Topic 1: Autism
The Ontario Ministry of Education defines autism as a severe learning disorder that is characterized by:
a) disturbances in
rate of educational development
ability to relate to the environment
mobility
perception, speech and language
b) lack of the representational symbolic behaviour that precedes language
Of all the low incidence exceptionalities, none is more controversial than that of those related to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). There is a wide variation in the severity of the disorder, however difficulty in communications is common to all students with ASD. Social Integration is of particular concern for these students. Behaviour modification plans and life skills curriculum are used frequently to modify the student’s behaviour and develop the student’s skills within an “inclusive classroom” setting.
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is an umbrella term used to describe a range ofneurodevelopmental disorders. Individuals previously diagnosed with an Autistic disorder or Asperger’s disorder, for example, are now given the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum disorder.
Autistic disorder: includes impairment in social interaction, communication, and imaginative play prior to age three, with restricted interests and repeated behaviours.
Asperger’s disorder: sometimes colloquially referred to as Asperger syndrome: is usually applied to individuals with apparently normal language development and average to above average intelligence but who are impaired in social interactions and have unusually restricted or specialized interests.
Pervasive developmental disorder – not otherwise specified: may also be called “atypical autism.” This is a somewhat vague category that picks up individuals otherwise not classified by the other categories but who, nevertheless, have severe impairments of an autism-like nature.
Childhood disintegrative disorder: characterized by the presence of a range of autism-related behaviours that appear after typical development for at least two years.
Rett’s disorder: is progressive and, so far, seen only in girls. There is a period of typical development followed by the loss of acquired skills. A key symptom is replacement of purposeful hand movements with repetitive actions (e.g., handwringing) between ages one and four.
Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
Communication: Speech may be delayed, diminished, or entirely absent. May use gestures rather than words; may often use words without attaching their usual meaning. Many students with ASDs demonstrate “echolalia” – the repeating of a word or phrase spoken by another person. This may be words or phrases just heard, or may be words, phrases, or even detailed dialogue heard at an earlier time (e.g., movie scripts).
Social interaction: May find relating to others difficult or even impossible, reflected in anything from lack of eye contact to total withdrawal. May show little interest in making friends or in shared play and will spend inordinate amounts of time alone. Seeming unawareness of social interplay and an absence of intuition are typical (e.g., student does not read body language of others; talks, but does not seem to listen; seems unaware of protocols).
Behaviours: Behaviour is described as atypical. May become obsessed with a theme (e.g., hockey scores) or object (spinning objects, flags, fans). Will often engage in repeated ritualistic actions (e.g., rocking in place) and demand close adherence to routines and schedules.
Responses to sensory stimuli: May find sights, sounds, conversational “buzz,” crowds (e.g., as at recess or an assembly) overstimulating. Responses are often seen as unusual. Tolerance for some stimuli may be fine while specific noises (e.g., the sound of a ringing telephone, fire alarms) may cause great upset. Reactions may be under-sensitive or over-sensitive and may vary from sense to sense within each individual with an ASD.
Transitions: Change of any type is often difficult for a child with an ASD. Even slight differences in classroom or school routine may be extremely upsetting (e.g., shifting to group work after quiet seat work). Shifts into and out of recess or lunch hour or dismissal time are often difficult. Changes in personnel (e.g., educational assistant or supply teacher) can cause an extreme response.
Special Education in Ontario Schools by Bennett, Dworet and Webers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn_9f5x0f1QDiscussion Board Response
You have listened to Temple Grandin speak about Autism and the way in which they learn and conceptualize ideas as pictures.
After completing all readings, respond to the following on the Discussion Board: share a strategy or technique, which you could use in your everyday classroom in order to be inclusive of students with ASD.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
I have developed a poster in which we use in our classrooms that allow the students to share how they feel or perceive how they feel. We have a poster or digital image such as this-the we have and use is buried in my resource folder. I just quick Bing searched quick to find something comparable.
The poster is a collection of emotions/emojis that students are able to point at/hold up (if cut into individual pieces) when their name is called for attendance. The teacher will be able to gauge a student's understanding of their emotions. If a student finds it difficult and the personal expressions of these emotions the teacher can offer some help at another time after making observations. Students in elementary school usually find it interesting to participate in activities like this. For students who have ASD, these activities allow them to use visual exemplars (as discussed by Temple Gardin) to express emotions or things they like based on the way it looks. It allows for classmates to genuinely interact with each other as well as teachers to discuss with students how we experience emotions.
https://www.ableeyes.org/how-to-video-modeling/--> A resource shared by a colleague
-Temple Gardin TED Talk
Transcript:
I think I'll start out and just talk a little bit about what exactly autism is. Autism is a very big continuum that goes from very severe -- the child remains nonverbal -- all the way up to brilliant scientists and engineers. And I actually feel at home here, because there's a lot of autism genetics here.
