Welcome to the third module of the
Paraprofessional Training Series that Volusia
County Schools is providing for all ESE Paraprofessionals in the district. This training,
Understanding and Supporting Students w/
Disabilities, will define various disabilities that students you work with are dealing with and
strategies to best support them. You may wish
to take notes throughout this module as there will be a ten question quiz at the end for you to
successfully demonstrate your understanding. If you have not already done so, please make
sure to complete the survey that accompanies
this module in the Paraprofessional Training Series Moodle.
As a result of this training today, you will identify
different disabilities, describe characteristics of disabilities, and understand your role in
supporting students with disabilities.
Some of the students you work with may be diagnosed with a disability you see on the screen.
We will explore each of these disabilities with a
definition, characteristics, and strategies to support these students in the classroom. Note
that we will be reviewing these in alphabetical
order. Some students you may work with are diagnosed
with Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD.
Students with this disability may have difficulties with communication, behavior, and social skills.
You will learn more about this disability in Module
5 of this training series, so we will touch on it briefly here. Autism is a spectrum disorder –
meaning the symptoms can occur in any
combination and with varying degrees of severity. It is also a lifelong disability.
Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorders
include communication problems with the use of and/or comprehension of language, difficulty
relating to people, things, and events, playing with
toys and objects in unusual ways, difficulty adjusting to changes in routine or to familiar
surroundings, and repetitive body movements or
behaviors. It is important to establish and use consistent
classroom routines as much as possible. These
consistent routines lessen all students’ anxiety and increase their ability to function independently
in the classroom. The routines can be visually
represented with words or pictures. Capitalize on the visual strengths of individuals
with ASD by using visual supports that foster and
increase their ability to communicate and function independently, academically, and socially.
Be aware of signs of anxiety or difficulties a
student may be having with sensory and emotional overload and have a plan to decrease
the possibility of occurrences as well as
individualized strategies to lessen the dysregulation.
Prepare students with ASD for changes in
routines. Have consistent routines and schedules. When
you know a change in routine will occur, like a
field trip or an assembly, prepare the student by telling him or her what is going to be different and
what to expect or do.
Support transitions through the school day by
creating a schedule, use simple countdowns to
the time a change is taking place, or use a visual timer to provide a concrete way for students to
know how much time they have until a change
occurs. A student who is deaf or hard-of-hearing has a
hearing loss aided or unaided, that impacts the
processing of linguistic information and which adversely affects performance in the educational
environment. The degree of loss may range from
mild to profound. Hearing loss or deafness does not affect a person’s intellectual capacity or ability
to learn. There are many causes that contribute
to deafness and/or hearing loss. Some educational strategies that can be
considered for students are, regular speech and
language therapy from a clinician or pathologist, amplification systems, services of an interpreter
for those students who use sign language,
favorable seating in the class to hear instruction more clearly or to facilitate lip reading, captioned
videos, assistance of a note taker so the student
can fully attend to instruction, or instruction for the teacher and peers in alternate communication
methods, such as sign language.
A child who is developmentally delayed is three through five years of age and is delayed in one or
more of the following areas: adaptive or self-help
development, cognitive development, communication development, social or emotional
development and/or physical development
including fine, gross, or perceptual motor Early intervention services may include: Speech
and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, or
Physical Therapy. Learning is individualized based on student strengths and needs and
facilitated through the use of the following
instructional strategies: promoting social and Emotional Competence, Environmental
Communication Teaching or ECT, Curriculum
Modifications as designed by the teacher, Embedded Learning Opportunities, Child
Focused Instructional Strategies or Assistive
Technology. A student with an emotional/behavioral disability
has persistent and consistent emotional or
behavioral responses which affect his or her ability to learn.
Characteristics of Emotional/Behavioral
Disabilities might include: hyperactivity or a short attention span, impulsiveness, aggression or self-
injurious behavior like acting out or fighting,
withdrawal meaning failure to initiate or retreat, immaturity which may appear in the form of
inappropriate crying, temper tantrums, poor
coping skills, or academic difficulties; the student may have the ability to learn normally, but the
emotions or behaviors interfere and the student
performs below grade level, and other emotional challenges like distorted thinking, excessive
anxiety, or abnormal mood swings.
You may notice that many of the strategies to keep in mind when working with students with
emotional/behavioral disorders are the same as
were highlighted in Module 2: Positive Behavior Strategies. Be sure to set clear limits, rules, and
expectations so students know what is expected,
develop a verbal and non-verbal cueing system to remind the student about appropriate behavior,
remain patient; remember when a student
misbehaves to not to take the behavior personally and always stay calm when speaking to the
student, raising your voice will likely only escalate
the situation, assist the teacher in recording student behavior, “catch the student being good,”
give the student positive attention when he is
displaying appropriate behavior such, assist the teacher to implement the Behavior Improvement
Plan or BIP – these individual plans, developed by
a team with the help of a behavior specialist, include excellent strategies to help the student
decrease inappropriate behavior and increase
positive behaviors. And finally, remember to start each day new…don’t hold grudges.
An intellectual disability is defined as significantly
below average general intellectual and adaptive functioning manifested during the developmental
period between birth to 18 years of age, with
significant delays in academic skills. Instructional strategies to remember when
working with students with intellectual disabilities
might include: making instruction and practice more concrete, and when possible, personally
relevant by relating it to tasks and experiences
the student understands, provide additional practice on skills, give the student immediate
feedback, repeat instructions or activity
descriptions, and break longer, new tasks into small steps.
