How should teachers determine what instructional methods to use with students with mental retardation?
153283
This is a question that needs a very involved and specific answer, depending on the needs of the child.  Research the child's difficulties to find best practices in addressing the issues.  A general rule would be to never teach the child something he would have to "unlearn" later.  Teach the skills the child needs to know to be accepted, and as independent as possible.  Contrary to what some people say and believe, some different treatment is necessary -  different strokes for different folks, there is noting as unfair as the equal treatment of unequals, etc.  Lots of practice and repetition may be necessary.  Teaching basic life skills is essential.  What does the child need to know and what is the child capable of learning?
94413
The terms mild, moderate, or severe are trems the medical community likes to through out to help parents feel some sort of ease in their childs disability.  In concerns to the childs learning abitliy and how the teachers teach or treat students with learning disabilities, there should be not worries.  Let me explain... By law every student has the same right to an education without predjudice to their learning ability.  The student with a learning disability, (or his/her parents) need to let the school know that the student needs accomidation.  These accomidations are spelled out in every state and must be given to all who ask and are documented wtih a disability.  There are even accomidations for students that have no disabilities, that are required by law available for thier use.  Every school in the USA should have someone that works in Disability Support Services.  They will have all the information and acconidations avaliable for you. But Remember!!  YOU MUST ASK FOR ACCOMIDATIONS.  Once the advisor for disablity services has document the students needs, and gets it aproved by the state, a copy of that students accomidations is given to his/her instructors. The instructor are bound by law and the school to give those accomidation.\nAccomidations can range from:  extra time on test, private room for testing, scribe, lessons on tape, large text books,use of a calculator for ALL math, use of a computer.  This is a very short list of what may be available, but please don't give up.\nAs far as implications for the teacher, trust me there are NONE, we will do everything possible to help a student succeed, and I do mean everything,  Well except give them the answers.  Good luck, a disability support instructor.\nIn my site source, if you live in wisconsin (wi)type in your states initials.
342263
And this is in special education because.........?
728763
How would you teach your students to ask an intelligent question?
254658
The point of identifying students with disabilities is to provide "individualized instruction." As you may know this is operationalized in an IEP (Individualized Education Plan/Program). That means you aren't addressing the entire population of kids with disabilities. \n\nAs a result, the number of needs depends on the kid. I'm sure someone out there has come up with the idea there are "five basic needs" but it sounds pretty arbirary to me. I wouldn't trust the notion. The safest approach is to deal with each kid individually. It's probably best for the kid and avoids having to answer the question for all kids with disabilities.\n\nAlso, inclusion sometimes depends more on the skills of the "regular classroom" teacher than it does on the skills of the kid being mainstreamed.\n\nGood luck.
574684
In what context?\n\nIf you are asking about skill transfer and generalization for special needs students, specifically in the area of language, then what aspect are you asking about?\n\nSpoken and auditory receptiveness would best be answered by a speech-language pathologist.\n\nFor reading and writing, student motivation to learn and interest in the skills being taught greatly increases the rate of transfer to other subjects and environments.
1040432
In the Philippines, all I can do is offer you this website as a place to start:\n\nhttp://www1.worldbank.org/devoutreach/july05/textonly.asp?id=318\n\nIn the United States, special education is struggling between trying to maximize what is best for each individual student, with funding concerns and a lack of understanding from people not working directly with special needs students.\n\nhttp://www.wrightslaw.com/\n\n\nElsewhere, I know Britain failed to use inclusion successfully because the teachers weren't trained correctly.\n\nhttp://www.bcodp.org.uk/\n\nOther than that, I don't know.
851483
Pay attention to the way the teacher poses questions and then adapts the students' answers into follow-up questions. Watch how children respond to questioning as well as which children the teacher focuses on the most and least. How does the teacher's attention affect students not actively involved in the exhange? (i.e. does in encourage or discourage others from attempting to get involved?)\n\nLook at the way each area of the room is set up and determine how language instruction has been integrated. Also, ask yourself how the teacher integrates language (vocabulary building, grammar and usage) into other subject lessons.\n\nI'd have to know the grade level to be more specific. Hope this helps a little.
586538
Developmental approach -- Skills and knowledge are categorized by level of difficulty, and matched to physical and mental developmental readiness of the student. The teacher identifies which skills are missing, and teaches them based on student developmental readiness. The teacher controls the student's activities, environment, time, etc. to enable the student to learn the targeted skills. A very successful approach, especially when dealing with students with special needs.\n\nProgressive approach -- The teacher defines the environment and available activities, but the student determines if and what will be explored. A variety of skills and knowledge are made available for exploration. The teacher acts as a facilitator, suggesting, explaining, etc., but the student is entirely in control of his/her learning. A good approach for gifted education, but difficult to apply when dealing with students of any ability level who have low motivation.
871491
With out know which impairment the child has I can only offer a generalization.\n\nThink about the activity and which senses it involves.\nWhat do you want the child to learn?\nCan the activity be accomplished using other senses?\n\nThink of it like solving a puzzle and Try imposing the same impairment on yourself and experiment with different ways to achieve what effect you want.
