Classroom resource

1. SPECIAL
EDUCATION MICHAELA BUZZARD

2. OVERVIEW
Categories
IEP Collaboration
Positive Behavior Supports
Instruction
Assistive Technology
Application
Transition Planning
SPECIAL EDUCATION

3. Federal Categories of Special Education
SPECIAL EDUCATION 3
Federal Disability Term Alternative Terms (if applicable) Brief Description
Specific learning disability Learning disability (LD) A disorder related to processing information that leads to difficulties in reading, writing, and computing; the most common
disability, accounting for half of all students receiving special education
Autism Spectrum Disorder Autism (ASD) A developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction. It is
typically noticeable before the age of three and has a great impact on their educational performance. Other traits are
repetition, difficulty with change, and sensory difficulties.
Deaf-blindness Having both hearing and visual impairments. This leads to a severe communication, developmental, and educational
needs and these cannot be accommodated in typical special education programs
Deafness A hearing impairment where the child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without
amplification and therefore affects the child’s educational performance
Emotional Disturbance A condition marked by one or more characteristics including: an unexplained inability to learn, inability to build and keep
interpersonal relationships, inappropriate behaviors or feelings, pervasive unhappiness or depression, physical symptoms
associated with other problems. Included but not limited to schizophrenia.
Hearing impairment An impairment in hearing that affects a child’s educational performance. It can be permanent temporary.
Intellectual disability Begins during the developmental period, significantly below average intellectual functioning as well as concurrently with
deficits in adaptive behavior. This results in the educational performance being impacted.
Multiple Disabilities The combination of impairments (not including deaf-blindness) that causes severe educational needs that cannot be
accommodated in a traditional special education program.
Orthopedic impairment A severe impairment that impacts a child’s educational performance and includes impairments caused by congenital
anomaly, disease, and other causes.
Other health impairment Limited strength and alertness that includes alertness to environmental stimuli that results in limited alertness to the
educational environment. This can be due to chronic or acute health problems
Speech or language impairment A communication disorder that affects educational performance. This can include stuttering, articulation, or language
impairment
Traumatic brain injury An injury to the brain that’s been acquired through external force resulting in functional disability or psychosocial
impairment. This would affect the educational performance
Visual Impairment An impairment in vision that affects educational performance. This includes blindness
Developmental Delay Not achieving or slow to achieve in one or more area of development

4. FEDERAL CATEGORIES OF
SPECIAL EDUCATION
Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act breaks down the
categories of special education and
disabilities. For example, a few of the
categories and an example of each
are the following:
• Specific Learning Disability
• Such as dyslexia
• Speech or Language Impairment
• Stuttering
• Other health impairment
• ADHD
• Autism
• Social skills
• Intellectual Disability
• Down syndrome
• Emotional Disturbance
• Anxiety

5. LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
SPECIAL EDUCATION 5
(Polloway & Patton, 2022.)
Looking at the learning environments of
the students we serve is so valuable to
understand the resources they need. As
we see here, students with exceptional
needs are, 80% of the time, in a regular
classroom setting. This stresses the need
for additional supports.

6. IEP DEVELOPMENT
SPECIAL EDUCATION 6
WHO IS INVOLVED?

7. WHO IS INVOLVED?
• Parent/Guardian
• In a lot of cases, they know the child best
and are able to speak to them at baseline
and their routine. They must be in
agreeance with their goals
• Special Education teacher
• They can speak to recommendations on
accommodations and resources needed
• General Education teachers
• They can speak to implementation in their
school day and strengths and needs
• Intermediate Unit representative
• Related services members
• Physical Therapy
• Occupation therapy
• Speech Language Pathologist
• Behavior Support
• Intervener
• ESL
• TVI
• O&M
• The student
• We must never forget to invite the student
if they are able to participate
Special Education 7

8. ASSESSMENTS
• Present levels
• Related Services Screening
• Baseline assessments and
data
• When developing a new goal,
we must trial the goal and
materials with the student before
implementing. When doing so,
we collect baseline data for
where they are currently scoring
• Scores from state and
districtwide assessments
• Strengths and needs
• Assistive Technology
• Various assessments
depending on need
• Functional Vision
• Hearing
• LMA
SPECIAL EDUCATION 8

9. FAMILY INVOLVEMENT
IDEA
• Obtain a list of parents' rights as related to caring for
their child requiring special education.
• Ensure their understanding of these rights and
resources
• Maintain communication with them along the IEP
process.
• Inform them of assessments you are performing
• Your thought process in developing goals
• Get their feedback on goals that are important
to them
Understanding the IEP
• Review each section with them and ask them to think
of any questions they might have for the team
• Ensure they understand they can request for related
services to be present
• As we know, the draft IEP must be sent prior to the
IEP meeting
• Ensure the family understands what the goals
mean and how they can be practiced at home
SPECIAL EDUCATION 9

