Exceptional People: Lessons Learned from Special Education Survivors is a unique work that describes disabled (exceptional) students' and their parents' perspectives as they journeyed through the education system. For educators, it provides a window to the souls of the children whose lives they affect on a daily basis and offers proven strategies that can be implemented immediately. For students, it describes how they can successfully overcome the embarrassment of their special education label, the humiliation of being bullied by classmates, and the discomfort felt when called "stupid" or "lazy" by their teachers. For parents, it captures their pain when they first learned their child had a disability and the fight they faced as they attempted to advocate for their child (usually not knowing their legal rights, the correct questions to ask, or the organizations available to support them). An easy read with a powerful message, Exceptional People conveys significant insights through its personal stories and professional tips.

The structure of secondary education demands that young people are well-organised, self-sufficient, increasingly autonomous learners, who can cope with a wide range of teachers and a diverse timetable based around multiple locations and buildings. However, a substantial number of young people have motor co-ordination and perceptual difficulties which affect their participation in class activities. This condition was previously termed 'dyspraxia' but is now more universally referred to as 'developmental coordination disorder' or DCD. This book will provide readers with an insight into how DCD can affect students at Key Stages 3 and 4, and provide some practical strategies to help each young person to reach their potential. It is also intended to help parents/carers of young people with DCD to understand the potential help available to their child as they transition into secondary education. MORE ABOUT THE BOOK: For pupils with DCD, poor handwriting, erratic organisation, and difficulties with reading, mathematics and physical education may have been noted at primary school with their associated detrimental effect on academic success, peer relationships, social skills and self-confidence. However, these issues are felt more keenly in secondary school due to the desire to 'fit-in' and be accepted by a potentially large and often unforgiving peer group. This book is intended to inspire teachers and health care professionals to: understand the unique needs of young people with DCD; understand why young people with DCD have difficulties in perceptual and motor planning; appreciate the impact of DCD on learning; consider the added influence of peer-pressure and puberty on DCD; provide practical strategies to help; consider post-16 and vocational training. It is also intended to help parents/carers of young people with DCD to understand the potential help available to their child as they transition into secondary education.

Anti-racism studies have blossomed over the years with scholarship and political work reinforcing each other to cement anti-racist change. But how do we understand anti-racist research? How is anti-racist research methodology different from other methods of research investigation? What are the principles of anti-racism research? This edited collection attempts to provide some answers by bringing together works that examine the perils and desires of anti-racist research with a particular focus on the notion of 'difference' and a serious consideration of the race, gender, class, and sexuality intersections/implications of educational research.

This book gives the reader a unique insight and approach to the complex condition of dyspraxia. Drawing on considerable experience of the syndrome, as well as current research findings, the authors help teachers and other education professionals to genuinely understand the needs of a dyspraxic child. Through the implementation of practical strategies, they show how teachers can make all the difference to a child's ability to succeed in the classroom, and demonstrate through case studies how parents, teachers and therapists can work together to facilitate learning. Whilst providing a comprehensive overview of dyspraxia, this lively, informative text also examines specific cases and scenarios, considering the perspective of teachers and parents and those surrounding the child. It handles a range of crucial topics such as: issues surrounding diagnosis; the developmental differences and characteristics of dyspraxia; conventional and alternative intervention strategies; an exploration of the pressure of families; ways of improving home/school liaison; Teachers, SENCos and other educational professionals will find this book provides a wealth of essential information and guidance whilst p

This ground-breaking book gives an accessible overview and synthesis of current knowledge of relevance to the development of excellence in autism education. By situating understandings of autism within a 'bio-psycho-social-insider' framework, the book offers fresh insights and new ways of thinking that bring together global pedagogic practice, research, policy, and the insider perspective. Guldberg critiques current notions of Evidence-Based Practice and suggests ways of bridging the research-practice gap. She explores the interrelationship between inclusive principles, distinctive group learning needs and the individual needs of the child or young person. Eight principles of good autism practice provide a helpful framework for how education settings and practitioners can adapt classroom environments and teaching so that autistic children and young people can thrive. Written for anyone who wants to make a difference to the lives of autistic pupils, Developing Excellence in Autism Practice provides practitioners and students on education courses with tools for best practices, and shows how to draw on these to implement true positive change in the classroom.

