Disability Categories

Here are the 14 Disability Categories. Each link is an outline of the category which provides the legal definition, characteristics of the disability, helps for teachers, and further resources.  This is a good starting place to get a basic understanding of disabilities that students may have and how to address their needs. 

Hearing Impairment

Other Health Impairments

Speech and Language Impairments

Visual Impairment/Blindness

Specific Learning Disabilities

Deaf-Blindness

Multiple Disabilities

Intellectual Disability

Orthopedic Impairment

Emotional Disturbance

Deafness

Developmental Delay

Autism

Traumatic Brain Injury

OWL Perdue Online Writing Lab

This website has some great useful info for ESL teachers and students. It helps with grammar, has practice exercises, and tutorials. It also has resources for teachers with links to other organizations that can provide help.

http://www.colorincolorado.org/

This is one of my favorite websites for parents, teachers, families, anyone who works with students who are learning English.  It is a bilingual site which is fabulous for Spanish speaking families.  This site also has a link to http://www.readingrockets.org/ which is another fantastic site. 

http://www.eslkidstuff.com/

This website has a lot of fun printables. It also has song, games, and lessons.

 http://www.usingenglish.com/teachers/

Another great resource for lessons, handouts, reference guides, and a forum for teachers.

Benchmark Education

This website is focused on literacy and developing reading and writing skills. It talks about the diverse literacy needs of students who are ELLs.  It has great ideas for ways teachers can help students in reading and writing.

SERGE links

SERGE (Special Education Resources for General Educators) is a fantastic website that answers many of the questions faced by general educators as they consider the many and various needs of their students.  Here are a few that I found interesting and useful.

Interventions for ADD and learning disabilities

This link to Child Development Institute has some great suggestions for classroom interventions for children who have ADD, who are cognitively impulsive, and accommodations for specific behaviors.  Some of the behaviors are difficulty following through on instructions, difficulty test taking, confusion from non-verbal cues, messiness and sloppiness, being interruptive, poor handwriting, and more. These are all things that are likely to be seen frequently in a general classroom from students who may not have an IEP, but who require specific interventions and accommodations to help them progress and be successful.

Addressing Overrepresentation of African Americans in SpEd

This link is to a report by the Council for Exceptional Children and the National Association of Black School Educators that talks about the over-representation of African American students in special education. The report is quite long but talks about the pre-referral process, school climate, families, and legal issues that impact or are impacted by this disparity.  It is important to make sure students are receiving services if they need them but also make sure that the correct legal and pre-referral procedures are followed so that students are where they need to be.

ELL and learning disabilities

This part of the SERGE website talks about distinguishing whether a student's language difficulties stem from English being a second language, or language disabilities.  I found the Factual Information section to be very useful. There are also suggestions of what to try in the classroom to help the situation. 

Differentiated instruction resources

http://mindstepsinc.

Mindsteps has many great resources for helping students at varying levels. Specifically, there are tools for helping struggling students, motivation, and differentiation.  This company offers seminars, products, and online resources to help teachers.
 
Differentiated planning sheet
This is a blank planning template sheet. This a very helpful tool in designing lessons to meet the needs of a variety of learners in a class.

Four Types of Students Reference Guide
This guide describes differentiation strategies for four different learning styles in the areas of content, process, product, and environment.

Sample Differentiated plan for English
This is a good example of a lesson plan for English using the Differentiated planning sheet.

Assisted technologies

There are a number of resources found at the Utah Center for Assistive Technologies.  One is the Computer Center for Citizens with Disabilities.  Here children and adults can learn ways that technology can enhance their jobs, careers, and education. The center offers consultations, workshops, information, and help getting augmentative communication technologies.

UCAT offers personalized assistance to people with disabilities, parents, caregivers, special educators, etc.


This link is to a list of inventory of such technologies available through the UAAACT.
http://ucat.usor.utah.gov/uaaact/Inventroy%20searches/Inbox_Alph_Lst.htm  
These are devices, software, computer accessories, writing devices, etc. There is a wide range of high and low tech products available for loan.