It's a continuum of traits. When does a nerd turn into Asperger, which is just mild autism? I mean, Einstein and Mozart and Tesla would all be probably diagnosed as autistic spectrum today. And one of the things that is really going to concern me is getting these kids to be the ones that are going to invent the next energy things that Bill Gates talked about this morning.
OK, now, if you want to understand autism: animals. I want to talk to you now about different ways of thinking. You have to get away from verbal language. I think in pictures. I don't think in language. Now, the thing about the autistic mind is it attends to details. This is a test where you either have to pick out the big letters or the little letters, and the autistic mind picks out the little letters more quickly.
And the thing is, the normal brain ignores the details. Well, if you're building a bridge, details are pretty important because it'll fall down if you ignore the details. And one of my big concerns with a lot of policy things today is things are getting too abstract. People are getting away from doing hands-on stuff. I'm really concerned that a lot of the schools have taken out the hands-on classes, because art, and classes like that -- those are the classes where I excelled.
In my work with cattle, I noticed a lot of little things that most people don't notice would make the cattle balk. For example, this flag waving right in front of the veterinary facility. This feed yard was going to tear down their whole veterinary facility; all they needed to do was move the flag. Rapid movement, contrast. In the early '70s when I started, I got right down in the chutes to see what cattle were seeing. People thought that was crazy. A coat on a fence would make them balk, shadows would make them balk, a hose on the floor -- people weren't noticing these things. A chain hanging down ... And that's shown very, very nicely in the movie.
In fact, I loved the movie, how they duplicated all my projects. That's the geek side. My drawings got to star in the movie, too. And, actually, it's called "Temple Grandin," not "Thinking in Pictures."
So what is thinking in pictures? It's literally movies in your head. My mind works like Google for images. When I was a young kid, I didn't know my thinking was different. I thought everybody thought in pictures. Then when I did my book, "Thinking in Pictures," I started interviewing people about how they think. And I was shocked to find out that my thinking was quite different. Like if I say, "Think about a church steeple," most people get this sort of generalized generic one. Now, maybe that's not true in this room, but it's going to be true in a lot of different places. I see only specific pictures. They flash up into my memory, just like Google for pictures. And in the movie, they've got a great scene in there, where the word "shoe" is said, and a whole bunch of '50s and '60s shoes pop into my imagination.
OK, there's my childhood church; that's specific. There's some more, Fort Collins. OK, how about famous ones? And they just kind of come up, kind of like this. Just really quickly, like Google for pictures. And they come up one at a time, and then I think, "OK, well, maybe we can have it snow, or we can have a thunderstorm," and I can hold it there and turn them into videos.
Now, visual thinking was a tremendous asset in my work designing cattle-handling facilities. And I've worked really hard on improving how cattle are treated at the slaughter plant. I'm not going to go into any gucky slaughter slides. I've got that stuff up on YouTube, if you want to look at it.
But one of the things that I was able to do in my design work is I could test-run a piece of equipment in my mind, just like a virtual reality computer system. And this is an aerial view of a recreation of one of my projects that was used in the movie. That was like just so super cool. And there were a lot of, kind of, Asperger types and autism types working out there on the movie set, too.
But one of the things that really worries me is: Where's the younger version of those kids going today? They're not ending up in Silicon Valley, where they belong.
One of the things I learned very early on because I wasn't that social, is I had to sell my work, and not myself. And the way I sold livestock jobs is I showed off my drawings, I showed off pictures of things. Another thing that helped me as a little kid is, boy, in the '50s, you were taught manners. You were taught you can't pull the merchandise off the shelves in the store and throw it around.
When kids get to be in third or fourth grade, you might see that this kid's going to be a visual thinker, drawing in perspective. Now, I want to emphasize that not every autistic kid is going to be a visual thinker. Now, I had this brain scan done several years ago, and I used to joke around about having a gigantic Internet trunk line going deep into my visual cortex. This is tensor imaging. And my great big Internet trunk line is twice as big as the control's. The red lines there are me, and the blue lines are the sex and age-matched control. And there I got a gigantic one, and the control over there, the blue one, has got a really small one.