This essential resource is designed to help busy early years practitioners to support the mental health of young children through outdoor play. Promoting social and emotional wellbeing in childhood has never been more important, and outdoor play is a crucial tool to build resilience, develop healthy relationships, and boost self-esteem. Using relatable case studies that demonstrate achievable change, the book is full of practical advice and strategies for exploring nature in both natural and man-made landscapes, and includes guidance on how to co-create inviting play spheres with children. Each chapter provides: Adaptable and cost-effective activities designed to help children feel more confident and connected to the world around them. Case studies and reflective opportunities to prompt practitioners to consider and develop their own practice. An accessible and engaging format with links to theorists, risk assessment, and individual schemas. Outdoor play allows young children to explore who they are and what they can do. It supports them as they learn to think critically, take risks, and form a true sense of belonging with their peers and with the wider community. This is an indispensable resource for practising and trainee early years practitioners, Reception teachers, and childminders as they facilitate outdoor play in their early years setting.

What does it take to improve the behaviour of the children you teach? This second edition of Jarlath O'Brien's insightful, practical guide for teachers, and those training to teach, combines psychological research, authentic classroom experience and the lessons learned from improving behaviour in schools. You will be challenged to think about your own practice, question accepted orthodoxies and to develop an empowered and confident approach to improve the behaviour of the children you teach. This new edition includes: * A new chapter on how to work with a class where behaviour isn't good enough * New, expanded discussion of bullying * A new 'How would you deal with this situation?' feature exploring tricky scenarios * A new interview feature offering useful perspectives from early career teachers * A new further reading feature so you can explore selected topics in more depth

This ground-breaking book gives an accessible overview and synthesis of current knowledge of relevance to the development of excellence in autism education. By situating understandings of autism within a 'bio-psycho-social-insider' framework, the book offers fresh insights and new ways of thinking that bring together global pedagogic practice, research, policy, and the insider perspective. Guldberg critiques current notions of Evidence-Based Practice and suggests ways of bridging the research-practice gap. She explores the interrelationship between inclusive principles, distinctive group learning needs and the individual needs of the child or young person. Eight principles of good autism practice provide a helpful framework for how education settings and practitioners can adapt classroom environments and teaching so that autistic children and young people can thrive. Written for anyone who wants to make a difference to the lives of autistic pupils, Developing Excellence in Autism Practice provides practitioners and students on education courses with tools for best practices, and shows how to draw on these to implement true positive change in the classroom.

When in 1996, Patricia Stacey gave birth to her second child, a baby boy, she quickly noticed an emptiness in his gaze - a vacant quality that emphasized her sense that he was ill at ease in his own body. By the time Walker was five months old, his gaze was obsessively directed towards windows - light had become his true north.;Despite the reassurance of many health professionals that Walker was fine, during the weeks and months that followed the family continued to question the experts, who finally arrived at a diagnosis of "sensory integration problems"; a term inextricably linked with autism.;Refusing to accept that this diagnosis would lead to the finality of an autistic disorder, the family dedicated four years to incessantly drawing Walker away from the sirens that seemed to call him inwards, using the latest play-based techniques. Progress was often painfully gradual, and yet sometimes they made astonishing leaps on the back of seemingly bizarre treatments like simply rubbing the roof of Walker's mouth.;Not only a story of Walker's development, "The Boy Who Loved Windows" also follows his parents' journey of understanding and coming to terms with Walker's difficulties.; In 20

Autismology is a great source for special needs educators, public school teachers, occupational therapists, ABA therapists, psychologists, mental health counselors, autistic adults, and parents with children on the autism spectrum. Tosha Rollins states, "As a mother of two young adults on the autism spectrum, I wish I had been better educated about autism. My children inspired my professional career of becoming a licensed professional counselor. I started the Autism in Action Podcast in 2019 and self-published Autism Unspoken Until Now.

