8 Types of Visual Processing Disorder:

1. Visual Discrimination
Issues seeing the difference between similar letters, shapes, or objects

2. Visual Figure-ground discrimination
Struggle to distinguish a shape or letter from its background

3. Visual sequencing
Find it difficult to see shapes, letters, or words in the correct order
may skip lines or read the same line over and over

4. Visual-motor processing
Trouble using what they see to coordinate with the way they move
May struggle to write within lines or bump into objects while walking

5. Long Term or short term memory issues
Struggle to remember shapes, symbols, or objects they’ve seen, causing issues with reading and spelling

6. Visual-spatial issues
Trouble understanding where objects are in space
unsure how close objects are to one another

7. Visual closure
Difficulty identifying an object when only parts of it are showing.

8. Letter and symbol reversal
Switch numbers or letters when writing

Some facts about Visual Processing Disorder

• Also known as visual perceptual processing disorders
• Visual processing disorders are lifelong and do not go away over time.
• Visual processing disorder is different from dyslexia. dyslexics struggle to connect letters with sounds, those with visual processing disorder struggle to understand visual information.
• VPD is a distinct issue from visual impairments or blindness. VPD has nothing to do with the quality of one’s vision (a student may have 20/20, or see with glass, and may or may not have this disorder)
• Those with VPD typically do well in school and their careers, but they may require assistance to succeed.
• VPD can be aided with nutritional supplements and neurotherapy.
• There are eight different kinds of VPD

Common difficulties:

• Misunderstanding or confusing written symbols
• Easily distracted, especially by competing visual information
• Writing within margins or on lines or aligning numbers in math problems
• Judging distances
• Fluidity of movement
• Differentiating colors or similarly shaped letters and numbers

#1 Make sure everything you write or use a visual aid for, you also said out loud
Say all directions and describe assignments out loud.

#2 Provide narration for any visual presentations or videos

#3 Build in time to summarize the important information from each lesson.

#4 Worksheets and handouts should be clear and uncluttered with few or no nonessential images or designs
Give plenty of space between each question or problem.

#5 Use a reading guide strip or a blank index card to block out other lines of text while reading.

#6 Provide a highlighter for students to use to highlight information when reading.

#7 Use audiobooks or text-to-speech software for any readings

#8 Provide wide-ruled paper and darken or highlight lines and margins to help form letters in the right space.

#9 Provide graph paper (or lined paper to be used sideways) to help line up math problems.

#10 Provide a copy of class notes so that the student does not need to struggle to create notes.

#1 Allow oral reporting instead of written responses.

#2 Allow the student to submit answers on a separate sheet of paper rather than on fitting them into small spaces.

#3 Reduce visual distractions by folding a test or using blank pieces of paper to cover up part of the page.

#4 Provide extended time on tests.

#5 Provide a quiet room for tests if needed.

Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), also known as Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) is a disorder of the auditory (hearing) system that causes a disruption in the way that an individual’s brain understands what they are hearing. It is not a form of hearing loss, despite that students with APD will have difficulty with hearing-related tasks.

As of 2014 IDEA categorizes CAPD as being recognized within the larger category of “Other health impairment”

What students with CAPD may experience:

• Auditory figure-ground: Students have difficulty deciphering important audio when there is background noise or other audio information occurring simultaneously.
• Auditory closure: Students cannot use heuristics to fill the gaps in missed speech.
• Dichotic listening: Students cannot decipher 2 sources of speech occurring simultaneously.
• Temporal processing: Timing delays in this system has negative effects on the following:
• recognizing differences in speech sounds (such as mat versus pat).
• understanding pitch and intonation (question vs. command)
• understanding riddles and humor
• Understanding inferences
• Binaural interaction: Students cannot distinguish the locality of sounds

Some common difficulties experienced by those with CAPD:

• Significant difficulty understanding speech, especially in the presence of background noise
• Difficulty following multi-step directions that are presented verbally, without visual cues
• Easily distracted by loud or spontaneous (sudden) sounds
• Difficulty attending to long lectures or other long periods of listening
• Difficulty remembering and/or effectively summarizing information presented verbally
• Difficulty reading, spelling, and/or writing when compared to their peers
• Performs consistently below grade level in language arts.
• Trouble following abstract thoughts or ideas
• Delayed or misunderstanding of jokes, idioms, and figurative language

#1 Reduce background noise whenever possible.
Reduce the amount of background noise and echo present, such as music, fans, or even open windows letting outside sounds in.

