Working with children with special needs
E1) explain the social model and the medical model of disability
The ‘Social Model’ states that all children have individual needs but also has strengths, skills and preferences. It provides inclusive environments as a starting point for all children. It looks at the environment as a whole and attitudes towards disability and considers that it might be the ‘problem’ that needs fixing rather than the child. By using this approach, the children who would have been educated separately in a different school would now be educated in mainstream schools. The ‘Medical Model’ sees disability as a burden. They are more concerned whether the child can adapt the environment instead of seeing