Educating Special Needs Students
Course Outline
Course Description
This course is designed for all educators and related providers who work with students with
learning disabilities, attention deficits (with or without hyperactivity), developmental delays,
behavior problems or other distinctive disorders. Participants will also gain understanding of
students with dyslexia, autism and multiple disabilities. Federal laws will be explored: IDEA, No
Child Left Behind (NCLB), and Section 504 of the Rehabilitations Act of 1973, along with many
required applications to the classroom.
Participants will develop a clinical eye toward all students (with or without an IEP) and will be
able to apply classroom accommodations, developmental teaching techniques and designed
modifications. Each course participant will organize and complete a case study based on one
selected student. We will review symptoms, describe individual deficits and customize an
educational plan that will accommodate that student's weakness. That plan will be put into effect
and monitored as per course assignment. Various group activities will be utilized to maximize
learning and provide interactions among participants.
Objectives
• Outline the history of special education, including current regulations and developments.
• Distinguish the roles of the classroom teacher and other educators within the parameters of
current regulations and developments.
• Appraise recent statistics concerning children with disabilities.
• Assess and recognize developmental delays and procedures that identify students with
special needs.
• Examine and recognize the 13 types of disabilities as defined by IDEA.
• Compare and contrast the characterizations of learning disabilities by comparing the
particular traits of each type of learning disability.
• Illustrate methods for adapting instruction.
• Compare and contrast numerous behavioral disorders that may be encountered in the
classroom environment.
• Evaluate, characterize, and recognize behavior modification plans, and locate resources that
are available to assist teachers in designing/utilizing those plans.
• Compare and contrast Section 504 (of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) and compare/contrast
it with IDEA.
• Appraise and distinguish between autism and other pervasive developmental disorders
(PDD).
• Characterize additional disorders and syndromes that he/she may encounter among future
students.
• Assess the role of the school-based intervention team in addressing behavioral issues.
• Appraise pre-referral strategies that he/she may adapt for use in his/her classroom.
• Examine the legally mandated timeline for progressing through the special education
referral process.
• Locate and research guidelines for referring his/her student(s) to the Committee of Special
Education (CSE) in his/her district.
• Appraise the regulations and provisions of the NCLB Act.
• Evaluate the changing roles and accountability practices applicable to all educators under
the NCLB Act.
• Compare National Assessment of Educational Progress and Adequate Yearly Progress.
• Interpret how special Education processes are aligned with the NCLB Act.
• Appraise strategies and devise plans specifically aimed at modifying curriculum and
instruction for students with special needs.
• Assess alternative teaching methods and strategies which provide adapted instruction for
students with special needs.
• Compare and contrast a multitude of approved testing modifications which are designated
for accommodating students with special needs.
• Design instruction that incorporates differentiations which characterize accommodations for
students with special needs.
• Assess opportunities for educators to form cooperative partnerships with administrators,
parents, and primary service providers that will provide the strength and support necessary
for maintaining a productive educational environment.
• Evaluate methodologies which promote favorable opportunities for advocating parental
support and involvement.
• Distinguish between various service providers who support classroom teachers in catering to
students with special needs.
• Appraise opportunities for educators to recognize all students’ potential, and to facilitate
intervention as is necessary to empower students to achieve success.
• Evaluate means of assessing the particular needs of his/her students, and develop habits that
exemplify sensitivity towards students (especially those with special needs) and how to best
support them in the educational environment.
• Characterize behaviors/practices that prioritize protection of vulnerable students by
comparing various methods/considerations which serve to promote high self-esteem within
students, especially those who exhibit waning or non-existent self-confidence.
Curriculum Design & Time Requirements
Educating Special Needs Students is a 3 credit graduate level or forty-five hour professional
development course taught on weekends or over five full days. The teaching methodology
behind this course will empower participants with a strong knowledge base while providing them
with necessary tools and strategies to identify and teach students with special needs. Participants
will apply course curriculum to a student case study that will be developed throughout the
sessions and presented to instructor as a final project.
Course Materials
The required textbook for this course is Commonsense Methods for Children with Special
Educational Needs- 7th Edition (Strategies for the Regular Classroom), written by Peter
Westwood and published by Routledge Falmer Press, London and New York. In addition, other
readings will be assigned during the course to enhance learning.