Orthopedic impairment means a severe skeletal,
muscular, or neuromuscular impairment. These impairments may be first seen at birth, may be
the result of disease, or may be the result of an
accident. Some examples of orthopedic impairments that you may be familiar with include
bone diseases, cerebral palsy, muscular
dystrophy, scoliosis, hydrocephalus, and spina bifida. What you can do to assist a student with
an orthopedic impairment varies greatly based on
the individual student’s needs. Here are some general suggestions: help
accommodate the classroom environment to be
physically accessible, help the student use or prompt the use of assistive devices for writing
skills and communication, be patient and allow
more time for physical activities, assist with movement and positioning of materials, assist
with personal needs such as toileting, and
encourage independence when appropriate. Other health impairment means having limited
strength, vitality or alertness that is due to chronic
or acute health problems. Students classified as having OHI may have asthma, attention deficit
disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,
Tourette syndrome, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia,
nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and
acquired brain injury. As you have just heard, this is a very broad category of disabilities. Of
course, monitoring the health and safety of
students with OHI while at school is essential. It is important to remember that there is wide range
of strategies and supports necessary in order to
best meet the needs of each student. Because you would support a student with ADHD
differently than a student with epilepsy, it is
essential for all school personnel involved with students with this diagnosis to get to know their
specific disability, the facts, characteristics, and
strategies to support. Specific Learning Disability is a disorder in one or
more of the learning processes which can cause
a person to have trouble learning and using certain skills. Children with learning disabilities
are as smart or smarter than their peers, but they
may have difficulty reading, writing, spelling, doing math, reasoning, recalling or organizing
information. SLD is a lifelong disability.
Students diagnosed with specific learning
disability may have difficulty: Taking in,
remembering, and producing information. Understanding, connecting and relating new
information. Planning, organizational, study and
problem-solving skills. Or social skills and self- esteem.
Some strategies to support students with
Specific Learning Disabilities include, but are not limited to: breaking down tasks into smaller
steps, differentiating instruction for students
based on their need. Provide additional time for schoolwork and tests. Provide “wait time” to
answer questions. Provide frequent specific
feedback. Use assistive and instructional technologies to support learning. And be sure to
teach organizational and study skills.
Speech impairments are disorders of speech sounds, fluency, or voice that interfere with
communication.
A language impairment is a disability that affects one or more of the basic learning processes
involved in understanding or in using spoken or
written language. This disability can affect listening comprehension, oral expression, social
interaction, reading, writing, or spelling.
Characteristics of a speech impairment might include: interruption in flow or rhythm of speech,
problems with the way sounds are formed,
difficulties with the pitch, volume, or quality of the voice.
Characteristics of a language Impairment might
include: improper use of words and their meanings, inability to express ideas,
inappropriate grammatical patterns, reduced
vocabulary or inability to follow directions. Strategies to consider when working with a
student with a speech or language impairment
are to: work closely with classroom teachers and speech therapists to identify individual student
needs and supports, minimize the pressure to
perform verbally and reduce student anxiety, use nonverbal listening skills such as eye contact and
facial expressions, do not allow other students to
make fun of the student, provide positive feedback for all communication efforts , and let
the student finish talking, it is important to avoid
making the student feel rushed to communicate. Be sure to model good communication. Not
being able to communicate effectively can be
frustrating for everyone, but most especially for the student with the speech or language
impairment. If you don’t understand something
the student says, indicate what you did understand. What you model for the class in
terms of etiquette and patience creates a
positive, encouraging environment for all. A traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is an injury to the
brain caused by an external force. This injury can
change how a student acts, moves, learns and thinks.
Characteristics of Traumatic Brain Injury might
include problems with: attention and concentration, memory, planning and
organization, reasoning and problem solving,
expressive speech or language, impulsivity, processing complex information, and/or social
interaction.
Strategies to keep in mind when working with a student diagnosed with TBI might be to provide a
structured environment, allow the student to
practice frequently, shorten assignments, break instruction into smaller amounts of time, be clear
on classroom rules & expectations and alert the
teacher to any unusual circumstances of changes in behavior.
Students who are visually impaired include
students who are blind or students who have low vision. The term visual impairment does NOT
include students who have learning problems that
are primarily the result of visual perceptual and/or visual motor difficulties.
Strategies that may be considered for students
with visual impairments include: Use of concrete materials and tactile aids like relief maps, math
manipulatives, and raised-line paper for writing.
These activities support “hands-on” learning. Use of tactile/object communication. Use of
enlarged materials or materials that have been
Brailled. Use of verbal descriptions. Assistance with the student’s orientation to the classroom
and school campus. Providing descriptions of
where things are located and reviewing directly with the student any changes or rearranging of
materials or furniture. Providing reminders to
sighted students or adults to identify themselves by name. And remember, a sighted guide should
be provided only AFTER training from the
Orientation & Mobility Specialist We have covered a great deal of information
today. We defined a variety of disabilities with
different ways to support students in the classroom and around school. As part of the
team working with our students with disabilities,
we appreciate your capability to support the wide range of students with special needs in Volusia
County. This brings us to the end of Module 3.
Thank you for participating in this training. Please reference this screen or the “Guide: How
to access the paraprofessional training series” for
directions to access the Module 3: Understanding and Supporting Students with Disabilities quiz.
Remember that an 80% is required to pass the
quiz, and you have two attempts if needed to earn that score. See you next month!