366832
Your special education teachers, especially if you have one in your school (you certainly should have at least one in your district) who focuses on behavior disorders, should have information on behavioral and social skills task analysis, along with interventions that may be effective for each step.
629257
while I can not quote a theorist - they live in La la land - having not stepped a foot in a REAL classroom...but I know from teaching in special education...\n\nDo not yell!\nuse positive reinforcement techniques...like "I caught you being good (being smart, being kind, being well behaved...) then chart that on the chalk board - so other kids can see.\n\nmaybe reward the few kids that respond to this with a frozen Popsicle or fudge bar
1070132
If you have a teacher who is not following your child's IEP modifications (such as frequent prompting), report him/her to the principal. If the problems still exist, call a new IEP and demand that training for the teacher be included in the IEP...yes, teacher training can be listed and then must be done by the district. It looks like the teacher you are dealing with does not understand that the need for the prompting will not go away, and that it is not a matter of your child "learning to behave correctly." Yes, this teacher needs more training. Big time. As well as an attitude adjustment.\n\nUnfortunately, regular ed teachers are NOT prepared for dealing with disabilities in their classrooms. They take ONE "Intro to Special Education course" before they graduate, and then get NO continuing professional development training in disabilities, unless forced to by IEPs. \n\nThere are wonderful regular ed teachers out there who do have the instincts and/or go out and educate themselves, are open to information and are flexible in their classrooms so that special ed teachers and therapists can provide ideas and support....\n\nAnd there are regular ed teachers who just want to teach the packaged curriculum, and resent having to do anything outside the "routine."  They often see the behaviors and learning difficulties from their students with disabilities as willfulness rather than a manifestation of the disability. After all, most kids with disabilities have normal smarts.... and all the teacher sees is the normal smarts combined with the non-learning or not-on-task.... \n\nIt requires VOCAL PARENTS to change this... we special ed teachers, and the therapists, have no clout regarding the behavior of our colleagues. 99% of education laws and programs are set through lawsuits, not legislation.\n\nGo get 'em!
1186764
do you mean\n"by which methods do we learn best?"\n\nsuch as: lectures, reading, video, TV   etc
653780
Do you mean training to work with Severe and Profound children?\n\nHere are some links to help you get started:\nhttp://www.ashanet.org/index.php?page=sat\nhttp://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:liv2jf_QqikJ:www.internationalsped.com/documents/INDIA.doc+India+mental+retardation+child+education+program&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4\nhttp://journals.sped.org/EC/Archive_Articles/VOL.34NO.5MAYJUNE2002_TEC_Article-8.pdf\nhttp://dmoz.org/Reference/Education/Special_Education/Schools/
841618
This one's quite open ended.  First of all it depends on the learning disability.  If it's eyesight, glasses will help.  If it's concentration, studying for an hour, then taking a fifteen minute break, then going back to studying again may help.  If it's memorization, flash cards or music may help.  Identifying information with music is a great way to remember things.  If it's comprehension, work with the children to figure out what each piece of the story or text is saying.  \n\nIt's a case by case basis.  One solution won't work with every disability.  It also helps to have your smarter students aid the ones that are having trouble.  Many students resign trying to tackle a problem when an adult intervenes.   So, having someone their own age work with them makes things a little easier.  When fellow students help those that are struggling, there's a great chance to make friendships and both the student tutor and the struggling student learn the material even better.
520692
Oh, yes, that's a big one for me! I think special ed teachers should be better trained then they are. None of the ones I've seen seem to be trained on how to handle the behavior issues that go hand in hand with things like autism, adhd, odd, etc. I don't even agree with integration with kids with those disorders, to be honest. The type of socialization those happens in a regular classroom is not the kind of socialization that children with autism/pdd-nos need. I don't agree with the theory that you throw a child with social issues into a social setting to sink or swim, because all to often, they will sink. They can't force themselves to be social, no matter what we do. If schools were the cure all for social anxieties then we wouldn't have 'social misfits' in school, we wouldn't have shy people, there would be no such thing as introverts. So, it's a failed philosophy, and I think they should be in smaller, special ed classes where the teachers have received MUCH MORE TRAINING than what they are getting now, so they know how to deal with each individual dx and work with them. So, yes, it stands to reason that general teachers should have the same training if they're going to have special kids in there class. It's not fair to expect the kids to react normally when they don't have the skills to do so, to me, that's just cruel. Most of these disorders have sensory issues that make it so hard to perform in a classroom, and those are not addressed in school therapy too often. I chose to homeschool my kids long before my Tim came along with autism/pdd-nos (they're not sure of which dx), but having him, and learning about his needs and his limits confirmed in me to homeschool him, I feel it's the best thing in the world for him. He still socializes, but it's on his terms. I know he can only handle it for about an hour, then he tantrums, so we stay within that guideline. He was on a bowling league this last season and it was about an hour, and he did WONDERFULLY. Anything longer, and it would have been a nightmare!