Aaron-Backen,+Janet,+Intellectual+Disability



Hi Everyone,

My name is Janet Aaron-Backen, and I’m a student in the 2-year MAT program. I was born and raised in the Chicago area, lived in Tucson for a couple of years after college, and then spent 15 years in Seattle, where I was a Vice President of GE. I left Seattle and moved to Medford to create a family and become a full time Mom. I have 3 children; my wonderful 10 year old son, my lovely 17 year old stepdaughter and my awesome 20 year old stepson. I have been working at a Title I elementary school in Medford for four years, teaching reading in the Early Reading Intervention program. It is my goal to work in a Title I school as a certified full-time teacher upon completion of the MAT program. While my work in Seattle was great for the time, teaching and providing support to the elementary students in the Title I school in which I work feeds my soul. I have a deep connection to nature, and I enjoy hiking, traveling, camping, bike riding, reading and having a latte at the Good Bean coffee shop (the BEST!) with friends.

My greatest fear about teaching is not being able to reach each and every student in order to provide them with the opportunities necessary for them to learn and grow. Of particular concern to me are those students with special needs, so this class is one I’m anxious to dive into! I’m looking forward to learning techniques for identifying which children have special needs, strategies for creating the best environment possible, and which tools and methods are most beneficial in providing extra help to those who need it.

One thing that was difficult for me to learn recently was a new computer application. The material was completely foreign to me, and the instruction I received was short and fast. I walked away feeling lost, frustrated and anxious, and I wanted to give up. Being an adult, I was willing to persevere and to seek other resources (on-line sources of information and computer wiz’s that I know) in order to learn the application. In comparison, I think of my future students who will be elementary age children. They probably won’t yet have developed the skill of seeking other resources of information in order to learn a foreign task. This makes it important for me as a teacher to remember to build on students’ prior knowledge so the task doesn’t seem quite so foreign, go at a pace that is appropriate for the students and be sure to check-in to ensure understanding before proceeding to the next step.

I am looking forward to working with all of you in this class!

The textbook definition of intellectual disability (also known as mental retardation, cognitive disabiity, mentally handicapped or intellectually challenged, to name a few) is "a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. This disability originates before age 18."
 * __Introduction to Intellectual Disability__ **

That, however, is a rather empty and impersonal description of some of the warm-hearted, loving, lovable and adorable children with intellectual disabilities with whom I have had the privilege and joy of working while in the classroom over the past 4 years at Wilson Elementary School, and for 2 years prior to that, while volunteering at Abraham Lincoln Elementary. Many of these precious children brought sunshine into my life every day that they were in the classroom with me, and as a teacher, I want to be equipped to provide all children with the best education possible.

**__Top 5 Things I Learned__**

1. There is a vast amount of information available on the internet for teachers looking for resources to help students who have special needs. There are websites with lists of other websites, teacher organizations and government websites dedicated to the education of students with disabilities. There are lesson plans available online, instructions for differentiated instruction, accommodations, and general tips for teachers and parents.

2. There are many lesson plans available for teaching non-disabled students about disabilities and how they can help to make school easier for their peers who have disabilities. There are many ways of building empathy in the classroom, and children are willing and eager to help others who need it. Open discussions in the classroom, if the students with disabilities are comfortable with it, can reap great benefits.

3. While there are many variations and methods of teaching students with intellectual disabilities (and learning disabilities), the consistent common threads are patience with slower pacing of instruction, repetition, explicit instruction and directions, and enthusiastic teaching. These are effective approaches with both students with intellectual disabilities as well as students with learning disabilities. While these are teaching approaches targeted for children with special needs, it is also noted repeatedly that these key principles of instruction are good and helpful for all students.

4. Number 3 above leads into number 4: there is still a lot of controversy surrounding the inclusive classroom. There are legitimate points on both sides of the argument. In the end, what's most important is that all children get what they need in the classrooms.

5. There are many interventions that are efective for students with disabilities; one single type of intervention can be effective for dealing with many various types of disabilities. These interventions and methods are particularly helpful for teachers of early elementary school students who may not have yet been diagnosed with a specific disability. It is great to know that as a teacher, I have effective tools at my disposal to use based on observed behaviors or struggles that a student is experiencing, even though I may not yet know the exact nature or classification of a student's disability.

__**Top Resource**__ Reading Rockets Rated 5 out of 5

[] This is an amazing website that has a wealth of information on teaching reading to students with and without disabilities. Searches can be made for specific or umbrella disabilities, and well researched articles, childrens book recommendations, instructional recommendations, webcasts and PBS television and radio shows (created by Reading Rockets) will appear in the results. Reading Rockets is a national multimedia literacy initiative/organization located in Washington, D. C., and is funded by a large grant from the U. S. Department of Education. The website is designed for teachers, parents, principals and librarians.