#2 Use devices
such as a mic and PA or an FM system so that the child can hear the teacher more clearly.

#3 Strengthen other supportive skills

• like memory
• problem-solving
• organization
• etc

#4 Speech Language Therapy
Speech therapy can help students recognize sounds and improve conversational skills.

#5 Speak as clearly as possible
Speak more slowly.

#6 Face the student with APD when talking to them, especially when giving them personal instructions.
This helps give students visual clues to "fill in the gaps" of missing speech information.

#7 Use "chunking" for your speech
Give simple verbal directions with fewer words, and fewer steps.

#8 CFU
Ask the student to repeat the directions back to you to ensure that they understand.

#9 recorded lessons for later review

• Write down directions to be completed later
• using calendars with visual symbols
• maintaining steady routines and procedures

#10 Close Captions
Many kids with CAPD find using close captions on videos and computer programs helpful.

#1 Reduce background noise when instructions are given
Reducing background noise is extremely important for students with CAPD. It’s about creating an environment where every word can be heard and understood.

#2 Use a reader / scribe
This can help the student with CAPD comprehend text. Students with CAPD have trouble with reading comprehension.

#3 Visual and Written Supports
Visual cues and written support for any verbal instructions are very helpful

#4 Preferential Seating
Preferential seating means choosing the best spot in the classroom for the student to hear and understand information clearly.

#5 Extra Time
Allowing extra time can alleviate the stress for students with CAPD.

Learning Disabilities → The imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do math calculations.

IDEA defines Specific Learning Disability = a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written

• This is the largest disability
• 35% of all students with disabilities have Specific Learning Disability
• ⅔ male
• Black and hispanic are overrepresented

A student has a learning disability if:

• Includes:
• Perceptual disabilities
• Brain injury
• Minimal brain dysfunction
• Dyslexia
• Developmental aphasia
• Excludes
• Visual impairment
• Hearing impairment
• Motor disability
• Intellectual disability
• emotional disturbance
• Disadvantage: environmental, cultural, economic

Both inclusions and exclusions must be met.

Students with learning disabilities demonstrate low achievement in one or more areas yet are average or above average intelligence

80% of students with learning disabilities experience reading challenges, including:

• Phonemic analysis
• Word identification
• Reading fluency
• Reading comprehension

Characteristics of Dyslexia:

• Difficulty in learning to read, write, spell, and do arithmetic
• Difficulty in following oral and written instructions.
• Cramped or illegible handwriting
• Difficulty in staying on task
• Easily distracted
• Confusion in sequence of letters and symbols
• Delayed spoken language
• Confusion about directions in space or time
• High level of frustration
• Difficulty in retaining information
• More than average test-taking anxiety
• Increased or reduced energy level
• Immaturity

Characteristics of Reading Comprehension Disorder:

• Challenges with basic reading skills such as word recognition
• Difficulty understanding the important ideas in reading passages
• Frequent frustration with reading tasks
• Little trouble reading aloud but might read with little variance in tone
• Problems remembering significant details of what they've read

#1 Orton-Gillingham Approach for Teaching Reading

• This approach has stood the test of time (developed in 1930s)
• Combines explicit instruction with multisensory methods
• Sequential skill building
• Mastery of skills to drive automatic responses
• “overlearning” via many methods
• regular progress monitoring
• Can be used at all 3 tiers of instruction

#2 Peer Tutor
Match the student with a peer that can help the student with questions.

#3 Include the student in the IEP conference
This can help ensure that the team collaboratively addresses issues that the student has, such as social issues.

#4 Progress monitoring
Make sure the student is aware of their academic progress. Use curriculum-based measurement

#5 Mentoring
Give the student an opportunity to mentor other students that are struggling. Responsibility can be a big motivator.

