The assessment of special educational needs: international perspective - 7

Special educational needs are being defined in new ways.

Changing laws and perspectives in many countries present new challenges to practitioners.

The fundamental shift underlying all these changes is the idea that handicap is not an absolute phenomenon, that special educational needs are relative to a person's environment.

Once this is accepted, it is inevitable that there will be a radical re-examination of how such needs are identified and how they are assessed.

This book draws together a range of contributions from leading figures in special education worldwide, to emphasise assessment in the service of prevention, of teaching, and of mainstreaming and integration.

It is not enough to understand children's individual strengths and weaknesses.