The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law on December 10, 2015, requires that state education agencies (SEAs) establish standardized, statewide entrance and exit procedures for their English learners (ELs), including ELs with disabilities. For certain ELs with…

Thanks to the generous sharing of the author, in this article, we learn about the progress and difficulties her family experienced and learned to cope with in dealing with their son Cree (the second of four boys). The author explains how this hearing-impaired family has used American Sign Language (ASL) as their primary mode of communication at…

This article addresses the challenges educators face when attempting to find a balance between both functional and academic skill instruction for students with severe, multiple disabilities including motor impairments. The authors describe a strategy that employs embedded instruction of early numeracy and functional motor skills during physical…

The transition to life after high school for students with disabilities and the vital role that school counselors have in assisting the students and their families to achieve success are discussed. As there may be unique requirements for these students in making this transition, it is important that school counselors are acquainted with particular…

One challenge teachers of students with orthopedic and multiple disabilities face is providing sufficient time and opportunity to communicate. This challenge is universal across countries, schools, and settings: teachers want students to communicate because communication lies at the core of what makes us human. Yet students with orthopedic and…

On January 23-25, 2013, the Council for Exceptional Children Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities (DADD) sponsored its Fourteenth International Conference: Research to Practice in Autism, Intellectual Disability and Developmental Disabilities. The conference was held at the Sheraton Kona Resort at Keauhou Bay, Hawaii. The DADD Board…

This paper describes the current challenges facing nurses and other professionals who care for people with profound and multiple intellectual disabilities. This particularly vulnerable group of service users often rely on a repertoire of non-verbal behaviours to communicate their needs and wishes. These challenges include the requirements of…

Linking the concepts of intellectual disability and spiritual development creates a challenging mixture of sociological and theological issues. Formal definitions of the concepts can be less than conclusive but it remains a fundamental issue to consider if there may be some minimal level of intellectual competence below which it is not feasible to…

The term "multiple disabilities" is general and broad. From the term, you cannot tell how many disabilities a child has; which disabilities are involved; or how severe each disability is. Many combinations of disabilities are possible. The different disabilities will also have a combined impact. That is why it is also important to ask:…

Since the 1990s the number of children with disabilities placed within the general education classroom has steadily increased. Many of these children are provided special education services under the generic disability title "intellectual disability." Over the past decade, there has been a significant amount of research concerning rare…

This conference presentation examines concept development for congenitally blind students. It presents current research on best-practice for teaching this population. Examples of strategies to reinforce understanding of body concepts, spatial awareness, and positional language, while promoting mirroring, self regulation, and purposeful movement to…

When students with autism, intellectual, and multiple disabilities are included in general education classes their teachers often struggle with identifying meaningful participation opportunities. Too often students are seated in the back of the room, socially isolated from their classmates, taught primarily by a paraprofessional, and without…

Young children with multiple disabilities have unique needs and challenges. Many of these young children struggle to communicate their wants and needs, to freely move their body to access and engage their world, and to learn abstract concepts and ideas. Professionals and families working together must identify the individual supports each child…

This publication describes a comprehensive approach to assessment known as authentic assessment, which can be used with children who are deaf-blind or have multiple disabilities. Authentic assessment involves obtaining information about children in their everyday environments during normal activities. It provides a way to learn what children know…

Although today many more examples of postsecondary educational opportunities being made available to students are expanding for adults with intellectual disabilities (ID), the majority of these opportunities are either segregated or partially segregated with few accommodating students with significant disabilities or challenging behaviors. In this…