Higher Education Guide

Would you like to help your child that has a disability and is receiving special education services, have the best school year yet? Would you like to know about 5 things you can do, to help your child make this school year a success? This article will discuss 5 ways to help your child excel this school year.

1. Open lines of communication with special education personnel.

You can do this by:

A. Start a communication notebook; a steno pad and rubber band work well for this. When a page is finished rubber band it to the cover, that way when you open the steno book, you will come to a blank page, or a new message. Encourage disability educators to write in the book daily; what has happened, what child has learned, positive comments about behavior etc. You can also write messages about your child; sick, tired, learned something new, difficulty at home etc. By doing this you and disability educators will be able to communicate on an ongoing basis.
B. Visit your child’s classroom the first week of school; and talk to the special education staff, that are working with your child. Tell them what works for your child, what upsets them, and your willingness to work together for the benefit of your child.
C. Call your child’s teacher occasionally to check in, and see how things are going. Is your child learning, are they struggling in a certain subject?

2. Express the importance to all disability educators, of having high expectations for your child. With appropriate instruction, children with autism or other disabilities can learn academics at a similar rate to children without disabilities.

You can do this by:

A. Discussing this on your visit during the first week of school. Children will live up to our expectations; whether low or high.
B. Write a letter to your child’s teacher expressing how you believe that your child can learn academics, and are looking forward to working with the school for the benefit of your child. Include things that have worked for your child.

3. Make special education personnel accountable for your child’s learning. Some children with learning disabilities or autism, may need a multi sensory reading program, in order to be a successful reader. Stand up and ask for a change in curriculum, if your child requires it.

You can do this by:

A. Asking for pre testing at the beginning of the school year, and post testing at the end of the school year. This will tell you where your child is starting academically, and how much they have learned over the school year.
B. Discuss homework with your child’s teacher; and anything you can do at home to increase their learning.
C. Keep copies of schoolwork, positive ones and things that you think your child needs more help on. Write letters when you need to, especially if you believe that your child needs more special education services.

4. Learn about positive behavioral supports and how they are successful in increasing positive school behavior, while decreasing negative school behavior. Share the information that you learn with school personnel, and insist on the use of positive behavioral supports, rather than punishment.

You can do this by:

A. Reading a book or attending a training, that specifically promote the use of positive behavioral supports and plans.
B. Many disability organizations have information about positive behavioral supports on their Websites.

5. Tell disability educators when they are doing positive things with your child that are working. This is done for three reasons: The first reason is because teachers need to hear when things are going well, and your child is learning. The second reason is that you are documenting what is working for your child for future school years. The third reason is that if you tell school staff when you are happy, they are more likely to listen when something goes wrong, and you are not happy.

You can do this by:

A. Verbally telling school staff when you are pleased. Also write letters that will be kept as a part of your child’s school record.

By doing these 5 things you are increasing your child’s chances of having a wonderful productive school year.

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Are you the parent of a child with autism or another disability that is frustrated by the special education system? More than 6 million students with disabilities receive special education services in federally funded special education programs. This is about 9% of the country’s school age population. This is a lot of children who depend on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), to help them get the services that they need to live a fulfilled life. As any parent of a child with a disability knows much improvement needs to be made to the special education system. This article will discuss 6 ways to improve the special education system.

Needed to improve the special education system:

1. More available parent training and more resources to pay for the training! Parent trainings are available but in most cases do cost, which prevents some parents from attending. Parents must understand their rights under IDEA in order to be effective advocates for their child.

2. More effective enforcement of IDEA, to include the withholding of funds from states and school districts, who are continually non compliant! The enforcement of IDEA basically does not exist. It is the federal governments responsibility to enforce IDEA to the states, and it is the states responsibility to enforce IDEA of local school districts. Neither one does very much in this area. Enforcement without withholding of funds will not work. In my experience it will not take many states losing their IDEA funding, before major positive changes will occur.

3. Improved diagnosis of disabilities and an easier eligibility process! Many children with disabilities throughout the US are told that they do not have a disability, therefore are not eligible for special education services. This reality hurts children with disabilities and may forever ruin their lives! Parents often do not even know that they can disagree with the schools opinion! The eligibility process needs to be made more child friendly!

