This course focuses on conceptualizing and developing high-quality Individualized Education Programs (IEP's) for students with mild and moderate disabilities. Students will use assessment data from case studies for drafting, revising, and finalizing annual review and three-year re-evaluation IEP's that meet the requirements of state and federal special education legislation. It is suggested that this course be taken after at least one special education methodology course.
This course acquaints students with the instruments and procedures used when identifying and evaluating students with disabilities. Basic test and measurement concepts will be applied to the administering, scoring, and interpreting of commonly used assessment instruments. Communication, consultation, and collaboration among educators, related service providers, paraprofessionals, and parents will be discussed.
During the learning disabilities (LD) portion of the course, emphasis will be given to research-based intervention strategies for serving children and adolescents with specific learning disabilities in the areas of reading, written language, and mathematics. A review of current research and practices will be pursued in order to provide a perspective of the field for special educators and classroom teachers. The course will emphasize practice with research-based teaching strategies and will include a practicum. The cognitive impairments (CI) portion of the course will emphasize the instructional methods and techniques used when teaching students with cognitive impairments in self-contained and inclusive settings. Major course topics will include arranging educational environments, utilizing chaining and prompting systems, managing challenging behaviors, developing a functional curriculum, and writing IEP’s for students with cognitive impairments. A field experience will be included.
During the autism spectrum (ASD) portion of the course students will learn evidence-based practices such as discrete trial teaching, social stories, pivotal response training, and video modeling. Students will become familiar with Boardmaker, a computer-generated program, to create visual supports for students. Various assistive technology and voice output devices will be discussed. A field experience will be included. The emotional/behavioral (EBD) portion of the course focuses on principles of prevention and intervention designed for youth with EBD. A psycho-educational approach that is grounded in relationships, building resilience, trauma informed care, behavior management, crisis intervention, and creating encouraging environments serves as the foundation of the course. A field experience will be included.
Special topics in all aspects of special education. Individual work in an on-campus or an off-campus project.
Permission of Department Chair