Understanding Specially Designed Instruction

Understanding Specially Designed Instruction The Specially Designed Instruction (SDI) section of the Individual Education Plan (IEP) is one of the most important parts of this important document. The special education teacher, along with the IEP team, determines what accommodations and modifications the student will be receiving. As a legal document, the IEP not only binds the special educator but the whole school population, as every member of the community must deal with this child. Extended test time, frequent bathroom breaks, whatever SDIs are written into the IEP must be provided by the principal, the librarian, the gym teacher, the lunchroom monitor, and the general education teacher, as well as the special education teacher. Failure to provide those accommodations and modifications can create serious legal jeopardy for the members of the school community who ignore them. What Are SDIs? SDIs fall into two categories: accommodations and modifications. Some people use the terms interchangeably, but legally they are not the same. Children with 504 plans will have accommodations but not modifications in their plans. Children with IEPs can have both. Accommodations are changes in the way in which the child is treated in order to best accommodate the childs physical, cognitive, or emotional challenges. They might include: Extended time for tests (the standard is one and a half times as long as allowed, but in most general education classrooms unlimited time is not uncommon)Frequent test breaksThe ability to move around the classroom (especially kids with ADHD)Bathroom breaks when neededSpecial seating (for example, in front of the class or separated from peers)A water bottle at the students desk (some medications create dry mouth) Modifications change the academic or curricular demands made of a child to better fit the childs ability. Modifications might include the following: Modified homework10 words or less on spelling testsScribing (the teacher or an aide writes the responses, as dictated by a child)Separate, modified tests in content areasAlternate forms of assessment, such as dictating, oral retelling, and portfolios Individual Education Plan Its good to have a conversation with other teachers as you are preparing the IEP, especially if you need to prepare that teacher to deal with Accommodations they are not going to like (such as bathroom breaks without requests). Some children have medications that make them need to urinate frequently. Once an IEP is signed, and the IEP meeting is over, be sure every teacher who sees the child gets a copy of the IEP. It is also important that you go over the Specially Designed Instructions and discuss how they are going to be carried out. This is one place a general educator can cause him or herself some serious grief with parents. This is also a place where that same teacher can earn the trust and support of those parents.

Deafness Critique Scholarly Articles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Deafness Critique Scholarly Articles - Essay Example In total 19 children participated in the study from which 10 were females and 9 males, aged 12-14 years. Children included in the study had binaural, sensori-neural severe to profound hearing loss. Children with hearing loss often have difficulties acquiring spoken language, vocabulary problems and reading comprehension deficits. Their voice and speech features disturb their speech intelligibility, which in turn disrupts their functioning in various areas such as communication skills, academic success and social behaviour. Spoken language deficits represent an enormous impediment for the construction of social relationships; likewise academic success may be affected because of reduced participation in the classroom. Children with hearing loss have difficulties to communicate with their teacher and hearing peers; in fact, students who are more skilful in their spoken language integrate better than their less skilled counterparts. The article examines socio-emotional characteristics of inclusion showing its relevance when educators are request to approach their students with disabilities in an efficient manner. A suitable educational program which fulfils the requirements of children with disabilities may help them to achieve optimal academic and social benefits. The investigator studied the relationship between speech intangibility in the context of group inclusion and individual inclusion. Group inclusion refers to special classes within regular schools; and individual inclusion refers to individuals integrated into regular classes with only hearing peers. Results of the study concerning emotional and social feelings of children with hearing loss, revealed no significant difference for either, sense of loneliness or sense of coherence between children in the two educational settings. These results are in line with the outcomes from other studies which reported similar findings indicating that increased loneliness experience and academic failure or educational s etting are not related. Indeed, the report of such socio-emotional feelings is intrinsic to the disability itself and to the experience of living with disabilities. Comparable to other children at risk for learning disabilities, children with hearing loss feel different from the rest of the group having deepest sense of loneliness and lower coherence. On the other hand the study showed a significant difference in relation to the score of speech intelligibility and the environment that surrounds the child. In group inclusion setting children had lower speech intelligibility score than did children in individual inclusion setting. On this respect the possibility to rely solely on spoken language makes the difference; children in group inclusion probably use simultaneously communication skills which are different from speech. Moreover, children attending individual inclusion at school rated by their peers as having better speech intelligibility reported less loneliness and more coheren ce. Bearing in mind that good speech intelligibility is used as criteria to include a child in one setting or another, cause-effect interaction should also be deliberated when considering these results. Inclusion involves modifications in the regular classroom to accommodate all different learners, offering special services to meet the needs of all children within the regular classroom. In an inclusive setting the educator has the primary responsibility for teaching

