THE BATTALION
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1977
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ducation psychology aides
assisting ‘special’ children
at 5:15
regular
By SARAH E. WHITE
The small, fragile child sits on the
om green carpet on the floor in
middle of the huge schoolroom
id clutches wooden blocks of vary-
color and size. Next to her on
floor sits the instructor who is
mding her five or six special stu-
ents.
The child occasionally identifies
color of the blocks aloud and re
lives praise in return. Her small
ncoordinated fingers run quickly
irough the pile of playthings in the
Minutes later her eyes are
and her lips pursed. The child
nes. The instructor’s compassion-
hand consoles her, brushing
issled hair once again out of her
es.
Such is the scene in a special edu-
ition class in the A&M Consoli-
ated School District. The instruc-
is an aide, Terry Swanson, a
inior in elementary education at
exas A&M University taking edu-
itional sychology (EPSY) 111 this
l
The course was designed for uni-
ersity students to get practical ex-
erience working with handicapped
nd retarded children in the public
hools, says Dr. Marty Abramson,
course instructor. He says these
allege students work with special
ducation teachers for three hours a
eek and do whatever tasks are as-
them. The duties vary, from
uttingout pumpkins for Halloween
ecorations to tutoring a slow stu-
ent in spelling or math.
Cynthia Sage, a sophomore in
lementary education, works at
outh Knoll Elementary School
ree hours a week. Special (mean-
ij! mentally slow, handicapped or
hysically disabled) children are
lainstreamed into a regidar class,
he says she sits with two students
ho need help the most and tries to
eep them interested in what the
(acher is saying. This is her first
xperience with working with spe-
al students and she says, “I can see
regress in my kids already.”
Some students just observe the
acher. Edna Ramsey, a junior
iychology major, says that she ob-
rves the teacher handling the
hildren most of the time, but she
ccasionally helps the students with
icir reading.
Ramsey says that EPSY 111 is
aluable because of the experience
tudents are getting with special
hildren, but that the course should
ive more than one hour credit.
She says that special students are
iven more freedom to move around
nd more encouragement to play
igether than normal students.
Phyllis Perkins, coordinator for
iccial education in the A&M Con-
olidated schools, says there are 15
ides from EPSY 111 on four cam-
uses in this district. Most of them
re placed with special education
eachers, she says, and they' are ex
acted to perform the duties of a
aid aide. They make teaching
naterials, decorate bulletin boards
nd tutor individual children.
Perkins says that having these
ides has improved the special edu-
ation program because it decreases
lie ratio of students to teachers. She
ays the experience is helping the
&M students involved as well be-
ause they learn more about special
ducation by working in schools
ban they can by sitting in a class-
oom listening to a lecture.
Most EPSY 111 students agreed
hat the experience of working with
liese students is valuable.
“We want these volunteer aides
o do with the children what we do
mdin the way we do it,” says Jane
Barry, teacher of the severely hand
icapped students. She says that she
has a method of dealing with each
child and wants the aides to handle
the children in the same way.
Lisa Clifton, a student in EPSY
111 and aide to Barry, is assigned to
work with one handicapped child
within a class of six students. Clifton
is studying the child and developing
programs for the child’s develop
ment, Barry says. Each child is
given goals to achieve, like eating
with a spoon, neatly drinking from a
cup, walking while holding on to a
bar with one hand, staying dry, and
smiling.
Occasionally Barry’s class goes
outside to gather leaves that have
fallen from trees. Some children sit
motionless, moaning or perhaps try
ing to form a word, while aides
gather leaves for them. Other chil
dren slowly stuff the red, brown and
yellow treasures into their wrinkled
sacks, smiling proudly. These field
trips would not be taken without the
extra pair of hands that the student
aides offer, Barry says.
The children are thrilled at hav
ing these aides working with them,
says Perkins.
Next semester, however, EPSY
111 will be changed to a lecture,
course and students will not enter
the public schools as aides.
“We can’t send them into the
public schools because we are going
to fill up the public schools too
quickly. We have only a certain
“Special students are
given more freedom to
move around and more
encouragement to play
together than normal
students.”
number of slots that students can go
into. We don t want to shove them
into schools right away as we did
this time but we want to give them
skills and knowledge gradually and
work them up to the student teach
ing plane,” Abramson says.
The generic special education
program at Texas A&M, which is in
its first year, has three faculty mem
bers and enrollment will stay small,
Abramson says.
With individualized instruction,
Texas A&M can produce a better
quality of special education teacher,
he says.
“We think a special education
teacher is special so therefore we
want the better students, he says.
Book wins regional award
“Tales of the Big Bend, by Elton
Miles and published by the Texas
A&M University Press, is the win
ner of the Border Regional Library
Associations’s 1977 Southwest Book
Award for Nonfiction.
The 179-page folklore book was
written by the professor of English
at Sul Ross State University and
former president of the Texas
Folklore Society.
Miles and the Texas A&M Uni
versity Press will be formally cited
at the association's annual awards
banquet in El Paso Nov. 5.
Many of the tales in “Tales of the
Big Bend are presented in different
and often conflicting versions. In
addition to chapters devoted to
water witching and the legendary
Marfa Lights, the book includes the
first written account of the bloody
history of scalp hunter John Clan
ton. It also describes Mexican-
American legends about the devil s
assault of the Big Bend and the
miracles worked by an image of
Christ.
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