And some of the research now is showing that people on the spectrum actually think with the primary visual cortex. Now, the thing is, the visual thinker is just one kind of mind. You see, the autistic mind tends to be a specialist mind -- good at one thing, bad at something else. And where I was bad was algebra. And I was never allowed to take geometry or trig. Gigantic mistake. I'm finding a lot of kids who need to skip algebra, go right to geometry and trig.
Now, another kind of mind is the pattern thinker. More abstract. These are your engineers, your computer programmers. This is pattern thinking. That praying mantis is made from a single sheet of paper -- no scotch tape, no cuts. And there in the background is the pattern for folding it. Here are the types of thinking: photo-realistic visual thinkers, like me; pattern thinkers, music and math minds. Some of these oftentimes have problems with reading. You also will see these kind of problems with kids that are dyslexic. You'll see these different kinds of minds. And then there's a verbal mind, they know every fact about everything.
Now, another thing is the sensory issues. I was really concerned about having to wear this gadget on my face. And I came in half an hour beforehand so I could have it put on and kind of get used to it, and they got it bent so it's not hitting my chin. But sensory is an issue. Some kids are bothered by fluorescent lights; others have problems with sound sensitivity. You know, it's going to be variable.
Now, visual thinking gave me a whole lot of insight into the animal mind. Because think about it: an animal is a sensory-based thinker, not verbal -- thinks in pictures, thinks in sounds, thinks in smells. Think about how much information there is on the local fire hydrant. He knows who's been there --
When they were there. Are they friend or foe? Is there anybody he can go mate with? There's a ton of information on that fire hydrant. It's all very detailed information. And looking at these kind of details gave me a lot of insight into animals.
Now, the animal mind, and also my mind, puts sensory-based information into categories. Man on a horse, and a man on the ground -- that is viewed as two totally different things. You could have a horse that's been abused by a rider. They'll be absolutely fine with the veterinarian and with the horseshoer, but you can't ride him. You have another horse, where maybe the horseshoer beat him up, and he'll be terrible for anything on the ground with the veterinarian, but a person can ride him. Cattle are the same way. Man on a horse, a man on foot -- they're two different things. You see, it's a different picture. See, I want you to think about just how specific this is
Now, this ability to put information into categories, I find a lot of people are not very good at this. When I'm out troubleshooting equipment or problems with something in a plant, they don't seem to be able to figure out: "Do I have a training-people issue? Or do I have something wrong with the equipment?" In other words, categorize equipment problem from a people problem. I find a lot of people have difficulty doing that. Now, let's say I figure out it's an equipment problem. Is it a minor problem, with something simple I can fix? Or is the whole design of the system wrong? People have a hard time figuring that out.
Let's just look at something like, you know, solving problems with making airlines safer. Yeah, I'm a million-mile flier. I do lots and lots of flying, and if I was at the FAA, what would I be doing a lot of direct observation of? It would be their airplane tails. You know, five fatal wrecks in the last 20 years, the tail either came off, or steering stuff inside the tail broke in some way. It's tails, pure and simple. And when the pilots walk around the plane, guess what? They can't see that stuff inside the tail. Now as I think about that, I'm pulling up all of that specific information. It's specific. See, my thinking's bottom-up. I take all the little pieces and I put the pieces together like a puzzle.
Now, here is a horse that was deathly afraid of black cowboy hats. He'd been abused by somebody with a black cowboy hat. White cowboy hats, that was absolutely fine. Now, the thing is, the world is going to need all of the different kinds of minds to work together. We've got to work on developing all these different kinds of minds. And one of the things that is driving me really crazy as I travel around and I do autism meetings, is I'm seeing a lot of smart, geeky, nerdy kids, and they just aren't very social, and nobody's working on developing their interest in something like science
And this brings up the whole thing of my science teacher. My science teacher is shown absolutely beautifully in the movie. I was a goofball student when I was in high school. I just didn't care at all about studying, until I had Mr. Carlock's science class. He was now Dr. Carlock in the movie. And he got me challenged to figure out an optical illusion room. This brings up the whole thing of you've got to show kids interesting stuff. You know, one of the things that I think maybe TED ought to do is tell all the schools about all the great lectures that are on TED, and there's all kinds of great stuff on the Internet to get these kids turned on. Because I'm seeing a lot of these geeky, nerdy kids, and the teachers out in the Midwest and other parts of the country when you get away from these tech areas, they don't know what to do with these kids. And they're not going down the right path.