Disability and Workability with Diabetes Coursework

Disability and Workability with Diabetes - Coursework Example This research appraisal aims to broaden the awareness of the health care providers of the latest status and trends in nursing research and practice, specifically on: (1) identifying the similarities and differences of the qualitative and quantitative research designs, (2) to identify the implications of the three studies in relevance to the nursing practice particularly in the perspective of occupational health nursing, and (3) to gather information on the proper nursing management of clients with diabetes at work, their legal rights as to the limitations set forth on the Disability Discrimination Act of London (1995) in order to make their activities of daily living more meaningful in spite of having diabetes. Appraised for this purpose are the three recent research studies on diabetes conducted by the renowned medical and nursing research teams in the United Kingdom. These are: (1) Disability & Workability: Diabetes – An Occupational Health Nursing Case Study (NHS Education for Scotland, 2004, pp.21-24) – a qualitative research; (2) The Socio-Economic Factors and Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes (Coates, et al., January 2008, pp. 1-113) – a quantitative research; and (3) Effectiveness of Self-Management Intervention in Patients with Screen-Detected Type 2 Diabetes (Thoolen, et al., November 2007, pp. 1-6) – a quantitative research. This case study highlights some of the issues to be considered in the workplace for an employee with newly diagnosed insulin-dependent diabetes. It also illustrates the need for collaborative working between the multidisciplinary professionals caring for the employee in the community and occupational health services. The implications of this study for nursing practice, particularly to occupational health nurse, are as follows: Be aware of what illnesses and disabilities are taken into account under the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) and ask your client if his or her disability affects the ability to carry out tasks at work.

Married Lifestyle vs. Single Lifestyle Essay Example for Free

Married Lifestyle vs. Single Lifestyle Essay There are advantages and disadvantages to being married or single. Some married couples share every aspect of their lives including, work, children and marital related issues while some may opt to have a joint bank account . While this may help each spouse financially, one person always has to consent with the other before making any serious purchases. However, single people don’t need anyone’s consent nor do they have to share. Children are another thing married couples and single people have to consider. Having children can be a great thing, especially with someone there to help share the responsibility of raising those children. Whereas, single people may ultimately struggle with things such as, child care, the cost of raising a child on their own, and being the responsible party. Goals are also a big factor, because some married couples have a hard time agreeing on or reaching common goals. A single person is only responsible for their own goals and how they choose to reach them. Over time, the passion may seem to cool in married couples. The couple may not be as sexually active as they once were due to the routine each lives. They may be busy with work or kids, or unfortunately, simply desensitized to one another. Some married couples work on keeping their sex life interesting. On the other hand, it isn’t hard for a single person to keep things interesting and new in the bedroom, because they may have as many sexual partners as they please, and this may seem fun. But sometimes, for them the work is finding the right sexual partner. In a marriage, not only could you have sex when you want, but you can enjoy intimacy as well. According to [Eve Prajonyud, Single Versus Married Life-Pros and Cons] â€Å"The cons of both lifestyles differ from person to person. If you are involved in a bad marriage than single life will seem like a dream come true. Likewise, if you are unable to find someone to spend your time with, then you will likely feel lonely and frightened no matter how successful your life is. The key to weighing the differences is actually in enjoying the lifestyle you have while you have it.† (Eve Prajonyud) People living single lifestyles have freedom to do what they want . For instance, if they were offered a well-paying job a thousand miles away from where they lived, they could simply take the job and move without anyone else to consider. Married couples don’t have that same option. The goals of married couples and single people may be different. For example, a married couple may be saving up money toward the goal of purchasing a bigger house in the future, for a growing family. They may be working toward a better lifestyle than they started with as a newlywed couple. They might attain a degree together or maybe just save up for a couples vacation . Single people may choose to focus completely on their career, instead of a family. Their main goal may be reaching top status in their profession before focusing on a family. Their goal may also be to attain a degree, or saving money to travel or buy a house. There may be a difference in the career choices of married and single people. For instance, married couples may have to work around each other’s schedule and still have time to spend with one another. Single people don’t have to worry about that if that happen to have a job or career that is very time consuming. Both lifestyles can be challenging in many different ways. Whether it’s children, sharing, or setting individual or marital goals. Works Cited Prajonyud, E. Single Versus Married Life. Retrieved on April 1, 2013 from www.professorshouse.com.

