Keywords:Sexual Health Education, Special Needs, knowledge, attitudes, sexuality and disability.The objective of this study was to investigate the impact on knowledge and attitudes to sexuality, as well as the capability to teach sexual education topics, of a Sexual Health Education training program designed for pre-service teachers in the field of Special Education in Israel. The findings from the pre/ post investigation and the comparison with the control group (i.e. pre-service teachers that did not participate in the SHE training program) highlighted the impact of the background variables such as religiosity, age and marital status on the knowledge of SHE topics and attitudes towards sexuality and disability. Also, the findings indicate that there is a pervasive lack of knowledge of SHE in relation to persons with special needs among the pre-service teachers in Special Education in Israel. As knowledge and attitudes toward sexuality and disability vary between demographic groups, it is recommended that SHE training courses to be tailored to the participants needs, as well as to enable discussions and reflection on the challenges they may encounter. Zusammenfasung Schlüsselworte: Sexuelle Gesundheitserziehung, besondere Bedürfnisse, Wissen, Einstellungen, Sexualität und Behinderung. Ziel dieser Studie war es, die Auswirkungen auf das Wissen und die Einstellung zur Sexualität sowie die Fähigkeit, Themen der Sexualerziehung zu vermitteln, eines Trainingsprogramm zur sexuellen Gesundheitserziehung (SGE), das für werdende Lehrer im Bereich der Sonderpädagogik in Israel konzipiert wurde. Die Ergebnisse aus der Vor-/ Nachuntersuchung und dem Vergleich mit der Kontrollgruppe (d.h. werdende Lehrkräfte, die nicht am SGE-Schulungsprogramm teilgenommen haben) haben die Auswirkung der Hintergrundvariablen wie Religiosität, Alter und Familienstand auf das Wissen über SGE Themen und Einstellungen zu Sexualität und Behinderung, hervorgehoben. Die Ergebnisse deuten auch darauf hin, dass es unter den werdenden Lehrkräften für Sonderpädagogik in Israel einen allgegenwärtigen Mangel an Kenntnissen über SGE in Bezug auf Personen mit besonderen Bedürfnissen gibt. Da das Wissen und die Einstellungen zu Sexualität und Behinderung zwischen den Bevölkerungsgruppen unterschiedlich sind, wird empfohlen, SGU-Schulungen auf die Bedürfnisse der Teilnehmer abzustimmen und Diskussionen und Überlegungen zu den möglichen Herausforderungen zu ermöglichen.

The present paper investigates the existing literature in order to identify potential components for the development of Sexual Health Programs (SHP) for Special Education (SE) students. Sexual Health Education programs (SHE programs) are considered a recognized and accepted practice in educational systems in Israel and around the world (Weisblay, 2010). The main purpose of SHE programs is to provide students with knowledge and the ability to defend themselves against sexual violence, sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies, as well as to offer information and knowledge of healthy, responsible sexual behaviours (Brosch, 2007; Washington State Department of Health, 2011;Winges-Yanez, 2014). SHE programs may be of particular importance to people with disabilities and to special education students. The reasons of this importance are presented in the present paper. The research questions of the current systematic review are: (1) Are there SHPs in the area of SE? (2) Among the general SHPs, which factors are significant to SE students and pre-service teachers, in terms of addressing sexuality to persons with special needs? The results of the systematic review (14 studies met the specific inclusion criteria) are presented in the light of designing SHPs for SE pre-service teachers. The review shows that in special education frameworks there is a real need and importance in programs for the study of sexual health education, both in the context of knowledge acquisition, insight and the formulation of values, and in the context of preventing exploitation and dangerous or inappropriate behaviours.

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