Teaching Literacy to Students With Significant Disabilities: Strategies for the K-12 Inclusive Classroom

Break down literacy barriers to enrich the lives of students with significant disabilities!
All educators and family members would agree that depriving any student of the enhanced self-esteem, independence, social skills, and general quality of life afforded by literacy would be wrong. However, because of the particular challenges-perceived or otherwise-of providing literacy instruction to children and youth with significant disabilities, these students are often overlooked in receiving meaningful experiences and equal access to this aspect of the core curriculum.

Teaching Literacy to Students With Significant Disabilities offers tangible support for obliterating the obstacles to effective literacy instruction, including:

• Effective strategies for tailoring literacy materials to students with disabilities
• Tactics for adapting state standards and meeting No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requirements
• Straightforward chapter summaries, frequently asked questions, Web sites, and other resources that reinforce key points
• Easy-to-implement planning and assessment guidelines

Brimming with practical ideas, tips, and examples, this definitive guide offers K-12 educators the research findings and means for creating an inclusive environment that encourages students with significant disabilities to become actively engaged in literacy learning. It empowers teachers, family members, and all team members with creative, sensitive, and all-embracing ways to successfully set and meet realistic communication-development goals that yield lifelong benefits.

June E. Downing is Professor Emerita of Special Education at California State University, Northridge, and prior to that was at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she did research and prepared teachers to work in the area of moderate, severe, and multiple disabilities. She is a national leader in the field of special education that targets the needs of students with severe disabilities, especially with regard to inclusive education. She has published numerous articles, chapters, monographs, and seven books on students having severe and multiple disabilities. She served for six years on the Executive Board of TASH, an international advocacy organization for individuals with severe disabilities, and was a past president of the California Chapter of this organization―CalTASH as well as AZTASH. She has served as an associate editor of Research and Practices for Persons With Severe Disabilities and currently serves on this board as well as several other professional editorial boards. She is presently serving as an educational consultant, traveling extensively in the United States and abroad to do presentations on various subjects.