#6 Offer learning choices
When students have choices about how they are engaging, they are more likely to take ownership over the process.

#7 L-shaped Cards
L-Cards can be used to cover up text in a textbook so that the reader can focus on a small set of words. Viewing too much text can be overwhelming.

#8 Incorporate Language instruction in all activities
All instruction can be used to teach language. Make sure you are not just teaching academic vocabulary, but also tier 2 and tier 1 vocabulary.

#9 A variety of means of feedback

• Written feedback on papers / quizzes may be difficult to parse
• Give feedback orally
• Give feedback in the form of a vide

#10 Use formative assessment
Checks for understanding can help ensure that your student is keeping up with the class.

#1 Extra Time
Students may need extra time to process language on tests.

#2 Assistive technology
It may be necessary for students to hear a passage read aloud in order to comprehend it

#3 Teach the mechanics of the test
Make sure the student knows what is being assessed and how it will be assessed
Students with Dyslexia or other disabilities can have increased anxiety around testing

#4 Provide typed notes
This will aid students that cannot listen and write at the same time

#5 Communicate with parents
Make sure the parents know that a test is coming and what will be on it
They may be able to help the student effectively study for the test.

IDEA defines:
Speech and Language Disorder: a communication disorder such as stuttering, impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment that adversely affects the child’s educational performance.

Speech includes non-verbal cues - body positions, head movements, etc
Speech Disorder = refers to difficulty producing sounds
Includes

• Articulation
• Most common
• Child cannot correctly produced the various sounds and combinations of sounds
• Omissions - leaving out a sound
• Distortions - altering a sound
• Apraxia is a motor speech disorder that results from trauma or injury.
• Inconsistent speech errors
• More errors as speech gets longer
• Prosody =Stress on the wrong syllables
• Voice
• Relationship between pitch, duration, intensity, resonance and vocal quality
• Pitch = rate of vibration of the vocal cords
• Duration = length of time any individual speech sound requires
• Intensity = (Volume) Determined by the air pressure coming from the lungs through the vocal folds
• Resonance = (Timbre) The quality of someone's voice
• Hypernasality- more air goes through the nasal cavity
• Fluency
• Fluent speech is smooth, flows well, and appears to be effortless
• Fluency problems:
• Interruptions to the flow
• unsteady rate or rhythm
• Repetitions of sounds/syllables/words/phrases
• Includes:
• Hesitations
• stuttering/stammering
• Use of fillers
• The cause of stuttering is not known

Receptive language disorder = difficulty understanding or receiving ideas
expressive language disorder = difficulty formulating ideas

Phonological disorders:

• Students cannot discriminate between different speech sounds
• i.e. Pin vs pen
• Cannot identify rhymes

Morphological disorders

• Cannot use the modular structures of language to convey meaning
• Making errors related to verb tense or plurality
• Can be associated with Intellectual disability, autism, hearing loss, expressive language delay

Syntactical Disorders

• Messing up word order: “Where one them park at?”
• Simplistic sentences: “Him Sick”
• Misusing negatives or omitting structural elements

Semantic disorders

• Difficulty parsing meanings for words with multiple definitions
• Difficulty with words that express:
• time & space
• Cause and effect
• inclusion/exclusion
• Limited vocaularies

Pragmatic disorders

• Difficulty with the social use of language
• Not allowing others to speak
• Comments are unrelated to the conversation
• Can be related to autism or trauma

#1 Interact properly with Students with speech / language disorders
If a student is reserved or shy, do not:

• Avoid interactions with the student
• Hurry the student

• give approval for their contributions, making sure they know their contribution is valuable
• Offer multiple choice responses for spoken questions

#2 Ensure students can interact with their peers
“It is important to consider the social element of the school setting”
students need not only CALP but also BICS

#3 UDL Framework
Use the UDL framework to decrease barriers for your students

• Ask “How can I ensure that my students understand what I am teaching?”
• Ask “How can I ensure that my students can express what they know?”
• Vary the format of information
• Vary the ways that students demonstrate their knowledge

#4 Help students identify what language is not correct
This could be modeling, natural response, or feedback

• Focus contrasts: Identify the difference between correct and incorrect speech
• Recast: Restructure the child’s utterance with the proper syntax
• Expansions: Fill in missing words, etc

#5 Modeling new language:
Model a particular language structure the child does not use

#6 Event Casts
Speak out loud to describe an event as it is occurring

#7 Open Questions
Ask open ended questions so that the student is forced to structure a complete sentence.

