Assisting%20Students%20with%20Disabilities:%20A%20Training%20Program%20for%20Paraeducators

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Assisting Students with DisabilitiesA Training
Program for Paraeducators

• Module 5
• Learning About
• Disabilities

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Module 5Learning About Disabilities

• Instructional Objectives
• To describe a variety of positive and negative
  ways of viewing people with disabilities
• To describe key principles and practices of
  Special Education
• To describe several ways paraeducators can assist
  students with disabilities
• To be familiar with Kentuckys 13 disability
  categories and ways for assisting students with
  these specific disabilities

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Module Overview

• General Disability Issues
• Special Education
• Supporting Students with Disabilities
• Kentucky Disability Categories

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General Disability Issues

• Stereotypes prejudice
• Commonly-held beliefs
• Beliefs about a group of people
• Usually negative
• Assumptions about an individual person, without
  even knowing the person
• Lead to unfair practices (discrimination)
• Lead to mistaken judgments

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General Disability Issues

• Valuing people with disabilities
• Positive contributions
• Strengths abilities
• Self-determination
• Relationships
• Full citizenship
• What can you do to demonstrate these values?

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General Disability Issues

• Use considerate language
• Person first
• Introduce by name and interests, not by
  disability
• Use real names of disabilities, not slang or
  derogatory terms
• Uses a wheelchair (not wheelchair-bound)

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Special Education

• The recent past school exclusion for youth with
  disabilities
• The present
• Acknowledgement that students with disabilities
  CAN benefit from education
• Laws to protect the rights of people with
  disabilities, including the rights of children
  and youth to education

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Special Education

• IDEA 1997
• Educational rights for children and youth ages
  0-21
• Children are eligible for certain services if
  they have a disability and need
  specially-designed instruction in order to
  benefit from school
• 6 key principles

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Special Education

• Other laws that may affect children and youth
  with disabilities
• The Rehabilitation Act -employment-related
  services
• Section 504 (of the Rehab Act) - requires schools
  to provide accommodations)
• ADA prohibits discrimination in all activities
  programs
• Tech Act helps states provide assistive
  technology

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Special Education

• Inclusion
• Teaching students with disabilities alongside
  typical peers as much as possible (least
  restrictive environment)
• More difficult than teaching students in
  segregated settings
• More humane and beneficial

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Special Education

• Inclusion how can it be done well?
• Daily collaboration between special education
  teacher, general education teacher, para, and any
  other service providers
• Prepare for multiple levels of instruction within
  the same activity/lesson
• Recognize that fairness means equal opportunity
  to learn

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Supporting Studentswith Disabilities

• Get information about the student
• Collaborate with the instructional team
• Look for opportunities to help the student with
  social skills and relationships
• Help with coping, problem-solving,
  self-determination

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Supporting Studentswith Disabilities

• Work cooperatively with the students parents
• Encourage their participation in their
  son/daughters education
• Appreciate their expertise
• Provide referral information
• Be forgiving understanding
• Maintain a professional relationship (not a close
  friendship)

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Kentucky Disability Categories

• To be eligible for Special Education in Kentucky,
  a student must meet criteria for at least 1 of
  the following 13 disability categories
• Developmental Delay
• Orthopedic Impairment
• Speech or Language Impairment
• Visual Impairment

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Kentucky Disability Categories

1. Hearing Impairment
2. Deaf-Blindness
3. Autism
4. Emotional-Behavioral Disability
5. Specific Learning Disability
6. Mental Disability
7. Traumatic Brain Injury
8. Other Health Impairment
9. Multiple Disabilities