2. What is Special Education?
Specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parent, to meet
unique needs of individuals with exceptional needs, whose
educational needs cannot be met with modification of the regular
instructional program, and related services at no cost to the
parent, which may be needed to assist such individuals to benefit
from specially designed instruction.
3. Who is Eligible for Special
Education Services?
Categories under IDEA include the following:
Autism
Hearing Impairment,
including deafness
Deaf-Blindness
Developmental Delay
Emotional Disturbance
Hearing Impairment
Intellectual Disability
Mental Retardation
Orthopedic Impairment
Other Health Impairment
Specific Learning Disability
Speech or Language
Impairment
Traumatic Brain Injury
Visual Impairment
Multiple Disability
4. Tips for working with children who
have special needs
Interact
Observe
Use Common Sense
Be Flexible
Be Consistent
Use visual, auditory, and tactile cues
Have a plan……and a back-up plan
Be positive
5. Co-Teaching Methods
1. Interactive Teaching - Teachers alternate roles of presenting,
reviewing, and monitoring instruction.
2. Alternative Teaching - One person teaches, reteaches, or
enriches a concept for a small group, while the other monitors or
teaches the remaining students.
3. Parallel Teaching - Students are divided into mixed-ability
groups, and each co-teaching partner teaches the same material
to one of the groups.
4. Station Teaching - Small groups of students rotate to various
stations for instruction, review, and/or practice.
(Walther-Thomas et al.,)
6. Effective Teaching Strategies
Mnemonic strategies: Highly effective
Spatial Organizers: Effective
Classroom Learning Strategies (i.e. study skills instruction,
note-taking strategies): Very effective
Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI): Moderately effective
Peer Mediation: Effective
Study Aids (i. e. study guides, text outlines): Promising, but
needs more study
Hands-On or Activity-Oriented Learning: Appears
effective, but needs more study
Explicit instruction: Most effective of any strategy studied
(Mulligan 2011)
7. Management for inclusive
classrooms
Create a structured classroom. This may include designating
separate areas for group and individual work and centers for
reading or art, as well as creating a daily class schedule.
Display classroom rules.
Post the daily schedule incorporating color.
Provide opportunities for purposeful movement.
Develop classroom cues for settling down to work, getting out
materials, and quieting down.
Plan for transition times (between subjects or tasks, before and
after lunch, changing classes).
Help students organize their materials by using checklists,
folders, and containers to keep materials organized in desks.
Visually monitor student activity.
(Bender, 2002)
8. Learning environment for
students with ADD/ADHD
Seat students with ADD near the teacher's desk, but include
them as part of the regular class seating.
Place these students up front with their backs to the rest of the
class to keep other students out of view.
Surround students with ADD with good role models.
Encourage peer tutoring and cooperative/collaborative learning.
Avoid distracting stimuli. Try not to place students with ADD
near air conditioners, high traffic areas, heaters, or doors or
windows.
Be creative! Produce a stimuli-reduced study area. Let all
students have access to this area so the student with ADD will
not feel different.
Encourage parents to set up appropriate study space at home,
with set times and routines established for study.
9. Giving instructions to students
with ADD/ADHD
Maintain eye contact during verbal instruction.
Make directions clear and concise. Be consistent with daily
instructions.
Simplify complex directions. Avoid multiple commands.
Make sure students comprehend the instructions before
beginning the task.
Repeat instructions in a calm, positive manner, if needed.
Help the students feel comfortable with seeking assistance (most
children with ADD will not ask for help). Gradually reduce the
amount of assistance, but keep in mind that these children will
need more help for a longer period of time than the average
child.
Require a daily assignment notebook if necessary
10. Assistive Technology
AT for kids with disabilities is defined as any device, piece of
equipment or system that helps bypass, work around or
compensate for an individual's specific learning deficits.
AT doesn't cure or eliminate learning difficulties, but it can help
your child reach her potential because it allows her to capitalize
on her strengths and bypass areas of difficulty.
AT can increase a child's self-reliance and sense of independence.
Kids who struggle in school are often overly dependent on
parents, siblings, friends and teachers for help with assignments.
By using AT, kids can experience success with working
independently.
