Gender and Special Education

There is a myth that boys have more incidence of disability than girls, but the issue is more complicated than that. While statistics prove this idea to be true, the statistics may be missing some key information. These stats only show students that have been identified with a disability, not those who have gone mis- or undiagnosed. Boys are more likely to have autism than girls, but this is a large problem for girls and boys and special education. Girls may be severely underrepresented in special education, but boys are also overrepresented in the category.

There are many resources online that deal with this issue directly. The first article deals with how to effectively teach girls in special education, and how boys and girls are different, in terms of how their disability is displayed, and how much research (or lack thereof) we have on girls with disabilities. The second resource is a short, but incredibly informative study, deals with issues of culture, violence, abuse, and how these issues play into gender and special education. For each issue they bring up, they give resources, and promising programs and strategies to use.

Race and Special Education

It is not secret that minorities are severely overrepresented in many special education categories, and despite what a recent study may say, this remains to be true. After the release of this study, the issue of over and underrepresentation in special education has become a hotly contested issue. Many, if not most articles, have come to the defense of the overrepresentation side, however, like articles from The Atlantic and the Huffington Post.

The Atlantic article points out many issues with the underrepresentation study, and the Huffington Post article includes a very informative video featuring Denise Marshall, the Executive Director for the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Daniel Losen, the Director for the Center of Civil Rights Remedies at CRP at UCLA, and Donna Ford, a Professor of Education and Human Development and Vanderbilt, all discussing the issue of overrepresentation, why it's still happening, and possible policy changes.

Religion and Spirituality in Special Education

While not a general education subject, religion and spirituality is a large part of many people's lives, and associates with quality-of-life outcomes. With this in mind, it is important that students with disabilities learn about religion and spirituality. Like health and sex ed, this topic can raise controversy and be somewhat taboo, but there are ways to integrate religion into the curriculum. These articles discuss how an educator can weave religious texts into other lessons and how religion and spirituality are linked to overarching goals in the IEP, respectively.

Language Barriers and ELL in Special Education

Language and English Language Learners, or ELL, play a large part in the education of students with disabilities. There are often issues with instructing ELL students who are also in special education. This is a very detailed and helpful article on various strategies and interventions that can be used with ELL students with disabilities.

For special education students who are in the ELL classroom, there is an entire other issue. There are many cultural factors at play, and often, the trouble is attributed to cognitive difficulty rather than issues with language acquisition. This link is also very helpful with introducing strategies and support in these classrooms.

For purposes of being an informed teacher, this article details why ELL students are often misidentified as having special needs. I somewhat mentioned the main reason last paragraph, and it's that there is a misattribution of ability, and that the learning difficulty is believed to be caused by a cognitive deficit as opposed to a the difficulty they're having trying to learn a new language.

All three of these articles come from Colorín Colorado, a website with resources, data, activities, and information for parents and educators of ELL students.

Art in Special Education

The following link goes to the main webpage for an organization called the Special Needs in Art Education (SNAE). On the homepage, there is a link to their private Facebook group, where you can converse with other members and special education art teachers. If you don;t have Facebook, there are still plenty of resources, though! There are art education conventions you can attend, two books you can purchase through Amazon concerning autism and other disabilities and art, and through their Links & Resources page, there are dozens of publications, references, and  organizations you can contact to help you out.

Music Therapy for Students with Disabilities

This link includes various resources for using music therapy for students with all different types of disabilities. This web site and program, Coast Music Therapy, includes information of how music therapy helps students with autism and other disabilities, and offers many other programs and clinics. However, there are a number of free resources on the site, from activities to detailed articles explaining ho to use music therapy. There are even links on Adapted Music Education and Holiday and Seasonal Music activities.

5 Reasons Why Music Helps Kids With Special Needs

This simple infographic, from The Rhythm Tree, found on Friendship Circle, details how music helps students with disabilities learn. There are many advantages to including music in your lessons, and sometimes you can base lessons entirely around music and yield great results!

To make this image larger, simply right click the image and press "Open Image in New Tab," where you can then zoom in on it.

Tips for Teaching Music to Special Education Students

For a music teacher, they likely only see students for a limited portion of the day, and their time with students with disabilities can be much more stressful than working with general education students. If a music teacher is only giving special education students to mess around with for the music period, they're not exactly teaching, just keeping them busy. However, this link provides some very good tips for teaching students with disabilities various music fundamentals, and how to get around things like non-verbal students. I'm not a music teacher, and won't pretend that I know anything about music theory or how to teach it, but the author's credentials check out.

Using Music with Special Education Students

This site details 4 very simple ways that music can be used in everyday lessons for special education students. Music is a great auditory resource, and when paired with visual resources, or any other of your lessons, can increase comprehension and student engagement. This article also makes a very good point that when using music or a simple tune to remember phone numbers or rules, that they need to be able to remember those things without the song involved.

Health Lesson Plans for Special Education

This link leads to an entire semesters worth of health lesson plans. Lesson plans for Relationships, Communication, Exploitation, Touching, Exploring the Body, Reproduction, and STDs are all included in this one link. Every lesson leads to an incredibly detailed PDF lesson plan for that specific topic, and some of them even include PowerPoint presentations for you to use in your lessons. Extra topics like Sexual Abuse and Laws Relevant to Sexual Health can be added into the curriculum.

It's hard enough for a health teacher to teach their students about the uncomfortableness of reproduction, their bodies, and sex, so imagine how much more difficult it is for teachers with students with disabilities to teach these issues. Luckily, this resource has detailed lesson plans on how to do just that.

