Chapter 2 (in Friend)

Chapter 2                                                                                                                                               Kaylan Penland

-          Special education teachers are the professionals with whom you are most likely to have ongoing contact in teaching students with disabilities. They are responsible for managing and coordinating services a student receives, including writing and implementing the individualized education program (IEP).

-          Types of other special education help: consulting teacher, resource teacher, inclusive specialist/ support facilitator, itinerant teacher, transition specialist, job coach, special education teachers/special services teachers/intervention specialists.

-          A teacher will also have contact with many other types of services and specialists: school psychologists, counselors, speech/language therapists, social workers, physical therapists and occupational therapists, adaptive physical educators, nurses, administrators, paraprofessionals.

-          Whenever appropriate, students with disabilities also should be active participants in decision making about their own education. Self-determination – they (the student or a special need child) can directly state their needs and goals and learn to advocate for themselves.

-          The teacher (you) play a key role in deciding whether a students should be evaluated for the presence of a disability.

-          The teacher needs to have a clear concern for the child to seek help or begin a process.

-          There needs to be a chronic pattern negatively affecting learning. And keep in mind that child do go through things that will knock them off balance for a while.

-          Watch to see if the situation gets worse over time

-          Compare the child you have a concern for to the other children

-          Communicate your own observations and try your own interventions:

                        Contact the parents (you can find out what the child is like at home and have the parents become monitors as well)

                       Contact colleagues (if you’re unsure get another professional to sit in and observe)

                       Try simple interventions ( move students seats, different teaching strategies, make tests easier for students to follow, give the student one part of the assignment at a time to not overwhelm them, see how much help the child needs)

-          Intervention assistance team – group of professionals, including general education teachers, that analyzes the strengths and problems of referred students to identify strategies to address the problem. If not successful this team may recommend that a student be assessed to determine special education eligibility.

-          Response to intervention (RTI)- an approach for the identification of learning disabilities based on whether student learning progress improves or fails to improve after the student receives increasingly intense, research-based interventions; the latter may be an indication of a learning disability.

-          P.g. 51

-          Multidisciplinary plan – team including teachers, specialists, administrators, and parents who assess a student’s individual needs, determine eligibility for special education, and develop the IEP .