Victoria Batechko's List: disAbility education

Change is happening in education for learners with disabilities. The United Nations has recognized that being educated together in community schools is good for everyone. Though change to inclusion in education is not common everywhere, there are many teachers and parents who have chosen it.

It is the provision of differentiated instruction and learning activities that accommodate a child’s special learning needs within the general education classroom. The learning and the work are purposeful, meaningful, and serve to teach the child new information and skills.

"Since 1963, we have provided leadership and support to people with learning disabilities (LD), their parents, teachers and other professionals. Working with our network of provincial/territorial and local partners, we provide cutting edge information on learning disabilities, practical solutions, and tools you can use."

"We provide support to all those who are concerned with learning disabilities. Individual participants, concerned parents and professionals can find assistance and information on training,scholarships, teaching tools and more."

Teachers' Gateway to Special Education. Language Impairment Exceptionality. A formal exceptionality, identified by and Identification Placement and Review Committee (IPRC), in the category of Communication.See the teaching strategies for these areas of student need:
• Anger/Frustration Management Skills
• Articulation Skills
• Attention Skills
• Assistive Technology
• Executive Function
• Listening Skills
• Metacognitive Skills
• Phonological Processing
• Processing Speed
• Self-Advocacy Skills
• Self-Esteem
• Sequencing Skills
• Social Skills
• Task Initiation
• Time Management Skills
• Verbal Ability

Links to the websites for services for visually impaired/blind people.

Have you heard about the Jeff Moore Human Rights Case? The case is now going to the Supreme Court of Canada.

"As many as 5 out of every 100 children in school may have AD/HD. Boys are three times more likely than girls to have AD/HD."

This page is dedicated to identifying good resources of information on math learning disabilities. The target audience is both teachers and parents of students/children struggling to learn math concepts and process. These articles look at the processing problems that may result in math learning disability (discalculia) and present strategies for remediation

Jones, S.
2e Newsletter
May/June 2011

In this article, Susan Jones provides advice on how to accommodate for the needs of students with dysgraphia. Adapted from Dysgraphia Accommodations and Modifications by Susan Jones (1999)

Dyslexic reading doesn’t have to prevent your child from reading well... Dyslexics universally suffer from weak phonemic awareness and auditory skills. This is why they struggle with phonics.
Dyslexia responds quickly to reading therapy that targets the minor neurological glitches that separate natural readers from those that struggle.

Assistive technology for children with autism; children with asperger's syndrome: characteristics/learning styles and intervention strategies; Effective programming for young children with autism (ages 3-5); Structured teaching: strategies for supporting students with autism; Increasing expressive skills for verbal children with autism; Developing expressive communication skills for non-verbal children with autism by Susan Stokes autism consultant

Help for frustrated ADHD patients and their families as well as those with autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, PDD-NOS, and other related conditions. For years, the label of autism has carried a negative connotation. Parents have been afraid to admit the diagnosis and banished the term from discussion. Finally, this guide for parents and professionals provides a reason to embrace autism with a renewed sense of hope and understanding.

Appropriate educational placement must be based on a comprehensive assessment of the child’s abilities, in particular their social reasoning skills, and subsequently the careful selection of an appropriate educational setting, access to expertise, information, individual support and the development of a team approach. With this combination we have the opportunity to significantly improve the abilities of children with Asperger’s Syndrome.

For more than 20 years, teachers, parents, and kids have looked to Prufrock Press for exciting, informative learning resources designed for gifted, advanced, and special needs learners.

Time4Learning is an online interactive curriculum used at home for homeschooling, after school reinforcement, or summer study. It is a student-paced program filled with clear graphics, and simple sounds that don’t get in the way. The lessons go from preschool to eighth grade, and the levels of the subjects can be set independently. This helps children who perform or progress at vastly different levels in these major subjects. Children progress at their own rate using multisensory learning that helps each learning style.

Dafna Kohen, Sharanjit Uppal, Anne Guevremont, and Fernando Cartwright
Health Analysis and Measurement Group
Statistics Canada
The article contains statistics with charts and graphs that indicate as follows:
Chart 1 - The proportion of children with a reported disability varies by province, especially for mild or moderate disability, 2001
Chart 2 - The percentage of disabled students in regular classes, by province, 2001
Chart 3 - Among parents of children with disabilities, about one-third reported experiencing difficulty in accessing special education services, 2001
Chart 4 - Parents of children with disabilities were less likely to believe that schools were challenging their children to meet their potential, 2000
Chart 5 - The literacy gap between disabled and non-disabled students, by province, 2000

Canadian Teachers' Federation website.
Across the country, teachers are working to provide individualized instruction to the students in their classes. Teachers use their professional judgement to modify teaching to suit the learning needs of students. Occasionally, this modification is required as a result of students being formally identified as having a learning exceptionality. As classrooms become more diverse, the teacher's task becomes more difficult.

Wonderful website for teachers seeking a job - in special education field too!

The Ministry of Education in Canada [12] is responsible for funding elementary and secondary schools operated by both public and Catholic English and French boards. There are two grants in particular that assist students with learning disabilities so that they receive the support they need throughout their education. The main grant is the Special Education Grant (SEG) which provides additional funding for students who need special programs, services and equipment. Another grant that can also help some students with learning disabilities is the Special Education Per-Pupil Amount (SEPPA) which supports students with exceptional high needs who require more than two full-time staff to address health and safety needs. Depending on where you live in Canada, there are sometimes private grants available through local businesses.