Textbook Focuses on Helping Older Students with Disabilities

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Great strides have been made in providing students with disabilities a better and more appropriate education than in the past, said the authors of a new textbook written by two University of Arkansas professors and a colleague.

However, it's mostly elementary students who have benefitted, according to Tom Smith and Barbara Gartin, who both hold the rank of University Professor in the area of special education. They wrote Including Adolescents with Disabilities in General Education Classrooms published by Pearson with Nikki Murdick, a professor of special education at St. Louis University. They have worked together on numerous books, chapters and articles.

"Secondary teachers have primarily been prepared to teach subject matter content such as English, math, history, foreign languages and science," the authors wrote. "They are often less knowledgeable about individual developmental differences than teachers in elementary grades and are therefore unaware of strategies and instructional techniques that may be needed by students with disabilities."

Without support, many of these students are unsuccessful in these classes, and middle and high school teachers need to develop an understanding of how to make accommodations and modifications to meet the needs of this group of students, according to the book.

The text provides an overview of disabilities experienced by middle and high school students and presents specific strategies such as differentiated instruction, cooperative teaching, strategies instruction, and using peer-assisted learning. It gives examples of how to use the strategies in daily instruction.