Special Education Student Inclusion in Physical Education / Adaptive Physical Education

This article, from Friendship Circle, goes through 7 ways a physical education teacher can include or accommodate a student with disabilities into their classes. Some can be helped, but turning the lights low, not playing loud music, or creating a schedule for every day, but others are tougher. Sometimes, students with disabilities aren't enrolled in physical education classes, so simply by doing movement breaks or creating fitness or sports routines with a student can really help.

For those special education students who are enrolled in gym classes, teachers can make playgrounds and gyms more accessible for these students, and for themselves, get certified in Adaptive Physical Education (APE), and teach themselves about Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS). Becoming a CAPE, or a Certified Adaptive Physical Educator, requires understanding of the 15 standards of adaptive physical education.

The APE link goes to a page from Wright's Law, which discusses not only the IDEA requirements for physical educators, but breaks them down and interpret them so a physical education teacher can create a strong curriculum around them.

The PBIS link is also from Friendship Circle, and is a two-part article that details the ins and outs of PBIS. The 15 standards link goes to the APENS, or the Adaptive Physical Education National Standards website and details each of the standards.

Carly Fleischmann

Just a few days ago, a young woman named Carly Fleischmann, who has been a name in the news in the past, created her own web series where she interviews celebrities. Carly, a non-verbal person with autism, on April 29th, 2016, released a YouTube video where she had a wonderful interview with Channing Tatum, and conversed with him through a iPad communicative app. It's a great story, and a very funny interview, which you can watch by clicking here.

Science Special Education Resources, Lesson Plans, Themed Units, Etc.

This link may be one of the most comprehensive and helpful links for special education teachers with science. Think back to your elementary, middle, and even early high school science classes. Earth science, weather, earthquakes, energy, rocks and minerals, space, volcanoes, water, etc., all of that and more is included in this one page! There are multiple resources, worksheets, readings, and even full themed units of these topics for teachers to use.

It doesn't only cover basic science, there are lessons on hygiene, bike safety, and tobacco as well. One of the most important things on this site, to me, is that there is are resources and a unit plan for a lesson on disabilities.

You need to sign up to use these resources, but I think it's entirely worth it.

Math Resources for Special Education

This document compiles a list of resources for teaching math for students with disabilities. It ranges from elementary to secondary education, and includes a few extra online and print resources that are available as well. The document also details proven and research backed instructional methods for math that teachers can use. Every resource includes a small introductory paragraph and a link you can follow to find more information, which have been tested for accuracy and quality.

Parent Advocacy and the Domino Effect

This link leads to another Wright's Law article, and it concerns the guilt that parents feel when they ask for a resource for their child who is a student with disabilities. The author, Pat Howey (who wrote the other Wright's Law article on here), writes a personal story about asking for a due process hearing for her child, and the domino effect it had on the entire county for students with disabilities.

Why You Need to Ask "Dumb" Questions

This is just a short article that an advocate and parent wrote to parents who are new to having a child with disabilities in school. She writes about the importance of asking "dumb" questions, as they may not turn out to be dumb at all. The site itself, http://www.wrightslaw.com, is a good resource for information about special education law, advocacy, and other resources.

Social Studies for Students with Mild Disabilities

This short 3-page document focuses on teaching social studies to students with mild disabilities. The short article from Social Studies and the Young Learner gives instructional strategies on how to modify curriculum, which includes collaboration with other teachers, having the students work with each other, mnemonic strategies, using explicit instruction, and using real life examples for clarification purposes. It is a short article, and could go more in depth with its strategies and suggestions, but it is a good start to creating an inclusive curriculum in a social studies classroom.

Social Studies Strategies for Special Education

This link leads to a page where you can download an article on strategies, concepts, and activities you  can use when tying to teach social studies to students in special education. You have to create an account, or just sign in with your Google account, and you can access the full article. And if you don't want to do that, there is still a wealth of information on the page itself, full with research backed instructional strategies, for special education and inclusive classrooms, as well as the questions you should be asking prior to creating a lesson or unit.

IEP Review

This is a very helpful resource for teachers that just need a little refresher on the basic principles and processes involved with IEPs. It reviews the identification process, the IEP team, meetings, and implementing the plan itself. It continues on with helpful tips and discussions you can have with your IEP team, and the resource finishes with a few worksheets and answer keys so you can quiz yourself, along with a glossary of terms and definitions you should know.

Math and Chess for Special Education Students

This study from the International Journal of Education details a 30-week instructional chess program implemented in special education math classes in middle school grades. The study talks about how chess is an authentic context for students’ mathematical problem- solving that can have significant outcomes on final grades and multiple other math learning outcomes for special education students. 

This is one of the first studies of its kind, and there is still more research to be done, but other authors' works have contributed to the support of this idea, even so much that this author suggests that replacing one lesson a week with a chess lesson won't diminish the achievement of the students in the classroom. Fascinating!

Lisa Campbell: Language Arts Instructional Strategies

Click this link to visit a webpage where you can download an incredibly helpful PowerPoint presentation on teaching Language Arts for special education students. The presentation goes over the English and Language Arts Common Core State Standards (ELA CCSS), its limitations, and how to effectively deconstruct those standards in order to better understand and incorporate them into lessons.

The presentation was created by Dr. Lisa Campbell, a former general educator and intervention specialist who works at the Hamilton County Education Service Center in Cincinnati. The information from the presentation can be used to serve all students, but specifically goes into more detail concerning how it affects students with disabilities.