Classroom hacks that actually work in a special education classroom setting. Tried and true methods from actual teachers. Read to learn more.
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If there is one I have learned in my years of working with paraprofessionals, it is that paras are teachers too. My paraprofessional is my right hand and my left hand. She is the glue that keeps us together. I realize that sometimes it is our first instinct to give them passive work because their
Are you constantly recreating your speech therapy goals, or looking for speech therapy goals for vocabulary, or looking for goals for autism? Look no...
These activities are perfect for Autism, Special Ed, Occupational Therapy, and Speech Therapy. Learning to sort is critical to language development. These are great activities for students with autism or special needs. After teaching students different categories in small and whole group settings pl...
Listen to this Special Ed Podcast with 15 great ideas for Functional Centers for students with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism in High School. Read more and subscribe today!
College. There are the courses that prepare you for the "textbook stuff", but nothing in the world prepares you for teaching quite like actually teaching does. Learn the special ed secrets, that things you don't learn in college, only at Mrs. D's Corner.
Special educators need a pretty large toolbox of strategies and resources to support our learners. So often, our students can have significantly diverse needs and levels. On any given day, special education teachers might need to take student reading data, modify a math assessment, teach science wit
IEP Goals that Work: Use our bank of IEP Goals—your go-to for measurable IEP goals, objectives, and strategies; download the PDF.
Do you want to work on life skills in your classroom? Are you looking for hands-on special education life skills activities that your students will love?
Special education classroom supply list. Ten must have items for setting up your new special education classroom. Links to free resources for new teachers.
These are my Visual Support Self-Management Cards. They have become a fantastic addition to my ever growing calm down area! These Support Cards I made a little bit bigger than the size of an index …
A social story is a simple description of how to behave and what to expect in a particular situation. Grab your 13 free editable social stories here to...
Autism and ADHD Icebergs in one download. There is a lot happening under the surface for both of these conditions. Posters show signs and symptoms we don't see for increased ADHD and Autism awareness and understanding. These posters show both the visible and invisible signs and symptoms for these of...
Strategies and supports for executive functioning challenges can make all the difference, especially for students who struggle with task initiation. This is such an important skill, since it's like the motor in allowing us to get started on all tasks and assignments. When someone is struggling to in
Use resources that make learning more manageable.
Throughout my years teaching middle school, I have had the experience of seeing many "work refusals". These are the situations when kids, for a variety of reasons, just refuse to start the work you give them. They might shut down and rest their head on their desk or lash out in anger, shouting about
An easy visual method to help teach a non verbal child how to read individual words. Using visual matching skills with pictures, words and objects.
Learn how to make sure that the breaks and reinforcement in your classroom are meaningful, explicit, and individualized for each student.
Creating adapted books is a lot of work. I found this wonderful website with over 400 free printable adapted books you can download. Read more...
These effective de-escalation strategies help parents, or caregivers, defuse meltdowns & outbursts in children. These de-escalation strategies will....
Explore the unique strengths that come with dyslexia, and how embracing cognitive diversity can lead to success in various fields and industries.
Click the following link to download this free handout . Developmental Sequence of Phonological Skills Teaching phonological and phonemic skills is such a critical component in helping our little learners acquire the necessary building blocks to become proficient readers and writers. Understanding the sequence of phonological/phonemic development and the approximate ages of mastery helps us to […]
The Secret to Understanding Sensory Behavior! When the sensory system is off, the brain focuses on obtaining or avoiding those sensations!
These effective de-escalation strategies help parents, or caregivers, defuse meltdowns & outbursts in children. These de-escalation strategies will....
Challenges with focus and attention can become a huge roadblock to learning for kids and young adults. Simply put, attention is critical to learning. If students can't focus on the lesson, they are going to struggle with understanding the new content. If students can't focus on the directions, they
This is a visual for how students work their way up the Reading Ladder. Kindergarten is working within the levels 1 and 2 throughout the year. When working with your child, please focus on these skills so that they have a solid reading foundation. Success is earned and needs to be worked for. Thank you to Katelyn's Learning Studio for this amazing resource.
The truth about four common misconceptions that people have about autism.
