The Journal of Special Education current issue

Teaching Students With Severe Speech and Physical Impairments a Decoding Strategy Using Internal Speech and Motoric Indicators

Swinehart-Jones, D., Heller, K. W. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:05:04 PDT

Children who have severe speech and physical impairments often have difficulty acquiring literacy skills. One critical area of literacy instruction involves promoting word identification though the development of decoding strategies that can be implemented by students independently. This study investigated teaching four students who have cerebral palsy and dysarthric speech to internalize the three-step decoding strategy found in the Nonverbal Reading Approach, as demonstrated by motoric indicators (individualized motor movements that parallel the decoding steps). The results of this study indicate that students are able to learn the three-step decoding strategy with the addition of a motoric indicator to identify words in isolation, as well as to apply the strategy independently upon encountering unknown words in connected text.

Effects of Time Management Instruction on Adolescents' Ability to Self-Manage Time in a Vocational Setting

DiPipi-Hoy, C., Jitendra, A. K., Kern, L. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:05:05 PDT

This study investigated the effectiveness of a time self-management intervention in the work setting of four adolescents with developmental disabilities. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to examine the adolescents’ ability to independently identify time and initiate work-related activities. Intervention was delivered by instructors at each participant’s work site and involved the use of an alarm watch that sounded at specific intervals to prompt students to check the time. Results indicated that all four participants increased their performance in managing time at work from baseline to intervention. Additionally, although there were variations across participants, overall generalization of the time management skill to a novel environment (i.e., a community site) occurred following intervention.

A Comparison of Special Education Administrators' and Teachers' Knowledge and Application of Ethics and Professional Standards

Fiedler, C. R., Van Haren, B. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:05:05 PDT

The field of special education is wrought with ethical dilemmas. The Council for Exceptional Children has outlined its code of ethics and standards for professional practice for individuals working in the field of special education. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which special education administrators and teachers possess similar or different levels of knowledge and application of the council’s code and the professional advocacy responsibilities enunciated in the standards. A survey was administered to 624 professionals in the state of Wisconsin who worked with students with disabilities: 99 special education administrators and 525 special education teachers. Special education administrators and teachers were asked to rate their knowledge level of the council’s code and standards and how they used the standards when faced with ethical dilemmas.

Evidence of Ethnic Disproportionality in Special Education in an English Population

Strand, S., Lindsay, G. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:05:05 PDT

Differences in the proportions of students identified as having special educational needs (SENs) across ethnic groups have historically been of concern in the United Kingdom and the United States. However, the absence of student-level data has hindered investigation of the reasons for such disproportionality. The authors present an analysis of the 2005 Pupil Level Annual School Census for 6.5 million students aged 5 to 16 years in England. Logistic regression analyses were completed to calculate the odds ratios of having identified SENs both before and after adjusting for the influence of age, gender, and socioeconomic disadvantage (poverty). Poverty and gender had stronger associations than ethnicity with the overall prevalence of SENs. However, after controlling for these effects, significant over- and underrepresentation of some minority ethnic groups relative to White British students remained. The nature and degree of these disproportionalities varied across categories of SENs and minority ethnic groups and were not restricted to judgmental categories of SENs.