processes that could be affected by hear impairments.
– In 1972 more attention started to be paid towards children with lesser abilities caused by physical or emotional handicaps but for the most part the handicaps did not leave them physically disabled. Some of the students received special outside assistance such as treatment from the District 33’s therapist via the Public Health Unit, along with other medical and health professionals such as specialist doctors and nurses.
– In 1974 hard of hearing students were being brought back to District 33 schools from schools like Jericho Hill School to partially integrate them back into regular classes where they would still receive half an hour every day of individualized education. Learning assistance teachers for this school year were provided to keep special education students in traditional classes. The district also continued the speech therapy and itinerant hard of hearing programs, along with operating four new special placement classes in the area. The big emphasis was on keeping handicapped children amongst their peers in non-handicapped classes as much as possible.
– In 1975 Chilliwack’s special education programs received extra support from the local Kiwanis club in the form of four pieces of special equipment donated to the district. Kiwanis club member, Ed Lightfoot, presented the equipment during a regular school board meeting to Mrs. Grosart of the Chilliwack Association of Parents of Children with Learning Disabilities. The pieces of equipment were three language masters, and one telebinocular. A language master is similar to a tape recorder, special cards with magnetic tape are slid through the machine while a teacher’s voice pronounces whatever word is written out on the card. If the student takes the special card and turns it over they can record their own voice to compare their pronunciation with that of their teacher. This was a very valuable tool for children with reading difficulties. A telebinocular is a machine that is used for diagnosing possible visual problems in children who are having problems with learning to read properly, it will allow teachers to find the difficulties sooner and be able to send them to the right medical authorities for testing and treatment. During this year there were the equivalent of 11.5 remedial counsellors, a diagnostician, a speech therapist, and several teachers enlisted in special education programs to help support the hard of hearing and profoundly deaf students. The costs associated with running these special education programs, between the facilities an staff to run them, were approximately $250,000 a year. The province was not able to keep up with expenses based on such a high cost to special education and a tight budget so there were sometimes lapses in having available resources or the resources need to be stretched over a vast area. In particular, Chilliwack had this problem with their speech pathologists who had a gap of 18 months between specialists, and he had to provide services from Boston Bar to as far as Langley. Chilliwack was one of two school districts in the Fraser Valley that employed a speech pathologist, which was shocking in comparison to school districts of similar sizes in the United States who employed between 5 and 10 speech therapists. This disparity was directly related to the lack of funding by the provincial government.
-In 1976 there was a 3 day conference held to discuss the education and concerns of hard of hearing students in the special education program. The concerns revolved around assessment; there were not enough specialized professionals to asses or properly evaluate the progress and needs of these students. There was also the need for more support and itinerant teachers to help cope with the integration back into regular schools and classrooms. Some teachers did not possess the special qualifications to be working with such students. Provisions were made as a result.
– In 1977 the profoundly deaf students were finally given the same educational opportunities as the hearing impaired students. New programs geared towards the youngest grades, kindergarten and grade 1, were being worked on. As the push towards a more integrated approach in schools was happening it was posing new sets of challenges because there were not enough special resources to support these students who needed extra assistance. Reports were issued requesting a fulltime teacher specifically qualified to teach visually impaired students, three teacher aides, audio tapes, large print books, and special sight-seeing paper. Support was requested by the Canadian Nation Institute for the Blind (CNIB), the education ministry, and Jericho Hill School. The education ministry only approved one and a half of the needs. A fulltime speech pathologist was also hired on for specifically for District 33 students in agreement with the health ministry. Chilliwack and the District Community Services created a summer program for handicapped children with the goal to keep them engaged and not regress in the vacation period between school years. This program was comprised of small groups of five children to one teacher to provide individualised learning. It was set up in four 2 week sessions for children with dyslexia, emotion problems, hearing and sight problems, speech impairments, co-ordination problems and hyperactivity. Three university students, funded by a provincial young employment grant, were hired to run the program. The university students were all going to school for special education and had experience with handicapped children. The summer classes were not structured or ran as rigidly as the regular school classes as this program was meant to be more of a filler between school years to keep students progressing and providing childcare for special needs children, whose parents would have otherwise had difficulty.
