Simulations to Experience Learning, Attention, and Low Incidence Disabilities

From the MisUnderstood Minds website.  Activities and simulations that help one understand how these disabilities and challenges impact students.

• Attention Problems
• Reading Problems
• Writing Problems
• Math Problems

From National Center for Learning Disabilities

• Two Minutes in your Child's Shoes

Low Incidence

• Simulation of Visual Impairment
• Deafblindness Simulation
• Hearing Impairment

Other Resources

• Learning Disabilites and Challenging Behaviors: A Guide to Intervention & Classroom Management, Second Edition
• Essentials of Specific Learning Disability Identification 
• Creating Inclusive Learning Environments for Young Children: What to Do on Monday Morning
• How Difficult Can This Be? The F.A.T. City Workshop: Understanding Learning Disabilities

Math Teaching Technique

Math Teaching Technique
A teaching technique used to help students understand math by examining mistakes in a way that is confidential and engaging.

Link to Video on Teaching Channel.

Good old fashioned teaching; using assessment and feedback on errors.

Other Resources:
Curriculum-Based Assessment for Instructional Design: Using Data to Individualize Instruction (The Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools)

Designing Effective Mathematics Instruction: A Direct Instruction Approach (4th Edition)

Focus on Outcomes

As reported from the US Department of Education:

"To improve the educational outcomes of America’s 6.5 million children and youth with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education today announced a major shift in the way it oversees the effectiveness of states’ special education programs."

"Until now, the Department’s primary focus was to determine whether states were meeting procedural requirements such as timelines for evaluations, due process hearings and transitioning children into preschool services."  

Results-Driven Accountability (RDA) will focus on outcomes for students with disabilities.  As indicated in the article this is long overdue.  Through my experience, so much effort is placed on compliance and paperwork we don't focus on C&I efforts to improve student achievement for special education students.  I was hoping to see something related to other outcomes for student's with disabilities such as completing vocational programs that lead to employment rather than just reading and math test scores.  We are way off when it come to this.

The article also shows data related to states readiness for RDA and how students with disabilities fared on high stakes tests.


  Link to Article