This book presents selected research and development on virtual reality (VR) and serious games (SG) applications to assist children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in their learning of different skills. Children with ASD have challenges to learn skills of learning, living, and working, due to their cognitive and behavioral limitations. The authors and their research teams of this book have many years' research experience developing innovative and interactive VR and SG technology for the special needs education. More specifically, several VR serious games are designed to train children with ASD on learning skill, life skill, and job skill. Such games are often developed based on the needs of special education and used by special needs schools in Singapore. This book is a useful resource for students, scholars, and designers of learning material who want to embrace VR and SG for children with ASD.

This handbook discusses early childhood special education (ECSE), with particular focus on evidence-based practices. Coverage spans core intervention areas in ECSE, such as literacy, motor skills, and social development as well as diverse contexts for services, including speech-language pathology, physical therapy, and pediatrics. Contributors offer strategies for planning, implementing, modifying, and adapting interventions to help young learners extend their benefits into the higher grades. Concluding chapters emphasize the importance of research in driving evidence-based practices (EBP). Topics featured in the Handbook include: Family-centered practices in early childhood intervention. The application of Response to Intervention (RtI) in young children with identified disabilities. Motor skills acquisition for young children with disabilities. Implementing evidence-based practices in ECSE classrooms. * Cultural, ethnic, and linguistic implications for ECSE. The Handbook of Early Childhood Special Education is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, clinicians, and practitioners across such disciplines as child and school psychology, early childhood education, clinical social work, speech and physical therapy, developmental psychology, behavior therapy, and public health.

This book presents an ethnographic case study of the personal motivations, advocacy, and activation of social capital needed to create and sustain the Immortelle Children's Centre, a private school that has served children with disabilities in Trinidad/Tobago for four decades. Based on narratives by parents from the 1980's, current parents, teachers, community advocates, and the author, who was the founder of Immortelle in 1978, the study views the school within the context of a nation standing in a liminal space between developed and developing societies. It argues that the attainment of equity for children with disabilities will require an agenda that includes a legal mandate for education of all children, increased public funding for education, health and therapeutic services, and an on-going public awareness campaign. Relating this study to the global debate on inclusion, the author shows how the implementation of this agenda would have to be adapted to the social, cultural, and economic realities of the society.

The internationalisation of higher education in the 20th century, built on an unprecedented expansion of transport and communication networks and the scope of international scholarly activities, triggered a massive flow of people across countries and continents. Geographically remote countries, such as Australia, became more attractive and accessible to migrants from Europe.Today, international education in Australia is under enormous pressure to reinvent itself.This book offers a collection of chapters that cover various dimensions of international education in Australia. The issues covered span from political and student identity concerns to the pedagogical and curriculum dimensions of international education and to the areas of language acquisition and language assessment. Each chapter formulates implications for the education of international students as Australia enters a new phase of hyperglobalism and completion with the rise of global cities and educational hubs that they provide beyond the traditional Western providers of higher education.Coming from diverse backgrounds and regionst, he authors offer insights into significant developments in international education as they address crucial questions faced by educators in Australia and compare them with North America and Europe in comprehensive and critical ways. This includes shifts in methodological approaches in education and policy research, as well as other issues arising from comparative research, such as improving educational quality and responsiveness of education to the needs of international students. Several chapters address more specific problems of providing equality, access, and equity for all students, narrowing the achievement gap, and the ways of offering education that is free from prejudice and discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, gender, social class and religion.

This book has gone to great lengths to reveal, through research and practice, the possibilities of addressing and reducing racist practices in our schools. It features an Antiracist Education Teacher Study that assisted in providing baseline figures of teacher perceptions of racism, and demonstrated how teachers can successfully implement antiracist concepts in their classrooms. Findings further indicate that such teacher involvement makes a difference in student acceptance and attitude. As teachers display enthusiasm for teaching their subject areas multiculturally, and having an intolerance for racist behavior, many students have shown greater respect and appreciation for their teachers who are willing to expose life's realities. Educators in the Teacher Study became role models for their students. This role modeling empowered students in positive ways to address issues of racism from the student perspective. Dr. Donaldson also focuses on shattering the denial of teachers who doubt the existence of racism in schools and who question how student learning is adversely affected by racism. She uncovers the difficulty teachers have with coming to grips with the realities of racism. In light of these difficulties, those who endured became empowered to become better teachers.