#8 Ecological Inventories
What are the communication demands that exist in a given environment?

1. Description of the activity you are observing
2. What language peers are using to participate or contribute
3. Why the students need to communicate
4. How the students are communicating their response (verbal, written)
5. How your student may communicate in order to participate

#9 Visual supports

• Graphic Organizers
• Visual schedules
• Visual timers

#10 AAC language input strategies
System for augmenting language (SAL) / aided language stimulation

#1 Make sure that the student can understand the language the test uses, and they can respond in kind
You may be unintentionally assessing a student's ability to communicate as opposed to their knowledge of the material.

#2 Clear instructions
Assessments should be provided in a manner that assists the student's comprehension of the directions

#3 multiple choice questions
If a student has trouble with expressing themselves, multiple choice questions may be ideal

#4 use visual aids
This can help students demonstrate their knowledge if language is a barrier

#5 allow extra time
Students may need extra time to process questions or construct language based responses.

ADHD is categorized as as “Other Health Impairments” with IDEA

The definition of 'Other Health Impairments':
Having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that:

• Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, add, adhd, diabetes, etc.
• Affects a child’s educational performance

School professionals refer to the DSM-5 for the definition.
4 criteria:

1. Must occur before the child is 12
2. Occur in 2 or more settings
3. Not be explained by another disability
4. Interfere with the child’s functioning in typical environments

3 types:

• Predominantly Inattentive Type
• Predominantly Hyperactive Type
• Combined

Predominantly Inattentive Type
Students must exhibit 6 or more of the following (as failures):

• Paying attention to details / making careless mistakes
• Paying attention to academic and social activities
• Listening when someone speaks directly to them
• Following instructions / finishing tasks
• Organizing tasks and activities
• Sustaining mental effort
• Keeping track of necessary supplies
• Avoiding distractions
• Remembering daily activities

These students often display

• Boredom
• Lack of motivation
• self-consciousness
• Anxiety
• Mood disorders
• Struggles with academic achievement

Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type
6 or more of the following STRUGGLES:

• Keeping hands feet still
• Staying seated
• Resisting running or climbing in appropriate situations
• Participating quietly in leisure
• Resisting being constantly on the go
• Talking excessively
• Blurting out answers prematurely
• Waiting for a turn
• Interrupting others

These students display:

• Fidgetiness
• In motion
• Impulsivity
• Difficulty in deferring gratification
• Withholding an inappropriate behavior
• Blurting out answers or comments

Combined Type

• This is the most common
• Contains features of both inattentive and hyperactive
• 10% of all children have ADH

ADHD can causes deficits with Executive function such as:

• Working memory challenges
• Holding info in memory while remember what to do with that info
• Attending to distractions rather than staying focused
• Goal-directed attention and persistence challenges
• Determining what to do next
• Experiencing more problems with planning for the future than with the present
• Inhibition challenges
• Moving around, talking too much, touching others
• Preferring immediate results rather than working hard for later results
• Problem-solving challenges
• Generating multiple options for overcoming barriers
• Developing an action plan to reach a solution
• Reduced capacity for self-regulation

Intellectual Functioning
Majority of students with ADHD are average IQ, but lower IQ then their siblings

Academic achievement
Lower academic achievement, lower GPA, low retention rates. ADHD is usually comorbid with a Learning disability (50%)

Behavioral, Emotional and Social Characteristics

• Children with ADHD are 11 times more likely than their peers without ADHD to experience oppositional defiant disorder and/or conduct disorder
• Difficulty regulating negative emotion
• Fewer close friends, more peer rejection

#1 Peer Acceptance Program
A Behavioral Intervention Plan was not as effective for ADHD students as a BIP plan in combination with a program to strengthen social connections.

