Brain disordersâ€"neurological, psychiatric, and developmentalâ€"now affect at least 250 million people in the developing world, and this number is expected to rise as life expectancy increases. Yet public and private health systems in developing countries have paid relatively little attention to brain disorders. The negative attitudes, prejudice, and stigma that often surround many of these disorders have contributed to this neglect. Lacking proper diagnosis and treatment, millions of individual lives are lost to disability and death. Such conditions exact both personal and economic costs on families, communities, and nations. The report describes the causes and risk factors associated with brain disorders. It focuses on six representative brain disorders that are prevalent in developing countries: developmental disabilities, epilepsy, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, and stroke. The report makes detailed recommendations of ways to reduce the toll exacted by these six disorders. In broader strokes, the report also proposes six major strategies toward reducing the overall burden of brain disorders in the developing world.

This book represents the contributions of prominent researchers, teacher educators, policy makers, teachers, and parents on current and emerging issues facing the field of special education, and their critical thinking on how to ensure that students with disabilities receive free appropriate education in the least restrictive environment. The authors present divergent perspectives on the issues and concerns, including: (a) the emergence of more constructivistic instruction approaches that focus increasingly on higher order thinking; (b) new organization structures for administering schools; (c) standards-based reform and the use of high stakes testing for evaluating students; (d) the changing population and the increasingly diverse demographics of the students served in the public schools; (e) the onset of the information age and the increasingly visible role of technology in the schools and the workplace; (f) concerns about student discipline and violence in schools; (g) the continuing shortage of qualified and certified special education teachers, and (h) trends in higher education focused on the reform of teacher education such as changing standards for knowledge and skills, preparing teachers for changing roles as mentors, and changes in the teacher education process that may have precipitated or influenced issues in the field. For special education providers such as parents and teachers and for anyone interested in the field of special education.

Inclusive education has been phased into South Africa since 2001 but relies heavily upon adequate support services to support learners and teachers experiencing barriers to learning and development. This book focuses on the different levels of support provided in South African education – from School-based Support Teams to District-based Support Teams through to special and full-service schools, and how these could be reconceptualised to provide improved support to learners and teachers. Current research indicates that inclusive education is being implemented in varied and fragmented forms across the country, and the point of departure of this work is that education support services need to be improved and reconceptualised to ensure better support for inclusive education.