CDT for Pupils with Special Needs

Abstract

Children in mainstream schools have the advantage that Craft Design & Technology activities are constantly expanding, but what can the subject offer children with special educational needs?

Children who are assessed as having special needs are generally lacking in self-esteem. Failure has been experienced in most areas of their lives, egowith peers, adults, school achivements. Before we can have any success with these children we must begin to build up their self-awareness and teach them how they can adjust positively into society and into a relationship with themselves and others. CDT gives us a positive medium to put this aim into action. Through actionbased learning, activities can be structured so that the child is working with knowledge he has experienced already and can therefore build upon. It is important that the pupil sees he is no longer in competition with others but that all work can progress at the child's pace. With success there develops a sense of achievement, self-worth and a boost in confidence. Action-based learning provides a relaxed atmosphere in which the child can interact with others by talking, sharing tools and sharing the environment in which they work and move. The material provides its own discipline and its restrictions and the pupil has to learn self-control and self-discipline in order to work with the materials. Within special needs, teaching two pupils togehter can s