"A Guide to Best Practice in Special Education, Health and Social Care" explores and explains the changes in governmental policies across the education, health and social care services, and what they mean for young individuals, parents and professionals. In a period of significant change, many practitioners need to understand the…

The term "multiple disabilities" is general and broad. From the term, you cannot tell how many disabilities a child has; which disabilities are involved; or how severe each disability is. Many combinations of disabilities are possible. The different disabilities will also have a combined impact. That is why it is also important to ask:…

This document, prepared by the Appalachia Educational Laboratory's (AEL) School Family Relations Program, contains research of six special needs families: families with handicapped children, families with low socioeconmic status, minority families, rural Appalachian families, single-parent families, and two-job families. The synopses are based on…

All school professionals working with children and adolescents deal with social skills issues. Even if not the primary issue or goal, teachers, counselors, school psychologists, other specialists such as nurses, speech and language therapists, etc., and some administrators make informal assessments of their students' ability to successfully…