Educating Students with Severe and Multiple Disabilities

Fred P. Orelove, Dick Sobsey, Donna L. Gilles, Fred P. Orelove, Dick Sobsey, Donna L. Gilles

• Publisher: Brookes Publishing
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781598578133
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación inclusiva

A cornerstone of special education training for 30 years, this is the definitive textbook for preparing educators, counselors, and other related services professionals to teach children with severe and multiple disabilities in inclusive settings. Now in a revised, thoroughly updated, and streamlined fifth edition, this bestselling volume gives current and future educators the research and practical strategies they need to ensure the best learning outcomes for their students. Presenting a team-based, collaborative approach to education, this comprehensive text includes valuable contributions from respected experts in diverse fields, including fresh voices in special education, physical therapy, occupational therapy, communication, counseling, and pediatrics. Equally useful for preservice professionals and practicing educators in inclusive classrooms, this highly regarded textbook will fully prepare professionals to meet the educational, emotional, and health care needs of students with severe and multiple disabilities.

WHAT'S NEW:

• New chapters on topics essential to effective practice, such as teaching strategies and transition to adulthood
• Updates based on the latest developments in special education
• Cutting-edge information on assistive technology and understanding challenging behaviors infused throughout the book
• New student-friendly features that enhance learning, such as chapter objectives, key terms, reflection questions, and challenging activities
• Engaging and instructive case stories at the start of each chapter
• New online course materials, including slides that outline key ideas to remember
• Helpful new chapter organization that introduces readers to the diverse needs of students with severe and multiple disabilities and follows up with practical teaching strategies

SELECTED TOPICS COVERED: adaptations, accommodations, and modifications * alternate assessments *assistive technology * collaborative learning strategies * communication skills * curriculum design * *IEPs * instructional planning * integration of health care and education programs * nutrition and mealtime considerations * partnerships with parents and families * physical disabilities * sensory disabilities * special health care needs * transition to adulthood

1

Designing Collaborative Educational Services

CHIGEE JAN CLONINGER

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

1. Describe the collaborative approach to educational programming

2. Name the essential components of collaborative teaming

3. Understand the benefits of a variety of disciplines

4. Recognize the challenges in implementing the collaborative model and know the approaches to success

5. Describe the multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary models and understand the progression to the collaborative team model

6. See an example of collaborative teaming in action for a student with severe and multiple disabilities

KEY TERMS

• Collaborative individualized education program (IEP)

• Collaborative team approach

• Discipline-free goals

• Valued life outcomes

Zach is 11 years old and rides to his neighborhood school on the bus with his brother and other children in his neighborhood to attend a fifth-grade class. Zach likes being in places where there is a lot of activity, and he enjoys music, books, and the outdoors. He presently does not have a formalized communication system—he communicates through facial expressions, vocalizing, crying, and laughing, and he seems to understand more than he is able to communicate. Zach does not have vision or hearing impairments; however, he does have physical disabilities that affect the use of his extremities. He is beginning to learn to use a power wheelchair for mobility and is beginning to use communication assistive technology (AT).

Zach’s educational team uses the collaborative approach to plan, implement, and evaluate his IEP, which is supported by a special educator, classroom paraeducator, physical therapist (PT), occupational therapist (OT), and speech-language pathologist (SLP). These team members, including his parents, use a systematic process to determine Zach’s learning outcomes for the year, who was going to teach or support these learning outcomes in the various school settings, and what skills needed to be taught to other team members so everyone could assist Zach in achieving his goals and objectives. Each member of the team shares the same vision—meeting Zach’s educational needs and goals and providing for his successful future.

Putting the student with severe and/or multiple disabilities at the core of all planning is the key to truly making a difference in that student’s life. The most successful IEPs are created through the dynamic, synergistic collaborations of team members who share a common focus and purpose and bring together diverse skills and knowledge (McDonnell & Hunt, 2014; Reiter, 1999). Together, professionals across a wide variety of disciplines, including special and general educators, SLPs, PTs and OTs, psychologists, and counselors, contribute to planning and implementing a successful educational program for students with severe and multiple disabilities. Although this chapter emphasizes supporting students with severe and multiple disabilities, all students can benefit from a collaborative approach to educational planning and supports (Idol, Nevin, & Paolucci-Whitcomb, 2000; Rose & Meyer, 2006).

WHY COLLABORATIVE TEAMS?

Students with severe and multiple disabilities are those “with concomitant impairments (e.g., cognitive impairments/blindness, cognitive impairments/orthopedic impairments), the combination of which causes such severe educational needs that they cannot be accommodated in the special education programs solely for one of the impairments” (Code of Federal Regulations [C.F.R.] Chapter III, Section 300.8 [c][7], 1999). Students in this disability category include those with the most severe and/or combinations of disabilities. Most have some level of cognitive disability, but the nature and extent of cognitive impairments are often ambiguous and undetermined because of the interactional effects of the multiple disabilities and the difficulty in precise diagnoses. Because of their combination of physical, cognitive, medical, educational, and social-emotional challenges, these students require a collaborative and concerted effort so their IEPs result in learning outcomes that make a difference in their daily lives. Thus, they need the profound and foundational interconnectedness of a diverse group, including family members, to see that learning does happen (Giangreco, Cloninger, Dennis, & Edelman, 2002; Selby, 2001). The many needs of students with intense, numerous educational challenges call for a collaborative approach in the educational environment to ensure the following:

• Services are coordinated rather than isolated and fragmented. Team members who work together to complement and support the student’s goals and each other provide connected and integrated educational programming. Coordination of services takes place through the actions of team members who learn and implement the principles of educational collaboration, such as sharing expertise, agreeing on ways of working together, and putting the student first. Team members experience a sense of collegial belonging and satisfaction through collaboration (King-Sears, Janney, & Snell, 2015).