** HONORABLE MENTION **: Education World Rated 5 out of 5 [] Fantastic award-winning website for teachers, with lesson plans, information for new teachers, lists of other valuable websites for teachers, and articles on all sorts of teaching issues. Many resources for teaching students with special needs, including students with intellectual disabilities. It is top-rated by Microsoft, Apple, MSN, USA Today, Encyclopedia Brittanica and teacher organizations.

__** Additional Resources **__

1. Caroline Casey: Looking Past Limits (Ted talk). Rated 5 out of 5 This is a very moving ted.com video of Caroline Casey's talk, "Looking Past Limits," in which she talks about her experiences with being legally blind. While my wiki is on intellectual disabilities, what Caroline Casey has to say can be generalized across all types of disabilities. She talks about how important it is for people with disabilities to be encouraged to believe in themselves and to do what they love. She talks about re-framing disability in a positive way that people can be excited about, looking at life with disabilities as full of possibilities. She encourages all people with disabilities to be the best version of themselves. A great quote from her talk is "Stop with the labeling. We are not jam jars; we are extraordinary, different, wonderful people." media type="custom" key="12948744"

2. Living with Special Needs Rated 4 out of 5 []

This is a lesson plan for teaching elementary school students empathy and understanding of students with various disabilities. It is provided by PBS. It begins with a discussion and explanation of various types of disabilities and ends with students coming up with ideas of things they could do to help and support people with disabilites.

3. Differentiated Instruction Slideshow Presentations Rated 3 out of 5

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These are three slide shows describing different aspects of differentiated instruction from three different presenters. While they are all on differntiated instruction and contain some overlap, they each contain some valuable and unique information.

4. How to Teach Children with Intellectual Disabilities Rated 3 out of 5 [] This website has 6 simple but important strategies for teaching children with intellectual disabilities. I rated it a 3 out of 5 because I wanted more information, but perhaps there was value in its simplicity. I liked that the website said that overall, teaching students with intellectual disabilities is not all that different from teaching a child without disabilities. By that, I assume they mean that all students benefit from the strategies listed for teaching students with intellectual disabilities, such as having the specific learning methods and materials tie to areas of the student's interest (3 trains minus 1 train = 2 trains, if the student is interested in trains, for example), have patience, reiterate information, etc. Perhaps the methods are the same, but the methods just need to be magnified by the teacher for students with special needs, such as having patience in allowing even more extra time for a student to complete a task, and providing even more repetition than usual.

5. Students with Intellectual Disabilities: A Resource Guide for Teachers Rated 5 out of 5 [] This is an excellent website developed by the Ministry of Education in British Columbia, Canada, containing information about adapting and modifying curriculum, determining individualized goals, reporting to parents, explaining different expectations, balancing teacher time and energy, promoting friendships, and dealing with and getting support with challenging behaviors, to name a few. This website provided by the Canadian government is full of information for working with students with different specific disabilities, including intellectual disabilities.

6. Matty B. sings Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" for his sister who has Down Syndrome. Rated 5 out of 5 media type="youtube" key="9b7y9UYt_fM?version=3" height="360" width="640"

This is a very sweet video of a boy named Matty B. singing a song about the beauty of his adorable little sister who has Down Syndrome. It shows us the beauty of being different and the wonderful opportunity given to us to celebrate those differences.

7. Teaching Life Skills to Children with Developmental Delays Rated 4 out of 5 []

A website called teachingtips.com had a link to this page, which lists important life skills to teach to mentally challenged students. I'm giving it a 4 out of 5, because the list is quite extensive, and there are many important things I wouldn't necessarily have thought to teach, such as little signs that say "flammable," or "poison."

8. Starfall interactive website Rated 5 out of 5 []

This is a wonderful website for students in preschool, kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade, and students with disabilities, including intellectual disabilities. It teaches basic phonics and math in a fun and enthusiastic way. This website is used at the elementary school in which I work to help students with intellectually disabilities. It is engaging and repetitive, they enjoy it, and they learn a lot through using it. It is also used at the school for young children without disabilities. I have not yet seen a young student who didn't enjoy it. .

9. Graphic Organizers and Activities for Differentiated Instruction in Reading. Rated 4 out of 5.

This is a set of graphic organizers for differentiated instruction in reading, which is available in some school libraries as well as on amazon.com. While it is not listed as being specifically targeted for students with intellectual disabilites, I have seen it and other differentiated instruction programs like it used successfully in classrooms with students who have intellectual disabilities.

