What is the Role of Special Needs Assistants?

By | December 23, 2011

Caring for a normal child is itself considered to be difficult by many. How difficult is it to take care of special needs kids? Especially in a school, they need more assistance. Special needs assistants are those who work in primary schools to give particular help to children with special educational needs.

The primary responsibility of special needs assistants is to make education inclusive to special needs students. They work generally on a one-to-one basis in a classroom. While the teacher teaches normally in a class, the special needs children need some assistance to understand it. However, it is very difficult for the teacher to make them understand. A special needs assistant is helpful in such case. The teacher also gets benefit from the special needs assistants.

The duties of special needs assistants vary with the child. Some children just need a little bit of supervision or support while some require comprehensive help from teacher’s aids. They have to track the progress of special needs students and prepare documentations. So, they should be able to do some clerical work.

Only a high school diploma is required for the special needs assistants. However, many schools prefer those who at least have some college education in a related field like education. There are even some associate degrees which prepare graduates for special needs assistant jobs. The special needs assistants should have certain personal qualities like good physical health, patience and compassion to make their job easy. They play a very important role in the development of special needs children. Some parents even want to hire such caregivers to take care of the kids at home.