A guide to the intersection of trauma and special needs, featuring strategies teachers can use to build resilience and counter the effects of trauma on learning and behavior. Childhood trauma is a national health crisis. As many as two out of every three children in any classroom across the country have experienced some form of trauma. Meanwhile, a recent study in Washington State showed that 80 percent of the children eligible for special education services were exposed to early childhood trauma, which has been linked to developmental disabilities. Add in the fact that Black children are four times more likely to be classified with intellectual disabilities and five times more likely than white students to be classified with an emotional or behavioral disorder, and the already daunting complexity of effectively serving kids with an individualized education program (IEP) becomes overwhelming.This is a whole school problem that requires a whole school solution. All educators in both general and special education should learn how trauma affects the brain and how any resulting atypical neurological and psychological development affects learning and behavior. In Trauma-Informed Teaching and IEPs, trauma expert Melissa Sadin presents strategies for supporting the most vulnerable students in general or special education settings, across grade levels, and across the curriculum. You'll learn to * Understand the effects of childhood trauma on the brain, learning, and behavior. Weave caring into trauma-informed instruction. Apply a trauma-informed lens to crafting IEPs. Conduct trauma-informed functional behavior assessments. Once you understand the effects of trauma on learning and development, you will explore classroom strategies and IEP goals and modifications that can actually help to heal your students.With rich examples and helpful strategies, Trauma-Informed Teaching and IEPs gives teachers the most effective tools to help build resilience for every student, no matter their needs.

Written by an expert in the field who is both a teacher and a teacher-educator, this book is an in-depth and practical resource for educators and parents who wish to introduce music to children with hearing loss. Author Lyn Schraer-Joiner makes a compelling case for offering music education to children with hearing loss before presenting a series of important and up-to-date teaching strategies meant to inform their educational experience, including preparations for the classroom, communication strategies for parents and teaching staff, and tips on more specific or technical matters such as conducting musical audiograms. These resources provide a solid background for hands-on instructional materials such as music lessons, supplemental activities, educational resources, discussion points, and journal samples for the classroom and home. Schraer-Joiner goes to great lengths to offer detailed, purposeful suggestions for specific classroom settings such as general music, choral ensemble, and instrumental ensemble as well as a set of recommended listening lessons that take this potential variety of settings into account. Furthermore, Schraer-Joiner provides suggestions for incorporating music into everyday activities and also presents an overview of recent research which reinforces the benefits of music upon social and emotional development as well as speech and language development. Each chapter concludes with a section entitled For Your Consideration which features review questions, ideas, and instructional activities that teachers and parents can accomplish with deaf and hard of hearing children. The book's "Kids Only" online component provides deaf and hard-of-hearing children with descriptions of the many opportunities available to them in the arts, inspirational case studies and stories, as well as important ideas and topics for deaf and hard-of-hearing children to consider discussing with the teachers, family members, and healthcare professionals that they work with. The message of this book is a powerful one particularly in this day and age. As hearing aid and cochlear implant technologies improve and become increasingly widespread, all teachers-especially music teachers-should expect to see more deaf and hard-of-hearing children in their classrooms. Awareness and preparation are not only vital in aiding these children in the classroom, but are in fact required of teachers by federal law. This book is a comprehensive resource for teachers and parents who wish to gain a better understanding of the emerging field of music education for students with hearing loss.

Music Education for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Resource for Teachers provides foundational information about autism spectrum disorder and strategies for engaging students with ASD in music-based activities such as singing, listening, moving, and playing instruments. This practical resource supplies invaluable frameworks for teachers who work with early-years students. The book first provides readers with background information about ASD and how students with this condition manage their behaviors in school environments. It then progresses to provide teachers with information about planning music-based instruction for students on the spectrum. In the book's midsection, readers learn how students with ASD perceive, remember, and articulate pitch perception. Following chapters present a series of practical ideas for engaging students with ASD though songs and singing and concentrate on skills in music listening, most notably on activities that motivate students with ASD to interact with others through joint attention. Challenges that individuals with ASD experience in motor processing are examined, including difficulties with gait and coordination, motor planning, object control, and imitation. This is followed by practical teaching suggestions for engaging students with activities in which movement is mediated through sound (e.g., drum beats) and music. Closing chapters introduce non-pitched percussion instruments along with activities in which children engage in multisensory experiences by playing instruments-musical activities described in preceding chapters are combined with stories and drama to create musical narratives. Music Education for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder is accompanied by a companion website that supplies helpful supplemental materials including audio of songs notated in the book for easy access.

Biliteracy, or the development of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking competencies in more than one language, is a complex and dynamic process. The process is even more challenging when the languages used in the literacy process differ in modality. Biliteracy development among deaf students involves the use of visual languages (i.e., sign languages) and auditory languages (spoken languages). Deaf students' sign language proficiency is strongly related to their literacy abilities. The distinction between bilingualism and multilingualism is critical to our understanding of the underserved, the linguistic deficit, and the underachievement of deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) immigrant students, thus bringing the multilingual and immigrant aspect into the research on deaf education. Multilingual and immigrant students may face unique challenges in the course of their education. Hence, in the education of D/HH students, the intersection of issues such as biculturalism/multiculturalism, bilingualism/multilingualism, and immigration can create a dilemma for teachers and other stakeholders working with them. Deaf Education and Challenges for Bilingual/Multilingual Students is an essential reference book that provides knowledge, skills, and dispositions for teaching multicultural, multilingual, and immigrant deaf and hard of hearing students globally and identifies the challenges facing the inclusion needs of this population. This book fills a current gap in educational resources for teaching immigrant, multilingual, and multicultural deaf students in learning institutions all over the world. Covering topics such as universal design for learning, inclusion, literacy, and language acquisition, this text is crucial for classroom teachers of deaf or hard of hearing students, faculty in deaf education programs, language instructors, students, pre-service teachers, researchers, and academicians.

The reality of disability-of what it means to be disabled-has primarily been written by non-disabled people. Disability and disabled individuals are often described with pity, presented as burdens, or are background figures in larger non-disabled narratives. Redefining Disability challenges the outsider-dominated approach to disability by centering the disabled experience. This edited volume, featuring all disabled authors and creators, combines traditional academic works with personal reflections, visual art, and poetry. These works address disability and race, sexuality and disability, disability cultures, accommodation, self-diagnosis, and how we manage the obstacles ableist institutions place in our way. The authors address a variety of disabilities, including sensory, chronic pain, mobility, developmental disorders, and mental illness. It is through these testimonies that we hope to redefine disability on our terms; to clearly state that disability is not a bad word, and that all disabled lives have value. Redefining Disability is interdisciplinary, with broad application for undergraduate courses, graduate seminars, or to read for pleasure. Each entry contains discussion questions and/or activities for educators to use in the classroom.