Disability Studies in Education (DSE) provides a useful and compelling framework for re-envisioning the possibility of education for all students. However, the philosophies of Disability Studies (DS) can be seen as contradictory to many mainstream values and practices in K-12 education. In an ever-shifting educational landscape, where students with disabilities continue to face marginalization and oppression, teachers and teacher educators are seeking ways to address these educational inequities. They desire realistic and specific ways to work toward social justice, from within the confines of current education systems. Enacting Change from Within aims to provide a framework through which to analyze and address policy and practice in education, offering practical yet visionary ways to frame social justice work in schools that consider the day-to-day responsibilities of teachers. This book is intended to encourage an important dialogue on how to do the work of education from a DS perspective while complying with the often incongruous and deeply entrenched policy and practice requirements in our schools. This book is ideal for current and future teachers seeking to create more just, equitable and inclusive schools.

Young people with autism can be particularly susceptible to setbacks, often leading to depression and a sense of hopelessness. Using Social Stories (TM), this book introduces a different way of looking at common life setbacks, and offer tools to overcome these obstacles, build resilience and develop coping strategies for the future. Based on Carol Gray's highly effective Social Stories (TM) model, this new guide shows how to help individuals with autism deal with challenges specific to them, and how to bounce back from the negative experiences that they encounter. This book is an invaluable guide for learning to create personalised Social Stories (TM) that can be used to develop resilience in people with autism and help them to cope better with adversity.

In times of increasing pressure on schools and teachers, it is essential that teachers are equipped to understand the emotional and relational factors in learning and teaching. Vulnerable and disaffected children need understanding and nurture rather than reactive management, which can easily exacerbate their difficulties, leaving them unheard and defensive, and even undermine teacher confidence and effectiveness. Understanding, Nurturing and Working Effectively with Vulnerable Children in Schools offers a comprehensive and accessible exploration of the difficulties faced by teachers and schools from at-risk and disaffected children, including repeated trauma and insecure attachment patterns. The book describes how a thoughtful 'relationship-based' approach can both alleviate such difficulties and offer a second chance attachment experience, enabling students to discover it might be safe to let down their all consuming defences a little; thus freeing them to begin to learn. It offers: practical suggestions in note form - making them easy to use, refer to and assimilate; numerous case examples and teacher friendly theoretical background material; a wealth of ideas for ways forward, including differentiated responses to children in the light of their particular patterns, developmental stages and unmet needs. Written from extensive professional experience, this is an essential handbook and resource book for trainers, schools, teachers and school staff, and also for educational psychologists and those in children's services working with vulnerable children in pre and primary schools, as well as those in special schools and units.

Talkabout for Children: Developing Friendship Skills is a bestselling professional workbook supporting educators and therapists who deliver social and relationship skills groups for children with social, emotional or behavioural difficulties. This resources creates the final level of the Talkabout heirachy, where self-awareness comes before non-verbal skills and non-verbal comes before verbal, with assertiveness coming last. Resources include: an assessment framework planning and evaluation forms a three-term intervention plan for schools over 25 structured activity sessions focussing on friendship skills all the supplementary handouts and images needed to deliver the sessions. This second edition is presented with full-colour illustrations and handouts, and includes a new introduction by Alex Kelly reflecting on her own experiences of using the resources since they were first developed.

Behavior Management in Physical Education provides evidence-based, practical guidance on behavior management in the physical education classroom. Readers will learn how to identify and define problem behavior, discover the reasons behind misbehavior, create thriving classrooms via the incorporation of positive and proactive classroom management strategies, implement procedures to address problem behavior, and collect appropriate data to ensure interventions are having a meaningful impact. The book includes discussion on the use of technology in the physical education classroom to aid the behavior management process, and features case studies in every chapter to highlight key concepts and practical tools to help teachers create a safe and enriching learning environment. This reader-friendly text will inspire aspiring and seasoned physical educators to try new techniques to strengthen their behavior management repertoire. It is an important read for preservice and in-service physical education teachers, as well as other physical activity practitioners, and a useful resource for students of physical education teaching methods and behavior management courses.

As a parent, a teacher and an Aspie herself, Jennifer O'Toole provides the definitive insider's view of Asperger syndrome. She shows how to help children on the spectrum by understanding how they think and by exploiting their special interests to promote learning. Her strategies work because she thinks like the children that she teaches. This exciting book is full of effective and fun ways of engaging with children with Asperger syndrome. Jennifer explains how theory of mind difficulties create the need for concrete forms of communication, and provides original methods to inspire imagination through sensorial experiences. In particular she reveals the untapped power of special interests, showing how to harness these interests to encourage academic, social and emotional growth. Affirming that different doesn't mean defective, this book offers the insight and guidance that parents, educators, and other professionals need to connect with the Asperkids in their life and get them excited about learning.

