It’s amazing how many fantastic resources are available to teachers on the web. While there are tons of sites and blogs created just for special education teachers, there are fewer that are designed specifically for teaching students with moderate to severe disabilities. Too often I would go to a site and find that, while the resources were terrific, they were still just too difficult for the students that I taught.
Here’s a list of websites and blogs that I have found to be great resources to support teaching students with significant cognitive disabilities. I hope you find these sites to be as helpful as I have.
Websites
http://www.projectidealonline.org/
“Part of a teacher prep program to help prepare teachers to work with students with disabilities” free to sign up for access to videos
https://www.thoughtco.com/special-education-4132499
Great resources, free
Unique resources to help support and understand students with special needs
http://www.pathstoliteracy.org/
Focused on literacy, fantastic resources and posts (I love this website)
Both free and to purchase materials for students with ID and autism, also excellent posts (Another one of my favorites)
https://www.sendgateway.org.uk/index.cfm
SEND stands for Special Education Needs and Disability. This is an excellent organization from the UK, with tons of free resources
This is the Ontario Teachers Federation website, providing free resources, strategies and “key practices”
Free and to purchase assistive technology products. You will want to check this one out, especially the links to Remarkable Ideas and the Symbol Overlay Maker
http://autismteachingstrategies.com/
Plan to spend some time to find all the goodies on this website, but if time is an issue, I recommend you head straight for the free social skills resources
Information and articles related to children with significant medical and cognitive needs
While this website states its mission as “fierce advocates for the high academic achievement of all students-particularly those of color or living in poverty”, they also advocate for students with special needs. If you are interested in advocacy, you will want to bookmark this website
The Association for Retarded Citizens (I wish they’d change their name, but they’ve had it since they began in 1950) is an organization for the advocacy of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It is a membership organization, with chapters in every state. ($50/year)
The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is a membership organization that has many free resources, including webinars. (Membership is $60 for Electronic Membership)
https://www.naset.org/index.php?id=naset
National association of special education teachers ($59/year membership)
https://www.interventioncentral.org/home
Need behavior management tools? This website is all about RTI (Response To Intervention), and is really excellent. Find free resources, information and great blog posts.
State Education Websites
Every state’s education department has its own special education page. Some are just the bare bones, with links to state forms and a few websites while others have tremendous resource libraries. Here are three that I think are especially good.
http://specialeducationsupportcenter.org/
WA State special education website (many excellent links)
http://www.doe.mass.edu/TeachLearnTest.html
MA State special education website (I especially like the way they’ve set up their alternate assessment, showing how to break down common core strands to their most simple form)
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/special_ed/index.shtml
VA State special education website (has great resources)
Blogs
http://teachinglearnerswithmultipleneeds.blogspot.com/
Very good resources for ID, severe profound and multiple disabilities, but hasn’t posted since 6/2018
https://specialneedsforspecialkids.org/
Blog and an extensive free resource library, highly recommended!
https://theddnewsblog.blogspot.com/
If you want to keep up with what’s in the news for individuals with intellectual disabilities, this is a good resources
http://media-dis-n-dat.blogspot.com/
This blog covers a wide range of disabilities and disability issues
Blogs focus on supporting caregivers and teachers of individuals with special needs
http://www.breezyspecialed.com/
This author really seems to understand the type of materials and resources that work with students that have significant cognitive disabilities. Her posts are spot-on, she has free resources and also a TpT store.
This blog is designed to look like a newspaper, which adds to the fun of reading excellent posts
https://specialneedsresourceblog.com/
This blog posts about twice a week, so lots of topics covered. Great for quick overviews of a wide range of topics
http://atclassroom.blogspot.com/
This is a great website/blog if you are looking for ideas on increasing your use of assistive technology
Oh, and my all-time favorite website…. https://enable2learn.com/
….and you might like the blogs as well!
If you have a favorite website or blog that is specific to teaching individuals with intellectual disabilities, let me know in the comment section. If I like it enough to add to my list, I will send you a FREE social studies unit!