Teaching Students With Mental Retardation: A Practical Guide for Every Teacher

Learn what effective teachers do to support students with mental retardation in and out of the inclusive classroom!
 
Students with mental retardation often struggle tremendously to complete the same tasks that many of their peers do without any difficulty-but with special assistance their struggles to learn can be highly successful. In Teaching Students With Mental Retardation, special and general educators will find highly effective strategies for enhancing the academic and social skills of students with mental retardation in their classrooms.

Offering a pretest, posttest, and key vocabulary terms, this exceptional resource also discusses:

• Common causes of mental retardation such as genetic conditions, problems during pregnancy and birth, and health problems
• Diagnosing mental retardation
• Cognitive, academic, physical, behavioral, and communication characteristics of mental retardation
• Methods for improving the functional academic, social, self-care, and work skills of students with mental retardation
• Instructional approaches for students with severe disabilities
• Influential trends and issues such as prevention of mental retardation and transitioning from school to work

Bob Algozzine is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina and project codirector of the U.S. Department of Education-supported Behavior and Reading Improvement Center. With 25 years of research experience and extensive firsthand knowledge of teaching students classified as seriously emotionally disturbed, Algozzine is a uniquely qualified staff developer, conference speaker, and teacher of behavior management and effective teaching courses. He is active in special education practice as a partner and collaborator with professionals in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina and as an editor of several journals focused on special education. Algozzine has written more than 250 manuscripts on special education topics, including many books and textbooks on how to manage emotional and social behavior problems.

Jim Ysseldyke, Ph.D., is Birkmaier Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, director of the School Psychology Program, and director of the Center for Reading Research at the University of Minnesota. Widely requested as a staff developer and conference speaker, Ysseldyke brings more than 30 years of research and teaching experience to educational professionals around the globe.

As the former director of the federally funded National Center on Educational Outcomes, Ysseldyke conducted research and provided technical support that helped to boost the academic performance of students with disabilities and improve school assessment techniques nationally. Today, he continues to work to improve the education of students with disabilities.

The author of more than 300 publications on special education and school psychology, Ysseldyke is best known for his textbooks on assessment, effective instruction, issues in special education, and other cutting-edge areas of education and school psychology. With A Practical Approach to Special Education for Every Teacher, Ysseldyke seeks to equip educators with practical knowledge and methods that will help them to better engage students in exploring―and meeting―all their potentials.