{"id":3742,"date":"2015-07-30T18:41:53","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T01:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autism-tips.com\/?p=3742"},"modified":"2026-02-25T11:07:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:07:45","slug":"how-to-respond-to-the-question-am-i-a-special-ed-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/?p=3742","title":{"rendered":"How To Respond To The Question: Am I A Special Ed Student?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anecdote<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was shadowing a student with autism from a Special Day Class (SDC) in a mainstream class for Math subject. The student looked around scanning the faces of all the students surrounding her.\u00a0With confused and lost eyes the student looked at me and asked: “Am I a special ed student?” She was loud enough to divert the nearby students’ attention towards us. (special ed is short for special education)<\/p>\n

All the students sitting around us turned their sharp ears and eyes towards me waiting for the “verdict”.<\/p>\n

As much as the question shocked me I managed to control my facial expressions and act casually to answer the question. Here is my answer:<\/p>\n

“Yes you are a special ed because you are very special<\/strong>, just like everybody else. There are no two people alike; even brothers and sisters are different! The other reason you are a special<\/strong> ed is that you come here for some subjects, like Math, not all of them. That means you have a special<\/strong> schedule. Besides, in your special<\/strong> day class there is more than one grade. It is a ‘combo<\/a>‘ class. You get to help your peers in a lower grade. You can teach them things you’ve already learned a year before. Isn’t that great! Even if you happen to become a general ed student, you will remain special<\/strong>, because you have special talents: you play violin, you are a perfect speller, you give great presentations, you are a great performer, and many more! We are all special<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Suddenly, all students, including her, stopped staring at me and resumed working on their Math problems. They became quiet for a good while.<\/p>\n

I believe that the way I’ve answered the question made all the difference. I seemed relaxed, unconcerned.<\/p>\n

Tip<\/strong><\/p>\n

Find your student’s strengths and emphasize them. Be positive!<\/p>\n

nadia shanab<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anecdote I was shadowing a student with autism from a Special Day Class (SDC) in a mainstream class for Math subject. The student looked around scanning the faces of all the students surrounding her.\u00a0With confused and lost eyes the student looked at me and asked: “Am I a special ed student?” She was loud enough … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,5,4],"tags":[23,381,10,111,30,50,33,13,31,91,382],"class_list":["post-3742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autism","category-general-advice","category-parenting","category-tips","tag-aspergers-syndrome","tag-autism","tag-communication","tag-early-intervention","tag-flexibility","tag-independence","tag-placement","tag-schedule","tag-social-interaction","tag-special-education","tag-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3742"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4038,"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions\/4038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autism-tips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}