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Teaching Special Kids: On-Line Resources for Teachers

Editor's note: Be sure to see Education World's LESSON PLANNING story this week. The story, Understanding Kids Who Are Different: Activities for Teaching About Disabilities, provides lessons and activities for teaching students -- all students -- about tolerance.

Today, almost every classroom includes a number of students who are dealing with a disability -- either physical, educational, emotional, or a combination of all three. As a teacher, you probably find yourself looking for information and resources that will help you effectively teach those students and help them learn successfully.

However, the number of special-education Web sites for teachers can be overwhelming -- so overwhelming that it's hard to sort through them all.

This week, Education World searches the Web for sites that provide information about specific disabilities and suggest activities for classroom use. Although most are intended primarily for use with students who have disabilities, many can be adapted for use with all students.

LESSONS AND ACTIVITIES FOR SPECIAL STUDENTS

Teachers Helping Teachers is a terrific site for all teachers, but its Special Education section provides a number of activities that are specifically geared toward teaching basic skills to special students. The activities, for students from kindergarten through high school, are submitted by classroom teachers from around the country and include lessons in reading, math, geography, current events, and study skills. The activity Weird Letters, for example, helps students with learning disabilities identify and remember letters that don't always look they way they're supposed to. Using Newspapers is a functional activity designed to teach social studies or language arts to special-education students. This site also includes information on inclusion and mainstreaming and The Guest Book, a forum where teachers exchange ideas and advice.

If you teach younger students, you might want to visit Resources for Early Childhood Special Education. This site's Teaching section includes a large number of activity ideas arranged by theme -- from Animals to Valentine's Day. In addition, the preschool special-education teacher who maintains this site has included two additional sections. Jump provides links to other great sites containing preschool special-education research and activities, and Technology provides activities that can be downloaded for regular or special-education preschool students.

Special Needs, Special Kids, created by a special-needs mediator, provides an abundance of information about specific disabilities, such as autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, epilepsy, and spinal bifida. In addition, the site provides educational resources, including games and suggestions for adapting them to children with a variety of disabilities, activities for developing fine-motor skills, and discussions of a variety of special-education issues. The site provides insights into such topics as American Sign Language and wheelchair etiquette, as well as resources for 98 Ways to Say "Very Good" and the Ten Commandments for Educators. This is a well-written, easily navigable site that provides a wide variety of useful resources.

Finally, you may want to promote home-school interaction by sharing Very Special Home Pages with families of special students. This site provides free home pages for children and adults with special needs. Each biography, written by a parent or caregiver, displays the talents, hobbies, and personality of the person with special needs and allows visitors to see beyond the disability.

INFORMATIONAL RESOURCES

The greatest number of disability-related sites do not include many lessons or activities. They are, however, excellent sources for information on special-education programs, policies, resources, organizations, educational strategies, and specific disabilities. Many also provide links to sites where you'll find activities that can be adapted for use with special-education students.

At Equity and Diversity, the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education includes resources to help teachers understand the issue of equity education and provide equity education in math and science. The site includes a discussion of equity education, examples of model programs and classroom situations, and a selection of professional-development materials, both print and Web-based. Although primarily a professional development site, visitors can scroll to "IV. Special Needs to find articles on specific strategies and classroom activities for special students.

Misunderstood Kids: Outside the Box, a site for parents and teachers of all types of special-needs children, includes an Especially for Teachers page. The linked sites provide information, lesson plans, and activities. There's a lot here, so be sure to check out the site map so you won't miss anything.

Modifications for Students With Tourette Syndrome, Attention-Deficit Disorder, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder contains information about simple modifications of methods and expectations that can make life easier for special-education students and their teachers. The strategies suggested, which are valid for use with students with almost any type of disability, include techniques for time and materials management, transition activities, and organizational methods.

A number of other worthwhile sites that provide information on specific disabilities also include ideas and suggestions that can be used with students who have other disabilities.

• The Behavior Home Page includes links to information and resources to help teachers deal with children who have behavioral disorders. Many of the sites provide helpful strategies for improving general classroom discipline.

• United Cerebral Palsy provides information and resources about cerebral palsy and a number of other disabilities. The site includes information about the Americans With Disabilities Act, assistive technology, employment, parent information, and more. This site includes a number of valuable links for teachers and parents.

• The Arc Home Page contains information and resources for parents and teachers of people with retardation and other developmental disabilities. The site includes research and government reports, fact sheets, a discussion board, a search engine, links to state and local chapters, and much more.

• 50 Tips on the Management of Attention Deficit Disorder in the Classroom, an article by Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey, provides lots of good suggestions for helping all special-needs kids focus and learn.

• Suggested Classroom Interventions for Children With ADD & Learning Disabilities contains a chart, Suggested Classroom Accommodations for Specific Behaviors, of specific strategies for dealing with 35 common classroom behaviors. Do you know what to do for a student who has difficulty prioritizing? If not, you'll find out here!

TECHNOLOGY SITES FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Many students with disabilities require adaptive or assistive products to help them meet the challenges posed by their disabilities. Recent technology has provided a number of products that are useful both at home and in the classroom.

At HELP Read, a presentation of the Hawaiian Education Literacy Project, for example, you can download a free text reader to help students with disabilities learn to read. The text reader, which supports both English and Hawaiian, reads Web pages and text files, looks up definitions, and links to nearly 500 works of literature.

Assistive Technology Training Online Project This project of the University of Buffalo's School of Public Health and Health Professions provides information on AT applications tht help students with disabilities learn in elementary classrooms.

The Virtual Assistive Technology Center provides downloads of freeware and shareware that can be used by people who have disabilities. Scroll past the list of sponsors to find lists of available Mac, DOS, and Windows products.

IBM Special Needs Systems provides a list of products and software to help people who have special needs access and use technology. Products include a talking Web browser, an auditory and phonics program for young children, and a variety of accessibility enhancements. Many of the software products can be downloaded for free trials.

ADDITIONAL SPECIAL-EDUCATION SITES ON THE WEB

Internet Resources for Special Children
This site includes links to information, help, and specialty products for people with conditions ranging from amputation to Tourette's syndrome.

Internet Resource Sites for Special Education
Alton C. Crews Middle School in Lawrenceville, Georgia, provides links to sites for exceptional children and their parents, teachers, and friends. The Language Arts, Math, and Homework Help links suggest activities you can use with all students, not just those with special needs.

School Psychology Resources Online
This site provides links to resources in a number of areas, including autism, retardation, gifted and talented, eating disorders, substance abuse, and more!

Family Village
Web-based resources provide information for people with disabilities and their families and friends. Click School to find lots of educationally valuable links about public policy, assistive technology, disability awareness, IEP guidelines, and more.

The Instant Access Treasure Chest: The Foreign Language Teacher's Guide to Learning Disabilities
Although this site includes a section called Foreign Language and LD, most of the site links are valuable for any teacher involved in educating special students. The site provides lots and lots of valuable links to sites on teaching strategies, government resources, assistive technology, and more.

Office of Special Education
This resource from the University of Virginia offers lots of links to valuable information and resources for parents, teachers, and administrators. You'll find a page here containing sites on developing accessible Web sites.

Article by Linda Starr
Education World®
Copyright © 2005 Education World

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