Laura's Blog SPED 524

Transition planning is essential for making the leap into the post-secondary education world for students with disabilities.  It is a time for students to take ownership of their future and learn to speak up for themselves.  Without some coaching this can become a huge problem for some students.  While IDEA requires an "exit evaluation" when a student is leaving school, each state provides this in different ways (Shaw, S. F., Dukes, L. L., & Madaus, J. W., 2012, p. 7). Within transition plans a summary of performance (SOP) needs to give an overall summary of what the student's academic achievement is, as well as advice on how to help this child achieve his or her goals going forward.  Most states utilize a form that meets the standards IDEA put in place, however some of these states do not give a full picture making the plan fall short in terms of functionality. When a comprehensive plan is put in place it is the result of many years of information, and a com...

The article I chose this week examined bullying and adolescent girls with ADHD.  It sought to look at not only were these girls victims of bullying, but were they in fact more likely to bully others as well.  Students with ADHD are known to have difficulty socially including, "peer rejection or neglect, poor friendship stability and aggression" (Sciberras, Ohan, & Anderson, 2012, p. 255).  In particular this study chose to look at girls because some of the bullying behaviors are viewed differently if a boy engages in the behavior. Two different types of bullying were examined in the study:  overt bullying and relational bullying.  Overt bullying is anything that can result in physical harm, whereas relational bullying seeks to cause problems friendships and other social interactions (Sciberras et al., 2012, p. 256).  There were 22 adolescent girls with ADHD in the study as well as 20 adolescent girls without ADHD participating in the study.  They...

The Other Health Impairment category covers so many different disabilities.  In the article "Tourette Syndrome in the Classroom" the author gives an overview of what the disability is and what can be done in the classroom to assist students with this disorder.  Those with Tourette Syndrome (TS) experience involuntary movements or sounds that are called tics (Coffman, 2012, p. 46).  These behaviors can be fairly quiet and in some cases unnoticed by those around the student, such as flexing stomach muscles.  Other tics may be more disruptive, such as shouting out sounds. These tics may put a teacher on edge if he or she is not knowledgeable about TS.  The first urge may be to reprimand the student for these behaviors, or to try and set up a behavior modification plan to change the behaviors.  In this case it is important to know that the student is unable to stop the tics from happening.  Anxiety may make tics worse.  So it can be assumed that if ...

We all know that physical activity is good for us.  In this article, the authors seek to find out if physical activity provides any academic benefit to children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).  In this study three kindergarten boys with ASD were evaluated on how physical activity effected their ability to complete a journal writing activity after circle time activities while in a general education classroom (Miramontez & Schwartz, 2015, p. 407). After a baseline was established, using the activities the teachers had normally utilized, a randomly selected activity was put in place.  Every day the teacher picked a piece of paper from a cup that had one of three options on it:  yoga, dance party, or reading a book (Miramontez & Schwartz, 2015, p. 408).  These activities took place during the last five minutes of circle time.  During the yoga option, teachers modeled yoga poses that the students picked from picture cards (Miramontez & Schwa...

Children with emotional and behavior disorders (EBD) seem to come to school with a lot on their plates.  The article I read aimed at looking at the family dynamic for children with EBD that were receiving services in a special education environment.  The authors were trying to see if struggles at home equated to struggles in the classroom for these students in either internalizing or externalizing behaviors.  Internalizing behavior are problems with depression or anxiety, whereas externalizing behaviors are aggression or defiant behavior.   Previous research, while in some instances examined the same idea, did not look specifically at students that were in a special education environment.  Within that environment other supports are in place that may not be available to other students.  In this study families answered questionnaires regarding family dynamics.  Questions centered around family organization, communication, partner relationship of care-...

The article, "Expanding Opportunities for Students with Intellectual Disability", examines how best to serve students in an inclusive environment.  The goal of the article is to provide suggestions on how to provide instruction to students with intellectual disabilities in a general education classroom.  Typically those that have intellectual disabilities start school in the general education classroom, but as time goes on more instruction is given by the special education team outside of the general education classroom (Giangreco, 2017, p 53).   There are six suggestions given on how to create a learning environment within the general education classroom that serves students of all abilities.  Some suggestions, such as see the person not the disability and individualize learning outcomes, are standard teaching practices (Giangreco, 2017, pp 54-55).  In this case, a real understanding of what a student's abilities are becomes even more important.  Creati...