Session Outline
Session 1: Special Education in the Classroom
Objective: To introduce the history of special education including regulations and
developments; to define the role of classroom teachers within those parameters
Contents:
1. Definition and history of Special Education
2. IDEA law and regulations
3. Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
4. Mainstreaming
5. Necessary documents (The IEP and Psychological Report)
6. District/Teacher responsibilities
7. Common integration models
Session 2: Eligibility for Special Ed. Services and Possible Categories Therein
Objective: To outline procedures that identifies and assists students with special needs; to
review all categories of disabilities
Contents:
1. Criteria for eligibility
2. Developmental delays
1. Physical development
2. Cognitive development
3. Communication development
4. Social/Emotional development
5. Adaptive development
3. Categories of Disabilities (13)
Session 3: Learning Disabilities
Objective: To review the study of learning disabilities; to allow educators opportunities as
diagnosticians
Contents:
1. Types of Learning Disabilities
2. Classroom teachers as diagnosticians
3. Symptomatic checklist to facilitate educational diagnosis
4. Establishing a profile and developing a clinical eye
5. Group project
Session 4: Behavior Problems in the Classroom
Objective: To introduce the full gamut of behavior problems and facilitate plans for
improvements
Contents:
1. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
2. Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)
3. Conduct Disorder
4. Oppositional Defiant Disorder
5. Childhood depression
6. Section 504 (Of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973)
7. Medication
8. Behavior Improvement Plan (BIP)
9. Behavior modifications
Session 5: Autism and Other Distinctive Disorders
Objective: To review and distinguish the difference between Autism and other forms of PPD; to
outline a plan for a student case study
Contents:
1. Autism and PPD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder)
1. Definition
2. Criteria
3. Social issues
4. Communication concerns
5. Stereotypical Behaviors
6. Intervention/teaching method
2. Other distinctive disorders
1. Tourette's Syndrome
2. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
3. Selective Mutism
3. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Session 6: The Referral Process
Objective: To provide a timeline for making referrals and establishing criteria within that
timeline
Contents:
1. School-Based Intervention Team (SBIT)
2. Elementary and Secondary pre-referral strategies
3. The Special Ed. Referral timeline
4. The Committee of Special Education (CSE)
5. Being prepared, developing your file and presenting your case at CSE
6. Voting members and possible outcomes
Session 7: No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)
Objective: To introduce regulations and provisions of NCLB; to review changing roles and
accountability for all educators
Contents:
1. Facts and mandates
2. Student testing
3. National Assessment of Educational Progress (Nation's Report Card)
4. Adequate yearly progress (AYP)
5. Aligning Special Education with NCLB
6. New requirements for teachers and paraprofessionals
Session 8: Adapting/Modifying Curriculum
Objective: To provide educators with plans and strategies for modifying curriculum of all
special needs students
Contents:
1. Alternative ways of teaching
2. Suggestions for academic/related accommodations
3. Testing Modifications: Purpose and Eligibility
4. Modifying the Classroom
5. Practical Academic Strategies
6. Group project
Session 9: Building Partnerships
Objective: To strategize opportunities for cooperative partnerships that will strengthen and
support all educators
Contents:
1. Working with parents
2. Administrators lend a hand
3. Getting help from special care providers and support staff
4. Collaborative Teaching
5. Aides and Paraprofessionals
Session 10: Becoming Advocates
Objective: To offer opportunities for educators to become clinicians and advocates for all
students
Contents:
1. Developing sensitivity towards the special-needs student
2. Remember to honor the IEP
3. Rebuilding self-esteem
4. Protecting the vulnerable student
Grading
Assignment Points Grading Scale
Group & Classroom Participation 30 100 - 93 A
Reading Assignments 20 92 - 85 B
Case Study 30 84 - 77 C
Final Exam 20
Total Points 100
Student Requirements
1. Attend all class sessions, and participate in all class activities for the requisite number of
hours.
2. Complete all readings, reaction forms based on those readings and assignments in a timely
fashion.
3. Develop a case study based on one selected student with special needs. This study should
include academic history, described deficits/disabilities, social and behavioral observations,
and relevant, update testing. In addition, the study will include an educational plan that will
accommodate the specific weakness of that student.
4. Pass a final exam.
Student Academic Integrity
Participants guarantee that all academic class work is original. Any academic dishonesty or
plagiarism (to take ideas, writings, etc. from another and offer them as one's own), is a violation
of student academic behavior standards as outlined by our partnering colleges and universities
and is subject to academic disciplinary action.
1555 Howell Branch Rd., Suite C-206 I Winter Park, FL 32789
Office: 800.331.2208 I Fax: 407.536.6000
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