Literacy skills are important for accessing all areas of academic content as well as for increasing quality of life. The use of shared stories to teach early literacy skills to students with extensive support needs, including students with autism, is an evidence-based practice. This project extends the research by examining the effects of…

Although the importance of safety skills instruction is well acknowledged and available data suggest individuals with varying disabilities sustain injuries from accidents at a rate that is comparable to or may exceed the normative population, many students do not receive systematic safety skills instruction. Findings on the extent to which…

Competence in early numeracy skills highly correlate with success in mathematics in later years; however, many students, including students with moderate and severe disabilities, lack a sound foundation in early numeracy skills. For this population, the gaps in skills widen as students progress through academic years, making it more difficult for…

A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted for articles published between 1985 and May 2009 to (a) examine the degree to which science content was taught to students with severe developmental disabilities and (b) and evaluate instructional procedures in science as evidence-based practices. The review was organized by a conceptual model…

Recent statistics suggest that the number of English-language learners has been growing at a rapid rate in the United States. The growth of this population will inevitably lead to a larger number of culturally and linguistically diverse students with significant cognitive disabilities. Currently, there is little research on effective literacy…

Literacy may be one of the most important instructional areas for enhancing quality of life for all students. One way to promote literacy skills is through engaging students in the shared reading of a story. In this study, methods for planning and implementing shared stories for three students with multiple disabilities was evaluated via a…

A comprehensive review of research was conducted on teaching science to students with significant cognitive disabilities. Guidelines from the National Science Education Standards were used to identify categories of studies based on the strands of science. A total of 11 studies were identified from the 20 years of literature searched. In general,…

This article introduces a special issue on accessing the general curriculum for students with significant cognitive disabilities. The authors intent with the series was to highlight four Directed Research (CFDA 84.324D) projects funded by the Office of Special Education Programs in 2002. The directed research priority targeted the need to extend…

For students to have full access to the general curriculum, they need the opportunity to learn academic content that links closely to the standards for their grade level. In this article, we synthesize what we have learned through our research on aligning instruction for students with significant cognitive disabilities with state's academic…

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' perceptions of alternate assessments. A total of 983 teachers from five states participated in this study. The results suggest that teachers tended to agree that their students should be included in school accountability, but they did not agree with most items assessing the educational benefits of…

This article provides a response to the National Research Council's report, "Scientific Research in Education." While it concedes the report provides recommendations useful for improving research with students with low incidence disabilities, it argues the preference for random-assignment experiments may leave out research on students with severe…