The U.S. Department of Education report "Computer and Internet Use by Children and Adolescents" (National Center on Educational Statistics, 2001) illustrated the degree to which technology use, particularly electronic and information technologies like computers and the Internet, has become a pervasive part of the educational process. This study…

In 1991, the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC) of the United States issued a position statement stating that assistive technology (AT) could be a useful tool for individuals with mental retardation. The Division on Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children published a position statement…

Assessment has always been an integral component of the educational process, but the importance to students of performing effectively on district and statewide tests has increased the visibility of testing and assessment for students with and without disabilities. There are several factors that limit the reliability of common testing formats for…

Cognitive disability entails a substantial limitation in one's capacity to think, including conceptualizing, planning, and sequencing thoughts and actions, remembering, interpreting subtle social cues, and understanding numbers and symbols. Cognitive disabilities include intellectual disabilities and can also stem from brain injury, Alzheimer's…

The Gulliford Lecture 2003 was given by Professor Ann Lewis of the School of Education at the University of Birmingham. Professor Lewis's lecture, on which this article is based, focused on the process of listening to the views of children and, in particular, children with learning difficulties. Following the near-universal ratification of the…

Dave Sherratt and Gill Donald teach children with autism at Mowbray School, North Yorkshire. Dave Sherratt also teaches at the University of Birmingham and is honorary research fellow at the University College of York St John. Gill Donald is also a specialist speech and language therapist for Hambleton and Richmondshire Primary Care Trust. In this…

Keith Park, advisory teacher for Sense (the National Deafblind Rubella Association) in Greenwich and Lewisham, London, has written about his approach to interactive storytelling for BJSE before. This article describes a series of poetry workshops based on chapters 37 to 45 of the Book of Genesis (the story of Joseph and his family) using the text…

Rebecca Doyle set up the first nurture group in Thetford Education Action Zone in 2000. In 2001, she published an account of her work to reintegrate pupils from the nurture group into the mainstream of their infant school in the pages of BJSE. In this article, Rebecca Doyle describes how mainstream class teachers requested further support in…

Last year, Martyn Rouse organised a project focused on inclusive education for the British Council. As part of the link between the University of Cambridge, the Ministry of Education in Kenya and Kenyatta University, your editor was lucky enough to be invited to visit Kenya. Martyn and I spent much of our time running workshops and attending…

Three languages are widely used in schools in Kenya English, Kiswahili and Kenya Sign Language. Many pupils with hearing impairments are taught separately from the mainstream, in specialist settings. The fact that most of the formal teaching, assessment and examination processes in Kenyan schools rely upon spoken and written English compounds the…

In this article, Lynda Warren Dodd, who is senior educational psychologist for early years and the Portage Service supervisor in Stockport LEA, discusses the development of a support group for the brothers and sisters of young children with a wide range of disabilities. The group has been running, as an annual event, for eight years and offers a…

Janice Wearmouth is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the Open University in the UK. She has many years' experience of teaching and research in mainstream secondary schools and of developing and leading postgraduate development courses for teachers in the area of special and inclusive education. In this article,…

This article draws on data emerging from an evaluation of behaviour support strategies in secondary schools in an education authority in Scotland. The authors all work at the University of Glasgow. Jean Kane has research and teaching interests in the area of special educational needs; she offers consultancy to local authorities in the development…

This article describes an innovative week of training days, entitled Celebrating Families, which took place at Sunfield, Worcestershire, in July 2002. The week, for and around families of children with special needs, arose from a shared vision and philosophy held by three host organisations. Representatives of all three organisations have…

Andrew Culham has been a lecturer in further education for seven years. During this time he has worked primarily with students with learning difficulties. He now works for Oxford and Chenveil College as a coordinator of provision for students with profound and multiple learning difficulties within the supported learning curriculum unit. In this…