#2 Homework, organization, and planning skills (HOPS)
This is a program that is used to teach organization skills.
Including:

• School material organization
• Homework recording and management
• Time management

#3 Take frequent breaks
Allow students time to reset.

# 4 Adjust seating for ADHD

• Place ADHD students near students that are good role models
• Place ADHD students in distraction free zones

# 5 Give responsibility to students with ADHD

• Assign roles that they can be proud of
• Have these students run errands and do jobs in the classroom

#6 Enhance organization in the classroom

• Color coding for binders/notebooks
• Clearly marked locations to store personal belongings
• Have parents sign homework when it is completed
• Have students write a homework to-do list
• Use devices for reminders
• Guide students through large scale assignments
• Have students develop an action plan

#7 Enhance time management

• Communicate with parents about how much time homework should take
• Encourage students to work for a time and then take a break
• Delete peripheral work and make sure students focus on what is relevant
• Have students use timers, stop watches, etc.

#8 Teach the rules
Provide instruction at the level of intensity necessary on school rules and expectations

#9 Enhance motivation

• Enliven the learning of content through music, art, etc
• Pair adhd student with classmates that are goal oriented through transitions
• Divide assignments into smaller portions and provide incentives for each portion
• Reinforcement will need to be more frequent and immediate
• Teach concepts with visual / auditory / and kinesthetics
• Teach students to make transitions between classrooms

#10 Creatively obtain attention
Use a method that is unique to your classroom to attain the attention of the students

#1 Break an assessment into parts
Give students a break in between sections so that they have a chance to reset their focus.

#2 Encourage studying at home.

• Encourage students to study in advance of test
• Teach them how to study well
• ADHD students should study across multiple days to avoid cramming.

#3 Nutrition, Rest, Hydration
Prior to a test, make sure students are:

• Well rested (speak with parents)
• Hydrated (water break)
• Well fed (snack break)

#4 Prior physical activity
Take a break, or do a very physical activity before the test. This helps ensure focus for students with ADHD

#5 Wear earplugs or headphones to block distraction
This could be simply sound reduction or using simple music to obscure possible distractions.

IDEA: “Significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during developmental period, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance.”

• Limitations in intellectual functioning
• Limitations in adaptive behavior - conceptual, social, and practical skills
• Origination of intellectual disability before age of 18

American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD)
Five assumptions:

1. Limitations in present functioning must be considered within the context of community environments typical of the individual’s age, peers, and culture.
2. Valid assessment considers cultural and linguistic diversity as well as differences in communication, sensory, motor, and behavioral factors
3. Within an individual, limitations often coexist with strengths
4. An important purpose of describing limitations is to develop a profile of needed supports
5. With appropriate personalized supports over a sustained period, the life functioning of the person generally will improve

Students with Intellectual disability have the following support needs:

• Memory
• In short term, long term, and working memory
• Memory training can improve memory skills
• Generalization
• Transfer of skills from one domain to another
• “Environments influence capacities” - AAID
• Motivation
• Students are more externally oriented (I’m not sure how this is directly related to motivation)
• Feel like they do not have control over their lives
• Less hopeful for the future

Students may have limitations in adaptive behavior:

• Conceptual skills:
• Language (receptive and expressive)
• Reading / writing
• Money
• Self-direction
• Social skills
• Responsibility
• Self-esteem
• Gullibility
• Compliance with rules
• Practical skills
• Daily living
• Occupational skills
• Maintenance of safe environments

#1 Embedded instruction

• instruction that occurs throughout the day
• This is a research based technique
• This practice has emerged from applied behavior analysis (ABA)
• Learning outcomes are made clear
• Instruction is planned and purposeful
• Instruction occurs within typical routines or activities
• Instructional opportunities are distributed across the day in a planned, scheduled manner

#2 Self-Determination Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI)
This model of instruction helps improve self-determination in students with Intellectual disability
“Teaching students to teach themselves”

3 Phases of SDLMI:

1. What is my goal?
2. What is my plan?
3. What have I learned?

#3 Community-based instruction (CBI)
“Learn it where you’ll do it”
“Teach it where you want your students to practice it”

Students with Intellectual disability have a hard time generalizing skills and knowledge, so it is important to teach students in the environment they will be asked to use knowledge.

