Andrea Erickson Interview

Not only are these students are a mixture of different grade levels, but they have a mixture of disabilities such as Emotional Behavior Disorder, ADHD, Specific Learning Disabilities in Math/Reading, Mild Intellectual Development, and Speech Impairment. Although my class is small, I am full of students with varying cognitive abilities, maturity levels, and academic strengths and weaknesses. My job is to enhance their academic support in the subject of need because they cannot be fully supported in a general education classroom setting.

Helping Children with Learning Disabilities Understand What They Read is an article by Regina G. Richards. Her article discusses the basic strategies and techniques that can be used for students with learning disabilities. The article states, a key component of comprehension is that the student must be actively

In order for students with disabilities to be working towards the same standards as their classmates, they need to receive appropriate accommodations and modifications. To identify how a student will access

General education teachers often need support in their classrooms from special education teachers and paraprofessionals (Jung, Gomez, Baird, & Keramidas, 2008). Teachers are accountable for documenting the use of the accommodations. The general education teacher should meet with Joseph’s special education teacher to discuss the accommodations and model ways to implement them. Joseph should also be responsible for his role in understanding what his accommodations are, and if they are not being followed, be taught how to politely ask the teachers

In 2002, the President’s Commision on Excellence in Special Education report stated that many students are “placed in special education are instructional casualties and not students with disabilities. They noted that almost half of all children in special education were identified as having a learning disability, and this group has grown since 1976. 80% of those students with learning disabilities are there “ simply because they haven’t learned how to read.” Thus, many children receiving special education because they weren’t taught to read, and few close the achievement gap (President's Commision on Excellence in Special Education, 2002).

Some strategies for students with learning disabilities might be seating that student near other classmates or teaching assistant who may help them focus in school, avoid distractions, show organization and set schedules that way the student can get used to the daily routine and avoid confusion, or

During the study of this module, textbook readings were commonly read throughout the class sessions, and the topics in the book were frequently raised again during class discussions. The readings and discussions have helped me to gain an insight on the difficulties families with children with special needs are currently facing, and what can be done to aid their situations. Before embarking on this module, I never knew there was such a large number of children who required special needs, as well as the large number of them who were not getting the proper treatment and care needed. Through the readings provided, I learnt further on how much work was required to provide adequate care and attention to

There seems to be an assumption that the metacognitive skills on which RT activities are based are less accessible to intellectually disabled students (Alfassi, Weiss, & Lifshitz, 2009). Challenging this assumption, research by Lundberg and Reichenberg (2013) looked at the effectiveness of RT in 13 to 18-year-old Swedish students with intellectual difficulties. All students were identified as mildly intellectually disabled and a few had additional diagnoses such as autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or Turner’s syndrome. Participants were divided into one of two intervention conditions, RT or inference teaching (IT) and there were no significant differences between treatment groups in age, gender, language background, or diagnoses. In the RT condition, students practiced Palincsar and Brown’s (1984) reading strategies and in IT students practiced answering inference questions. IT included many of the same elements as the RT condition, but lacked the emphasis on strategies and students practiced answering questions instead of generating questions. Therefore, the authors hypothesized that the RT condition was more active and would have a larger effect on comprehension. Tests covering multiple components of reading comprehension were conducted before and after the 8-week long, 16 session

In my discussion with Fry, she stressed the importance of maintaining an open line of communication with the families. Emails and phone calls are the best way to reach out to parents. Courtney Fry (special education teacher) in discussion with author, October 2106, says “I try to address any issues or concerns with parent’s way before an office referral and/or yearly IEP meeting. I think it’s very important to check in with parents frequently to help build trust and establish and open line of communication.” I asked Fry about the importance of supporting the families of students with disabilities. She said there are many services and activities available for students and families within the community. Courtney Fry (special education teacher) in discussion with author, October 2106, said, “Robin’s Nest, My Sisters Kids, Complete Care and Easter Seals have all been resources that help our families.”

However, the authors indicated several limitations of the study. The primary limitation of this study involved only two culturally and linguistically diverse students. Because of this, it is difficult to extent this finding can be generalized to other groups of students. Another limitation was the way of reading comprehension assessment. The authors recommended that future research would assess students’ reading comprehension ability using depth method such as answering open-ended questions, retelling or writing a summary. Despite the limitations, the results of this study indicated that teachers could use self-questioning intervention for individual learners with disabilities at different age, level, and other content

What do we do with children with disabilities in the public school? Do we include them in the general education class with the “regular” learning population or do we separate them to learn in a special environment more suited to their needs? The problem is many people have argued what is most effective, full inclusion where students with all ranges of disabilities are included in regular education classes for the entire day, or partial inclusion where children spend part of their day in a regular education setting and the rest of the day in a special education or resource class for the opportunity to work in a smaller group setting on specific needs. The need for care for children with identified

The focus on least restrictive environment, and not singling out students with disabilities, has manifested in a desire to see all students succeed in the general classroom. General classroom teachers often do not have the time and support necessary to provide individualized, intensive instruction to multiple students in addition to general education duties. Too often this means that students with learning disabilities slip through the cracks and do not receive adequate instruction, or achieve their academic potential (Fuchs et al. 13). Students with disabilities are just not getting the small group or individualized, high quality, specialized instruction with consistent monitoring and feedback that is necessary to meet their specific needs (Eller et al. 84). Thankfully, a new answer may be emerging to counter these persistent

Students with disabilities are to be mainstreamed into a general classroom to be included in the same learning as other students. Teachers need to be willing to help all students learn and succeed.

The second observation is of parents with a child with some known learning disabilities. These learning disabilities were discovered at the young age of about 6 years old. The school was aware of the problems that the child had and gave assistance in his learning. The parents were also aware of problems and were dedicated to assisting with his work at home also. This child received the help he needed at school and at home with his education. This child grew up and successfully achieved academically and furthered his education. This observation occurred before the No Child Left Behind Act was passed.

The article discussed several factors that impact the learning process of students with learning disabilities. Along with a presentation and analysis of these factors, authors also provided a vast amount of evidence from previous research studies conducted by investigators from the past ten to twenty years regarding the subject matter. While discussing the background related to reading difficulty, the authors point out that there has been an increased diagnosis of learning disabilities over the past twenty years (p. 114). It was also stated that over 2,887,217 school-aged children receive services for learning disabilities due to developmental delays in reading (p.113).