Creatures of an Exceptional Kind expresses Dorothy Whitney's talents as both special educator and artist, and intensifies her message of what it means to be different. Toulouse Turtle of the broken back, Selina Snake who has lost her hiss, and Belinda Bird whose wing will not heal are turned away into the forest by the other animals and find within themselves the resourcefulness to survive and rejoice in their own individuality.

This handbook for parents, family members and caregivers of children with visual impairments explains special education services that these children are likely to need and to which they are entitled--and how to ensure that they receive them. Edited and written by experienced parents and professionals, this helpful and easy to use resource addresses the effect of visual impairment on a child's ability to learn and the services and educational programming that are essential for them to get the best education possible. Chapters address early intervention, assessment, different types of services, IEPs, accommodations and adaptations, different types of placements, children with other disabilities in addition to visual impairment, and negotiation and advocacy.

How do children become social beings? When a child is unable to observe visually and imitate how other people react and interact, this complex developmental process can become fragmented and incomplete. As a result, providing specific information, direct instruction, and opportunities for social interaction to children who are blind or visually impaired is critical to their growth and education. Edited by two groundbreaking educators and researchers, with contributions from other outstanding educators and researchers in this area, Teaching Social Skills to Students with Visual Impairments explores what theory can tell us about how children who are visually impaired become socially skilled individuals. It then presents a compendium of techniques and strategies for helping youngsters, from preschoolers through young adults, including those with additional disabilities, develop and refine social skills.

Young children who are visually impaired and have additional disabilities need to learn to use their sense of touch effectively to promote their growth, development, and ability to communicate. This manual provides teachers, early interventionists, and parents with critical information about alternative communication methods not based on the use of vision as well as countless practical strategies. Topics include assessing a child's skills, planning interventions, and selecting appropriate tactile strategies to meet the child's needs.

A New Approach to Coping

This workbook provides more than 50 questions and exercises designed to empower those with physical loss and disability to better understand and accept their ongoing processes of loss and recovery. The exercises in Coping with Physical Loss and Disability were distilled from ten years of clinical social work experience with clients suffering from quadriplegia, paraplegia, amputation, cancer, severe burns, HIV/AIDs, and neuro-muscular disorders arising from accidents, injury, and disease. About the Author

Rick Ritter, MSW, a disabled veteran and social worker, has worked with more than a hundred clients who have experienced physical loss and disability. This workbook is a distillation of the very best questions and exercises to draw the client towards re-taking control of their life. He has competed in international events for disabled athletes. Ritter was also a major contributor to "got parts? An Insider's Guide to Managing Life Successfully with Dissociative Identity Disorder." He currently resides in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Series Info

"Coping with Physical Loss and Disability: A Workbook" is the second book in the "New Horizons in Therapy Series." This series is specifically designed to empower clients to work on their own in a therapeutic setting. As many therapists will state, it's often what the client does outside the session that can make the biggest difference in recovery. What People Are Saying

This workbook is a very good stimulus for focusing on issues that are crucial for better coping with loss and disability. Just putting the questions with the blanks together is a great opportunity for self-reflection and might greatly help people raise their consciousness. As I believe the saying goes 'If you do not help yourself, then no one will be able to help you.'"
-Beni R. Jakob, Ph.D, Israeli Arthritis Foundation (INBAR)

"Ritter provides a valuable self-care plan for those suffering from the loss of physical capacity. He also shows readers how to find the mental, emotional and spiritual encouragement critical to the healing process." -Georgiann Baldino, Author and cancer support-group facilitator

"Losing one's bodily integrity or functioning ('physical loss') provokes mourning and a distorted self-image. The horror and recoil that disabilities elicit in the healthy only compound the victim's sense of deprivation and worthlessness. Though slender, the workbook is indispensable to victims of physical loss, their nearest and dearest, medical staff, and psychotherapists or grief counselors."
-Sam Vaknin, Ph.D., author of Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited

"Rick Ritter captures the depth of the emotional pain in the aftermath of physical loss and disability. This workbook format will surely provide a sense empowerment to those who feel helpless in these situations."
-Rev. James W. Clifton, Ph.D., LCSW

"I found the workbook useful in addressing the various aspects of the physical loss. The examples given by the author are very relevant and will help the sufferer relate to similar situations. I recommend the workbook to those who are trying to heal from past traumas or to those who are trying to help their near and dear heal."
- S.V. Swamy, Holistic Healer and editor of Homeopathy For Everyone

1920. Bruhn, the principal of the Muller-Walle School of Lip-Reading and the Muller-Walle Training School for Teachers in Boston, Massachusetts, presents a series of thirty lessons, including exercises, sentence practice and story studies in exercise form, that are intended for the use of those who have become deaf after having acquired a full knowledge of speech, as well as for use in schools for deaf children.

