Curriculum Guide for Students with Intellectual Disabilities.

This curriculum guide is designed for students with severe to profound intellectual disabilities. These

students are non-verbal or minimally verbal.

Reading

Tar Heel Reader is a website that offers thousands of themes and books with pictures. Tar Heel

Reader is a wonderful way to teach literacy skills to students with severe and profound Intellectual

disabilities. Literacy skills are the skills that we teach to students with Intellectual disabilities that are

classified as severe and profound. Students with severe and profound Intellectual disabilities do not

necessarily read the written word but with adaptations, they develop strong receptive and expressive

language skills which develop into literacy recognition skills. Some students with severe and profound

intellectual disabilities develop good sight vocabulary skills.The books from Tar Heel Reader have sound

in the form of voices. The voices are as follows a child’s voice the voice of a man or woman. The books

can be read silently or aloud without the activation of the voices. The books have virtual pages that can

be turned with a computer mouse or by touching a touch screen. The books can also be projected on a

smart board.

Notebook software is a wonderful tool to teach literacy skills to the intellectually disabled adapted

books can be created, for example, a book that is based on the fall can be made to be very animated and

interactive for students. A big tree can be created, and the leaves can be moved off of the tree to the

ground by the students. An apple tree can be created students can pick apples and place the apples in a

basket. Words and sentences can be placed in the books and read aloud for shared classroom reading.

The leaves on the ground can have a sound which can be crunchy sounding like the sound of actual

leaves when someone walks on the leaves. Apples can fall off the trees with a dropping sound. Wind

sounds can also be placed in the book to demonstrate that the weather is colder in the fall. A human can

be placed in the book with appropriate clothes that should be worn when the weather is chilly.

Receptive language skills can be incorporated in the book by putting inappropriate summer clothing in

the book for the fall. Students can be taught what clothing is appropriate and inappropriate for the chilly

weather by actually placing the clothing on the human figure. The notebook is software that allows an

educator to create very animated and interactive books. Adapted books can also be made using board

maker communication symbols or Google photos. The Intellectually disabled enjoy pulling vocabulary

symbols from left to right and having the sensory input from the sound of the velcro that is used to

adapt the pictures in the book while they are pulling the photos and symbols from the book. The words

can be read aloud by the teacher, or they can read the sight words, receptively by pointing to the photo

or picture symbols. Some students will verbalize the sight words, photos or picture symbols (expressive

language).

Writing

Writing with symbols is a great program that was put out by Mayer-Johnson the program allows a non-

writer with severe and profound mental disabilities to write with symbols. This program is a typing

program that can be typed by the teacher after the student chooses a writing topic. If the topic that is

chosen is The month of April. The program can be used to write important points on April such as April

Fools’ Day is a holiday in April. Earth Day is a holiday in April. We should think about recycling and saving

the planet on Earth Day. Each word that is typed uses a picture symbol to represent the vocabulary.

April is a rainy month. April is a spring month. In April, the weather is warmer. In April, the jackets are

lighter. Students can use Mayer-Johnson symbols to point to the symbols that the teacher types out

with the writing with symbols program. Mayer-Johnson also has alphabet and number symbols students

with severe and profound intellectual disabilities can use the letters to create words and sentences. If

the students have the motoric ability to write, they can trace letters and words with dots and eventually

copy words and sentences. Some students might learn how to write simple words and sentences that

are dictated to them. Many students with severe and profound Intellectual disabilities learn how to

write their names by using dots for tracing, copying and finally writing their names without any cues.

Spelling

Follows the same basic format as writing many students with Intellectual disabilities have difficulties

with spelling. Mayer-Johnson alphabet symbols, tangible, tactile alphabets can be used to help students

put words together. The students can learn how to spell or begin to develop sight vocabulary. Pictures

and photos can be used to help with word recognition. Words can be written on a board or paper, and

the students can match the written word to the picture. The matching technique can be used as both a

training and assessment method. If students have the motoric ability to write spelling words that are

dictated this skill can be trained. Some students can point to the letters or put letters together when the

word is dictated. Other students recognize spelling words by connecting the word to picture symbols or

photos. Students with severe and profound Intellectual disabilities can develop spelling skills. The key

word to remember when teaching a student with severe and profound Intellectual disabilities is

adaptations. We have to teach theses students with an adapted curriculum.

Mathematics

Geometric shape is a good introduction to functional math skills for the student with severe and

profound mental disabilities. Shapes can be introduced in the form of an adapted book on the

smartboard or in the form of a book with google photos or Mayer-Johnson picture symbols. A circle can

be introduced with functional items that are circular in our daily lives. Pizza, clock, cookies, the rim of a

cup, the top of a soda can, the bottom of a soda can, ball, oranges, apples, some mirrors, wheels,

bracelets, elevator buttons, and CDs. The shape square can represent a desktop, square cake, mirror,

clock, mirror, picture frames, pictures, cards, and books. Rectangles can be represented by showing

table tops, desks, closets, mirrors, TV’s, cable boxes, DVD players, boxes, crates, paper, magazines, and

books. Triangles can be represented pizza slices, pie slices, valentine’s Day candy and hearts. We can

also use Mayer-Johnson number symbols to help students to develop basic counting, adding and

subtraction skills. Functional objects can help students develop basic counting skills also. How many balls

do you see? I see five balls. Okay, let's take two away How many balls do you see? Oh, I see three balls.

