Meeting the Needs of Students of ALL Abilities


Book Description

This step-by-step handbook offers practical strategies for administrators, teachers, policymakers, and parents who want to shift from costly special learning programs for a few students, to excellent educational services for all students. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.




The Essentials


Book Description

Introduction to the core concepts of teaching and supporting children with disabilities alongside their peers will help teachers ensure that all children meet their potential.




Shifting to Online Learning Through Faculty Collaborative Support


Book Description

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, most schools had to suddenly shift from traditional face-to-face courses to blended, synchronous, and asynchronous instructional environments. The impact upon the immediacy of remote learning was overwhelming to many faculty, instructional facilitators, teachers, and trainers. Many faculty and trainers have experience with the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of online and blended learning environments, while many faculty and trainers also do not have this knowledge nor experience. As such, the collegial workspace has developed into a collaborative work environment wherein the faculty are helping faculty, partially because the instructional designer staff and learning advisors are overwhelmed with the number of course projects that must be moved from traditional face-to-face course environments into an online environment within a short period of time. The faculty are helping each other make this move, offering course design and development support and also instructional tips and tricks that will support successful blended and online experiences that enhance learning outcomes. Shifting to Online Learning Through Faculty Collaborative Support focuses on supporting and enhancing blended and distance learning course design and development, successful tips for course design and teaching, techniques for online learning, and embracing collegial mentorship and facilitative support for course and faculty success. This book highlights the strength of collegial bonds while discussing tools, methods, procedural efforts, styles of engagement, learning theories, assessment efforts, and even social learning engagement implementations in online learning. It provides information and lessons and embraces a long-term approach towards understanding institutional impact and collegial support. This book is valuable for school administrators, teachers, course designers, instructional designers, school faculty, business and administrative leadership, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in how faculty collaborative support is playing a critical role in improving and developing successful online learning.




New Considerations and Best Practices for Training Special Education Teachers


Book Description

The topic of special education is rich in knowledge and pedagogy that covers multiple disciplines within the school environment. Many special educators complete graduate degrees and explore a variety of topics within the special education context; however, there is a need for more resources that provide essential knowledge to special education professionals. New Considerations and Best Practices for Training Special Education Teachers discusses best practices and strategies special education professionals require to become more proficient in teaching students with exceptional needs and addresses the most important components of the special education teacher’s job. Serving as a guide of what a special educator must know to be effective within the classroom and providing an overview of the most important components of the special education teacher’s job, the needs of the special educator, along with new research in the field, this timely book covers a range of topics such as assistive technologies and special education law. It is ideal for special education teachers, industry professionals, guidance counselors, academicians, professors, researchers, practitioners, and students.




Inclusion Works!


Book Description




Meeting Emotional Needs in Intellectual Disability


Book Description

Using a developmental perspective, the authors offer a new, integrated model for supporting people with intellectual disability (ID). This concept builds upon recent advances in attachment informed approaches, by drawing upon a broader understanding of the social, emotional, and cognitive competencies of people with ID, which is grounded in developmental neuroscience and psychology. The book explores in detail how challenging behaviour and mental health difficulties in people with ID arise when their basic emotional needs are not being met by those in theenvironment. Using individually tailored interventions, which complement existing models of care, practitioners can help to facilitate maturational processes and reduce behaviour that is challenging to others. As a result, the "fit" of a person within his or her individual environment can be improved. Case examples throughout the book illuminate how this approach works by targeting interventions towards the person's stage of emotional development.This book will be of interest to a wide range of professionals working with people with ID, including: clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, learning disability nurses, speech and language therapists, and teachers in special education settings, as well as parents and caregivers.




Parenting Matters


Book Description

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.




Educating One and All


Book Description

In the movement toward standards-based education, an important question stands out: How will this reform affect the 10% of school-aged children who have disabilities and thus qualify for special education? In Educating One and All, an expert committee addresses how to reconcile common learning for all students with individualized education for "one"â€"the unique student. The book makes recommendations to states and communities that have adopted standards-based reform and that seek policies and practices to make reform consistent with the requirements of special education. The committee explores the ideas, implementation issues, and legislative initiatives behind the tradition of special education for people with disabilities. It investigates the policy and practice implications of the current reform movement toward high educational standards for all students. Educating One and All examines the curricula and expected outcomes of standards-based education and the educational experience of students with disabilitiesâ€"and identifies points of alignment between the two areas. The volume documents the diverse population of students with disabilities and their school experiences. Because approaches to assessment and accountability are key to standards-based reforms, the committee analyzes how assessment systems currently address students with disabilities, including testing accommodations. The book addresses legal and resource implications, as well as parental participation in children's education.




Opportunities for Improving Programs and Services for Children with Disabilities


Book Description

Although the general public in the United States assumes children to be generally healthy and thriving, a substantial and growing number of children have at least one chronic health condition. Many of these conditions are associated with disabilities and interfere regularly with children's usual activities, such as play or leisure activities, attending school, and engaging in family or community activities. In their most severe forms, such disorders are serious lifelong threats to children's social, emotional well-being and quality of life, and anticipated adult outcomes such as for employment or independent living. However, pinpointing the prevalence of disability among children in the U.S. is difficult, as conceptual frameworks and definitions of disability vary among federal programs that provide services to this population and national surveys, the two primary sources for prevalence data. Opportunities for Improving Programs and Services for Children with Disabilities provides a comprehensive analysis of health outcomes for school-aged children with disabilities. This report reviews and assesses programs, services, and supports available to these children and their families. It also describes overarching program, service, and treatment goals; examines outreach efforts and utilization rates; identifies what outcomes are measured and how they are reported; and describes what is known about the effectiveness of these programs and services.




Leading for Social Justice


Book Description

"An opportunity for aligning educational programming within schools to provide a comprehensive PreK–12 experience with the results districts are looking for: students exceeding their potential and having the skills, knowledge, and long-term understandings that can be applied to real-world problems." —Brian T. Pulvino, Director of Special Education Syracuse City School District, NY "A must-read for teachers, principals, directors, and superintendents as they advance equity and excellence for all children." —Barbara J. Sramek, Director of Special Education Marshall Public Schools, WI An insightful guide for integrating comprehensive services to benefit all students. Acknowledging that student achievement increases in inclusive learning environments and decreases when groups are taught separately, this easily accessible guide examines methods for raising the achievement of English Language Learners and students with special needs, who are sometimes overlooked in a culture of high-stakes testing. The authors provide a step-by-step process for conducting a formative analysis to help schools integrate schoolwide change through proactive support services. Readers will find ways to: Examine discrepancies between current practice and research Build a school climate that supports students with challenging behaviors Implement programs focused on continuous equity-driven accountability Develop curriculum, instruction, and teacher capacity Ideal for special education teachers, directors of special education, and other district administrators, this excellent resource can help you develop an instructional climate to promote success for every student!