Older Students with intellectual disabilities need to be taught in places where they will live, work, learn, or play.

#4 Teach the student to manage distracting behaviors
Teach skills to enable the student to self-regulate behavior. (monitoring outbursts and laughter, etc.)

#5 Teach students to interact with others socially.
Ensure that students have the tools to interact with others socially.
Include social skills as an important part of the transition plan.

#6 Use a buddy system
Students may act out when they are bored or feel like they are lost. When they have a buddy to help keep them focused, this may increase their interest.

# 7 What has worked before?
Ask the student and parent to tell you what works for them. What are their barriers? What can be done to remove those barriers?
Ask other teachers what techniques they have used for the student.

# 8 Do not underestimate the student
Just because a student has intellectual disabilities, that does not mean that they will not be able to achieve success. Do not lower your expectations for those with intellectual disabilities.

# 9 Use visual aids
Students with intellectual disabilities may have difficulty with written text. It is important to use visual aids so that students can understand the content effectively.

#10 Practice behaviors many times
Students may need to practice a behavior many times before they will automatically repeat it. This is especially important for classroom expectations and procedures. Students with intellectual disabilities will need to repeat a process many times before it is learned.

# 1 Use memory notecards
Students with intellectual disabilities have trouble with memory. Having students write their own notecards to use during their test may assist them with remembering vocabulary words, or organizing content to be recalled during the test.

# 2 Allow extra time
Students with intellectual disabilities may take longer to process information

#3 Keep your written instructions short
Avoid overly verbose test questions. Extra language is a burden for those with intellectual disability to process.

#4 Allow the use of a dictionary
Students may have a very difficult time spelling words, and the use of a dictionary can be very helpful.

#5 Give students feedback on early drafts
For project-based work, have students submit drafts of in-progress work so that you can give feedback that they may address for their final submission.

There are very many kinds of ASD. To have any expectations of an individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder is a mistake.

Is defined as:
“Developmental disability resulting in and characterized by persistent impairments in social interactions and communications, and stereotyped or repetitive movements, including inflexibility in routines and patterns.”

There are two primary components in the DSM-5 for autism:

• Social-communication impairments
• Restrictive, repetitive behaviors and interests

#1 Social communication impairments

• Social-emotional reciprocity: taking turns in communication throughout activities
• nonverbal communication: body language, etc
• Maintaining relationships: adapting behavior to a particular context, making friends, lacking initiative to approach peers
• High risk for social isolation

#2 Repetitive, restrictive behaviors and interests

• Repetitive speech (echolalia) - repeating other people’s, motor movements, and interaction with objects (lining objects up
• Excessive reliance on routines, rituals and sameness
• Highly circumscribed and fixated interests that are atypical in terms of intensity or focus
• Usually excessive or limited reaction to sensory stimuli (immersive or averse response to different things)
• These behaviors are often triggered by a need to control anxiety

#3 Atypical Language Development

• Atypical Language Development
• No longer one of the “key domains”, but in the past language delay has been considered one of the key factors
• Interrupting when others are speaking or difficulty to know when to speak
• Focusing attention on one topic only
• Limiting a communication topic to fewer than a couple of interactions
• Reversing pronouns
• Repeating or echoing other people’s language (echolalia)

#4 Problem Behavior

• Self-injurious (hitting, biting, head banging, etc.)
• Most common is biting, scratching, skin picking, hitting, head-banging
• This can result in some health consequences
• There are behavior based interventions that can reduce
• Aggression (similar to self-injurious, but towards others)
• ½ of ASD students have been found to engage in aggressive behavior
• Often co-occurs with self-injury
• ASD students are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior than students with Intellectual Disability
• Is a means of communication
• Tantrums
• Property destruction