(Raskind, Ph.D & Stanberry 2010)
11. Assistive Technology Devices
AT devices are computers with print-recognition software that
"read" text aloud.
AT devices are speech recognition systems that turn oral
language into written text.
AT devices are talking calculators that assist people with math
difficulties.
AT devices are software that predicts and edits words for people
who are prone to spelling difficulties.
12. Assistive Technology Devices
Devices
Used for area of difficulty in…..
Word Processors
written language
Spell Checkers
written language
Proofreading Programs
written language
Outlining/Brainstorming
Programs
written language
Speech recognition
written language
Speech Synthesis/Screen review
written language and reading
Word Prediction Programs
written language
Alternative Keyboards
written language
Optical Character Recognition
reading
Personal Data Managers
organization and memory
Free-Form Databases
organization and memory
Tape recorders/Variable Speech
Control
reading, listening, and memory
FM Listening Systems
listening
Talking Calculators
math
Electronic Math Worksheets
math
(Adapted from Raskind, M.H. & Scott, N. 1993)
13. Strategies to Enhance Reading
Skills
Break the material into very small chunks
Connect the story to a real-life situation or emotion
Make reading multisensory through audio books, DVDs, or being
read to
Connect to literature through art
Repetition
14. Technologies used to Enhance
Reading Skills
ReadPlease and outSPOKEN: These programs read any text
shown on a computer screen to the user.
Kurzwell 3000 LearnStation and OmniPage Pro 14:
These programs scan and convert printed text from a paper or
book into editable text so a screen reader and read aloud the
words on a computer.
Read&Write (v7) Gold and TextAloud: These programs
convert printed text to an audio file for use in an MP3 player or
similar portable device.
Other Auditory Technology: Tapes, CD-ROMs, DVDs,
portable readers and players, and special internet services all can
provide auditory access to printed materials.
(J Thompson, J Bakken, B Fulk, G Peterson-Karlan,2004)
15. Technologies used to Enhance
Reading Skills Cont’d.……
Format features in Microsoft Word and Write: OutLoud
SOLO: These programs format text to be easier for a user to see
by increasing font size, pairing graphics with text, changing
background and font color, changing text to a more readable
font, or using highlighting to emphasize certain text.
Franklin Speaking Homework Wiz and Quicktionary
Reading Pen: Students can access pronunciations and
definitions for words on the computer using portable spell
checkers and auditory dictionaries and thesauruses; or on paper
using reading pens.
Writing with symbols 2000: This program pairs text with
graphics, such as picture-communication symbols, for users who
can interpret pictures but not the printed word
(J Thompson, J Bakken, B Fulk, G Peterson-Karlan,2004)
16. Works Cited
Schwab Foundation for Learning. “Assistive technology for children with
learning disabilities” 2000 pg. 1-27
J Thompson, J Bakken, B Fulk, G Peterson-Karlan “Using technology to
improve the literacy skills of students with disabilities” December 2004
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory pg.1-21
Land, Sue M.Ed. "Effective Teaching Practices for Students in Inclusive
Classrooms." (2004): n. page. Print.
<http://education.wm.edu/centers/ttac/resources/articles/inclusion/effec
tiveteach/>.
James, Jennifer. "Five Strategies to Increase Reading Comprehension
With Your Child With Special Needs." National dissemination center for
children with disabilities . N.p., n. d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
<http://nichcy.org/5readingcompstrats
Mulligan, Elaine. "What Works: Effective Teaching Strategies for Students
with Disabilities." National dissemination center for children with
disabilities . N.p., 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2014. <http://nichcy.org/whatworks-effective-teaching-strategies-for-students-with-disabilities>.
Raskind, Ph.D. , Marshall, and Kristin Stanberry. "Assistive technology for
kids with LD: An overview." GreatSchools. N.p., 2010. Web. 24 Feb.
2014. <http://www.greatschools.org/special-education/assistivetechnology/702-assistive-technology-for-kids-with-learning-disabilitiesan-overview.gs >.
"Teaching Children with ADD/ADHD." Teacher Vision . ERIC
Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education, n.d. Web. 24 Feb
2014. <https://www.teachervision.com/add-and-adhd/teachingmethods/5314.html >.