“Are you tired of the daily struggle to get your little one to practice good hygiene habits? or trying to Teach Functional life Skills to your young learners? Trust us, you’re not alone…
Dear Friends: This is my second post on processing speed. Last week, I addressed the definition, causes, assessment options, and revealed 5 ways that a slow processing speed can impact learning. This week, I discuss 7 power strategies for student success as well as reasonable accommodations in the classroom. A Quick Review: Processing Speed: The speed at which one makes sense of incoming information from the senses and then generates a response. Tests such as the WISC intelligence test and the Woodcock-Johnson IV Test of Cognitive Ability and Test of Oral Language offer subtests that assess some types of processing speed. A slow processing speed can be caused by any of the following: difficulties receiving and perceiving information through the senses, problems making sense of that information in the brain, and/or challenges producing a response or action. A slow processing speed can impact the understanding of oral and written concepts, note taking skills, homework completion, test-taking skills, reasoning with information, and completing classroom assignments in a timely fashion. How Can Processing Speed be Increased for Struggling Learners? Help students to learn memory strategies so that they can secure learning and access information from their memory banks at a faster pace. Play games that require players to work quickly in a time limit. Here are a few of my personal favorites. Rapid Automatic Naming and Processing Speed Activities MPower Executive Functioning Activities Library Spot It Hey What’s the Big Idea Blink Use online test preparation sites like Quizlet that can help students practice the content so that the brain develops the myelin sheath needed to transmit information along the nerves. Quizlet even offers a few game-like activities (Gravity and Match) where students can try to improve their speed of processing with the information they are learning. Use a metronome or play upbeat music or a timer. A metronome is a device that produces a beat, a click, or other sound at regular and consistent intervals. Slow beats can be calming, and a fast beat can increase processing speed and energy level. The trick is to use a metronome that allows a student to pick their own speed and sound preferences. If you are trying to increase processing speed, then the metronome can be increased slowly over time. To learn more about this as well as online metronome options CLICK HERE. In addition, a timer can be used to motivate some learners to stay on task and increase speed of processing. What’s more, if a student enjoys competing against themselves, then tasks can be broken into chunks and students can try to improve their speed of completion for each chunk. Develop the weak cognitive processing areas that slow down learning. When we make sense of the information that we see and hear, many people with slow processing struggle with weak visual and/or auditory processing. To address any deficit areas of processing, one can do activities to exercise these skills. We offer cognitive based products that address: Visual processing (many of these activities can be timed to improve processing speed). Auditory processing (many of these activities can be timed to improve processing speed). Executive functioning Activities Library (many of these activities can be timed to improve processing speed). Working memory (many of these activities can be timed to improve processing speed). Teach students efficient ways of completing tasks. Switching back and forth between assignments, for example, is a very inefficient way to complete homework. Instead, one can teach students the benefits of maintaining their attention on a single task until it is finished. Help learners manage distractions that pull their attention away from their work. For example, pings from social media, bleeps from a mobile phone or background noise from a TV or computer device can distract attention and slow processing speed. Therefore, helping students to create distraction-free environments can help them to focus their attention and improve processing speed so that they can get through assignments at a faster pace while improving their learning capacity. Help student overcome anxiety that is associated with learning or taking tests. Anxiety gets in the way of and slows processing of information. To learn some strategies, CLICK HERE. Click on the Image Below to View All Our Products that Can Strengthen Processing Speed Reasonable Accommodations for Students with Processing Speed Deficits When processing speed is documented to be a significant deficit and it impacts a student’s academic achievement, students can get reasonable accommodations as defined in an IEP or 504 plan. The following are a list of possibilities: Provide extended time for tests and assignments. Offer instruction at a slower pace and check for understanding. Provide a copy of the teacher’s notes. Give fewer homework problems. Allow extended time on standardized tests such as the ACTs and SATs. Help the student to use assistive technology such as voice to text, text to voice, and organizational apps such as Google Keep and Inspiration. Monitor the students planning, time management and organizational skills. If you would like to learn about other reasonable accomodations, CLICK HERE. I hope you found this helpful. Cheers, Erica Dr. Erica Warren is the author, illustrator, and publisher of multisensory educational materials at Good Sensory Learning. She is also the director of Learning to Learn, and Learning Specialist Courses. Blog: https://goodsensorylearning.com/blogs/news YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/warrenerica1 Executive Function Podcast: https://goodsensorylearning.com/pages/the-personal-brain-trainer-podcast-with-dr-erica-warren Store: http://www.Goodsensorylearning.com/ Courses: http://www.learningspecialistcourses.com/ Newsletter Sign-up: https://app.convertkit.com/landing_pages/694000
Looking for some super fun social skills activities for children with special needs? These printable lesson plans on social skills worksheets for autism pdf worksheets with a major focus on social situations and social cues are perfect!