ABSTRACT
The most crucial aspect of special education is the assessment process. This is literally the point at which certain children are judged to be different from others – to have ‘special needs’ which necessitate their removal from the normal educational process offered to the majority of children in schools. The claim that the special needs of children are being met rests on the assumption that there is some sort of foolproof assessment mechanism by which children with special needs can be identified. But this is highly problematic. As the twentieth century has progressed, faith in the objectivity and scientific validity of mental testing has diminished (Kamin, 1977; Broadfoot, 1979) and the power of professional experts to judge and decide what is best for others has come under more scrutiny (Johnson, 1972; Jackson, 1970). Historically, the crucial professions involved in ascertaining, as the 1944 Act put it, children for special education have been medical, psychological and educational (both pedagogic and administrative), and, as chapter 2; has demonstrated, there have always been some antipathy and power struggles between these professionals. Over the past twenty years more professionals have come to claim expertise in dealing with children moving into, or in, special education; child psychiatrists, social workers, assessment centre staff, remedial teachers, education welfare officers, probation and careers officers, community health workers, counsellors, speech therapists, and behavioural therapists are some of the groups who claim a right to involvement in special education.
