f01. web view · 2016-04-11students with severe and profound intellectual disabilities do...
TRANSCRIPT
Curriculum Guide for Students with Intellectual Disabilities.
This curriculum guide is designed for students with severe to profound intellectual disabilities. These
students are non-verbal or minimally verbal.
Reading
Tar Heel Reader is a website that offers thousands of themes and books with pictures. Tar Heel
Reader is a wonderful way to teach literacy skills to students with severe and profound Intellectual
disabilities. Literacy skills are the skills that we teach to students with Intellectual disabilities that are
classified as severe and profound. Students with severe and profound Intellectual disabilities do not
necessarily read the written word but with adaptations, they develop strong receptive and expressive
language skills which develop into literacy recognition skills. Some students with severe and profound
intellectual disabilities develop good sight vocabulary skills.The books from Tar Heel Reader have sound
in the form of voices. The voices are as follows a child’s voice the voice of a man or woman. The books
can be read silently or aloud without the activation of the voices. The books have virtual pages that can
be turned with a computer mouse or by touching a touch screen. The books can also be projected on a
smart board.
Notebook software is a wonderful tool to teach literacy skills to the intellectually disabled adapted
books can be created, for example, a book that is based on the fall can be made to be very animated and
interactive for students. A big tree can be created, and the leaves can be moved off of the tree to the
ground by the students. An apple tree can be created students can pick apples and place the apples in a
basket. Words and sentences can be placed in the books and read aloud for shared classroom reading.
The leaves on the ground can have a sound which can be crunchy sounding like the sound of actual
leaves when someone walks on the leaves. Apples can fall off the trees with a dropping sound. Wind
sounds can also be placed in the book to demonstrate that the weather is colder in the fall. A human can
be placed in the book with appropriate clothes that should be worn when the weather is chilly.
Receptive language skills can be incorporated in the book by putting inappropriate summer clothing in
the book for the fall. Students can be taught what clothing is appropriate and inappropriate for the chilly
weather by actually placing the clothing on the human figure. The notebook is software that allows an
educator to create very animated and interactive books. Adapted books can also be made using board
maker communication symbols or Google photos. The Intellectually disabled enjoy pulling vocabulary
symbols from left to right and having the sensory input from the sound of the velcro that is used to
adapt the pictures in the book while they are pulling the photos and symbols from the book. The words
can be read aloud by the teacher, or they can read the sight words, receptively by pointing to the photo
or picture symbols. Some students will verbalize the sight words, photos or picture symbols (expressive
language).
Writing
Writing with symbols is a great program that was put out by Mayer-Johnson the program allows a non-
writer with severe and profound mental disabilities to write with symbols. This program is a typing
program that can be typed by the teacher after the student chooses a writing topic. If the topic that is
chosen is The month of April. The program can be used to write important points on April such as April
Fools’ Day is a holiday in April. Earth Day is a holiday in April. We should think about recycling and saving
the planet on Earth Day. Each word that is typed uses a picture symbol to represent the vocabulary.
April is a rainy month. April is a spring month. In April, the weather is warmer. In April, the jackets are
lighter. Students can use Mayer-Johnson symbols to point to the symbols that the teacher types out
with the writing with symbols program. Mayer-Johnson also has alphabet and number symbols students
with severe and profound intellectual disabilities can use the letters to create words and sentences. If
the students have the motoric ability to write, they can trace letters and words with dots and eventually
copy words and sentences. Some students might learn how to write simple words and sentences that
are dictated to them. Many students with severe and profound Intellectual disabilities learn how to
write their names by using dots for tracing, copying and finally writing their names without any cues.
Spelling
Follows the same basic format as writing many students with Intellectual disabilities have difficulties
with spelling. Mayer-Johnson alphabet symbols, tangible, tactile alphabets can be used to help students
put words together. The students can learn how to spell or begin to develop sight vocabulary. Pictures
and photos can be used to help with word recognition. Words can be written on a board or paper, and
the students can match the written word to the picture. The matching technique can be used as both a
training and assessment method. If students have the motoric ability to write spelling words that are
dictated this skill can be trained. Some students can point to the letters or put letters together when the
word is dictated. Other students recognize spelling words by connecting the word to picture symbols or
photos. Students with severe and profound Intellectual disabilities can develop spelling skills. The key
word to remember when teaching a student with severe and profound Intellectual disabilities is
adaptations. We have to teach theses students with an adapted curriculum.
Mathematics
Geometric shape is a good introduction to functional math skills for the student with severe and
profound mental disabilities. Shapes can be introduced in the form of an adapted book on the
smartboard or in the form of a book with google photos or Mayer-Johnson picture symbols. A circle can
be introduced with functional items that are circular in our daily lives. Pizza, clock, cookies, the rim of a
cup, the top of a soda can, the bottom of a soda can, ball, oranges, apples, some mirrors, wheels,
bracelets, elevator buttons, and CDs. The shape square can represent a desktop, square cake, mirror,
clock, mirror, picture frames, pictures, cards, and books. Rectangles can be represented by showing
table tops, desks, closets, mirrors, TV’s, cable boxes, DVD players, boxes, crates, paper, magazines, and
books. Triangles can be represented pizza slices, pie slices, valentine’s Day candy and hearts. We can
also use Mayer-Johnson number symbols to help students to develop basic counting, adding and
subtraction skills. Functional objects can help students develop basic counting skills also. How many balls
do you see? I see five balls. Okay, let's take two away How many balls do you see? Oh, I see three balls.
