SEIMC's and the Teacher of Children with Learning Disabilities: A Useful Partnership

Abstract

1. The present state of affairs in the field of learning disabilities suggests that a practitioner in this area be eclectic.

2. Being eclectic requires an intimate knowledge of what is currently available for use with children having learning disabilities, along with a skill in experimenting with various approaches in the classroom. Moreover, eclecticism is not in accord with the unitheoretical preservice work that many of today's practitioners have received. Accordingly, it is not without some effort that one accepts this view, for eclecticism requires a change in the manner of doing business.

3. SEIMC's and their local branches are in a position to assist in (a) making a wide variety of materials available, and (b) advising the practitioner on directions for use, applicability, and effectiveness. In-service training sessions are, or will be, available to the practitioner; hopefully the substance of these sessions will feed back into preservice training.

The inextricable bond between materials and methods suggests that both be carefully considered in the educational act. The birth and development of SEIMC's have given new impetus to exploring the contributions of materials to this act, and have thereby opened up many questions about research and professional training in special education. SEIMC's in time may have a profound influence on the fiber of special education. The newest and most ambiguous categorical area of special education is learning disabilities. Its practitioners can probably profit more than most special educators from a close and continuous contact with the SEIMC's because of (a) the present ambiguity of their field, and (b) the rather intimate way that materials relate to their teaching act. In terms of long range goals, the field of learning disabilities and the SEIMC's overlap and appear to be mutually enhancing.