Study Curve

'Normal' teachers and 'special ed' teachers do have quite a few things in common. For one, each on needs to recognize each student's abilities and adapt the class to those needs. Special ed specialize in those students who are diagnosed with learning disorders and then helps the classroom teacher to adjust their instruction to help that student in their class. The Special Ed teacher gives one-on-one instruction which helps the student to understand what is happening in his 'regular' classroom and in life.
Working with special ed kids is not for everyone because it requires an ability to adjust to these needs--which also includes some emotional support as well--and then teach them to learn effectively.
Sammy

I received my SpEd certification many years ago, but I would imagine it is still similar. Students preparing to teach special ed focused on assessing and recognizing varying disabilities. Once a teacher recognizes the disability there is a need to design, and redesign, curriculum to meet the needs of the individual students. Much of the learning was about how to design and adapt curriculum to meet the student needs through their best learning modality. We spent a lot of time working with task analysis to determine the steps required for learning so that we would recognize the entry point for students who are having difficulty with learning a particular skill. Everything I learned was extremely valuable when I moved into teaching "regular" students.

I would suspect that a special ed professional would need to have special training (i.e. coursework, internships) to handle the needs of students requiring specific attention for their disability, be it dislexia, ADHD, reading proficiency, etc. It may be worthwhile to look at various university descriptions under Education Majors to find out what their specific course load and requirements are for obtaining a regular Education degree vs. a specialized Education degree.

I believe that special education is designed for helping impaired students as apposed to students with general aptitude. Special ed specifies on people with learning disabilities and different learning types.