This book presents different practices and strategies for the English as an additional language classroom as well as units that could be adapted to various grade levels, English language proficiency levels, and linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The research, lessons, and concepts included in the book present innovative ideas in EAL education. The chapters are the result of a professional learning program for 30 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers from Brazil, held at the University of Miami's School of Education and Human Development in the Spring semester of 2018. The program, entitled "Six-Week English Language Certificate Program for High School English Teachers from Brazil (PDPI)," contained several components related to language development and methodology, including orality, reading, writing, linguistic and grammatical knowledge, and interculturality. The program was guided by the principle of multiliteracies, with a focus on English language development through new possibilities to participate in meaning making that incorporates verbal, visual, body language, gestures, and audiovisual resources.

High-risk youth are rarely able to succeed in school, on the job, in their family relationships, or in society at large. They often express hopelessness, frustration, anger. Even after they have acquired skills and have begun to work, they tend to lose jobs, fail again in schools, and become involved in crimes. There is a noted connection between youth who come from dysfunctional families and have low academic skills, nonexistent career goals, poor work history, drug and/or alcohol abuse, and involvement with the juvenile justice system.

Ivan C. Frank explains the need for longer term alternative educational programs in highly supportive environments for high-risk youth. He describes the features and coverage of programs in Israel and in some American cities that have rehabilitated high-risk youth.

This book challenges the validity of ADHD, learning disabilities, and dyslexia as meaningful special education "categories" and critically examines the misplaced medical model from which they are derived. The presumption that these disabilities cause school-related problems detracts from identifying factors within the classroom that create and maintain a child's underachievement and disruptive behavior. Moreover, when the disability is finally named, it provides no functional information that translates into effective coping strategies. Macht delves into the misunderstood structure of these disabilities, pointing out that they are not verifiable disabilities but weak constructs that poorly describe each child's uniqueness. Finally, he provides an alternative model based on children's strengths rather than their deficiencies, and presents strategies that advance school-related success.

Humanizing Disability in Mathematics Education: Forging New Paths is about enhancing the practices of mathematics teachers by extending the concepts of access, equity, and empowerment to include students living with all types of disabilities. These students are rarely thought of as mathematics doers and thinkers, and so are seldom offered opportunities to engage in mathematics in meaningful and connected ways. Humanizing Disability examines the current mindset and pedagogy that students with different learning needs encounter, and then offers strategies and practices to humanize the mathematics experience for these students. In the first part of the book, the authors lay out some key ideas about humanizing mathematics education for students with disabilities. As teachers of mathematics of teacher educators and students with disabilities, as well as with their own backgrounds as learners with identified disabilities, the authors' case and perspective are informed by hands-on episodes of their work and their own lived experiences. Foundational to the authors' advocacy are these compelling concepts: Students with disabilities are mathematics doers and thinkers. There are multiple ways of knowing and doing mathematics. The idea that disability is a tragedy must be resisted. Humanizing mathematics education is a matter of human rights to counter conventional, deficit-centered forms of education involving students with disabilities. Humanizing the mathematics education of students with disabilities enhances the learning of all. Theory and argument isn't practice, so Humanizing Disability offers practical examples of implementation through the exploration of singular cases of how an Individual Education Plan (IEP) can be a powerful tool for access, equity, and inclusivity for the disabled learner; of using funds of knowledge and of identity to navigate the education system; and of building inclusive classrooms and communities. Humanizing Disability in Mathematics Education: Forging New Paths offers an inclusive way to think about mathematics education involving individuals with disabilities. It goes beyond the walls of the mathematics classrooms to address issues of dignity, access, and empowerment. For those whose mission it is to bring meaningful mathematics to each and every student, it is a must-have reference for your professional library.

When it comes to 'The Excludables', it is time to shake up the debate. Students who are excluded from school, and society, are at a higher risk of being incarcerated. They are more likely to have mental health difficulties, special educational needs, live in poverty, have social care involvement and they disproportionately come from certain ethnic groups. This book pulls on all those threads using up to date research and establishes a deeper understanding of how and why these things affect school behaviours. The factors that lead to exclusion are complex, and this book meets that challenge head on, including the kinds of "crunchy bits" that are usually avoided at all costs, such as children who are high in callous-unemotional traits, and trauma-informed approaches in prison education. Written by an experienced educator and behaviour consultant, this book steps away from the worn-out discourse that surrounds behaviour in schools, and away from the notion that educators are the only relevant experts. Get ready to explore genetics, bias, epistemic trust, and the human stress-response system; all examined through the lens of the realities of behavioural challenge faced by educators every day. This is a read that will confront everyone in some way.