The thing is, you can make a mind to be more of a thinking and cognitive mind, or your mind can be wired to be more social. And what some of the research now has shown in autism is there may by extra wiring back here in the really brilliant mind, and we lose a few social circuits here. It's kind of a trade-off between thinking and social. And then you can get to the point where it's so severe, you're going to have a person that's going to be non-verbal. In the normal human mind, language covers up the visual thinking we share with animals.
This is the work of Dr. Bruce Miller. He studied Alzheimer's patients that had frontal temporal lobe dementia. And the dementia ate out the language parts of the brain. And then this artwork came out of somebody who used to install stereos in cars. Now, Van Gogh doesn't know anything about physics, but I think it's very interesting that there was some work done to show that this eddy pattern in this painting followed a statistical model of turbulence, which brings up the whole interesting idea of maybe some of this mathematical patterns is in our own head.
And the Wolfram stuff -- I was taking notes and writing down all the search words I could use, because I think that's going to go on in my autism lectures. We've got to show these kids interesting stuff. And they've taken out the auto-shop class and the drafting class and the art class. I mean, art was my best subject in school.
We've got to think about all these different kinds of minds, and we've got to absolutely work with these kind of minds, because we absolutely are going to need these kinds of people in the future. And let's talk about jobs. OK, my science teacher got me studying, because I was a goofball that didn't want to study. But you know what? I was getting work experience. I'm seeing too many of these smart kids who haven't learned basic things, like how to be on time -- I was taught that when I was eight years old. How to have table manners at granny's Sunday party. I was taught that when I was very, very young. And when I was 13, I had a job at a dressmaker's shop sewing clothes. I did internships in college, I was building things, and I also had to learn how to do assignments.
You know, all I wanted to do was draw pictures of horses when I was little. My mother said, "Well let's do a picture of something else." They've got to learn how to do something else. Let's say the kid is fixated on Legos. Let's get him working on building different things. The thing about the autistic mind is it tends to be fixated. Like if the kid loves race cars, let's use race cars for math. Let's figure out how long it takes a race car to go a certain distance. In other words, use that fixation in order to motivate that kid, that's one of the things we need to do. I really get fed up when the teachers, especially when you get away from this part of the country, they don't know what to do with these smart kids. It just drives me crazy.
What can visual thinkers do when they grow up? They can do graphic design, all kinds of stuff with computers, photography, industrial design. The pattern thinkers -- they're the ones that are going to be your mathematicians, your software engineers, your computer programmers, all of those kinds of jobs. And then you've got the word minds; they make great journalists, and they also make really, really good stage actors. Because the thing about being autistic is, I had to learn social skills like being in a play. You just kind of ... you just have to learn it.
And we need to be working with these students. And this brings up mentors. You know, my science teacher was not an accredited teacher. He was a NASA space scientist. Some states now are getting it to where, if you have a degree in biology or in chemistry, you can come into the school and teach biology or chemistry. We need to be doing that. Because what I'm observing is, the good teachers, for a lot of these kids, are out in the community colleges. But we need to be getting some of these good teachers into the high schools.
Another thing that can be very, very, very successful is: there's a lot of people that may have retired from working in the software industry, and they can teach your kid. And it doesn't matter if what they teach them is old, because what you're doing is you're lighting the spark. You're getting that kid turned on. And you get him turned on, then you'll learn all the new stuff. Mentors are just essential. I cannot emphasize enough what my science teacher did for me. And we've got to mentor them, hire them.
And if you bring them in for internships in your companies, the thing about the autism, Asperger-y kind of mind, you've got to give them a specific task. Don't just say, "Design new software." You've got to tell them something more specific: "We're designing software for a phone and it has to do some specific thing, and it can only use so much memory." That's the kind of specificity you need.
Chris Anderson: Thank you so much for that. You know, you once wrote -- I like this quote: "If by some magic, autism had been eradicated from the face of the Earth, then men would still be socializing in front of a wood fire at the entrance to a cave."
Temple Grandin: Because who do you think made the first stone spear? It was the Asperger guy, and if you were to get rid of all the autism genetics, there'd be no more Silicon Valley, and the energy crisis would not be solved.
CA: I want to ask you a couple other questions, and if any of these feel inappropriate, it's OK just to say, "Next question." But if there is someone here who has an autistic child, or knows an autistic child and feels kind of cut off from them, what advice would you give them?
TG: Well, first of all, we've got to look at age. If you have a two, three or four-year-old, no speech, no social interaction, I can't emphasize enough: Don't wait. You need at least 20 hours a week of one-to-one teaching. The thing is, autism comes in different degrees. About half of the people on the spectrum are not going to learn to talk, and they won't be working in Silicon Valley. That would not be a reasonable thing for them to do.
