This study examined the effects of a professional development (PD) intervention on inservice teachers' use of embedded instruction practices within inclusive preschool classrooms. The results of a multiple baseline across participants design suggested the PD intervention was effective in increasing teachers' implementation fidelity of embedded…

Inclusive education has been promoted in recent years; however, its inadequacies and the difficulty of its practical application have been pointed out. Hence, this study presents a scheme of learning according to the conditions of a person's disability and proposes a hypothetical teaching method that accommodates various degrees of disability. The…

This dissertation explores the phenomenon of burnout among teachers of special education students in rural schools, focusing on understanding the factors that contribute to burnout and the strategies that can mitigate its effects. The study used a qualitative research design to interview teachers from a rural Board of Cooperative Educational…

One of the most important outcomes in a child's education is the ability to read proficiently, which can improve future academic progress and occupational success. Due to the impairments in social and communication areas of development for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), literacy provides the possibility of improved communication…

Autistic people diagnosed in adulthood often report that the experience can be life-changing, but there are issues with the diagnostic pathway. Few studies consider the views of people "currently" seeking diagnosis or contextualise the experience of diagnosis around developing an autistic identity. In this qualitative participatory…

Background: Moving out of the family home is a key transition for people with intellectual disabilities and their families. Yet there has been little research about parents' experiences of planning the move of their young adult offspring to residential settings offering 24-hour support. Method: Interviews were conducted with eleven parents whose…

Overrepresentation in exclusionary school discipline is extensively documented for certain groups of students, particularly students of colour and those with disability, yet while these groups may overlap, policies that aim to address disproportionality tend to consider equity factors in isolation. The majority of research on overrepresentation,…

Purpose: Caregivers share critical insight during their child's stuttering evaluation; yet, there have been no empirical studies evaluating whether caregivers provide similar accounts of their 3- to 6-year-old child's communication attitude compared to their child's self-report. This study examined caregiver- and child-reported communication…

Purpose: This study examined the language and nonverbal inhibitory control skills of Italian monolingual and bilingual typically developing (TD) preschoolers with Italian as their second language and of age-matched monolingual and bilingual peers with developmental language disorder (DLD). Method: Four groups of preschoolers were enrolled: 30 TD…

In South Africa, many children with extensive support needs--including children who require AAC--are accommodated in care centers rather than the public schooling system. Caregivers employed at these centers need training in order to support children's communication using augmentative and alternative methods. A total of 29 center-based caregivers…

The purpose of this study was to examine the ongoing issue of teachers with chronic absenteeism particularly as it relates to vulnerable student populations. For the purposes of this research, chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10 or more instructional days. The problem is the effect that chronic teacher absenteeism has on vulnerable…

Engagement behaviors are crucial for school success and are often targeted for improvement in school-based interventions. It may be helpful for both researchers and school-based practitioners to understand the likely impacts of interventions on engagement behaviors (e.g., to understand the extent to which engagement behaviors might change with…

Background: Poor postural care can have severe and life-threatening complications. This scoping review aims to map and summarize existing evidence regarding postural care for people with intellectual disabilities and severely impaired motor function. Method: Studies were identified via electronic database searches (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and…

Although college students with disabilities (SWD) represent 19% of all college students and most often access postsecondary education most often via community colleges, there is a paucity of information about topics related to SWD in community colleges in professional journals. Moreover, there is even less information in journals specific to…

Advancing teacher candidates' overall competence through use of valid teacher observation systems should be an essential element of teacher preparation. Yet, the field of special education has not provided observation protocols designed specifically for preservice teachers that are founded in theoretical perspectives and research on effective…