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Teaching Special Kids:
Online Resources for Teachers

Finding strategies for working with special needs students can be a challenge for full-time special education teachers, let alone teachers who work on a part-time basis with kids facing challenges . Education World understands the problems you face and offers online resources that can help you better understand -- and help -- students with special needs.

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.

The number of special-education Web sites for teachers can be overwhelming, however. 

Education World has searched 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

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.

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 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!

ADDITIONAL SPECIAL-EDUCATION SITES ON THE WEB

And if you still haven't found what you're looking for, explore one of the sites below. Each contains extensive lists of links to sites on disabilities and special education.

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.

 

Article by Linda Starr
Education World®
Copyright © 2010 Education World

 

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Updated 06/06/2011