Special Educators and Mathematics Phobia: An Initial Qualitative Investigation

Special educators are uniquely challenged to be content experts in all curricular areas, including mathematics, since students in their case loads may require academic instruction in any area. However, special educators with math phobia may be limited in their ability to provide effective instruction to their students with mathematical deficits and/or needs, and may experience additional challenges in their professional and personal lives. This qualitative study sought to better understand the nature of math phobia in two special educators through extensive interviews, journaling, and observations in math experiences, with a number of primary themes identified. Several potential resolutions for the issues emerging from math phobia in special educators are identified and discussed

Use of Writing with Symbols 2000 Software to Facilitate Emergent Literacy Development

This paper outlines the use of the Writing with Symbols 2000 software to facilitate emergent literacy development. The program’s use of pictures incorporated with text has great potential to help young children with and without disabilities acquire fundamental literacy concepts about print, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary development, and comprehension. The flexibility and features of the software allow early childhood professionals to create a variety of early literacy tools for the classroom, including worksheets, storybooks, and interactive activities

Enhancing Language Learning Opportunities in Family Contexts for Young Learners With or At Risk for Communicative Developmental Delay: An Initial Investigation

Though the early years of life are critical for any child, this period may be especially crucial for young children who are at risk for or presently evidencing developmental delays. Bruder (2001) offered several rationales for the provision of early intervention. First, the earlier that children with such issues are identified and provided services, the greater the likelihood that the child will benefit. Early intervention services can reduce or eliminate developmental delays, moving children out of a risk category (e.g., from “Delayed” to “Typically developing”) (Glascoe, 2005). In addition to these immediate effects, early intervention can have a significant impact on the subsequent developmental status of the child (Barnett & Belfield, 2006). Second, families receive invaluable support from these early intervention services (Sandall, Hemmeter, Smith, & McLean, 2005). Indeed, the very conceptual foundation of the Individualized Family Services Plan (IFSP), the intervention plan developed and implemented for children up to age six who evidence developmental delays (as opposed to the school-age Individualized Education Program) is that it is the family as much as the young child who is need of support and services. Finally, Bruder (2010) concluded that early intervention programs offer economic advantages to schools and communities. As participants in these programs gain skills and enhance their developmental status, educational and post-school programs benefit from the decreased costs of special education and disability services support that would otherwise be required for school-aged children and adults with disabilities. The primacy of the role of the family in first identifying developmental delays and then providing support for interventions is difficult to overstate (Sandall et al., 2005). Families provide this support through collaboration with early intervention professionals by facilitating the early intervention at home, while providing supplemental opportunities for the child to practice emergent skills at home and in the community

A review of assistive technology and writing skills for students with physical and educational disabilities

In recent years effective instruction in reading for learners with physicaland educational disabilities has received great attention in the schools.However, instruction in the corollary skill of writing has received considerably less emphasis. This review paper notes that through the use of assistive technology, students with a variety of physical and educationaldisabilities can learn to effectively (a) plan and organize their writing,(b) draft and transcribe their work, and (c) edit and revise their narrativeand expository writing.With teachers increasingly being held accountable for the development ofliteracy skills in all students, including those students with physical and educational disabilities, schools are paying substantial and growing attention to reading. The expressive side of the literacy coin, writing skills, is arguably equally significant and worthy of instructional emphasis. However, there are growing indicators that writing has not received enough attention in the national educational reform debate (National Commission on Writing, 2003, 2006; National Writing Project & Nagin, 2006). Along with reading comprehension, writing skill is a powerful predictor of academic success (Graham & Perin, 2007), and is an effective means of developing higher-order thinking skills (National Writing Project & Nagin, 2006). Writing helps learners make sense of the world (e.g., “Letters from Ground Zero,” cited in National Commission on Writing, 2006). Yet to date the teaching of writing skills to students with disabilities, including physical disabilities, has not received the level of curricular emphasis that teaching reading skills has (Graham & Perin, 2007). For students with physical and educational disabilities, stronger writing skills offer a variety of benefits. These include (a) more successful academic inclusion outcomes, (b) transfer of improved literacy skills to reading, and (c) greater pass rates on high stakes academic testing. As more and more careers require greater levels of literacy skills, students with disabilities who are unable to write effectively may find themselves increasingly minimized in these adult roles. Writing is considered to be an essential “threshold skill” for hiring and promotion (National Commission on Writing, 2003), and is a basic requirement for participation in civic life and the global economy (Graham & Perin, 2007; National Commission on Writing, 2003). This paper reviews the use of a variety of assistive technologies in enhancing writing skills in students with physical and educational disabilities

Mentors Increasing Special Education Retention

Lack of effective professional mentoring and minimal ongoing support programs have been suggested as two primary contributors to the chronic shortages of special education teachers. Few programs have been designed to address these specific causes. In this article we describe TATERS, a partnership between a university special educator preparation program, a state Department of Education, and district level administrations designed to (a) develop effective mentoring systems, and (b) strengthen training and recruitment of preservice and new special education teachers, especially in rural areas

Assistive Technology User Groups and Early Childhood Educators

This article explores the potential of User Groups as a professional development venue for early childhood educators in developing operational and functional competence in using hardware and software components of an Assistive Technology (AT) Toolkit. User Groups are composed of varying numbers of participants having an interest in technology, and are led by one or more skilled facilitators who meet with participants across time to help them acquire and demonstrate new technology skill sets. A series of these groups were conducted with seven early education professionals serving young preschool children who were at risk or who had disabilities. The impact of these User Groups was examined using self-reports subsequent to User Group participation. Specific data were collected regarding the types of technologies that had been used, and the types of classroom instructional products that had been created and implemented in classrooms using the technologies. A discussion of the value of User Groups is presented

Assessment and Instruction in Developmental Disabilities: Selected Readings from Education and Training in Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities, 1966-2004

https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books/1191/thumbnail.jp

Inclusion and Employment in Developmental Disabilities

https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books/1192/thumbnail.jp

Foundations, Teachers, and Families in Developmental Disabilities

https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books/1197/thumbnail.jp