Educating Special Needs Students: I.e. Autism and other Severe Disabilities

Timothy E. Jackson
SPE -226 Educating the Exceptional Learner
February 23, 2011
Professor Rebekah McCarthy

This essay is entitled Educating Special Needs Students, the author will discuss and several important issues, which will be the following; the defining of Mental Retardation a term the author despises, Autism, Severe Disabilities and Multiple Disabilities, also their causes, and the impact of these disabilities have on the education of students with Mental Retardation. In addition to the above mentioned, the essay will identify areas of curriculum, necessary for students with severe disabilities and will explain why. Addressed also will be the
The following statement illustrates the authors’ point.
“Students with complex healthcare issues, significant developmental delays, and severe multiple disabilities require approaches that offer intensive levels of support. Students who are blind, deaf, deaf-blind, and autistic may in some cases require the same degree of support, but they also require more specialized curriculum and teaching approaches (in, for example, technology and literacy). Additionally, such students may require specialized resources from related service providers (such as orientation and mobility instructors or audiologists).” the National Center on Accessible Instructional Material.
In the conclusion of this essay, using the authors’ local school district, Las Vegas Nevada, an investigation into the policies, procedures, and programs for the education, of students with Mental Retardation, Autism, and or Severe Multiple Disabilities, and an explanation of how these policies, programs, and procedures, either address or ignore the area of curriculum, the author has listed within the content of the essay.
According to Charlene Green, a teacher in the Nevada Clark County School district, she's seen the number of children with autism spectrum disorders in her charge increase from 96 to more than 1,000. Green, the associate superintendent for student support services in the Las Vegas-area district, oversees those children's education--an expensive, complicated task. Moreover she says, “The