4. Special education personnel must set realistic high expectations for all children with disabilities! Congress has said from the beginning that school districts expectations of children with disabilities are too low. School personnel and parents must believe that children can be successful in their education and lives, if given an appropriate education, and keep expectations high.

5. Focus on outcomes of special education so that all children will be ready for post school learning and independent living! For the year 2005-2006 55% of children with disabilities graduated from high school, in comparison to a little over 70% of children without disabilities graduated from high school. This will limit the children’s ability to go to college or get a job, which will affect the rest of their lives!

6. Improve the federal funding of IDEA! The current estimates are that the federal government only pays about 17% of per pupil costs for special education. The federal government needs to put their money where there mouth is, and fund IDEA fully!

All parents can be involved in advocating for systemic special education improvements. Notify your state and federal representatives and see how they are willing to get involved, in this process. Children with disabilities deserve to receive an appropriate education and live their lives to the fullest!

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If your child is in a special education class, it is imperative that several things should be in order in order to maximize the learning conditions and subsequently their achievement.

In order to facilitate the learning, the classroom should have a special desk arrangement. Desks should be arranged in rows in order to minimize the amount of distractions caused by group and paired learning.

Another way to cater to the various levels is to set up a learning center around various stations that allow for hands-on fun or educational experiences depending on the educational background of the student. Learning centers should also provide a variety of activities and themes which ultimately makes the learning purposeful.

An additional set-up arrangement is to put the teacher’s desk in front of the class which allows for individual eye contact and body language.

In some special education classrooms, restroom facilities are located within the classroom. However, not all special education are set up in this way. However it can be a consideration should other arrangements be unsatisfactory.

As a new special education teacher, you’ll want a classroom setup that encourages an effective engagement with minimal distractions. With children who need to deal with special learning adjustments, try for a new setup that is not too overwhelming for him/her to function. You’ll want to also maintain control with the rest of the class as well.

Consider the kinds of activities that are systematic enough to help these kids thrive under a minimal number of classroom arrangement. Kids do not thrive well under too many unanticipated situations.

So what are you waiting for? Try it!

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Today there are many children who are living their life with developmental or learning disabilities, which in turn has deeply affected following day-to-day activities. In fact, many of them are either suffering from high functioning Autism or Autistic tendencies. These problems have restricted them in learning the skills primarily required to survive in everyday life. Teaching everyday life skills to these students are not an easy job or everybody’s cup of tea. It actually requires a lot of patience and determination. It can be very challenging, but at the same time it can be fun and rewarding experience, if you as a special education tutor follow some of useful tips given below. These are few important guidelines that can help you to teach or educate a child that requires special education in a better way:

1) Selection of instructional style can help you a lot in a special education process. You can choose to educate in a very ordered way by prefabricated materials and using textbooks. However, you may even take the way of hands-on activity in a student-centered classroom.

2) Students with reading disabilities can be given oral instructions. You can present tests and reading materials in an oral format that you may access easily.

3) Regularly check the progress rate of learning disabled students and tell them about their frequency of progress. This will help them to know that how far they are from their individual or class goal.

4) Give response to the learning disabled students immediately. This may help you in understanding the relationship between what was taught and what was learned.

5) Try to shorten the class activities set for learning disabled children because lengthy activity projects are seriously annoying for such children.

6) Special children feel difficulty in learning abstract concepts and terms. So, provide them concrete or practical objects and events, for an example items they can touch, hear, smell, etc.

7) Disabled students require constant admiration. So, be sure, you constantly appraise them for their activities that directly help in boosting the confidence level.

Always encourage cooperative learning activities. Tell students of different abilities to work together on a single project. This will create environment where true learners can get the most or learn more out of the activity.

9) Try to engage youngsters more into problem-solving activities that may help them in solving their own conclusions.

10) Give these students opportunities to take initiative for any of the activity in the classroom. Other than that, also provide subjects that interest them for extensive reading activity.

Learning life skills and basic are significant lessons for a special education student. While teaching life skills and literacy, it is also important to remember that such students learn best by practical experience. With lots of practical learning and motivation, these children can learn a lot and faster than an average special child. So, follow these simple yet effective tips and watch them grow and doing well inn their daily work efficiently.

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