But then you get these smart, geeky kids with a touch of autism, and that's where you've got to get them turned on with doing interesting things. I got social interaction through shared interests -- I rode horses with other kids, I made model rockets with other kids, did electronics lab with other kids. And in the '60s, it was gluing mirrors onto a rubber membrane on a speaker to make a light show. That was, like, we considered that super cool.
CA: Is it unrealistic for them to hope or think that that child loves them, as some might, as most, wish?
TG: Well, I tell you, that child will be loyal, and if your house is burning down, they're going to get you out of it.
CA: Wow. So most people, if you ask them what they're most passionate about, they'd say things like, "My kids" or "My lover." What are you most passionate about?
TG: I'm passionate about that the things I do are going to make the world a better place. When I have a mother of an autistic child say, "My kid went to college because of your book or one of your lectures," that makes me happy.
You know, the slaughter plants I worked with in the '80s; they were absolutely awful. I developed a really simple scoring system for slaughter plants, where you just measure outcomes: How many cattle fell down? How many got poked with the prodder? How many cattle are mooing their heads off? And it's very, very simple. You directly observe a few simple things. It's worked really well. I get satisfaction out of seeing stuff that makes real change in the real world. We need a lot more of that, and a lot less abstract stuff.
TG: Well, the reason why I got really excited when I read about that, it contains knowledge. It's libraries. And to me, knowledge is something that is extremely valuable. So, maybe over 10 years ago now, our library got flooded. This is before the Internet got really big. And I was really upset about all the books being wrecked, because it was knowledge being destroyed. And server farms, or data centers, are great libraries of knowledge.
Topic 4: Speech and Language Impairments
The Ontario Ministry of Education defines a Language Impairment as an impairment in comprehension and/or use of verbal communication or the written or other symbol systems of communication, which may be associated with neurological, psychological, physical, or sensory factors.
A speech impairment refers to speech disorders in which there are difficulties producing sounds or problems with voice quality. These fall under three main categories:
Articulation – a problem with the way sounds are formed
Voice - difficulties with the pitch, volume or quality of speech
Fluency - an interruption in the flow or rhythm of speech
A language impairment involves a problem in the form, content and/or function of language in communication. There is usually a delay in expressive language (speaking), receptive language (understanding) or both. Some characteristics include the incorrect use of words, inability to express ideas and poor grammar. Children may recognize a word but not be able to understand its meaning or they may have trouble getting others to understand what they are saying.
Historically, speech and language therapists provide individual therapy outside the classroom over an extended period of time. Speech-language therapists may also assist by consulting with teachers to facilitate the child’s communication in the class setting. They also work closely with families so that therapies can be practiced at home. The speech language therapist may assist vocational teachers and counselors in establishing communication goals related to the work experiences of students.
Students with speech and language impairments will require supports and accommodations in the classroom. Breaking down of tasks (chunking), visual supports, graphic organizers, pre-teaching of vocabulary, note-taking assistance, shared reading and extended time limits are all useful. Computer based technology is one of the most effective interventions including text-to-speech and speech-to-text software.
Topic 5: Learning Disabilities
There is no universally accepted definition of a learning disability. Learning disabilities are not heterogeneous - they are not a single or uniform condition, nor do they affect one particular area of learning. Historically, some have denied the existence of any such phenomenon while others have lumped just about every learning problem under the umbrella of a Learning Disability. A unanimously accepted definition remains elusive.
Nevertheless, the Ontario Ministry of Education defines a Learning Disability as a learning disorder evident in both academic and social situations that involves one or more of the processes necessary for the proper use of spoken language or the symbols of communication, and that is characterized by a condition that:
a) is not primarily the result of:
impairment of vision
impairment of hearing
physical disability
developmental disability
primary emotional disturbance
cultural difference;
b) results in a significant discrepancy between academic achievement and assessed intellectual ability, with deficits in one or more of the following:
receptive language (listening, reading)
language processing (thinking, conceptualizing, integrating)
expressive language (talking, spelling, writing)
mathematical computations
c) may be associated with one or more conditions diagnosed as:
a perceptual handicap
a brain injury
minimal brain dysfunction
dyslexia
developmental aphasia
The Learning Disability Association of Ontario is a charitable organization that assists people with learning disabilities by providing advocacy, research, education and services.