Here is some information from the website http://nichcy.org/schoolage/iep/iepcontents/supplementary that is helpful in understanding how supplementary aids and services fit into a child's IEP. It is important to understand the legal scope and definition of this part of IDEA when considering what a child needs and what can be considered to fall under this requirement.  I thought it was interesting that staff training and support can be included. 

IDEA’s Exact Words

Again, let’s start with IDEA’s full requirement for identifying the supplementary aids and services a child will need and specifying them in his or her IEP. This appears at §300.320(a)(4) and stipulates that each child’s IEP must contain:

(4) A statement of the special education and related services and supplementary aids and services, based on peer-reviewed research to the extent practicable, to be provided to the child, or on behalf of the child, and a statement of the program modifications or supports for school personnel that will be provided to enable the child—

(i) To advance appropriately toward attaining the annual goals;

(ii) To be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum in accordance with paragraph (a)(1) of this section, and to participate in extracurricular and other nonacademic activities; and

(iii) To be educated and participate with other children with disabilities and nondisabled children in the activities described in this section… [§300.320(a)(4)]

We’ve bolded the part of IDEA’s regulation that specifically mentions supplementary aids and services, because it’s important to see the context in which this term is used. It is that context, and IDEA’s own definition of supplementary aids and services, that will guide how a child’s IEP team considers what services the child needs and the detail with which the team specifies them in the IEP.

The Short Story on Supplementary Aids and Services

Supplementary aids and services are often critical elements in supporting the education of children with disabilities in regular classes and their participation in a range of another school activities. IDEA’s definition of this term (at §300.42)reads:

Supplementary aids and services means aids, services, and other supports that are provided in regular education classes, other education-related settings, and in extracurricular and nonacademic settings, to enable children with disabilities to be educated with nondisabled children to the maximum extent appropriate …

Speaking practically, supplementary aids and services can be accommodations and modifications to the curriculum under study or the manner in which that content is presented or a child’s progress is measured. But that’s not all they are or can be. Supplementary aids and services can also include direct services and supports to the child, as well as support and training for staff who work with that child. That’s why determining what supplementary aids and services are appropriate for a particular child must be done on an individual basis.

Council for Exceptional Children- support for teachers.

To collaborate or not

This offers four questions to ask when considering when collaboration would be the best option, given the time, effort, and resources required. The first question addresses whether or not the project of problem can be handled alone. The second considers the commitment of others. The third asks whether there are mechanisms in place that foster collaboration. Fourth, what are the intended outcomes? This is a good resource because even though collaboration often sounds good, it may not always be the most effective or practical approach.


Time saving guidelines for speds.

This is a great resource for any teacher. The three suggestions are streamline classroom management, banish paper clutter, and use existing resources for time management. There are also links to other resources in this article.

Teachers develop new performance pay plan for teachers

This is a great summary of a larger report of a performance pay plan that discusses fair base pay and supplemental performance pay plans.  Links to another website with full report.  I think it is a great response to the argument over merit pay for teachers.

New standards for advanced roles in special education

The CEC discusses new standards:  Leadership and policy, program development and organization, research and inquiry, student and program evaluation, professional development and ethical practice, and collaboration.

IEP Parent Handbook

Parents as Partners Handbook

Links to Utah Parent Center page of handbooks for IEP, 504, adult life transition, etc. The Parents as Partners Handbook is very helpful to parents who are just starting the IEP process. It contains pertinent information about questions to ask, who should participate in the process, rights of students and how parents can fully participate and make sure their child is being provided all the services they need. Definitely a good resource that a gen. ed. teacher could provide parents.

http://idea.ed.gov/

This link is to the government's website for IDEA 2004. It is divided into part B (ages 3-21) and part C (ages birth-2). It covers statutes, regulations, Q&A, and major topics.

Teacher Resource Blog

I am creating this blog as part of my Diversity and Learning class. I hope to accumulate many excellent resources that will help me in my teaching and learning. I welcome any relevant and useful information and posts from others who are committed to improving teaching and helping students and families.