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Calm Minds, Ready to Learn: Empowering Children with Relaxation Training
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) encompasses a wide range of challenges, particularly in social communication, sensory integration, and self-regulation. Children with ASD struggle to regulate sensory input: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, vestibular, and proprioceptive input. They also struggle to...
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Supporting Sensory Diversity: Building Inclusive Classrooms
Traditional classrooms were initially designed in the early 1900s, and some school districts have retained a similar structure. These settings typically involve large groups of children seated, remaining stationary, and primarily learning through listening and reading. Traditional classrooms...
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The Power and Potential of the IEP
To address the inequity of limiting special needs children from obtaining an appropriate public education, the Individualized Education Program (IEP) was implemented in 1975 across the United States school systems. The IEP is an educational road map for children with disabilities. It is required by...
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Pathways to Resolution of Special Education Conflicts
When conflict arises in an educational setting, there are multiple ways to resolve it. Some are small and easily resolved but may potentially lead to bigger conflicts and issues. Sometimes the conflict is substantial, and a resolution harder to achieve. Understanding different available methods of...
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Autism and Education: One Size Does Not Fit All
Having attended many talks, workshops, and education-related autism community events, I often hear the expression “one size does not fit all” used by teachers and other professionals who work with students on the spectrum. It is always gratifying for me to hear people having the most experience...
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Implementing Peer Support Arrangements in Schools
Students with autism often require support in developing communication, social, and academic skills (Chan et al., 2009). One treatment approach, peer-mediated intervention (PMI), utilizes neurotypical peers to support students with autism in building these skills (Laushey & Heflin, 2000)....
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A Constructive Approach to Conflict for Better Educational Outcomes
Whether you are a parent, guardian, or educator, you have likely faced some sort of conflict involving a student. Conflicts took many shapes and sizes during my son’s special education school experience, and now as he attends college. Sometimes conflicts are with the people involved, other times...
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“How Was I Supposed to Know?” Navigating the Unwritten Curriculum Through Executive Functioning Supports
We are constantly navigating contexts that we may not have been explicitly guided through. Along the way, there was some experience of making sense of these unexplained rules. Even though no one specifically addressed them, you knew where the line was. This doesn’t always ring true to many...
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Organizing Virtual Learning Materials for Students with Autism
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, many K-12 schools have implemented virtual instruction and/or hybrid instruction for all students including students with disabilities. For students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), lack of organization and inability to stay focused may impact their success in...
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Maintaining and Improving Skills During COVID-19 with Robot-Assisted Instruction
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many children are falling behind due to compromises in therapy and education services. Children with disabilities who previously had stable access to regular in-person therapy are losing that access, leading to regression (Jones, 2020). While tele-care and remote video...