This volume takes a critical look at teaching and learning English across the globe. Its aim is to fill a gap in the literature created by the omission of the voices of those engaged in the everyday practice of teaching and learning English; those of students, teachers, and specialists. Three unique characteristics give this book broad appeal. They include its inclusion of the perspectives and experiences of students and educators involved in the everyday practice of English language teaching and learning its inclusion of the experiences of students and educators in both core and non-core English-speaking countries its basis on original, qualitative studies conducted by scholars in different parts of the world including Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas Of particular interest to applied linguists, scholars from diverse fields such as English as a Foreign/Second Language, English as an International Language, anthropology and education, English education, sociolinguistics, and bilingual education will also find value in this book. Written in accessible language, it can be used in such courses as Applied Linguistics, Second Language Classroom Contexts, Bilingualism and Multilingualism, English Around the World, Research Methodologies in Second Language Acquisition, and Research in Second Language Pedagogical Contexts. In addition, by focusing on presenting research experiences that adopt several epistemological and theoretical approaches, the book provides teachers of research with a great tool to examine varied applications of qualitative methods, data collection, and analytic techniques. Thus it could also be used for courses in Field Research and Qualitative Methods.

An Adventure with Childhood Obesity is an exciting storybook and guidebook pair, designed to help readers understand the physical, social and psychological effects of obesity on children and young people. Down Mount Kenya on a Tea Tray: Wesley had never thought much about his lifestyle or how he looked. He enjoyed eating his way through weekends in front of the telly with his mum. However, fate catapults him to a new life in East Africa and he is forced to face the negative impact that obesity is having on his life. When he rashly promises to climb Mount Kenya along with the rest of his class, an adventure in courage and determination begins ... An exciting and engaging story for children aged 8-12, this book explores some of the challenges faced by obese children. Supporting Childhood Obesity: Providing an easy-to-read introduction to childhood obesity, this guidebook is rooted in current theory, and takes a holistic approach to supporting obese children. Chapters explain the surprisingly complex causes of childhood obesity and highlight that children often have little control over the factors that may lead them to become obese. The physical and psychological consequences of obesity are explored and strategies suggested, ranging from individual and family support, to changes that need to be made at a societal level to tackle this significant public health issue.

An Adventure with Autism and Social Communication Difficulties is an exciting storybook and guidebook pair, designed to help readers understand the impact of social communication challenges on everyday life for children and young people. The Man-Eating Sofa: People often say that 'school is the best time of your life', but for Lara, school is loud and confusing. She much prefers watching James Bond films or building furniture in her dad's workshop. When the teachers in Lara's new school realise that she is autistic, they are able to help with strategies to make school more tolerable for her. An exciting and engaging story for children aged 8-12. This book explores some of the challenges faced by students who find social communication, sensory processing and regulation difficult. Supporting Autism and Social Communication Difficulties in Mainstream Schools: Created to help parents, teachers and practitioners support young people who find social communication challenging, this guidebook explores the educational, social and psychological impact of autism and social communication and interaction difficulties, as well as offering strategies to help educators recognise and support these issues in the school environment.

This book is designed to augment current educational administration preparation programs. It provides information absent from the textbooks most widely used in the preparation of general education administrators. It addresses both the knowledge base and the attitudinal perspective needed by school administrators to serve students with special education needs. Topics covered include: legal issues, the nature of diverse students, curriculum considerations, resource utilization, administration of programs and services, collaboration-based leadership, and a parental perspective on teaming. Case studies related to issues raised in chapters provide opportunity for problem solving and reflective thinking.

The book may be used as a resource throughout the educational administration preparation program. Faculty using this book need not be special education experts. This work provides an initial level of knowledge and awareness of special education issues and includes references for more in-depth investigations. Educational administration faculty who align the various chapters and case studies with course objectives and topics covered in their educational administration preparation program will be able to maximize the book's utility. The book will stimulate reasoned discussion among prospective school administrators in graduate level preparation programs.