10. IEP GOALS
Development
• What is relevant material for this
student?
• Where do we see this child going?
• What do we want this child to achieve
and what is a barrier for them?
• Learning history
• Response to instruction
Impact on
Curriculum
• Explicit Curriculum: following the
state standards; takes the IEP
goals and adds emphasis on the
goal areas. How can we include the
targeted goals to daily lessons?
• Hidden Curriculum: insertions to
routine or daily lessons that focus
on a specific skill and content area.
Social skills, ADLs, social/emotional
wellness, etc. are examples of
hidden curriculum.
SPECIAL EDUCATION 10

11. TEACHING AND IMPLEMENTATION
Teaching: working
with general
education
• Supportive Teaching
• One primary and one supports
• Parallel teaching
• Separate groups between two teachers
• Complementary teaching
• One lead and one supplemental and
models
• Team teaching
• Two teachers in unison
Inclusion Classrooms
• Where students of all different ability levels
and needs are taught in the general
education setting, all together
• Cons
• Lack of support
• Lack of time to address all needs
• Coverage for many standards and
individualized goals
• Insufficient time to prepare and
differentiate instruction
• Pros
• Social connections
• Collaboration
SPECIAL EDUCATION 11

12. INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS
Understand Your
Role
• Under the universal design for learning, the special
education teacher could be responsible for:
• Supplemental resources (electronic or easily
accessible)
• Picture prompts or visual aides
• Auditory support
• Alternative testing locations or dates
• Visually adapted materials
• Organizational methods
• Study skills
Differentiated
Instruction
• Instructional Differentiation
• Instruction, products, assignments, homework,
testing, and grading adjustments
• Materials Differentiation
• What materials could be supplemented or adjusted
to better meet student needs
• Content Differentiation
• Adjusting the content covered and perhaps the
order in which it is presented to accommodate
student need
• Setting Differentiation
• Consulting on classroom set up to accommodate
student need
• Individualized Differentiation
• Accessing the general education curriculum while
providing modifications and accommodations
SPECIAL EDUCATION 12

13. POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORTS
• Preventing academic failure while enhancing positive behaviors
through a multi-tiered system (targeting goals, data informed
decisions, interventions)
• Tier 1: prosocial behaviors to prevent further issues. Positive behavior
is acknowledged and can be implemented even school-wide.
• Tier 2: Small group, evidence-based, interventions.
• Tier 3: individualized and intensive behavior interventions
SPECIAL EDUCATION 13

14. COMMON APPROACHES TO PBS
• Check in/Check out
• Reward system
• Replacement behaviors
• First/then
• Schedule board
• Timer for activities/transitions
SPECIAL EDUCATION 14

15. STUDY SKILLS
• Listening
• Conditions for listening, concentrating, and comprehending. Try repeating information and asking frequent comprehension questions
• Note taking
• Highlighting, summarizing, and core vocabulary
• Writing
• Outlining materials, spelling, and literacy skills
• Visual aids
• Flash cards, pictures, presentations
• Test taking
• Reviewing directions, practice tests, reviewing main ideas and content
• Time management
• Utilizing a planner, daily schedule, and timer. Ensuring work is efficiently done
• Organization
• Planner, to do lists, structured writing, every material has a designated spot
• Reading
• Reading rate, comprehension, and length
SPECIAL EDUCATION 15

16. FUNCTIONAL ACADEMICS
• Reading
• Focus is on comprehension, high frequency sight words, fluency, and home and
community application (bus schedule, menus, directions, ingredients)
• Writing
• Composition (letter writing, email, text message)
• Math
• Manipulation of numbers (money management, time management, measurements, sizes,
cooking, etc)
• Social Studies
• Social interactions, community involvement, elections, work- place management
• Science
• Health, nutrition, physical well being, weather, and climate
SPECIAL EDUCATION 16

17. TRANSITION
• During School
• Transition to kindergarten
• Transition to middle
• Visit middle school
• Meet with family and team
• Needs assessment
• Support services
• Address concerns
• Transition to secondary
• Visit high school
• Needs assessment
• Support services
• Concerns regarding transition
• Family input
• From High School
• Student participation
• Family participation
• Community connections
• Attention to timeline and concerns
• Establish post-secondary goals
9/3/20XX Presentation Title 17

18. TRANSITIONS
• Transition assessment and goal setting
• To determine and time and need in order to plan for transition. Which direction are we
going?
• Working
• Where do you want to work, do you have the skills to perform this role, how can we
and family support this goal
• Learning
• Is higher education of interest, how do you learn best, how can we help you prepare
for this
• Living
• What hobbies do you have, decision making, transportation, relationships, how can
the school support and prepare
• Focus on self determination and self advocacy
SPECIAL EDUCATION 18

19. References
Polloway, E., & Patton, J. (2022). Strategies for Teaching Learners
with Special Needs (12th ed.) [Review of Strategies for
Teaching Learners with Special Needs]. Pearson. (Original
work published 2013)
U.S. Department of Education. (2018). Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act. Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act. https://sites.ed.gov/idea/regs/b/a/300.8/c