The field of special education's focus on moderate and severe disabilities (MSD) has undergone a number of changes in the past five decades. Some have been philosophical, some based on research, some based on mandated practices through U.S. law, and some based on the development of better technologies. While pioneers in the field first established…

This article is about the challenge of communication via smartphones and tablets by people with intellectual disabilities (ID). We will give special attention to persons that struggle with verbal communication. One of our co-researchers, the fourth author, has a severe ID. She cannot read, write or use voice assisted technology in any functional…

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of how students with disabilities, including students with significant cognitive disabilities and English learners with disabilities, can be included in local assessments used for instructional and programmatic decision making--that is, for formative purposes. This article focuses on formative…

Secondary public education for students with severe disabilities offers some of the last opportunities for improved social/behavioral skills, activities of daily living, and cognitive/academic instruction. The problem is that thorough descriptions of self-contained classroom ecology and teachers' use of evidence-based strategies are limited.…

Background: Peers living in the same group form important interaction partners for people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD). Given the severity of their disabilities, direct support persons (DSPs) play a significant role in facilitating interactions between these peers. This study explores the spontaneous interactions…

A high-quality education in the social studies is recommended by the National Council for the Social Studies to promote civic competence and democratic participation for school system graduates. Currently, limited empirical information exists to inform social studies instruction for students with significant intellectual disability (SID),…

Background: Adaptive skills measures tend to be lengthy. The GO4KIDDS (Great Outcomes for Kids Impacted by Severe Developmental Disabilities; (Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 58, 2015 and 594)) Brief Adaptive Behaviour Scale was developed to provide a brief assessment of adaptive skills. Our study aimed to examine the…

This article examines the purposes of education with a particular focus on young people with severe learning difficulties (SLD). The topic is explored with reference to a specific case, whereby some of the key findings of an evaluation of the first year of "The Greenside Studio", an English special school's vocational teaching resource…

Constant time delay (CTD) and simultaneous prompting (SP) are effective response prompting procedures for teaching students with moderate to severe disabilities. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficiency of CTD and SP when teaching functional sight words to four students, 8-11 years of age, with moderate intellectual disability (ID)…

This article examines the implementation of new special education legislation in Finland among students with significant disabilities. The data consist of a nationwide survey and field observations. In the analysis, a policy implementation framework is utilized as a theoretical lens. The findings suggest that schools and municipalities that had…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterised by profound difficulties in empathic processing and executive control. Whilst the links between these processes have been frequently investigated in populations with autism, few studies have examined them at the subclinical level. In addition, the contribution of alexithymia, a trait characterised by…

Although research suggests peer support arrangements can be an effective practice for improving social outcomes for students with severe disabilities, additional efforts are needed to refine training and implementation approaches to increase the replicability and sustainability of this intervention. We tested a promising teacher-delivered training…

The authors conducted 324 full-class-length observations of 108 high school students with severe disabilities in general education classes, focusing analyses on how often students were present during class and in proximity to peers without disabilities. Students were not present for a substantial proportion of the classes in which they were…

Very little research has explored the impact of interventions combining music and technology on children with a dual diagnosis of autism and intellectual disabilities (ID) incorporating the active involvement of school staff. Video recordings and group interviews were used to collect data in this study. Video recordings of five children with…

The 2015 reauthorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) placed a state-level 1.0% threshold on student participation in the alternate assessment based on alternate academic achievement standard (AA-AAAS). ESSA also stipulated that state education agencies (SEAs) may not impose on any local educational agency (LEA) a cap on the percentage…