Accommodations and Assistive Technologies is all about finding the right supports for your students in the classroom setting to ensure the highest outcome for success (ex. Text-to-speech for students who struggle with reading). Concrete topics are prompts that aren’t abstract or open-ended when learning basic writing skills (ex. Predictable chart writing with 3 direct objects students can finish a sentence with). Critical skills implores teachers to target both academic and functional skills when teaching writing (ex. “Can you write a list of your nighttime routine?”). Explicit instruction involves identifying a target skill, modeling that skill, and eventually using prompt fading to create independence. Strategy instruction involves making a plan or breaking-down steps in writing to promote self-regulation. Systematic evaluation involves using task analytical assessments to track current performance and progress.

It is important to identify what skills a student has in the area of writing (are they an emergent or conventional reader? What vocabulary skills do they possess?). Once you have identified the problem areas, you can begin to create goals that will be used in the IEP process. Noting how these goals will be obtained and how progress will be monitored is essential. When writing goals, make sure there areas for functional and academic improvement (ex. Having a Dynavox with the categories “my friends” or “hobbies” and “school subjects”). Having set goals for early literacy and writing skills that are measurable and attainable will help students with disabilities have meaningful connections and interactions inside and outside of the classroom.

To combat under-qualification and ensure all students have a fair education, this study illustrated the effects of collaboration between general education and special education teachers to create an adapted book that is age-appropriate and will engage all students in learning. The study showed promising results that addressing the specific needs of every student with low to high-incidence disabilities through adapted books and systematic instruction improves their learning, retention of the material, enhanced quality of life through literature, and increased independence.

This study aimed to test if modified schema-based instruction (MSBI) could be beneficial to teaching students with ASD how to solve algebraic word problems. MSBI utilizes systematic prompting and explicit task analysis (8-step task analysis in this study) to help students gain fluency. The study found that MSBI gives students the ability to discern between different problem types and identify the correct operation that should be used.

The content areas of math, science, literacy, and social skills all overlap to some extent, so base knowledge in all the areas is pivotal to gain complete conceptual understanding. Evidence-based practices for ensuring generalization includes using real-world problems (this is best done when the ideas are presented as natural stimuli), task analyses with visuals, and graphic organizers. These strategies promote self-regulating (asking questions and making conclusions on the content independently), leading to a greater potential for success. 

This study’s aim was to determine if constant time delay with the use of the mnemonic KWHL (What do you know? What do you want to know? How will you find out? What did you learn?) helps students with moderate disabilities become self-regulated in the inquiry process. Peer tutors were assigned to students to simultaneously create a natural environment for gaining social skills. The results show the use of peer mediation and constant time delay with the mnemonic KWHL had positive effects on student vocab and conceptual understanding.