This book presents a pioneering longitudinal study on English language instruction at the elementary school (ELES) level in the Japanese public school system. It attempts to identify those domains most sensitive to early English instruction by employing a state-of-the-art quantitative research methodology. English education was formally introduced in Japan for fifth and sixth graders in 2011 and is still in its infancy as a program. This study compares two groups (Grade 7 and 8) of students, one with ELES and one without, in order to shed light on their experiences. Comparisons are carried out not only quantitatively, measuring changes in English skills (listening, speaking, reading, and vocabulary / grammar) and the ELES students' affective aspects, but also qualitatively through in-depth interviews. Thus, this study attempts to capture the ELES students' experiences from a multi-dimensional perspective. The comprehensive literature review provided offers a valuable resource not only for researchers looking for a quick digest of the literature in this field before undertaking their own research, but also for policy-makers seeking to assess how to best implement ELES.

Karl Koenig, the founder of Camphill, was a prolific lecturer and writer on a wide range of subjects from anthroposophy and Christology through social questions and curative education to science and history. The Karl Koenig Archive are working on a programme of publishing these works over the coming years. This is the fourth book to be published in the series. In this remarkable collection of Karl Koenig's letters and essays, Koenig considers and discusses the fundamentals of special needs education. He shows that there are three core aspects to a successful holistic education and healing approach: firstly, a positive social environment, which in the context of Camphill is achieved through small family units of carers and children; secondly, that carers' work is based on an insightful understanding of the nature and potential of each individual child and disability; and thirdly that medical treatment is imbued with courage to keep believing that the impossible is possible.

These essays look at topics concerning multicultural education and international perspectives, including the impact of disadvantage on academic achievement, immigration policy and multicultural education in Australia, and how motivation and learning affects students of diverse backgrounds.

Levine shows us how to observe, question, and think about children's problem behaviors in school from the child's perspective so we can understand what is motivating children to act as they do before we intervene. Cases included in this book range from noncompliance and poor academic performance to disinhibition, suspected ADHD, PTSD, and injury-caused acting out. Understanding children's problem behaviors in school- seeing beyond the surface actions to reveal and name the root needs fueling those actions-is vital to helping the child. Yet, whether teachers in schools or parents at home, adults often make quick, cursory assessments, then an intervention is sprung. Explanations might be sought from the child, who often resists and becomes more distant. Punishment can occur and things are taken away, but the behavior worsens. These scenarios and similar occurrences frustrate parents, teachers, and other school professionals alike. In Learning from Behavior, Levine shows us how to observe, question, and think about problem behaviors in such a way that we can understand what is motivating the children to act as they do. Behavior, after all, often represents what the child cannot communicate, due to language limitations, level of psychological development, or traumatic experience. Children think differently; they are not small adults. We need to understand the behavior from the child's perspective before we can intervene to change the behavior. Author Levine shows us, incorporating illustrative vignettes, how to do that. Step by step, Levine, a clinical social worker experienced as a consultant to dozens of schools, helps us take the astute advice cited in one children's song we've all heard: stop, look and listen, to first understand the behavior. Question the causes. Cases included in this book range from noncompliance and poor academic performance to disinhibition, suspected ADHD, PTSD, and injury-caused acting out. We hear about the history of behavioral interventions, listen as children tell us how they perceive these interventions, and look over the social worker's shoulder as effective helping strategies are put into action. As Levine explains, Given the challenges we share communally in helping children, we should do everything possible to learn more about children's behavior, enhance our methods for reaching out to them, and refine our approaches to intervention. All of us-teachers, parents, clinicians, researchers, and administrators, along with the children we serve-must participate in this vital endeavor.