Let’s add three now how many balls do you see? Oh, I see 8. Students with Intellectual disabilities have
difficulties with math skills and may times items have to be counted slowly for them or by them.
Communication Systems and Devices.
Earlier in this paper, it was mentioned that students with severe or profound Intellectual Disabilities might
be non-verbal or minimally verbal. Part of their curriculum should be the use of communication devices
the speech/language therapist evaluates the students and set up a treatment plan for the student, but the
communication device that is chosen for the student should be used throughout the day across all
curriculum areas. The Big Mack device or one message voice output device is a device that enables a
non-verbal student or a group of students to say a single message. During literacy lessons phrases such as
my turn or turn the page can be very meaningful to a non-verbal student. A 2-message voice output
device allows the student to say two words yes and no are very popular words that are used on a 2-
message voice output device. A 4-message voice output device allows the student to say four words turn
the page, my turn, more, and toilet is very popular phrases and words used by non-verbal students. The
tech talk device has eight messages which increase the students responses and opportunities to
communicate. The Go-Talk 20 gives a non-verbal students 20 phrases or words to communicate. The
Dynavox is a high-tech device which gives students may opportunities to communicate. The device is
programmed using different pages that can be set up by themes and topics student would need the
cognitive ability to use this type of device, but the opportunities to communicate are endless. The
proloque2go program can be used on an IPad or IPod if the student can activate an IPad or IPod
motorically this could be a great way to communicate wants, needs, and desires. The Mayer-Johnson
symbols and google photos can be used and set up on a manual communication board or easel to increase
verbalizations by using visual cues with the minimally verbal student.
Assessments/Therapy
What does the adaptive terminology behavior mean? Adaptive behavior refers to individuals
with Intellectual disabilities as having limitations with daily life skills which would include self-care and
communication skills. These skills are usually compared to people that are of the same chronological age
and cultural background. The individual with Intellectual Disabilities might not be as independent as the
individual without intellectual disabilities. Adaptive behavior can be divided into three basic set of skills
that enables an individual to function in daily life. Conceptual skills are reading, numbers, money,
concepts of time, verbal and non-verbal skills. Social skills have to do with social interaction skills,
following rules, social rules, obeying laws, etc. Practical life skills have to do with feeding, bathing,
dressing, communication skills and travel skills. (Tammy Reynolds, 1995-2012)
What does this information tell us as educators about assessments for students with Intellectual
Disabilities? Depending on the individual's level of functioning a student with an intellectual Disability
can be 15 years old chronologically and six months old mentally and as educators we need to decide how
we are going to assess these individuals for the best results. Assessments have to be chosen very carefully
for individuals with Intellectual Disabilities, and adaptation and modifications should be considered.
Alternate Assessments are used because they are not based on norms, and they are not
standardized. Alternate assessments are used with any student who does not have the cognitive skills to be
tested in a traditional standardized way. Students with Intellectual Disabilities can now be assessed based
on work that they produce in their individual classrooms. Teachers should compile student work and
make up individual data folios that demonstrate a student’s individual work. Some assessments can be
based on observations the Psychologist frequently will come into the classroom and write an evaluation
based on his or her observations of the student in the classroom. The Speech Therapist also works with
the student in a classroom setting using data and graphs to help assess the student’s progress on a regular
basis. Therapy is usually provided 2 to 3x’s per week, so data collection is daily and graphing of the data
is weekly. The entire data folio is approved by The New York State Education System in Albany. A team
of professionals scores it, and if the data folio doesn’t meet the standards of New York State, it is returned
to the Special Educator so he or she can make changes. The data folio is part of the student's
Individualized Education Plan which is a requirement of the IDEA law. The alternate assessment must
meet state requirements by a team of peers. Alternate assessments are being frequently used to assess
students who are Intellectually Disabled because the mental age of these individuals might be very
different from their chronological ages. Standardized testing can be used to identify deficits in adaptive
behavior. The Individual’s score for these behaviors can be compared with the average score for the
general population. Significant limitations in adaptive behavior may be indicated if the overall score falls,
at least, two standard deviations below the mean representing about 2.5% of the population. (Tammy
Reynolds, 1995-2012)Some individuals might score above the standard deviation of 2.5 % and might still
be classified as Intellectually Disabled. That is why it is a very difficult task for educators to find
assessments that are appropriate for the Intellectually Disabled. Standardized Testing can be used to
compare the Intellectually Disabled Individual to the general population, but educators should be very
careful not to use standardized testing as the only tool for assessing these individuals. Individuals with
Intellectual Disabilities have Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s) and for this reason, the assessments
that we use and the way that we assess these students do matter. Taking one assessment tool might not be
enough we need to use assessments informal, alternate assessments, data sheets, graphs and formal
assessments and compile as many tools as we can to help these students succeed as normally as they can
in this society.
Mayer-Johnson Symbols
Commercial adapted books by Mayer-Johnson
Big Mack one message voice out put device.
2-message voice output device.