Learning disabilities, which are categorized under the Communication category of exceptionalities, are considered high incidence exceptionalities. They are broadly broken down into two categories: verbal LDs and non-verbal LDs. Many students who have learning disabilities are placed in regular classrooms with indirect support, resource assistance or withdrawal assistance. Those who have severe LDs may be placed in self-contained special education classes with partial integration for specific subjects.
Self-advocacy is vital for students with LDs. This disability is often referred as a “hidden” or “invisible” disability. These students do not outwardly present as “disabled” in any way. Consequently, many advocacy groups have invested much time and effort to educate the public in understanding the nature of this disability and promoting the need for support in school systems, including post-secondary. Students are encouraged to understand the nature of their learning needs and what they need to do to be successful. In high school, active participation in their own IPRCs and IEPs is part of this process.
For most teachers, programming for students with LDs will be part of their daily routine. It is important to recognize that no two students’ profiles will be the same, but the accommodations put in place to support these students will be effective for all students within an inclusive classroom. There are many factors that contribute to the identification of a student with an LD. The most important fact is that the student is “underachieving” academically based on their intellectual ability as measured by a standardized test – in other words, the student is not learning to his or her potential. Additionally, when a formal test is administered, the student can often display a large discrepancy in his or her percentile scores among the various measures i.e. above average in some areas but extremely deficient in others.
It is important to note that students with an LD can appear to have cognitive difficulties in all subject areas, however the reality can indeed be far from what their performance suggests. The majority of students with a LD are identified because they have a “language” disability: reading and/or writing disability. It is this language disability that interferes with their successful performance in math, science, social studies, history and other language-driven subjects. In considering programming for students with a LD, the teacher needs to find ways to accommodate for the learning styles of the students in the classroom and modify the language “requirements” to ensure that the assessment and evaluation of these exceptional students in the regular classroom are based on the curriculum of the subject being taught and not on the “English” embedded in the delivery of the curriculum.
Some students with learning disabilities also need direct instruction in social skills. Research has shown that students with learning disabilities are more likely to behave inappropriately in social situations and are often treated poorly by peers and engage in fewer social activities than their peers. In addition, many children with an LD do not understand or have difficulty with asking questions, the nuances of language, reading facial expressions/body language and rudimentary social conventions.
Common Characteristics of Students with Learning Disabilities
Boys demonstrate learning disabilities much more frequently than girls.
Most students diagnosed with learning disabilities are identified during the third and fourth grades and most of those students will continue to receive services for their learning disability throughout their schooling.
A discrepancy between one’s intellectual ability and school achievement is a defining characteristic of these students.
Many students with learning disabilities will perform poorly on reading, writing or language tasks but sometimes will perform acceptably in math. Although some students have a specific learning disability in math rather than reading and language arts, this type of disability is more the exception than the rule.
Students with learning disabilities also often have attention problems and/or are easily distracted and are often hyperactive.
Some students with learning disabilities have difficulty organizing material when completing school assignments or in personal organization matters such as bringing the correct books to class or arriving to classes on time.
Difficulty in copying material from blackboards or performing other design-copy tasks is frequently a symptom of learning disabilities
Source: Learning Disabilities, Bender, 4th edition, Kavavale & Reese, 1991; McLeasky, 1992
Transition Plans
Characteristics
• Part of an IEP, often in chart form, outlining an annual goal and specific responsibilities of team members and timelines.
• Common transitions that can be addressed on a transition plan include: entry to school, move to a new school, move to a new grade/teacher, transition from grade 8 to grade 9 (elementary to secondary transition), transition to post-secondary (after high school: workplace, apprenticeship, college, university, community, etc.)
• Other transitions could include: starting/stopping activities, leaving the classroom, going to recess/gym, going on fieldtrips, having guest speakers in, preparing for fire drill/emergency evacuations.
Transition plans are a required component of Individual Education Plans (IEPs). Students on IEPs who are 14 years of age and older require a transition plan as part of their IEP to plan for post-secondary activities, except for students who are solely identified with giftedness. Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and other students who need support with changes, will also have a transition plan to prepare for daily transitions, between activities or locations, as their specific needs indicate. Transition plans can be utilized for students to help them cope with change.
Strategies
• Develop transition plans with a team consisting of teachers, special education teacher, educational workers, administrator, parent/guardian, and especially the student.
• Utilize non-teacher professional reports and suggestions.
• Revise throughout the school year, typically at reporting periods or as dictated by changes in student needs.
• Include specific steps/plans with deadlines and strategies.
• Consider supporting the transition plan with alternative curriculum expectations that teach needed social skills related to post-secondary goals.
Associated student needs:
•
Transition skills
