Our blog has been designed to keep our educators, parents and clinicians up-to-date on trending topics in special education.
As educators, we know that no two students are alike. Each student comes with their own abilities, strengths, interests, and personality - and they all deserve to be celebrated for who they are. The ability to recognize and celebrate differences in one another is a crucial skill for children to learn, but it’s not always intuitive. This can be especially true for peers of students with disabilities.
There are over 7.5 million American children ages 3-21 who receive special education services, or 15% of all public school students. This constitutes a large number of children who require individualized support beyond the general education curriculum as determined by the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). The pervasive special education teacher shortages are put into perspective when one considers all the individual students whose educational needs are affected.
There are over 7.5 million American children ages 3-21 who receive special education services, or 15% of all public school students. This constitutes a large number of children who require individualized support beyond the general education curriculum as determined by the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). The pervasive special education teacher shortages are put into perspective when one considers all the individual students whose educational needs are affected.
There are over 7.5 million American children ages 3-21 who receive special education services, or 15% of all public school students. This constitutes a large number of children who require individualized support beyond the general education curriculum as determined by the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). The pervasive special education teacher shortages are put into perspective when one considers all the individual students whose educational needs are affected.
Every student deserves equitable and inclusive access to the general education curriculum that complies with state standards. How does an adapted curriculum play a role in accomplishing that for students with disabilities? An adapted curriculum does not change the what when it comes to learning, it simply redefines the how.
Students with moderate to severe disabilities often have communication impairments and difficulty getting their wants and needs met. Teaching language is an essential part of the job of a special educator, and yet, can be extremely complicated. For instance, think of the word “book.” While the word itself may be simple, the student has to be able to apply the word in many different contexts.
I remember my first year of teaching like it was yesterday. I was brand new to the special education field, had just accepted a role serving students with autism, and was told I would have four paraprofessionals in my classroom. While more seasoned special educators may have been thrilled to be given that kind of support, I could barely grasp managing myself and my students, and now I had four teachers that I was expected to manage, as well. While college courses teach you how to provide instruction and manage paperwork/IEPs (I even remember a course about working with families!), there was no specific guidance provided on managing a team of adults. Let’s explore how to support the invaluable staff who work with our students.
If you’ve ever sung the ABCs, done the motions to “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” or played a language-learning game on your phone, you’ve experienced multisensory learning firsthand. Chances are, you still remember some of the songs and rhymes you learned in elementary school—and that's because multisensory learning really works! Multisensory learning is an approach that incorporates various modalities and engages multiple senses. Typically, multisensory teaching strategies and activities use some combination of visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile methods.
Language is a core part of how we connect with one another, and it is at the very heart of learning. For some children, language skills don’t come as naturally as they do for others. Identifying and supporting language development early can make all the difference for children with developmental delays. Language delays can have a ripple effect, impacting everything from academic skills to friendships, making early intervention a critical step toward helping children thrive in school and in the community. In this blog, we’ll cover: key language milestones from infancy to early elementary years, how to start early intervention services and get families involved, and yhe types of intervention services available at home, school, and in the community.
Language development is the process through which students acquire the ability to communicate. In typically developing children, this process begins at around 3 months of age and continues most intensely during the first three years of life. This process begins with an infant’s cry which is when children learn that crying brings food, social attention, and general nourishment. The crying develops into basic cooing at around 3 months when babies begin to understand basic speech sounds. Cooing turns to babbling, which turns to a child’s first few communicative words by age one. By two or three years old, most children know about 500 words. There are developmental checklists that lay out these foundational steps in sequential order.
