Despite the prevalence of students with learning disabilities (LD), athletic coaches face challenges in recognizing and effectively supporting the needs of athletes with LD due to lack of professional development in this area. Sometimes referred to as a "hidden disability", LD is not easily perceived by teachers and coaches. Students…

Despite the importance of reading comprehension, many secondary students with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) struggle with this skill. Students with ID also experience greater challenges in foundational literacy skills (i.e., skills related to phonological awareness) and the cognitive skills temporal processing and nonverbal reasoning (Van…

Although many students struggle to comprehend text, some populations of students are particularly impacted. Students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for example, perform lower on working memory measures, which can make reading comprehension even more difficult (Gropper & Tannock, 2009). Inattention, specifically, appears…

Sometimes, despite the most perfectly delivered writing lesson implemented with fidelity, students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) do not make the progress expected by teachers or themselves. In these instances, teachers may individualize and differentiate for students with EBD not making adequate progress by purposefully…

Although many teachers hold generally positive views of using disability literature with children to support the development of more inclusive communities and schools (Beneke & Cheatham, 2020), little is known about how teachers work with families and address concerns families may have about using such literature. What follows are three…

Schools and teachers must create optimal instructional learning environments for increasingly diverse student populations. Achieving such a learning environment requires teacher educators and teachers to recognize the voices and ways of knowing for students with dis/abilities who must be heard and accorded legitimacy. The purpose of this case…

Studies have shown the benefits of fingerspelling on literacy skills in school-age deaf and hard-of-hearing students. This study is an observation of 20 first- and second-grade classrooms. The classroom observations were coded for fingerspelling event frequency, type, length, and whether it was chained to print. The observations showed that…

This book provides new and experienced Special Educational Needs Coordinators (SENCOs) with a critical approach to understanding the importance of outstanding leadership of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and how to effectively meet the current SEND policy requirements. Closely informed by the statutory guidance for SENCOs, this…

Individualized education plans (IEPs) have the potential and responsibility of providing individuals with the highest level of learning opportunities. In this guide, discover the essential steps and vital understandings for team members to create student-centered IEPs. This book simplifies the IEP writing process and provides practical strategies…

Fractions are an imperative skill for students to master to achieve success in future mathematics concepts and classes. Yet many students, especially those experiencing math difficulties and/or characteristics of emotional and behavioral disorders, continue to exit elementary school without a concrete foundation of fractions skills required to…

The purpose of educational assessments is to provide an academic check-up and to give educators and parents meaningful information on what students know and can do, and how well they are progressing toward college and career readiness. Assessments strive to show how well students perform on clearly defined standards and skills that are being…

Students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) struggle to acquire and develop writing skills. To support their students' unique needs, it is important for teachers to monitor student writing progress to make instructional decisions based on data. In this article we describe methods for progress monitoring focused on…

Efforts to implement high-quality communication instruction for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and complex communication needs (CCN) may be difficult for some educators with limited time and resources. In this article, we offer guidance on implementing several economic strategies that can be easily embedded into existing classroom…

High-Leverage Practices (HLPs) are a deceptively simple concept in the field of education. On the one hand it is amazing to have a list of key practices that all teachers should learn and be able to implement when teaching students of all backgrounds and ability levels, including those with disabilities. On the other, teaching is rarely simple,…

The purpose of this article is to describe how to teach students to use smartpens to record notes in their classes. Notetaking is a complex cognitive process that requires students to listen, process, organize, and record notes, while dealing with the temporal demands of trying to record notes fast enough to keep up with the teacher. Fortunately…