How to Know if You’d Be a Good Special Education Teacher

Thanks to medical advances and better awareness, children with disabilities are being diagnosed earlier and placed in educational programs that can maximize their potential. This has led to a greater demand for special needs teachers; the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment in the field to grow by 17% through 2018.

But how do you know if special education is the career for you? Here a five characteristics shared by almost all teachers who are successful in this field:

1. Certification. All 50 states and the District of Columbia require teaching certificates – attained by earning a bachelor’s degree in education and successfully passing the state’s teaching exam – to enter the field of special education. Most also insist on additional training geared toward instructing special needs children. Exactly what type of advanced education is necessary for licensure varies from state to state; some require certificate courses that take less than a year to complete, while others insist on a master's in special education that can take over two.

2. Patience. Many special needs children can learn at a normal pace – some even faster. However, those with certain disabilities can have a much harder time, taking weeks or months to master even simple tasks. Other special needs students have emotional problems that make learning difficult not only for themselves, but for others around them as well. Vast patience is essential for special education teachers when working with such students.

3. Stress management. Long workdays, near-constant administrative duties and students who can be extremely difficult on a daily basis make special education a challenging career. In order to be successful at it, you must be able to handle high stress levels and find ways to manage the personal and professional struggles that come with working in this field.

4. Commitment. Obviously, being a special needs teacher is not an easy job. And unfortunately, many positions in this field don’t pay as well as they should. In order to find lasting success in special education, you must be committed to the profession. Helping special needs children learn should be a reward for you in and of itself. If not, the financial compensation alone can seem insufficient considering the stress and difficulty inherent to the career.

5. Interpersonal skills. Special needs children often have a wide range of people working on their behalf. These can include parents, foster parents, other relatives or caregivers, state agencies, doctors, psychologists, social workers and more. You should be able to establish positive relationships with all such individuals and work closely with them to maximize your student’s learning potential.