Under federal law, students receiving special education services in a public school setting are required to have an individualized education program (more commonly known as an IEP). IEPs are established to ensure students consistently work toward and meet educational goals, while receiving their right to a free and appropriate public education. In this blog, we’ll discuss 7 tips that will help you embed your students’ IEP goals across your day.
In special education, the ultimate goal is to provide a meaningful education to your students with disabilities in order to promote success academically, as well as in the workforce. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) outlines 13 different disabilities that qualify students for special education and related services, one of which is language impairment. What defines a language-based learning impairment and what can we do to address a language impairment to ensure appropriate services are in place? Let’s dig in.
As special educators, we want to provide our students with the support and opportunities necessary to prepare them to make choices about their lives, identify and achieve goals, contribute meaningfully to the world around them, and develop their independence skills.
Whether you’re early on in your career as a special education teacher or you’re a seasoned pro, developing a daily schedule for your classroom has its benefits. And, although creating a daily schedule at the start of the school year may seem like a tedious action item, it will help you, your paraprofessional (if you have one), and your students with extensive support needs stay on task throughout the year.
Evidence-based instruction in the world of education, particularly as we discuss special education, plays a critical role in improving student outcomes. Social Narratives are one example of an evidence-based practice that can be utilized to teach social situations to learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Positive reinforcement is considered an essential element of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), which is an evidence-based, highly effective method of behavior therapy designed to teach desired behaviors and lessen inappropriate behaviors, often times through reinforcement.
Educators are always looking for new ideas to capture their students’ attention in fun and engaging ways, and it’s an added bonus when said ways are built on evidence-based practices. Are you trying to brainstorm all of the fun instructional techniques for your students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and/or an intellectual disability that are evidence-based now? Here’s one concept to get you started: VIDEO MODELING!
If you work within a school-based setting, chances are you have heard the chatter about inquiry-based learning. As a hot topic in education, let’s get to the bottom of what all the buzz is about! What is inquiry-based learning? To sum it up, inquiry-based learning is an approach where students participate in their own learning based on curiosity, hands-on experiences and self-reflections.
As educators working alongside students with moderate to severe disabilities, we celebrate every milestone that helps our students gain more independence. The ability to self-regulate is key in fostering independence in and out of the classroom.
When you’re working as an educator within the field of special education, it’s important to implement lesson plans that are grounded in evidence-based practices (EBPs). With EBPs in play, you have consistent evidence from reliable reviews of research showing that the practice produces positive outcomes with students with moderate to severe disabilities (MSDs).