2. Special Need Students The IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) describes the categories that special need students are classified. Students are put in groups : Learning Disabilities – significant problems learning how to read write and compute Speech or Language Impairments- students that has difficult communicating at the level the student should be. Mental Retardation- Significant limitations in intellectual and adaptive behaviors. Emotional Disorders- social –emotional factor interfere with a student’s learning Autism- many variations, but most avoid physical contact, nor make eye contact, and are unaware of others feelings and do not seek interactions with others. Asperger Syndrome is also included in this. Hearing and Visual Impairments- Inability or limited ability to receive auditory signals or receive information visually. Orthopedic Impairments- physical conditions that seriously impairs motor activities. There are a couple more categories such as OHI(other health impairments), deaf-blindness, and traumatic brain in jury that are self-explanatory. Student may also have multiple disabilities
3. Categories of Special Education High- Incidence Disabilities- Most common in students with special needs. Included: Learning Disabilities Speech and Language Impairments Mild Intellectual Disabilities Emotional Disturbance Low-Incidence Disabilities- Less common among students with special needs. Included: Mental Retardation Multiple Disabilities Hearing Impairments Orthopedic Impairments Autism OHI, TBI, DD
4. Evaluating Special Need Students The way that special educators evaluate students is through IEP’s Individualized Education Program. In order for a student to receive special education an IEP is necessary and will also help to track a students progress and alert to changes needed. In the 2004-2005 school year, over 5.9 million students had IEPs which constitutes almost 14 percent of the public school population (NCES, 2008c). http://projectidealonline.org/mod2_studentPopulation.php Before an IEP is developed, a multidisciplinary team(MDT) that will make the educational decisions for the student. Can include teachers, administrators, school psychologist and social workers, and parents .
5. Assistive Technology (AT) Wikipedia Defines AT as: “an umbrella term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and also includes the process used in selecting, locating, and using them.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_technology AT helps educators of special needs students by insuring that a least restrictive environment or LRE. This grantees a students right to be educated in a setting most like their peers without disabilities. Also that the student can be successful with appropriate supports including AT. LRE also helps educators implement inclusionpractices with there special need students. AT helps to follow the guidelines of inclusion by assisting students in being as fully integrated in the school community as there peers. This includes physical integration, social integration, and instructional integration.
6. Six Steps Collectchild and family information. Begin the discussion about the child’s strengths, abilities, preferences and needs. Identify activities for participation. Discuss the various activities within the environments that a child encounters throughout the day What can be observed that indicates the intervention is successful? What is current level of participation and what observable behaviors will reflect an increase in independent interactions? What changes will you look for? Brainstorm AT solutions. With the activity and desired outcomes established, you are now ready to discuss possible solutions with people the student interacts with daily. Try it out. Determine when the AT intervention will begin and create an observation plan to record how the child participates with the AT supports. Identify what worked. Selecting AT interventions is a continuous learning opportunity. Reflect on your plan and discuss what worked. * Steps taken from http://www.ldonline.org/article/8088 *
7. Implementing the Steps Using students in my middle grades special education class to examine the steps and solutions with AT. The first AT to point out with many special education children, as that many are behind in there core subjects. Many of my middle grade students are diagnosed with ADHA or ADD. Therefore many of them struggle with reading because they have low comprehension and cannot read well. Due to the fact that there peers are reading multiple chapters in books, an AT had to be used to ensure that they were successful like there peers. Solution was to use audio books and play the tapes and have the students follow along with the story. This is an example of using AT with a high-incidence student.
8. Implementing Steps Using a website that I found, lets take a look how AT can benefit Autistic Students. It is good to know that most students with autism process information better visually than auditory. When choosing a visual system for the student, it is important to pick the one that works best. Examples are: objects, photographs, realistic drawings, line drawings, and written words. Example: A child may use real objects for his visual schedule, as the objects appear to give him more information as to where he's going and what's coming up next, as well as to help him remain more focused during the transition. This website gives many different example of AT with Autistic Students and could be applied to different special needs. The website is listed below. AT’s mentioned: Mayer-Johnson software program-Boardmaker, Picture This, True Object Based Icons (TOBIs), http://www.specialed.us/autism/assist/asst10.htm Assistive Technology for Children with Autism Written by Susan Stokes under a contract with CESA 7 and funded by a discretionary grant from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
9. Examples of AT Here are some valuable websites that I found to help locate AT for special need students. http://www.microsoft.com/enable/at/types.aspx-this is a website sponsored by Microsoft that gives details about different AT and how to apply them Alternative keyboards Electronic pointing devices Sip-and-puff systems Wands and sticks Joysticks http://www.infinitec.org/- this website is just for potential through assistive technology. It includes many links for funding and classroom AT.
10. References Wikipedia's Definition of Assistive Technology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistive_technology Guidelines to choosing Assistive Technology http://www.ldonline.org/article/8088 Assistive Technology for Everyone http://www.microsoft.com/enable/at/types.aspx Infinite.org http://www.infinitec.org/ Assistive Technology for Children with Autism http://www.specialed.us/autism/assist/asst10.htm
