The flexible classroom: Helping students with mental health challenges to thrive

About 10% of the school population — 9 to 13 million children — struggle with mental health challenges, some of the most challenging students that educators face. In our inclusive classrooms, teachers are becoming skilled at working with children who exhibit learning, physical, and cognitive disabilities, as well as those on the autism spectrum while students with mental health challenges continue to mystify and frustrate.

Read more of Jessica Minahan's Special Education Advisor article HERE.

Special Education Advisor Newsletter

Greetings!

In this edition of the Special Education Advisor Newsletter you will find new articles on Self Calming Skills, Dyslexia and many more.

Teaching Self Calming Skills

"You need to calm down."

This is something I hear a lot in my work as a behavior specialist when a student starts to get agitated- answering rudely, refusing to work, making insulting comments or whining. A teacher might tell a child to "go sit in the beanbag chair and calm down" or simply "relax."

The problem is, many students don't know how to calm down. This is especially true for children who display chronic agitation or defiance.

When a child behaves inappropriately, I find that it's almost always due to an underdeveloped skill. If we don't explicitly teach the student this skill, their behavior is unlikely to change for the better.

Read more HERE.

Special Education Advisor Newsletter

Greetings!

Happy New Year to all of our Special Education Advisor Friends. In this edition of the Special Education Advisor Newsletter you will find a listing of our most popular articles of 2012 as well as new articles on dyslexia, autism and many more.

Read Newsletter HERE.