The Pastoral Letter :: essays research papers

Religion Paper In the pastoral letter, it declares that â€Å"basic justice demands the establishment of minimum levels of participation in the life of the human community for all persons.† This small excerpt criticizes the church as well as society though. This Catholic Framework for Economic Life represents a fundamental challenge to a "winner takes all, every person for oneself" economic ethic which leaves too many behind. It seeks to shape the national debate about how to balance our budget without further burdening the poor. It offers a different set of values. I have read the Bishops' pastoral letter, and I find myself feeling a little defensive and a little irritated at some of his principles. Some of his remarks criticize society and confuse me dearly. It is stated in the pastoral letter that when a person is marginalized or not allowed to participate in something, it is a violation of their justice. The Bishop tells us that the framework is not about political platforms or secular economic theories. Instead he says it's about the poor people who have to scrap and fight for any sort of economic freedom in this world. These are the poor people who basically have to do the dirty work in this world and are the people who are taken for granted by the more wealthy people. My question is; okay, what about them? Should we have to do absolutely everything ourselves so someone does not have to come in at night and clean up after us. Do working people have to take their own garbage out at night and vacuum their offices so someone does not have to clean up afterwards? This is in effect marginalizing the poor worker’s jobs and is violating their justice. It is a bold contradiction and one that confuses me. On the other hand, should we leave garbage everywhere so after hours people have lots of work and more jobs are then provided for people with limited skills and education? Should we pay higher wages and provide better benefits to the people who clean up after us? How much higher? Maybe they should make the same amount the normal working person makes. There are poor people who can get around this though. I remember a job a few years ago where a number of janitors at my summer job made more money than some of the actual teachers that were fairly new in the district.