This easy-to-understand guide explains the role of paraeducators (sometimes called classroom aides, teaching assistants, or paraprofessionals) in working with students who are visually impaired and assisting other members of the educational team. When You Have a Visually Impaired Student in Your Classroom: A Guide for Paraeducators provides basic information about visual impairment, the learning needs of visually impaired students, and the special devices and materials they use. Includes easy-to-use forms to help organize information and tasks.

While educational interpreting has been studied for decades, the research has historically focused on the tasks educational interpreters are engaged in during their work day. In The Role of the Educational Interpreter, Stephen B. Fitzmaurice takes a new approach using role theory to examine how administrators and teachers perceive the role and work of educational (K-12) interpreters. Through a series of qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaires with district administrators, school administrators, general education teachers, and teachers of the deaf, Fitzmaurice documents their perceptions of educational interpreters. Findings from the data reveal the perceptions of administrators and teachers set the stage for role ambiguity, role conflicts, and subsequent role overload for educational interpreters. Fitzmaurice elaborates on the implications of the research, and also provides concrete recommendations for researchers and practitioners, including an emphasis on the importance of involving the Deaf community in this work. This volume aims to offer clarity on the role of the educational interpreter, and dispel the confusion and conflicts created by divergent perspectives. A shared understanding of the role of the educational interpreter will allow administrators, teachers, and interpreters to work collaboratively to improve educational outcomes for deaf students.

For every classroom teacher who works with students who have multiple disabilities in addition to visual impairments, this book includes information in concise, nontechnical language on: How visual and other impairments affect learning skills; Practical teaching methods and strategies for helping students with severe multiple disabilities and those who can participate in an academic program; Techniques for working effectively in the classroom with students who have a wide range of special needs.

Written by a teacher with many years' experience of teaching mathematics to primary school dyslexic and dyspraxic children with a wide range of abilities, this book is designed to be a practical teaching guide. It offers detailed guidance and specific teaching suggestions to all specialist teachers, support teachers, classroom teachers and parents who either directly teach mathematics to dyslexic and dyspraxic children or who support the mathematics teaching programmes of dyslexic or dyspraxic children.

Although the book has grown out of teaching experience it is also informed by widely acknowledged contemporary and international research, which explores the cognitive aspects of learning mathematics and tries to understand why it is that some children fail to learn mathematics.

Many of the teaching principles described in the text have specific and quite far-reaching implications. The theoretical arguments should therefore also be of interest to special needs co-ordinators, heads of maths departments, head teachers or other professionals who are responsible for designing or modifying the maths learning programmes of children with special learning and maths difficulties. In more general terms, the book hopes to contribute to the broad discussion of the cognitive features and educational needs of dyslexic and dyspraxic children.

A reliable and easy-to-use resource for general education classroom teachers working with students who are blind or visually impaired, this guide provides information on students' abilities and needs, resources and educational team members, special education requirements, the expanded core curriculum, and technology used by students. It is essential reading for general education teachers with visually impaired students, school administrators, school nurses, paraeducators, related personnel, and parents.

"Dyslexia: Students in Need" offers a positive approach to students with dyslexia in further and higher education. Students with dyslexia gain degrees and professional qualifications, and successes of this kind often depend on appropriate educational and technological support and upon funding. "Dyslexia: Students in Need", in an easy-to-read typeface, tackles the problems and challenges identified by students themselves. It provides information on applications and admissions to colleges and universities, and on seeking information, support and funding about dyslexia from institutions. It provides information on how to apply for funding from the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA), and study skills relevant to dyslexia and to course requirements, with examples of how to maximise the strengths and abilities associated with dyslexia. It also presents ideas about the use of computers, software and other technologies relevant to dyslexia, and how to cope with revision and exams. It includes personal case studies written by undergraduate and postgraduate students with dyslexia. This book is not only invaluable for dyslexic students, but valuable reading for Heads of Departments, admissions tutors, Equal Opportunities co-ordinators, lecturers, personal tutors and librarians.

Innovative materials for helping youngsters start on successful careers Skills for Success details specific activities for preparing children with visual impairments for independence in daily life and success on the job. This comprehensive manual outlines how important capabilities can be developed through meaningful learning experiences at different ages. Contributors who are experts in their subject areas focus on suggestions for developing abilities leading to career and life satisfaction for preschoolers, elementary school students, and middle school students. Providing a wide range of information and resources, Skills for Success will prove an invaluable guide to teachers, parents, and others who work with children with visual impairments.

Education specialists, teachers, and other professionals explain how teachers can help students with poor eyesight make maximum use of the vision they do have to become more efficient in completing visual tasks. Among the approaches are devices such as closed-circuit television or a handheld magnifi

Making It Work is destined to be the definitive guide for years to come on how to make the regular school education a successful experience for blindvisually impaired children. With chapters flowing logically and full of detailed, useful information, it will be an essential handbook for school staff, specialized service providers, and parents of blindvisually impaired children. This is an exquisite, enlightened guide for the education of blindvisually impaired children in the new millennium.

