• When a student is found eligible for special education under IDEA, a comprehensive planning team develops an Individualized Education Plan based on strengths and needs, current assessment data, and the concerns of the family.
• Prereferral is a problem solving process to assist teachers in gathering information about students and their difficulties, before a referral for special education is considered. The goal is to intervene so students can be successfully educated without special education services.
o Prereferral interventions include embedding students’ cultures and languages into the curriculum, establishing collaborative relationships, offering meaningful and relevant programs, understanding how cultural and linguistic backgrounds affect learning, and involving families.
• Labels locate problems within students, not within the educational system. Labels limit the way teachers and students interact with the individual, disabling the students academically and socially.
• IEP must include – statement of current levels of performance, measurable goals, services that will be provided, explanation of the extent the student will not be included in gen ed activities, testing accommodations, description of how progress will be measured, date services will begin and their frequency and duration.
• Transition services address the process of helping an individual transition to life after school, including career services, continuing education, and independent living skills.
• Students can be involved in planning their IEPs offing their perspectives on their strengths, challenges, preferences, interests, talents, career goals, effective teaching strategies, and materials. Can be empowering and motivate students to reach their goals.
• High incidence disabilities – mild disabilities such as learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, mild emotional/behavioral disorders, and speech/language impairments.
• Specific learning disability is a disorder in one or more basic processes involved in understanding or using spoken or written language. Students show a discrepancy between ability and performance in the classroom.
• Teachers can help students with anxiety about speaking in the classroom by not focusing on their need to speak, fostering their use of nonverbal communication, systems, such as gestures and symbols, providing opportunities to engage in activities that do not involve speaking, and using buddies and small group instruction.
• For students with emotional and behavioral disorders – use positive behavioral supports, social skills instruction, behaviorally based interventions, peer-based techniques and differentiated instruction. Wraparound planning provides counseling, medical, and vocational services outside of school.
• ADD – associated with constant motion, impulsivity, and distractibility or disorganization that is mainly inattentive, or a combination of both.
• Low incidence disabled students can benefit from a functional curriculum, which teaches them skills to function independently in inclusive schools, their homes, and in the community.
• A competency-oriented approach focuses on the abilities and strengths of the students to create a learning environment that supports integration, participation, and growth.
• For students with Autism Spectrum Disorder – minimize their sensory overstimulation using simple visual supports, pictures of rules and schedules, tactile cues, auditory cues, and environmental changes. Provide students with a safe place that is an alternative to stressful or over stimulating environments.
• Traditional methods of referrals and intelligence testing for gifted programs have limited the participation of student from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Many educators are broadening the concept of intelligence, ex. Gardeners multiple intelligences. Accommodate gifted students by providing all students with varied learning activities and multiple ways of demonstrating their understanding and mastery. Create a learning environment that encourages students to develop their creativity and take risks.
Resources:
A handbook about gifted students with disabilities or twice-exceptional students
How to use “comic strip conversations” to help improve the social skills of students with ASD
Assistive technology for students with Cerebral Palsy
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