Barriers to Effective Pain Management Essay

Nurses have a unique role in alleviating the pain experienced by their patients. With their professional knowledge and regular close contacts with patients, they are ideally placed to listen and respond to any concerns. Taking time to assess the individual will allow for the development of a thrusting relationship between the nurse and patient. Accurate assessment and documentation can help to chart the multi- dimensional nature of the pain, aiding decision making and patient care planning (Mcguie 1992). Adequate control of pain is only achieved in 50% of patients in Western societies. This emphasizes that pain control is a serious problem for a great number of patients. Health care professionals, patients and the health care system itself all contribute to this problem. Other factors that add to this undesirable situation include the following: – Poor decision making on part of health care professionals – myths and misconceptions about pain and opoids – patients non compliance with treatment and their reluctance to report pain – Problems within the organization of health care Pain assessment and management is an integral part of the daily nursing routine. Health care professionals must strive to overcome the barriers to effective pain management in practice. The tendency to under medicate older adults may be related to several factors, including misguided beliefs, fears regarding complications, and a failure to assess ant treat confused older adults. It is imperative that nurses don’t act upon false misconceptions in delivering patient care. The management of pain in the elderly represents a considerable nursing challenge. This is because the elderly are more likely to experience both acute and chronic pain than their younger counterparts. Age related factors may also complicate the assessment and management of the individual’s pain. Failing sight and hearing, cognitive impairment, confusion and dementia create communication difficulties and therefore pose significant barriers to pain assessment particularly in the use of the measurement tools. Lack of knowledge of the Doctor and nurse / poor communication: An individuals pain is complex, the management should not rely on one professional clinical judgment and action. The pain control process should be interwoven between numerous health care professionals. The nurse must strive to exercise their communication skills in discussing aspects of patient care with the MDT team. A lack of confidence and knowledge are the common reasons for poor communication and teamwork. There is ample evidence to demonstrate that both nurses and doctors have poor knowledge about pain and its management. It is also known that contemporary nursing and medical education programs do not equip health care professionals with significant information on the nature of pain, the methods of pain assessments and the principles of pain management. With a lack of knowledge and basic fundamental management skills, nurses may feel unprepared to care for patients suffering from pain, and consequently make incorrect decisions regarding the management of patient’s pain. Poor decision making on behalf of the nurse can reflect on the following: âž ¢ Underestimation of the severity of the illness âž ¢ Overestimation of the effectiveness of the interventions âž ¢ Reluctance to administer parental analgesia âž ¢ Administering a low dose of opoid rather than the required dose needed to control the severity of patient’s pain. âž ¢ Nurses rarely employing non pharmacological strategies In addition, the lack of knowledge and confidence of the nurse may interfere with his or her ability to effectively communicate aspects of patient care to other health care professionals. The under educated nurse has a tendency to underestimate the MDT and doctor’s involvement in pain assessment and management. However, it is imperative that the doctor carriers out a physical examination of the patient on admission to identify the pathological causes of the patients pain. This is an imperative part of pain management and is much needed to facilitate the planning of care. The more experienced the nurse is the more inclined they are to underestimate severe pain. The less experienced nurse is more inclined to overestimate an individuals pain. The doctor’s lack of confidence and knowledge may result in him or her avoiding discussions relating to analgesia and changing the drug or dose of the opoid, irrespective of the nurse’s belief that it for the best interest of the patient. Doctors that are lacking in knowledge have a tendency to prescribe analgesia below the therapeutic level of the pain and are often reluctant to act upon the nurse. This is a serious issue that must be addressed as the nurse is often the person who knows the most information about the patient as they provide a 24 hour round the clock care to the patient. It is clear that these poor practices arise from a number of inter- related reasons. However the lack of knowledge and effective team work seems to be the central issue. In order to assure effective communication is brought to the clinical practice, efforts to increase group learning and confidence of health care professions is much needed. Role play may improve health care professional’s knowledge and collaboration skills. Interpersonal education may be effective at allowing health care professionals understand each others roles in practice. Regular education sessions in the hospital with numerous health care professions from different specialties may be a great opportunity for nurses and other health care professionals to learn together. Communication Barriers The collection of information at assessment is dependent on the nurse’s ability to communicate effectively. However, nurses commonly lack the skills required in this area. Health care professionals often expect the patients to complain spontaneously of pain and patients often assume the nurse will enquire about their pain. This is one significant issue within communication that is commonly demonstrated in practice. Certain nurses don’t even ask the patient if they are experiencing pain. This is a serious issue as patients may be reluctant to report their pain because they don’t want to appear unpopular or don’t want to distract the health care professionals from treating their condition. The omission of verbal assessment may result in these patients suffering unnecessary pain for a prolonged period of time. This can have devastating long term consequences to an individual’s health. A quantity of nurses may employ some form of verbal communication to the patient’s pain assessment. However, they usually confine the assessment to asking one question only, such as, are you experiencing any pain at present? This can be misinterpreting as the patient may be pain free lying still in bed, yet the patient may be experiencing pain on activity. In order to improve the management of pain in practice, continuous education of improving communication skills must be enforced into the clinical setting. A number of communication barriers such as deafness, blindness, and disorientated, confused and cognitive impaired persons can further complicate the assessment process. It is important to compensate for the auditory and visual impairments that the individual may have. While assessing and monitoring the patient, the nurse must position her/his face in view of the patient, speak in a slow and normal tone of voice, use large print size, and provide written instructions and aids such as glasses or hearing aids. Pain assessment should be considered a greater challenge amongst the elderly as these patients more commonly present with communication barriers. Such barriers include deafness, blindness, and cognitive impaired, unconscious and disorientated individual. Pain assessment tools are designed to suit patients with various communication barriers. Health care professionals must choose the appropriate assessment tool that would best suit the individual in pain. For example, a visual analogue scale may be more suitable for a deaf individual. The abbey scale is specially designed for the cognitive impaired individual. The nurse must validate the pain and believe that the pain is as bad as the patient reports it to be. Nurses have a tendency not to validate the patient’s pain. They tend to overestimate lower levels of pain and underestimate more severe pain. If the nurse places him or herself in the role of the family member, they may become more sensitive to the patients needs and his or her experience of pain. Commonly the nurses distance themselves from the patient which results in the nurses failing to recognize the patient’s needs. Nurses have a tendency to block communication with patients who are terminally ill or patients who have chronic pain. This is because they believe they cannot do much for the patient. Efforts to improve professionals collaboration skills with the terminally ill patients and chronically ill is fundamental. Clearly continuing education that integrates helping nurses become more sensitive to patient pain may have an important role in facilitating nurses to develop better assessment skills. Health care professional’s poor pain assessment A good assessment is the cornerstone of good control of distressing symptoms. Yet, current pain assessment practices leave much to be desired. The underestimation of the patient’s pain seems to be problematic in current practice. Nurses have developed a tendency to interfere about a person’s pain on a basis of what they observe. This may be acceptable if they confirm the validity of the interferences with the patient, however this is not happening. Poor use of verbal cues Health care professionals frequently observe patients behaviors and activities when assessing pain and consider non verbal cues as being reliable indicators of pain intensity. However, it is easy to misinterpret non verbal cues. For example the nurse tends to only regard pain as intense or severe if the patients show real intense behavioral signs. The nurse assumes the patient is pain free if such intense behavior signals are absent. Nurses need to take into account that each patient will have a unique response to pain which will be influenced by many factors including cultural beliefs and religious morals. Such patients will exhibit expressive pain behaviors such as crying and moaning, where others may adapt a stoical approach and will not express their suffering outwardly. The presence of pain is therefore not always obvious from the patient’s facial expression and non verbal cues should not be regarded as reliable indicators of pain. If health care professionals place emphasizes on non verbal cues and make interferences on the basis of what they observe, it is not surprising that they yet tend to underestimate the intensity of patients pain and over estimate the effectiveness of interventions. The use of measurement tools which provide patients with a means of quantifying their pain experience is one way of overcoming this problem in practice. However, the under use of assessment tools is a problem that needs to be addressed. Interviewing the patient who is experiencing pain is a critical component of assessment since it provides patients with an opportunity to express not only intensity of their pain but also what it means to them and the effect it has on their lives. Constraints to developing a therapeutic relationship with the patient Pain assessment should be viewed as a unique opportunity for the nurse to use effective communication skills and spend time to build a relationship with the patient. This may encourage patients to express their fears or concerns, enhancing patient assessment and therefore improving the overall goals of care. However, staff shortages and time constraints often make it difficult for the nurse to spent time with the patient and hence it is difficult to build a thrusting relationship with the patient. The fact that there is a high turnover of patients in the hospital means that nurses have little opportunity to establish and sustain a good therapeutic relationship with the patient and family.