#5 Sensory and Movement disorders

• 3/4ths of preschool children with ASD has sensory impairments, not influenced by IQ
• Environmental stimuli trigger certain responses due to differences in individuals’ experience
• ASD students have a difficult time to use visual info to guide their movments (hand eye coordination, etc)
• Nonverbal communication requires motor skills, which results in social-communication challenges

#6 Differences in Intellectual functioning

• ASD Occurs in children with a wide range of IQ, but on average lower IQ than general population due to other cognitive challenges
• Autism symptoms are more severe when individuals have lower IQs
• IQ may not be easily measured
• Unusual Savant Syndrome: extreme talents in music, art, math, calendar calculating, mechanical skills, etc.

#1 The Pyramid Model for Promoting Young Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children

• Research based and effective
• Works well for students with disabilities including autism
• Requires:
• A leadership team
• Plan, implement, and evaluated the model
• Teach others, collect data
• Responsible for involving families
• Actively Involving families
• Program-wide expectations
• Make sure the expectations are communicated
• Develop policies for Behavior support plans and procedures
• The details of what the supports need to be

#2 Social Stories

• Descriptive sentences about the situation including the setting and the exposition
• Perspective sentences describe a person’s emotions and motivations
• Directive sentences define what is expected as a response to a cue
• Control sentences identify strategies for students to recall the information
• These are stories that focus on SEL content
• The social stories should be presented before the situation occurs
• Story should include positive and negative behaviors
• Using illustrations will help

#3 Self-instruction

• Students learn to walk themselves through a problem
• Task-sequencing - learning to think about problems in terms of steps
• What-where strategy: add context to what statements
• Did-next-ask: learn to ask what they should do next

#4 Self-scheduling

• Self regulation of one’s schedule
• Students with ASD have trouble transitioning from one activity to the next
• Visual Schedules are:
• Helpful for students that cannot read
• Can reduce anxiety to know a change is about to occur
• Implement visual schedules
• Support families to use visual schedules in the home
• Support students during a community-based learning
• Use visual schedules to teach post-secondary skills

#5 Self Modeling
Video self-modeling (VSM) is the most commonly used version of this

• Identify the behavior to target
• Create a video of the student doing that behavior
• Implement the video self-modeling instruction
• Show the video to the student
• Evaluate the student’s progress
• Ensure generalization: Try the behavior in a new setting
• Solve problems

#6 Self-Monitoring
Students collect their own data on their progress towards educational goals.

• Making charts and graphs, etc
• Work with the students to make sure they understand how to do this effectively.

#7 Understand the need for stimming behavior
If a student is using a distracting stimming behavior, conduct a functional behavior assessment to understand why the stimming is occurring. Try to understand the needs of the student and work with the student to meet the need with another method that is more productive / less distracting for others / more efficient.

#8 Find solutions for social exclusion

• Teach the student to ask to be included
• Help them by practicing social interaction skills
• encourage group participation in your class
• Pair the student with a peer to help the student be included in activities.

#9 Scripting

• Scripting is making up a plan for speaking to someone ahead of time
• Teach students how to use scripting to their advantage.
• Pre-teach concepts, and allow students time to craft a response to a question asked aloud in class.

#10 Setting up your classroom

• Create a structured and predictable classroom environment.
• Make sure the students know what will be happening before it happens
• Use dedicated places for things - such as turning in assignments.

#1 - Use practice tests
Give the students a practice test so they can learn the testing format. This ensures that the students will have the opportunity to focus on the content you are trying to assess, as opposed to the logistics of the test.

#2 - Language should be explicit and literal.
Avoid excessive language. Overly verbose, vague, or ironic test questions can lead to confusion. This will help ensure that students don’t get stuck on the language of the test and they can focus on answering the questions.

#3 - A variety of formats of assessments are available.

• verbal responses to test questions
• pictorial tests
• etc.

#4 Allow for frequent breaks.
Allow for a break even during a test, or make your tests sufficiently short. This will increase the student’s ability to focus during the test.

#5 Narrowly test for knowledge
Focus on the essential element that needs to be assessed, and try to remove/reduce unnecessary content or busy work.