Teaching Students With Multiple Disabilities or Handicaps

Teaching Students With Multiple Disabilities or Handicaps Children with multiple disabilities will have a combination of various disabilities that may include issues with: speech, physical mobility, learning, mental retardation, sight, hearing, brain injury, and possibly others. Along with multiple disabilities, they can also exhibit sensory losses as well as behavior and/or social problems. Children with multiple disabilities,  Ã‚  also referred to as multiple exceptionalities, will vary in severity and characteristics. These students may exhibit weakness in auditory processing and have speech limitations. Physical mobility will often be an area of need. These students may have difficulty attaining and remembering skills and/or transferring these skills from one situation to another. Support is usually needed beyond the confines of the classroom. There are often medical implications with some of the more severe multiple disabilities which could include students with cerebral palsy, severe autism, and brain injuries. There are many educational implications for these students. Strategies and Modifications for Multiple Disabilities Early intervention is necessary as soon as the child begins school.Involvement of the appropriate professionals, i.e. occupational therapists, speech/language therapists, physiotherapists, etc.A team approach at the school level involving external agency/community liaison who meet on a regular basis is essentialThe physical arrangement of the classroom will need to best accommodate this child. Consideration of special equipment and assistive technology is essential.Integration among their peers is important to assist these students with social development. Its important to integrate multiple disabled children as much as is possible. Research does indicate that when these students attend their community school and participate in the same activities as their peers, social skills develop and are enhanced. (Sometimes these students are placed full-time in a regular classroom with support, however in the majority of cases these students are placed in a developmental skills type of classro om with some integration. Ensuring that all students demonstrate respect for the multiply disabled student becomes a teachers responsibility and needs to be taken seriously with ongoing activities that develop respect from the other students in the class.An Individual Education Plan will need to be carefully planned out and adjusted on a regular basis and will need to be aligned to the needs of the individual child.Remember, these children are often completely dependent on others for most/all of their daily needs.Assistive technologies may aid this child and the support team will need to decide which assistive technologies will be most appropriate.A safety plan will need to be developed and is often included in the IEP.Care needs to be given in your expectations of this student to ensure the child doesnt become frustrated. Most importantly, these identified children are to be given the same rights as non-identified school age children including screening, evaluation, and an appropriate program/services.​

What to Do If You Failed a College Midterm

What to Do If You Failed a College Midterm No matter how much you studied (or didnt), the facts are the facts: You failed a college midterm. So just how big of a deal is this? And what should you do next? How you handle failing a midterm (or any other major exam) can have a major impact on the rest of your semester. Consequently, its important to take a step back and do the following things: Look Over the Exam When You're Calm When you find out you failed, give yourself a little while to focus on and do other things. Take a walk, go for a workout, eat a healthy meal, and then come back to the test. Get a better sense of what happened. Did you bomb the entire thing? Do poorly in one section? Misunderstand one part of the assignment? Misunderstand one part of the material? Is there a pattern about where or how you performed poorly? Knowing why you failed can help you turn your performance around for the rest of the term. Talk to Your Professor or TA Even if the entire class failed the midterm, you still need to get some feedback on how to do better on the next exam or final. Make an appointment with your professor or TA during office hours. After all, theyre here to help you learn. Remember, too, that whats done is done; you arent there to argue with your professor or TA about your grade. Youre meeting with them to find out what will help you do better next time. Be Honest With Yourself Have an honest conversation with yourself about what you did wrong. Did you study enough? Did you not read the material, thinking you could just get by? What could you have done better to prepare?   Commit to Making a Change That Will Help You Do Better Next Time Even if you failed this midterm and feel like its the end of the world, its probably not. There will be other exams, essays, group projects, lab reports, presentations and final exams you can do better on. Focus on what you can do that will help you improve. Seek Out the Help You Need Lets be honest: If you failed this exam, youre going to need some help. Because even if you think you can do better on your own next time, your failed midterm grade means you cant leave anything to chance. All that money youre paying for tuition and fees means you should take full advantage of the resources your college or university has to offer! Instead of thinking What can I do for next time? think What will I do to prepare for my next major exam? You can sign up for office hours with your professor and/or TA. Have someone read your papers before you turn them in. Get some tutoring. Find a mentor. Form a study group of folks who will focus on learning the material instead of goofing off. Make appointments with yourself to spend quiet time reading and studying without distraction. Do whatever you need to do so you can celebrate acing your next exam - not feel as horrible as you do now.