The term “intellectual disabilities” often gets confused with the term “mental retardation” because recently a law, called Rosa’s Law, passed by the federal government changed it. The terminology maybe different, but the definition remains the same. According to IDEA, an intellectual disability depends on the child’s IQ score, deficits in adaptive behavior, everyday life functions, when the disability developed, and educational performance (Taylor, Smiley, Richards, 2015). The article being discussed is called “10 Research-Based Tips for Enhancing Literacy Instruction for Students with Intellectual Disability” (Lemons, Allor, Al Otaiba, LeJeune, 2016). This article offers helpful tips for special education teachers, general education teachers, and other members of IEP programs in aiding students with intellectual disabilities enhance their literacy. In this paper I will summarize the article discussing the various researched based tips and what I feel are to be the most helpful tips the author gives.
Before providing the reader with helpful tips, Lemons et al., refers to a conceptual model of literacy that are really the basis for the following tips. One half of the model includes guidance on considering priorities, supports and access opportunities (Lemons et al., 2016). The main idea for the first part of the model is for the student to be able to approach literature as often as possible. The students being able to have time to practice and apply their literacy skills like phonics or comprehension is essential. While the other half of the model focuses on providing direction on instructional importance. How the teacher instructs the student on how to read will change as the student progresses in grade level. As cited in Lemons et al., this refers to functional reading and how it may become more of importance as the student gets older. For example learning how to read in elementary school versus learning how to comprehend or analyze in higher-grade levels. The author reminds the reader though that the literature available should always be “age appropriate across all grade levels” (as cited in Lemons, et al, 2016).
One of the first tips the article offers is to “Set Meaningful, Measureable Goals”. The authors suggest using multiple sources of data by developing informal or formal assessments to evaluate a student’s abilities (Lemons et al., 2016). For example using criterion- referenced assessments and/or curriculum-based measurements would help the IEP team greatly so that they can effectively set attainable goals. Determining the reading skills of the student is the key to finding an efficient way to teach the student. Not only do these assessments help the IEP team determine realistic goals for the student, but they also could show some insight on how the child should best be taught. In some cases the students may learn better by using auditory technology, while other students would learn more efficiently with visual information.
Branching off of intensity, students with intellectual disabilities should receive instruction with sufficient intensity in order to accomplish their literacy goals. Based off of Lemon et al’s., research, teachers were reporting that several of their students with intellectual disabilities spent most of their class time receiving individual help from a paraprofessional. Although this sounds like it would be helpful, most of the teachers who participated in the study feel the better option would be to have the child pulled out (Lemons et al, 2016). The reasoning behind this is to have more intensive instruction that focuses on the student’s needs better. If the student is only getting help from a paraprofessional in class doing only in-class routines and assignments, the instruction is not as individualized due to the fact that the class as a whole is learning at the same time. More importantly, IEP teams should keep in mind that these goals can take up to several years to reach. Providing instruction with enough intensity to reach goals is an on going process of keeping the student engaged. The assessments previously discussed would most definitely help the IEP team determine the best kind of instruction needed in order to reach goals sufficiently.
The article points out that many students with intellectual disabilities have trouble with their working memory that can cause issues with reading instruction. Students who have trouble with working memory often also have issues with remembering the first sound of a word, identifying the middle sound of a spoken word, or blending the whole word itself (Lemons et al., 2016). Luckily there are techniques that can be used by using various forms of scaffolding. “Scaffolding is support provided by the teacher until the student is ready to assume control of learning.” (Taylor et al, 2015). For the student who has trouble blending the word all together, one variation of scaffolding would be providing a mnemonic clue so that the student can bring the sounds together long enough to stay in their memory.
Overall this article helped me understand the way students with intellectual disabilities learn and how to support their needs. The authors directed these tips not only to educators, but also to others who are part of the process, which I found to be extremely informative. While all of the tips provided were helpful, tip numbers 9 and 10, are what I feel to be crucial, yet easily forgotten about. Tip number 9 addresses the “Use of Data to Guide Instruction and Adaptation” (Lemons et al., 2016). Monitoring the child’s progress through curriculum-based measurement and data-based individualization will make it easier to tell if the student is responding well to the instruction (Lemons et al, 2016). If the student is not countering well with the instructions, then clearly some modifications need to be made. I feel in order to keep up with the student’s progress and goals it is vital that this step is not forgotten about. Lastly tip number 10 addresses the involvement of service providers and family members (Lemons et al., 2016). I get impression that this last tip is extremely important because the whole process is a team effort. Parental support could really make or break a student, so the parents need to be informed and on the same page as the IEP team. This way the student is able to focus on his/ her goals at home as well as in school.
References
Lemons, C. J., Allor, J. H., Al Otaiba, S., & LeJeune, L. M. (2016). 10 Research-Based
Tips for Enhancing Literacy Instruction for Students With Intellectual Disability.
Teaching Exceptional Children, 49(1), 18-30. doi:10.1177/0040059916662202
Taylor, R. L., Smiley, L. R., & Richards, S. B. (2015). Exceptional Students Preparing
Teachers for the 21st Century (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.