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Guide to Assessment and Instruction : Moderate and Severe Disabilities

Name: Guide to Assessment and Instruction : Moderate and Severe Disabilities
Author: David Baine
ISBN: 9780888649140

by David Baine

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Synopsis

Product Description
This is a book about procedures that have demonstrated effectiveness for teaching learners having moderate to severe disabilities. These are a challenging group of learners who require specialized teaching techniques. Effective and efficient use of the methods requires both skill and commitment, regardless of the environments within which teaching takes place.
The guide is suitable for students in undergraduate and graduate courses, and is an essential reference for teachers and other personnel committed to efficient and effective instruction of learners having moderate to severe, multiple disabilities. Detailed, step-by-step guidelines are provided to assist teachers to decide what to teach, how to teach, and how to diagnose and improve instruction.
To assist the task of deciding what to teach, the guide reviews in detail the uses and limitations of various sources of instructionally relevant information, such as: formal tests; checklists; interviews; observations; quantitative, observational data; ecological inventories; and school, medical, and treatment records. The discussion also reviews administration and decision-making methods involved in transdisciplinary, individual program planning. Various forms are provided for recording information on student medical status, residential and community skills, communication skills, problem behaviors, and expected future transitions.
A variety of instructional and behavioral management strategies are discussed to assist the task of deciding how to teach. Some of the techniques reviewed are: prompting motor responses, stimulus prompting in discrimination and concept teaching, group instruction, cooperative learning, community-based instruction, setting and consequence management, and evaluation of reinforcer effectiveness. Practical examples of each strategy are presented. Also, for each strategy, checklists are provided describing (a) Essential Considerations for effective and efficient use of the strategy, (b) Problematic Learner Responses that may arise with use of each method, and (c) suggested Adaptations for improving ineffective strategies. Finally, to assist the selection and improvement of instructional and behavioral management strategies, step-by- step procedures are described for quantitative data collection, plotting, and analysis.
Review
Current literature, reflects the necessity of providing age-appropriate and relevant curriculums to enable students with moderate to severe disabilities to reach the "criterion of ultimate functioning," in other words, to become as competent and as independent as possible in integrated settings. David Baine's new book is a valuable, and more importantly, practical addition to this literature. The book is divided into three sections: Section 1: Deciding What to Teach; Section 2: Deciding How to Teach: Assessment by Power Teaching (APT); and Section 3: Individual Program Plans.
The book provides a logical and sequential approach to the assessment and development of programs for students having severe disabilities. For example, Section 1: Deciding What to Teach, reviews: a) methods for using the results of formal tests, checklists and interviews; b) collecting and using information from learners, parents, guardians, teachers and others; c) practical methods for conducting ecological inventories and using the results; d) quantitative observational data: collecting, plotting, analyzing and instructional decision-making; and e) effective methods for conducting individual program planning meetings. Each section systematically reviews specific methods, materials, limitations and potential problems and their solutions. Also included are prototype forms, checklists and suggested readings. Section 2 explains numerous behavioral methods for increasing adaptive behaviors while addressing problem behaviors. Section 3 take the reader through each component of individual program planning while providing thorough