Let’s add three now how many balls do you see? Oh, I see 8. Students with Intellectual disabilities have

difficulties with math skills and may times items have to be counted slowly for them or by them.

Communication Systems and Devices.

Earlier in this paper, it was mentioned that students with severe or profound Intellectual Disabilities might

be non-verbal or minimally verbal. Part of their curriculum should be the use of communication devices

the speech/language therapist evaluates the students and set up a treatment plan for the student, but the

communication device that is chosen for the student should be used throughout the day across all

curriculum areas. The Big Mack device or one message voice output device is a device that enables a

non-verbal student or a group of students to say a single message. During literacy lessons phrases such as

my turn or turn the page can be very meaningful to a non-verbal student. A 2-message voice output

device allows the student to say two words yes and no are very popular words that are used on a 2-

message voice output device. A 4-message voice output device allows the student to say four words turn

the page, my turn, more, and toilet is very popular phrases and words used by non-verbal students. The

tech talk device has eight messages which increase the students responses and opportunities to

communicate. The Go-Talk 20 gives a non-verbal students 20 phrases or words to communicate. The

Dynavox is a high-tech device which gives students may opportunities to communicate. The device is

programmed using different pages that can be set up by themes and topics student would need the

cognitive ability to use this type of device, but the opportunities to communicate are endless. The

proloque2go program can be used on an IPad or IPod if the student can activate an IPad or IPod

motorically this could be a great way to communicate wants, needs, and desires. The Mayer-Johnson

symbols and google photos can be used and set up on a manual communication board or easel to increase

verbalizations by using visual cues with the minimally verbal student.

Assessments/Therapy

What does the adaptive terminology behavior mean? Adaptive behavior refers to individuals

with Intellectual disabilities as having limitations with daily life skills which would include self-care and

communication skills. These skills are usually compared to people that are of the same chronological age

and cultural background. The individual with Intellectual Disabilities might not be as independent as the

individual without intellectual disabilities. Adaptive behavior can be divided into three basic set of skills

that enables an individual to function in daily life. Conceptual skills are reading, numbers, money,

concepts of time, verbal and non-verbal skills. Social skills have to do with social interaction skills,

following rules, social rules, obeying laws, etc. Practical life skills have to do with feeding, bathing,

dressing, communication skills and travel skills. (Tammy Reynolds, 1995-2012)

What does this information tell us as educators about assessments for students with Intellectual

Disabilities? Depending on the individual's level of functioning a student with an intellectual Disability

can be 15 years old chronologically and six months old mentally and as educators we need to decide how

we are going to assess these individuals for the best results. Assessments have to be chosen very carefully

for individuals with Intellectual Disabilities, and adaptation and modifications should be considered.

Alternate Assessments are used because they are not based on norms, and they are not

standardized. Alternate assessments are used with any student who does not have the cognitive skills to be

tested in a traditional standardized way. Students with Intellectual Disabilities can now be assessed based

on work that they produce in their individual classrooms. Teachers should compile student work and

make up individual data folios that demonstrate a student’s individual work. Some assessments can be

based on observations the Psychologist frequently will come into the classroom and write an evaluation

based on his or her observations of the student in the classroom. The Speech Therapist also works with

the student in a classroom setting using data and graphs to help assess the student’s progress on a regular

basis. Therapy is usually provided 2 to 3x’s per week, so data collection is daily and graphing of the data

is weekly. The entire data folio is approved by The New York State Education System in Albany. A team

of professionals scores it, and if the data folio doesn’t meet the standards of New York State, it is returned

to the Special Educator so he or she can make changes. The data folio is part of the student's

Individualized Education Plan which is a requirement of the IDEA law. The alternate assessment must

meet state requirements by a team of peers. Alternate assessments are being frequently used to assess

students who are Intellectually Disabled because the mental age of these individuals might be very

different from their chronological ages. Standardized testing can be used to identify deficits in adaptive

behavior. The Individual’s score for these behaviors can be compared with the average score for the

general population. Significant limitations in adaptive behavior may be indicated if the overall score falls,

at least, two standard deviations below the mean representing about 2.5% of the population. (Tammy

Reynolds, 1995-2012)Some individuals might score above the standard deviation of 2.5 % and might still

be classified as Intellectually Disabled. That is why it is a very difficult task for educators to find

assessments that are appropriate for the Intellectually Disabled. Standardized Testing can be used to

compare the Intellectually Disabled Individual to the general population, but educators should be very

careful not to use standardized testing as the only tool for assessing these individuals. Individuals with

Intellectual Disabilities have Individualized Education Plans (IEP’s) and for this reason, the assessments

that we use and the way that we assess these students do matter. Taking one assessment tool might not be

enough we need to use assessments informal, alternate assessments, data sheets, graphs and formal

assessments and compile as many tools as we can to help these students succeed as normally as they can

in this society.

Mayer-Johnson Symbols

Commercial adapted books by Mayer-Johnson

Big Mack one message voice out put device.

2-message voice output device.

8-message voice output device

20-message device

Dynavox numerous messages can be programmed.

Four message device

Proloque2go IPad program