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.
We hear it all the time – enCORE teachers and students love the adapted library books and companion texts! The hundreds of titles across K-12 offer students an equitable, inclusive literary experience comparable to general education. Today, we are pleased to announce the completion of an update to the enCORE Adapted Library: All K-12 enCORE Adapted Library books are now available in a “without icons” version at all levels, both in PDF form and in the e-Reader form. All companion texts for grades 6-12 as well as enCORE Events Newsletters and This Just In! breaking news resources have always had text versions available without icons.
TeachTown, a leading provider of special education curriculum for students with disabilities, is pleased to announce the launch of Language Accelerator, a technology-based personalized language intervention program for PreK-Elementary students with deficits or delays in any area of language. Language Accelerator is available as part of TeachTown’s Whole Child Packages for both early childhood and K-12 instruction.
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.
When working with students with moderate to severe disabilities, relationships and a student’s motivation are central to academic success. In Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), relationship building is also called pairing. Pairing is the process of establishing yourself as a reinforcer to build a positive relationship with a child. When a teacher or paraprofessional is properly paired with a student, the student should look forward to working with the adult. It is possible to pair people, environments, and objects.
TeachTown, a leading provider of special education curriculum for students with disabilities, is pleased to debut Launch for PreK, a comprehensive, inclusive early childhood special education curriculum for students ages 3–5. A first of its kind, Launch for PreK celebrates diversity and inclusivity while targeting key global learning domains, including language, literacy, and social development.
Based on your feedback, we are pleased to announce the release of several enhancements to our brand new Manage Students page. TeachTown administrators now have the ability to search across campuses; add, remove, and/or override licenses for students in bulk; and more!
Daily living skills are the routine self care activities that people engage in that promote independence. These skills span from toilet training to food preparation but generally help people maintain a level of health and safety. Some students with delays or disabilities are slow to master daily living skills but it is possible to teach these vital skills. Daily living skills are each set of multiple skills that are strung together. For instance, think about hand washing. Consider all of the smaller component skills that a person has to do to perform the larger task of hand washing: turning on the sink, pumping soap, tolerating getting wet, understanding clean versus dirty. Read on!
As adults, we rely on visual supports to navigate our daily lives. We often look to our Google calendars to see what’s next on our schedule. We create lists for the grocery store, and consult our never-ending to-do lists to complete tasks. Checking items off our lists and reviewing our calendar for what's next gives us a sense of accomplishment and reduces anxiety by providing clarity about our upcoming activities. Now, imagine being a 3, 4, or 5-year-old and getting placed inside a classroom with strangers, likely the first time away from parents for an extended period, with no idea about what will happen next. In these instances, implementation of visual supports can help ease the anxieties of our youngest learners, and especially for our students with disabilities.