Due to the diverse needs of young children at risk for or with developmental delays/ disabilities and their families, an interdisciplinary and collaborative team is required in schools to deliver family-centered, individualized early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE) services (Division for Early Childhood of the Council for…

Art has the capacity to engage exceptional learners, regardless of the nature of their exceptionalities. Students who experience difficulty with academic subjects may enjoy visual art activities with which they engage holistically to learn problem-solving skills and interact positively with their environment, including the social environment of…

Accessibility is a hot topic in online education these days. Despite the increased focus on accessibility, most discussions of creating "accessible" online courses and elearning simply focus on adding alternative text to images and captions to video. In this article, we argue that online educators and workplace learning professionals…

Balancing the need to prepare pre-service teachers with the skills necessary to effectively participate in Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) with the constraints of confidentiality as required by law has led one university to develop video scenarios that can be used as teaching tools. Three scenarios have been created, two at the secondary…

Parents of children with disabilities usually receive little or no training in communication and partnership skills. These skills are very helpful in Individualized Education Program (IEP) planning. This guidebook offers parents of children with disabilities a variety of practical ideas to improve effective interaction between parents and school…

Play is a complex phenomenon that occurs naturally for most children; they move through the various stages of play development and are able to add complexity, imagination, and creativity to their thought processes and actions. However, for many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the various stages of play never truly develop, or occur…

Increasing numbers of young children with diagnosed disabilities and unique learning needs are enrolled in early childhood programs. If early childhood inclusion is to be a successful educational approach, it is imperative that all early childhood teachers understand and are able to provide individualized instruction to young children with special…

Computer technology has been used since 1972 in the Madison, Wisconsin, public schools to control the flow of information required to support individualized instruction. Madison's computer-managed instruction system, MICA (Managed Instruction with Computer Assistance), operates interactively within individualized instruction programs to provide…

Many children with severe disabilities never have the opportunity to try general physical education (GPE) because their Individualized Education Program (IEP) team feels that they will not be successful, will not benefit, or will not be safe. However, there are ways to safely, successfully, and meaningfully include children with severe…

Describes ways in which educators are using microcomputers to teach special education students basic skills and to handle paperwork demanded by legal regulations. A comparison of Individualized Education Program (IEP) software packages currently available and a profile of a Louisiana school district's special education network are included. (MBR)

The social and academic benefits of inclusion for students with disabilities have been well researched and well documented. Unfortunately, inclusion opportunities are limited by lack of qualified staff, logistics, scheduling and other difficulties encountered when attempting to meet students' unique needs in the general education setting. As a…