• All team members share a framework for team functioning and the assessment, implementation, and evaluation of the student’s educational program. Team members define their roles in relation to direct and indirect supports that they provide to the student’s educational plan and to other team members. Within a collaborative framework, the contributions of every team member are educationally relevant and necessary to the student’s success. Gaps in services and overlapping functions (e.g., when the OT and SLP both work on eating skills with the student) are avoided. Involvement in the development of a student’s total plan helps ensure commitment and ongoing learning (Giangreco, Cloninger, & Iverson, 2011).

• The student’s goals belong to the student, and all team members collaborate to ensure that those goals are met. Goals, objectives, and general supports are developed based on valued life outcomes for the student, family, and team members. Valued life outcomes are those basic components that reflect quality-of-life issues, such as being safe and healthy, having a home now and in the future, having meaningful relationships and activities, having choice and control that matches one’s age and culture, and participating in meaningful activities in various places. An individualized student plan, which includes goals and objectives, supports, accommodations, and specialized instructional strategies, is based on these valued life outcomes. These plans will be unique for each student and used as benchmarks for evaluating the success of the student’s program (Giangreco et al., 2011).

• The student’s needs are addressed through a coordinated and comprehensive approach. Students with severe and multiple disabilities face challenges in a number of areas, including 1) physical and medical conditions (e.g., movement restrictions; skeletal abnormalities; vision and hearing loss; seizure, breathing, and urinary disorders), susceptibility to infections and management of medications; 2) social-emotional needs, such as maintaining friendships, expressing feelings, showing affection, giving to others rather than always being passive recipients, and making decisions; and 3) educational challenges, such as how to appropriately position and handle students at school and how to promote best use of the student’s vision, hearing, and movements for gaining access to materials and people. Appropriate communication methods and modes to match students’ cognitive, visual, hearing, and motor functioning are essential to ensure that students can make choices, have some control over their lives, express basic needs, engage with others, and have access to preacademics and academics. Although students with severe and multiple disabilities may have physical, medical, and social-emotional challenges, any student’s IEP should be based on individually identified educational needs, not on presumed disability characteristics (Giangreco et al., 2011).

THE COLLABORATIVE TEAM MODEL: EXEMPLARY PRACTICE

Collaborative teaming does not just happen; team members must practice skills in order to effectively work together. Although all members enter the team at different levels, new learning occurs for all. Being part of a team is a dynamic, ever-changing process, with most teams moving through stages of learning and ways of working together, then continuously recycling through these stages as new people join the team or as conflict or new situations arise.

The variety of people involved in the students’ programs need to work well together in order to best serve children in educational environments. Each team member brings a unique set of professional and personal skills and experiences to the team relationship. The way teams are formed and how they operate influence both the process and outcomes of children’s education. The collaborative team model has proven to be an exemplary model for people working together to bring about differences in the lives of students with severe and multiple disabilities.

Team models have progressed to best meet the unique needs of students with severe and multiple disabilities in educational environments by following the development of educational recommended practices, research, and legal mandates. They also are based on the realization that educational teaming requires an educational model for student assessment, program planning, and delivery—the collaborative approach rather than a medical (or single expertise) model.

The collaborative model is exemplary practice in service delivery models for the education of students with severe and multiple disabilities, incorporating the best qualities of other models (i.e., multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary) while adding features to address their limitations (Doyle & Millard, 2013; Giangreco, Cloninger, Dennis, & Edelman, 2000). These other models will be discussed later in this chapter. A significant difference between the collaborative model and others is that individuals bring their own perspectives to the team, but these are purposefully shaped and changed by working closely with other team members (Edelman, 1997) and by new learning, such as universal design for learning (UDL). The practice of role release (e.g., being able to share one’s disciplinary expertise with others) used in the transdisciplinary model is essential. The transdisciplinary model provides a structure for interaction and communication among team members but does not go further. The collaborative model goes beyond that concept to embrace influences on one’s own practice. The collaborative model is multidirectional and dynamic. All team members acquire not only shared understanding and knowledge of each other’s expertise, but also the ability to incorporate that expertise into collaborative evaluation, planning, and implementation. New ideas are generated through group interaction that would not be generated by working in isolation.

Another significant difference is that the collaborative model addresses the provision of services in meaningful or functional contexts as well as who provides the services and how multiple team members can provide the same service (Rainforth & York-Barr, 1997). The collaborative team model provides guidelines for who is on the team, how each team member’s expertise will be used, and the contexts or situations in which team members will provide their expertise.

A collaborative team is a group of professionals working together on the four major areas of educational programming—assessment, development of instructional goals, intervention, and evaluation—with the shared goal of supporting student and family valued life outcomes. Collaboration on these four major areas of educational programming in the other models is an option rather than the basis of team expectations and operations.

Assessment

Determining relevant educational goals is ...