What About Me?

Children with differences do not need to be fixed or cured or pitied. Children are valuable simply for the person they are and will be. Schools and school districts have sought to remediate the weaknesses of children with disabilities without focusing on or utilizing the strengths and interests of children with disabilities as the basis for individual education programs (IEP). Beginning with a pre-referral process that focuses on parent or teacher concerns for children, driving an evaluation that focuses on a child's weaknesses, leading to an IEP built on remediating weaknesses that often ignore an individual's strengths and interests, the process and end product are focused on deficits in children. This chapter will present an alternative to this model, an alternative focused on identifying and utilizing a child's strengths and interests in the development of IEPs.

TEACHERS’ AND PARENTS’ COOPERATION ROLE WITHIN PROVISION OF PEDAGOGICAL PROCESS AT SPECIAL EDUCATION

In the article, the cooperation topicality is justified as well as teachers’ and parents’ of pupils with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities cooperation role within pedagogic process. The authors of the article define the approach in the base of which there is teachers’ and pupils parents’ cooperation in development of individual education programs. Thanks to which the abilities of the pupils of for pupils with moderate and severe intellectual disabilities are discovered and used as well as the need of these pupils to learn to act themselves is promoted . In the result of the empiric research, it is established that, in the evaluation of all the respondents, the indices over the research have changed with positive dynamics. This certifies that the society influences positively the pupils activities who are involved into the research.

The Use of Individual Education Programs for Children in Australian Schools

A cornerstone of special education practice is customising instruction to meet individual students’ needs. Individual education programs (IEPs) are used in many countries to document the manner in which such instruction is customised and to provide a record of student outcomes. Using 2009 data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, this paper examines a range of student and school variables associated with Australian children aged 8 to 9 years who had an IEP at the time. There were significant differences across government, Catholic and independent schools, and significant differences across the states and territories in the use of IEPs. The Discussion section of the paper explores possible reasons for those differences and the desirability for more consistent use of IEPs with students with a disability in Australia.