Labelling in Special Education: Where do the benefits lie?

Labelling in special education is not new and identification (or diagnosis) is usually sought by various parties - the school, parent, or even the proposed recipient. Professor Leo Kanner, a child psychiatrist in the USA, writing in 1967, provides an interesting historical account of the beginnings of special schooling around the world. In the USA there was 'The Institution for the Feebleminded Youth' in Ohio (1857); in Belgium there was an asylum created for 270 children deemed to be 'idiots' and 'epileptics' and who were divided into 'improvables' and 'non-improvables' (1892). In Italy the first school was created for 'mental defectives' (1889) and in 1898 there was the creation of the 'National League for the Protection of Backward Children', which indicates an interest in child welfare (Kanner 1964). Nowadays the language may not be seen to be as severe, but the question of labelling in special education is ever present. Hansen (Chapter 22, this volume) argues that disability is rarely referred to or described in positive terms, thus highlighting the disparity in the reasoning for labelling. A name can say much about the personality of a person associated with a group or the supposed meaning of the said group. Take, for instance, 'The Lunatics' Friend Society' (Hervey 1986): it would not now be taken seriously as a legitimate advocate for the rights of psychiatric patients due to its name, but in the 1850s this name was not as ridiculous as it would seem today, and the society gained valuable concessions from the UK parliament with regard to voluntary admittance to psychiatric institutions.Terms become softer, but they are still labels and they will develop their own positive or negative persona and take the labelled person on a lifelong journey.