"Professor, mentor, author, disability advocate, seminar leader around the world-Dr. David Anderson corralled his many talents and worldwide experiences to author this important book. The volume should prove invaluable to Christians concerned about disabilities, especially teachers. Without flinching, Dr. Anderson tackles the tough issues: How could a good and benevolent God permit disabled children? Are disabilities the result of sin? How does a Christian teacher of the disabled differ from secular counterparts? Especially helpful is his emphasis on the reflective teacher integrating faith and learning. Certainly this is a volume that belongs on the bookshelves of anyone concerned with disabilities." -Steven A. Kaatz PhD, Graduate Programs in Special Education, Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota "I have had the privilege of traveling with Dr. Anderson as he has taught the concepts addressed in this book to educators, pastors, and parents in a variety of countries. I've seen the material come alive as leaders discover the importance of thinking Christianly about disability. This book has the potential of impacting all readers in similar ways. Dr. Anderson challenges all of us to come to grips with a biblical worldview and then to live it out within our spheres of influence. Toward a Theology of Special Education thus encourages all readers to think Christianly about disability. Such thinking will then motivate us to care with God's care and to serve with God's concern for justice and compassion." -Dr. Richard Schoenert, pastor emeritus, Calvary Church, Roseville, Minnesota

This book presents a unique exploration of common myths about autism by examining these myths through the perspectives of autistic individuals. Examining the history of attitudes and beliefs about autism and autistic people, this book highlights the ways that these beliefs are continuing to impact autistic individuals and their families, and offers insights as to how viewing these myths from an autistic perspective can facilitate the transformation of these myths into a more positive direction. From 'savant syndrome' to the conception that people with autism lack empathy, each chapter examines a different social myth - tracing its origins, highlighting the implications it has had for autistic individuals and their families, debunking misconceptions and reconstructing the myth with recommendations for current and future practice. By offering an alternative view of autistic individuals as competent and capable of constructing their own futures, this book offers researchers, practitioners, individuals and families a deeper, more accurate, more comprehensive understanding of prevalent views about the abilities of autistic individuals as well as practical ways to re-shape these into more proactive and supportive practices.

This book offers a critical investigation of the exclusion of individuals described as having 'learning difficulties' from participation in higher education. Using a postmodernist framework, the author explores the insights and experiences of a theatre group attempting to develop an undergraduate degree programme in the performing arts. In doing so, he provides a theoretical map of insights into discourses of power and knowledge, and makes transparent competing and contradictory discursive practices. Suggesting that 'learning difficulties' is a constructed and re-constructed discourse serving normative interests, the author demonstrates that despite the rhetoric of widening participation, individuals are intentionally beset by barriers, silenced and excluded from degree level participation. The author calls for a radical re-think of the notion of 'learning difficulties', segregated provision, access to employment in theatre, and critically questions the notion of participation in higher education. This pioneering volume will appeal to students and scholars of inclusive education, (critical) disability studies, cultural studies and the sociology of education.

This book is a valuable one for teacher educators and teacher education programs in the United States and Europe, since it is organized around numerous data sources. It contains national and international adaptations of the ABC's of Cultural Understanding and Communication. Authors for this book represent many languages and cultures and know, first hand, the socially constructed issues related to language, culture, and ethnicity. This book promises to make a significant contribution to preparing teachers to work with families and children. It should be read by all teacher educators as well as preservice and inservice teachers. In the new millennium teachers must redefine their responsibilities to ensure that ALL children have the opportunity to succeed. ABC's of Cultural Understanding and Communication: National and International Adaptations is a perfect place to start.

With diary entries written by eleven-year-old Libby Scott, based on her own experiences of autism, this pioneering book, written in collaboration with esteemed author Rebecca Westcott, has been widely praised for its realistic portrayal of autism. Tally is eleven years old and she's just like her friends. Well, sometimes she is. If she tries really hard to be. Because there's something that makes Tally not the same as her friends. Something she can't cover up, no matter how hard she tries: Tally is autistic. Tally's autism means there are things that bother her even though she wishes they didn't. It means that some people misunderstand, her and feel frustrated by her. People think that because Tally's autistic, she doesn't realise what they're thinking, but Tally sees and hears - and notices - all of it. And, honestly? That's not the easiest thing to live with. The first book written in collaboration with Libby Scott When Libby's mum shared a short piece of Libby's writing online it soon went viral, with tens of thousands of people saying that Libby's writing helped them understand autism for the first time This fictionalised portrayal of a young autistic girl is written by Rebecca Westcott, in close collaboration with Libby Scott, making it a truly original and inspirational book that will give readers of all ages a deeper understanding of what it's like to be autistic Perfect for fans of The Goldfish Boy, Wonder and The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-time BOOKS BY LIBBY SCOTT AND REBECCA WESTCOTT Can You See Me? (2019) Do You Know Me? (2020) Ways To Be Me (2021)