SPED

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Guest Speaker: Kristy McGinnis

Agenda:

Set....words on board: 

- Broken/fix; sick/heal; behind/catch up, etc.  

- Society’s obsession with looks, language use, and behavior

History of SPED legislation (brief)

Current picture of services

Sensory activity

Debrief: Ways of knowing

Questions throughout and at end

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Some History
1960s 
Focus on racial issues/marginalized people --> civil rights movements

504 disabilities act: access to building, discrimination in workplace and schools, need for accommodations to show that they have skills to do jobs as well as others.

Technology developments a huge help in allowing people to show/communicate their knowledge in different ways

Parents grassroots movement--> demand better services for their kids 

1970s

 Public Law 94142 free access to education, no discrimination, supporting people with disabilities, set goals -pre cursor to IDEIA

Set Words - What are the opposites of...
Broken -- fixed

Sick -- healthy make well

Behind -- ahead-caught up

Medical model--> identifying & focusing on what's wrong and what needs to be fixed/cured

More recently the trend is to look more at whole person and how to provide support [i.e. sometimes cant fix but can provide skillsets to cope/adapt/function]

When IDEA came out, eligibility labels were needed in order to get services [503/IEP]. Downside is that labels tend to define people are [stigmatize].

IDEA Categories:

• Specific learning
• Intellectual/Cognitive
• ADHD
• Emotional/Mental Health
• Other health
• Physical
• Vision
• Hearing
• Speech/Language
• Autism
• Severe and Multiple
• Brain injury/TBI

SPED provides services and supports in terms of academics, physical, social, emotional etc. IEPs help set goals.
LD 75% of all 504/IEPs - LD often confused with intellectual disability

Increasingly see an educational model that includes a combination of GenEd plus Self-contained settings

Challenges:

Society obsessed with image, language usage [PC]

If people dont act the way we expect them to, we dont know how to accept that

Types of Supports

IDEA--> Early Intervention/ECE 0 to 3, 3 to 5 yrs support family not just child

IDEA/504--> School age to 18yrs  [504 =access to services but not full IEP, some accommodations but not modifications]

504--> School age through 21yrs transition focused: living, work, school goals to live as independently as possible

ESD--> Early intervention through 21yrs, for lower incidence disabilities. Provide services that smaller districts might not be able to afford on their own

Developmental Disabilities Services--> Health and Human Services

Activity

Get paper and pencil

Put on glove with something in it on hand you write with

Take spelling test while lights are flickered off and loud static noise is played in the background

Debrief

Feelings/Sensory?: anxious, auditory: couldnt hear, motivation dropped [write anything], physical discomfort, frustrating, lights can be distracting; tactile: salt in glove; all in same boat but what if it was just one student

-->Need to think of all the sensory aspects for teaching - Universal Design  for Learning -UDL

What could have been done to make the spelling test more supportive?

1. Tell students, this is not a test just want to see where you are

2. Put words in context - e.g. ring like the one on your finger - or an example that means something to student

3. Tell students that if needed words can be repeated i

4. Pause in between words
5. Describe what will happen and have students to take out paper, put 1 - 10 on the paper

6. During the test state Number 1 is [word]. Check if everyone got it. Go at a slow enough pace

Accommodations
If my student cant write, let them use an iPad or compute

Have words loose [cut out] and have student move the word or connect a line to show their understanding

UDL - Ways of Knowing

• cognitive
• sensory
• emotional
• physical/mobility
• social./communication
• biological

- can use this to think about how to adapt your lessons to address these different elements

UDL: designing environment to meet different needs: e.g.ramps, lighting in building metaphor

Other Tips

Need to ask what is the goal for this student being in my class? vs, why is this kid in my class [e.g.part or all of my curriculum, social, academics..]

Make friends with Special educator, OT, PT, counselor, IAs
Start building your learning community with everyone learns differently, need different support, same topic just may work on it in different ways.

Remember...  Behaviour = communication

Thermometer Metaphor 
- Natural for level to rise and fall and levels will vary depending on what is going on in our lives.
- SPED student tends to start at higher measure therefore have shorter fuse

- Teacher's job is to equip them with strategies for coping & learning
- Dont want total withdrawal or over escalation

Ask for support with behavioural issues.  
Try to figure out why behaviour is occurring.  
Ask, what does the student need? [e.g. what is the bully getting out of the behaviour