In this ground-breaking collection, leading experts in the field address the problems of parents, intervenors, and professionals who work with people who have been deafblind since birth or from a very early age. Individuals who are congenitally deafblind face the same challenges as those who become deafblind later in life, but they have not had the same opportunity to develop the communications skills and a conceptual base needed to construct an understanding of the world. The contributors address identification of deafblindness, planning and intervention, development, family support, and education. Just as McInnes and Treffry's "Deafblind Infants and Children" helped to change the approach to and the perception of deafblind children, this collection will assist in fostering a new approach to the education of and support for older children, youth and adults who are deafblind. An essential part of this process is to set forth standards for program development, implementation, and evaluation, which this volume aims to accomplish. It will make an essential contribution to the expanding field of services for the deafblind population of all ages, and to the improved understanding of parents, family members, and professionals who support them.

In this examination of the social interactions of children with visual impairments, theory and research are combined to explore how these children can be helped to succeed socially. Innovative practical strategies are provided for educators, researchers, and families on how to assist children in the development of social skills. Qualitative ethnographic approaches demonstrate how classroom teachers can work effectively with individual children and present valuable insights about children's interactions.

These performance texts were written exclusively for performers identifying as Deaf, disabled or neuro-divergent. This unique collection of fictional dramatic monologues was written specifically for D/deaf and disabled performers (the 'd' of the title), informed by lived experience. But the 'd' could just as easily refer to difference, diversity, defiance, determination, desirability and a host of other delicious 'd's.... Covering a wide variety of form, content, and theatrical styles, the monologues offer fresh perspectives on difference and disability from across the UK and beyond. From biting satire to crip' pride, observational comedy to poignant revelations of life in contemporary Britain and beyond, these texts challenge and subvert ingrained preconceptions of disability and celebrate all the possibilities of human variety. This collection is the culmination of ten years work, with fictional monologues inspired by over 100 interviews, conversations and interactions with D/deaf and disabled individuals internationally. It brings together new and previously unperformed texts alongside monologues from In Water I'm Weightless (National Theatre Wales Cultural Olympiad 2012), the 70 minute stand alone one-woman show richard iii redux, co-written with Phillip Zarrilli, and the multilingual intercultural And Suddenly I Disappear: The Singapore/UK 'd' Monologues. The monologues offer a great resource for atypical performers as audition pieces and for companies and individuals as script-in-hand, full productions, solo shows or with larger casts. The variety of monologues enables flexible presentation as solo, choral or ensemble performances.

Down-to-earth advice for helping students with disabilities succeed

"The School Counselor's Guide to Helping Students with Disabilities" offers school counselors a practical guide for handling the complexities of working with children and youth who have disabilities. The book is organized to correspond with the myriad responsibilities and roles assumed by school counselors in elementary, middle and high school settings. The authors provide both seasoned and new school counselors with the insight and tools they need to successfully promote the academic, personal, social, and career success of students with disabilities. Presents a wealth of relevant disability-related knowledge and useful strategiesIncludes information on the most pertinent legislation pertaining to students with disabilities Offers the most effective counseling interventions for helping young children or adolescents experiencing social exclusion because of their disabilitiesBonus section contains a wealth of disability-specific information with implications and practical applications for counselors

This important book brings together experts in two disciplines, school counseling and special education/disabilities, in order to address the practicalities and possibilities of working with students with disabilities.

Ableism, a form of discrimination that elevates "able" bodies over those perceived as less capable, remains one of the most widespread areas of systematic and explicit discrimination in Western culture. Yet in contrast to the substantial body of scholarly work on racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism, ableism remains undertheorized and underexposed. In this book, James L. Cherney takes a rhetorical approach to the study of ableism to reveal how it has worked its way into our everyday understanding of disability. Ableist Rhetoric argues that ableism is learned and transmitted through the ways we speak about those with disabilities. Through a series of textual case studies, Cherney identifies three rhetorical norms that help illustrate the widespread influence of ableist ideas in society. He explores the notion that "deviance is evil" by analyzing the possession narratives of Cotton Mather and the modern horror touchstone The Exorcist. He then considers whether "normal is natural" in Aristotle's Generation of Animals and in the cultural debate over cochlear implants. Finally, he shows how the norm "body is able" operates in Alexander Graham Bell's writings on eugenics and in the legal cases brought by disabled athletes Casey Martin and Oscar Pistorius. These three simple equivalencies play complex roles within the social institutions of religion, medicine, law, and sport. Cherney concludes by calling for a rhetorical model of disability, which, he argues, will provide a shift in orientation to challenge ableism's epistemic, ideological, and visual components. Accessible and compelling, this groundbreaking book will appeal to scholars of rhetoric and of disability studies as well as to disability rights advocates.