Education Assistant

This easy-to-use guide gives you a quick overview on many topics related to working with young children with special needs. Learn about inclusion in early childhood programs and disability law, as well as typical vs. atypical development. The quick guide also covers several specific disabilities/special needs and provides definitions, common characteristics, and practical strategies for adaptation.Cindy Croft is the director of the Center for Inclusive Child Care at Concordia University and on faculty for several university education programs. She has her MA in Education and has worked in the field of early childhood for over twenty years.--Book Description

This comprehensive resource promotes a fully inclusive approach to teaching and outlines the necessary adaptations and accommodations that are often required in order to address the needs of the very diverse population of students now to be found in most classrooms. Drawing on the ever-evolving practices of inclusive education and research into learning theories, Westwood describes useful, evidence-based strategies for adapting curriculum content, learning activities, assessment and resource materials.--Description

Must Inclusion be Special? examines the discord between special and inclusive education and why this discord can only be resolved when wider inequalities within mainstream education are confronted. It calls for a shift in our approach to provision, from seeing it as a conglomeration of individualised needs to identifying it as a conglomeration of collective needs. The author examines the political, medical and cultural tendency of current times to focus upon the individual and contrasts this with the necessity to focus on context. This book distinguishes the theoretical perspectives that are often associated with special or inclusive education and the broad range of interests which depend upon their ongoing development.--Description

Support staff in schools are increasingly recognised as playing an important, though often undefined, role in inclusive education. While there has been some research on how best to work with support staff, this book provides readers with a comprehensive examination of roles and responsibilities within the classroom. Issues in determining appropriate ways to work effectively with support staff are raised, along with strategies teachers can use to enhance the collaborative and reflective nature of working with others.