__ Community Based Learning Project __ __Account of the IEP Process__:

I observed an IEP meeting on Friday afternoon, January 20, 2012, at Wilson Elementary School in Medford, Oregon for a student I shall refer to as “Larry.” The meeting was led by Rosie McGaughey, who is the Special Education teacher at Wilson Elementary, and was attended by Larry’s regular classroom teacher, Larry’s Mother and me.

Larry is in 1st grade, and was put on an IEP in kindergarten at Wilson for speech concerns, specifically severe articulation issues, so this meeting was the annual review of the process and progress. At home, Larry’s Mother speaks primarily Simoan, and English secondarily, and his Father speaks Spanish only. Larry and his pre-school aged sister have created a language that they speak which is made up of mostly English words, but the pronunciations consist of a hybrid of the three languages spoken at home. The Mother can understand them, both children understand each other, both children understand English when it is spoken to them, but they cannot properly pronounce most of the sounds in the English language. The teachers and Larry’s fellow students cannot understand what he is saying. Larry is in a regular classroom, and is pulled two times per week for individualized work on articulation.

The meeting began with Rosie McGaughey introducing me to Larry’s Mother, followed by a few minutes of casual conversation among the three of us to put the Mother at ease while we waited for the classroom teacher to arrive. (Rosie had received the Mother’s prior approval for me to attend the meeting.)

When the teacher arrived, she began to talk with Rosie and Larry’s Mother about Larry’s communication struggles. She was very clear about the issues being strictly related to communication; there were no behavioral problems. She began with a list of his strengths, and talked about how he is a very happy child, he is always very helpful in the classroom, he enjoys math and makes good choices at school. She said she noticed that he needs a lot of encouragement and that he shuts down if he doesn’t know the answer. The Mother jumped in to say that he is hard on himself, and he does the same at home. The teacher then said that he has been working on blending sounds together with a Classroom Literacy Assistant, and that she’s seeing progress in that area.

Rosie asked Larry’s Mother if she had any concerns, and the Mother said no. Rosie went through a stack of papers one by one, periodically having the Mother sign acknowledgements after reviewing them with her. Rosie talked about specific articulation issues Larry has, such as typically dropping the beginnings and endings of words, saying “top” for “stops,” for example, and about his inability to pronounce most of the letters in the alphabet correctly, especially p, b, d, f and t.

Rosie then reviewed with the Mother the steps that Rosie and the school are taking to work with Larry, meeting with him one-on-one or for small group instruction for 40 minutes twice a week. She assured the Mother that he was not being pulled during core instruction. They are having Larry speak into an amplifier when they work together so he can hear himself pronouncing the sounds, providing appropriate speech examples by modeling correct pronunciations, using manipulatives and white boards, and tapping out the sounds in words or syllables. Rosie said that she also acts as a consultant to the classroom teacher regarding effective ways in which to work with Larry in the general classroom setting. No special accommodations are necessary for testing situations.

They all agreed that the best course of action is to continue with what they have been doing; to “stay the course.” Rosie told the Mother that the goal is to “increase our ability to understand what he is saying.”

__My Reflection on the Process__: I was impressed with the process and the manner in which it was conducted. Rosie, the classroom teacher and Larry’s Mother each had ample opportunity to speak, give their opinions, and voice concerns. I appreciated that the classroom teacher began with a long list of Larry’s strengths, and talked about how much she enjoyed having him in her class. Clearly the classroom teacher and Rosie were sensitive to maintaining a positive rapport with the Mother. I had the feeling that this was perhaps one of the easier IEP meetings, as the Mother was already on board with the plan, and was clearly cooperative and appreciative of the work the teachers were doing to help her son. I imagine some of the meetings for behavioral issues may not go as smoothly.

__How did each member of the team participate in the meeting?__ Rosie the Special Education teacher was clearly leading the meeting and in charge of the process. She kept things on task and moving, and did most of the talking and presenting of information. The regular classroom teacher was there to provide insights on her observations of what is happening with Larry in the classroom, and the Mother was there for information gathering.

__What did you learn about the IEP process?__ I saw that it works very well when everyone involved is congenial, transparent, honest and forthcoming while being caring, and working together in the best interest of the child. I can see how delicate these meetings could be.

__What questions do you have from this experience?__I am wondering about the frequency of the meetings. An annual review doesn’t seem frequent enough, unless there are other more informal meetings or other forms of communication taking place throughout the year. If it were my child, I’d like frequent updates on progress, alternative methods and what I could do at home to be helping the process progress. I’d also like to know how often it goes this smoothly versus the occasions of dealing with uncooperative parents who might try to be a hindrance to the process, or just a disagreement between the school and the parents on the best courses of action. I’d be interested in seeing how those situations get resolved outside of the extreme cases where due process is imposed.