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Teaching Students with Multiple Disabilities

Students with multiple disabilities require unique instruction, adaptations, and modifications to their entire learning environment. It is important for these students to participate in a functional curriculum that focuses on the skills the student will need to be as independent as possible and as active and engaged as possible. Instruction must focus on the student's current and future quality of life, ensuring that the focus of instruction is realistic and provides the student with the skills that will help him or her interact successfully with their world. When setting up the environment, it is essential to provide them with sensory areas that meet their unique visual needs. These areas must be accessible and available where they are. If the student spends time in their wheelchair or positioning equipment, there must be activities set up in those areas for them to interact with. The following pages provide strategies and resources in working with students with multiple disabilities and their teams.

Functional Skills

Students who are blind or visually impaired, require adaptations to the curriculum that address their unique learning needs but this is especially true for students with multiple disabilities.  This page provides suggestions and strategies for students with multiple disabilities.

Individual Schedules

Creating a print, picture, or object individual schedules for the students can help them smoothly transition through the day as well as develop time management skills. This page provides suggestions on setting up individual schedules.

Teacher Made Materials

Learn how to make custom materials to meet the unique visual and learning needs of each student with a visual impairment. 

Individual Schedules & Communication Cards

This page provides suggestions and strategies for creating individual schedules and communication cards for students who are blind or visually impaired.

Transitions Between Activities

Transitions between activities within the daily schedule can be stress producing time for students as they are leaving the familiar and moving to the unfamiliar. This page contains suggestions for helping students transition between activities as well as suggestions and tips for student transfers.

Lightbox Use

You may wonder how to use a lightbox with students or need some new ideas for its use. This page contains suggestions for using the APH lightbox.

Encourage the Use of Vision in Students with MD

This page provides suggestions and strategies for encouraging students to use their vision to the highest extent possible by providing visually interesting and motivating learning activities.

Sensory Input

Students with visual impairments frequently seek additional sensory input to compensate for the lack of sensory input they are receiving visually. This page provides suggestions on how to help the student fill their sensory needs. ​​

Sensory Areas & Rooms

A sensory station is appropriate for students who need a place to go where they can have minimal visual and auditory distractions. For the student with visual impairments such as Cortical Visual Impairment, they may need this highly controlled environment to learn to look and use their vision. This page provides suggestions for setting up a sensory station in your classroom.

​Sensory Activities for Students with MD

The Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments can work with a student to help them develop efficient use of their vision for visually attending to their environment, shifting their gaze between materials presented and visual pursuit of objects and people. These skills will help prepare a student for learning as well as prepare them for safe and efficient travel.

Sensory Table

During play and exploration in the sensory table, the student is able to have hands-on experience with math and science concepts. This page provides suggestions for activities and materials to use in the sensory table.

Classroom Jobs

The ability to perform classroom chores or jobs will prepare the student for being a contributing member of the classroom, homes, and community. It also lays a foundation for job-related skills and employment later in life. This page provides suggestions for classroom jobs. ​

​Student Transfers

Help students relate transitions to the time of day and how long the activity will be. Identify time on a clock and/or set a timer to denote time. Talk to the student before touching or lifting/moving him/her to transition. This will help the student anticipate change. Before you touch a student with a visual impairment, make sure he is aware of your presence. Try not to surprise the student by poking or sudden loud talking.  This may frighten or startle him/her. For students that are not mobile, provide the student with warnings prior to transfers. Address the student by name, letting them know that they are to be “part of the action.”  Even though words may not be understood, the sounds and your tone establish a relationship.

Strategies & Activities for Students with Severe & Profound Disabilities (SIDPID) Recorded Presentation

$25.00

This presentation provides instructional and communication strategies for working with students with severe and profound disabilities (SIDPID) who are functioning between a birth to two-year-old level. It also provides suggestions for setting up sensory environments and creating adapted materials, so the student has activities to interact with no matter what position or area of the room they are in. I share lightbox activities and how to use iPads and computers as instructional tools. Finally, I share functional literacy activities that embed sensory experiences that you can create with your students. The activities are appropriate for the classroom but can also be used during distance learning. This presentation is packed full of activities you can begin using immediately with your students! 


Objectives:



  • Instructional & communication strategies for teaching SIDPID
  • How to create sensory stations and active learning spaces for students
  • Adapted materials for students with severe and profound disabilities
  • Lightbox activities for students
  • Using iPads as instructional tools
  • Using computers as instructional tools
  • Functional literacy activities


Includes:



  • Recorded Video Presentation
  • Transcript
  • Presentation handout for note taking


Request a Certificate of Completion

To receive a certificate of completion for 1 contact hour, complete the short survey on Google Forms. If you have any accessibility issues with the form, please don't hesitate to let me know and we can make other arrangements.  ​


System Requirements:

Presentations are recorded PowerPoint presentations in an MP4 file. Please note that the presentation pages are closed member pages available to individuals who have purchase access to the presentation. 
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Foundations of Teaching the ECC in the Age of Virtual Instruction & Social Distancing Recorded Presentation

$25.00

We were all thrown a curve ball at the end of the 2019-2020 school year when schools around the country closed and moved to virtual instruction. We scrambled to figure out how to teach our students online. Unfortunately, COVID-19 did not go away over the summer and as schools prepare to open with social distancing guidelines, we now need to learn how to safely teach our students from a distance of six feet and wearing PPD. An added challenge is the uncertainties of toggling between face to face instruction and virtual instruction as buildings open and close. My objectives for this presentation are to discuss the impact but also discuss strategies for still successfully serving students whether you are using face to face instruction or providing virtual instruction. Either way, you will still want to review records to get to know the student and ensure you are meeting their current needs, collaborating with teams and providing instruction no matter the student’s placement. 


Objectives:


  • Defining your role as a TVI
  • Implementing IDEA, the National Agenda & the ECC
  • Records Review & Interviews
  • Conducting Observations
  • Vision Specific Evaluations
  • Determining ECC Needs & Service Delivery
  • Instructional Strategies


Includes:


  • Recorded Video Presentation
  • Transcript
  • Presentation handout for note taking


Request a Certificate of Completion

To receive a certificate of completion for 1 contact hour, complete the short survey on Google Forms. If you have any accessibility issues with the form, please don't hesitate to let me know and we can make other arrangements.  ​


System Requirements:

Presentations are recorded PowerPoint presentations in an MP4 file. Please note that the presentation pages are closed member pages available to individuals who have purchase access to the presentation. 
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If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.  ​​​-Ignacio 'Nacho' Estrada
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