The Loss Of A Family - 766 Words

â€Å"In the midst of emotional pain, it’s difficult to imagine ever being happy. It’s difficult to see anything positive or hopeful.†(Welshons page 1) The loss of a loved one has never been something easy to deal with whether it is expected or not. When we have a loved one who has been sick for a while we accept the reality of what’s to come even though the thought of it hurts us to the core. When we lose a loved one of an advanced age, I believe that we come to grips with the inevitable. My great grandmother is 108 still going strong, but at this point I comprehend that death will eventually arrive to claim her body. I, like many in the family have made peace with this we accept it. We never want to see a loved one go, but at times we are†¦show more content†¦history. During the massacre many of the victims called family members to let them know what was going on. I cannot imagine what the family members of those either hurt or killed where thi nking or feeling. I am not a mother yet and I can’t imagine being on the phone with a child of mines listening to their frightened voice right before they got hurt or killed. â€Å"Sudden deaths are those that occur without warning and require special understanding and intervention.† (Worden page 187) I believe that in cases like this the grieving process takes a lot longer especially for parents. â€Å"The death of a child appears to be out of the natural order of things. It seems inherently wrong. And for a parent, there seems to be no way for the world to be right again.†(Welshons page 124) A parent’s belief is that they are supposed to protect their children from all types of harm. How would the stages of grief be challenged in this situation? Although everybody grieves differently the five stages of grief I believe would almost be followed in its entirety. Stage 1 Denial and Isolation, learning about a loved one’s death will ultimately send those surviving into shock and later into some type of seclusion in order to escape reality. Stage 2 Anger, those left behind will feel all types of anger. In those who lost a loved of suddenly I believe the anger is channeled and dealt with differently. When we expect a death the anger is different we know the death is coming. When it is