The majority of our eating and drinking skills are developed in the first two years of life. Parents can help with this process by using appropriate feeding techniques from birth. Every three months from birth, your baby will have a growth spurt in the area of feeding. Parents often receive very little instruction on ways to feed their children, yet good eating and drinking skills encourage the best mouth development and set up patterns for life. This book reveals secrets for better breast and bottle feeding, and feeding development for babies from birth to the toddler years.

Often thought of as a predominantly 'male' disorder, autism has long gone unidentified, unnoticed and unsupported in girls - sometimes with devastating consequences for their social and mental well-being. As current research reveals a much more balanced male-to-female ratio in autism, this book provides crucial insight into autistic girls' experiences, helping professionals to recognize, understand, support and teach them effectively. Drawing on the latest research findings, chapters consider why girls have historically been overlooked by traditional diagnostic approaches, identifying behaviours that may be particular to girls, and exploring the 'camouflaging' that can make the diagnosis of autistic girls more difficult. Chapters emphasize both the challenges and advantages of autism and take a multidisciplinary approach to encompass contributions from autistic girls and women, their family members, teachers, psychologists and other professionals. The result is an invaluable source of first-hand insights, knowledge and strategies, which will enable those living or working with girls on the autism spectrum to provide more informed and effective support. Giving voice to the experiences, concerns, needs and hopes of girls on the autism spectrum, this much-needed text will provide parents, teachers and other professionals with essential information to help them support and teach autistic girls more effectively.

The 'Get to Know Me' resources aim to support children, along with those around them, who may have additional/special educational needs. They are designed to empower the professionals and adults who support those with identified needs, and encourage empathy and understanding. Developed by child psychologist Louise Lightfoot, the Guidebook, Picture book and Draw-along book in this three-part set will help key adults support children with anxiety. Practical guidance, tools and strategies are supported by a narrative picture book and a draw-along version, which explore the thoughts, feelings and sensations experienced by many children with anxiety.

This invaluable resource comprises a set of six 'Pip and Bunny' picture books with accompanying professional guide and downloadable online content; all carefully written and illustrated to support language and emotional development through reading. By inspiring conversation and fueling the young reader's imagination the books promote emotional and social literacy. Designed for use within the Early Years setting or at home, each story explores different areas of social and emotional development. The full set includes: Six beautifully illustrated picture books with text and vocabulary for each A handbook designed to guide the parent or practitioner in using the books effectively 'Talking points' relating to the child's own world 'What's the word?' picture pages to be photocopied, downloaded or printed Detailed suggestions as to how to link with other EYFS areas of learning The set is designed to be used in both individual and group settings, and at various stages of a child's development. It will be a valuable resource for teachers, SENCOs, Early Years workers, EOTAs, Educational Psychologists, counsellors and therapists.

Autistic people are empirically and scientifically generalized as living in a fragmented, alternate reality, without a coherent continuous self. In Part I, this book presents recent neuropsychological research and its implications for existing theories of autism, selfhood, and identity, challenging common assumptions about the formation and structure of the autistic self and autism's relationship to neurotypicality. Through several case studies in Part II, the book explores the ways in which artists diagnosed with autism have constructed their identities through participation within art communities and cultures, and how the concept of self as 'story' can be utilized to better understand the neurological differences between autism and typical cognition. This book will be of particular interest to researchers and scholars within the fields of Disability Studies, Art Education, and Art Therapy.

Urban education is an interdisciplinary field, characterized by introducing many perspectives to research pertaining to educational policy and to the practice of educating youth whose lives unfold in densely populated urban metropolitan areas. This book celebrates Constance Clayton's eleven-year tenure as superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, ending in 1993, following which an endowed chair was established in Dr. Clayton's honor at the University of Pennsylvania, and later, the Clayton lecture series was inaugurated. The chair was the first named for an African American woman at a predominantly White, Ivy League U.S. university. The lecture series, upon which this book is based, provides a forum for teachers, researchers, and scholars to evaluate and discuss key concepts and issues in urban education. Collectively, the lectures summarize important developments in a post-Brown vs. Board of Education era of educational thought (1998-2010) about what is in the best interests of urban youth.