About.com

Whazzup?

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:33:34 +0000

That seems to be one of the hippest ways to engage a peer now a days, but certainly not a good way to address a police officer or your grandmother. You and I know this, but a student with autism or Asperger's Syndrome may have figured, since he (or sometimes she) heard it on her favorite television show, it must be okay. So many students with Autism Spectrum Disorders or other cognitive disabilities don't understand the "unwritten curriculum" at their middle school or high school.

...

Read Full Post

Writing Power

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:18:55 +0000

I don't know about your students, but my guys really struggle with writing. Sometimes it's short term memory challenges with spelling. Often it's fine motor challenges that either make their writing unreadable, or leave their hands sore and stressed out. I decided I needed some support.

...

Read Full Post

Happy Valentines Day

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:39:17 +0000

It's hard to keep ahead of all of the needs I see among my colleagues. I know that this is the time of the year when behavior is becoming a real challenge Where I'm teaching, here in Las Vegas, I don't have to deal with the gray, wet and cold weather of the North East, North West and Midwest, but our kids still can give us a run for the money. No question that we really need something to celebrate.

...

Read Full Post

Behavior Challenge Time

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:32:04 +0000

Watching traffic to Specialed.about.com and listening to my colleagues, it seems halfway though the year is about the time when things start getting crazy.

We are starting to get students moved to our Middle School after they've been chucked out of another school and sent to a behavioral program. Dread is rising. Some of the classrooms in our building send out regular calls for assistance from the hall monitors, and I can only imagine, with the noise I hear from neighboring classrooms, that they represent only the tip of the iceberg.

...

Read Full Post

Dolch Revisited

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:06:36 +0000

There are several high frequency word lists, including the Fry and Dolch Lists. The Fry list includes over a thousand words. The Dolch list is far more manageable, and includes only 220 words. Many of these words are not decodable using the rules of English phonics, and have to be learned through rote or context.

...

Read Full Post

Light and Heat

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:33:07 +0000

The work I did on addressing the behavioral and emotional disabilities lead me to post a blog last weekend which dealt with the subject of Oppositional Defiance Disorder. I questioned if it was real or a "social construct" created to shuffle kids off to the side. I have to fess up: in part I did it to get the conversation rolling, and it certainly did.

...

Read Full Post

Is Oppositional Defiant Disorder Real?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:30:11 +0000

This past week I began my first class for my BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyist,) Management and Modification of Children with Special Needs. My instructor, Nancy Brown, comes from a career of teaching the emotionally challenged population in self contained programs. I look forward to hearing and sharing the strategies my classmates, many of them special educators or teacher preparing to be counselors, have to share.

...

Read Full Post

Autism and the DSM V

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 22:00:10 +0000

The New York Times published a front page article "New Definition of Autism Will Exclude Many, Study Suggests" Thursday (January 19, 2012,) ABC News picked it up and it's been splashed all across the media. Ironic, since I addressed the proposed changes in February of 2010, and our former Autism Guide, Lisa Jo Rudy, wrote an article about the changes last July.

...

Read Full Post

What's the Function?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:22:32 +0000

I spent two day last week with Dr. Ron Leaf, a co-director of the Autism Partnership, an international organization based in California that provides Applied Behavior Analysis services on both coasts and on several continents. He spoke about and offered demonstrations of ABA both to manage and improve behavior and to support academic skills.

...

Read Full Post

Marking the Half Way Point

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:20:07 +0000

Here in the Clark County School District the secondary schools have semester finals on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, January 18-20. Our first semester is winding down. Half way is a good place not only to assess what our kids are learning, but also to assess how we are doing.

...

Read Full Post