Adolescents with High Incidence Disabilities

Adolescents with High Incidence Disabilities 

     Transitioning From High School to the Real World 

    The article I read this week was titled "Assessing the Transition-Related Strengths and Needs of Adolescents with High-Incidence Disabilities." This article discussed high school students with disabilities and preparing for their post school life. I enjoyed reading this article and recommend reading it. As teachers, our mind is thinking about how we can help our students succeed in the classroom. We make accommodation plans, behavior plans, and IEP goals throughout our school year with a student. As that student reaches the end of their school career, the fear grows. What will this student do after they have completed school? This student's parents want the best for the son/daughter.

       I believe it is so important to take this question into consideration. This article discusses ways to make the transitioning process successful. First, it is important to take the student's skills into consideration. The student's reading fluency, math skills, and social skills should be taken into consideration. Also, along with the academic skills, health and self-determination should also be taken into consideration. If the student has strong math skills, consider a job or volunteer work that the student can use their math skills in. You want to set the student up for success! The post school goals should be strengths-based for the student. The transitioning should incorporate people who know the student well. The teachers, special ed teachers, parents, and any other staff members that work with the student should be involved in the transitioning process. 

     One thing the article mentioned is providing the youth with disabilities with the experience of answering interview questions or providing information about their own strengths and needs. I think preparing students to show others what their strengths are is a very great strategy for post school life. 

     This article also included a study which involved 160 high school students of different sexes and ethnicity. It shows table of the results that include the percentages of students that worked, attended a secondary school, or did not do either. You can take a look at the table if you are interested! It was pretty interesting! 

     Carter E, Trainor A, YE S, Owens  L. Assessing the transition-related strengths and needs of adolescents with high-incidence disabilities. Exceptional Children [serial online]. Fall2009 2009;76(1):74-94. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 27, 2015.

      This week I read an article titled "Sociodynamic Relationships Between Children who Stutter and their Non-stuttering Classmates." I chose this article because I recently viewed a video about stuttering. The video had students that stuttered discuss their thoughts and feelings and actually gave tips for teachers on how to approach students who stutter. I really enjoyed this video and the fact is discussed a lot about students who stutter and their relationship to their teacher. I was curious to find out about students who stutter and their relationship to their peers in the classroom.
      The article discusses how 20 years ago, bullying people who stuttered was at a higher percentage. Now, it was expected that the percentage decreased because of anti-bullying programs and the fact that stuttering is more common now. A student was done to see if this was true. The study included 16 students who stuttered and 403 other students who did not stutter. The result was that students who stuttered were rejected more and were less popular with their peers. They weren't chosen to be leaders for any games or activities. I was disappointed to hear about the results of this study. Although, when the peers were questioned about why they did not choose a particular student, stuttering was not mentioned. The peers explained that the student was quiet or shy, and wouldn't want to be the leader or wouldn't want to play the game. This was interesting because students who stutter may come off shy and like they do not want to talk to others, which may not be the case. Students who stutter may just not like to speak out loud, and still want to participate and play all the same games as their peers.
      I liked this article because it did briefly discuss a study done that I was curious to find information on. I was disappointed in this article because it was very brief and it did not really explain the study. It stated the the students were "examined." I would have liked to know where were they examined. Was it in the classroom? at recess? I would have also liked to know what the observers were looking for exactly.


Davis, S., Howell, P., & Cooke, F. (2002). Sociodynamic relationships between children who stutter and their non–stuttering classmates. Journal Of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines, 43(7), 939-947.

Autism: Myth vs Fact

     The article I chose to read this week was titled "Autism-myth and reality." This article discussed several myths about autism, and also discussed some truths about autism. From watching many movies, and hearing stories, many of us believe that people with autism obtain a special talent or a special gift. We assume a person with autism may be really good at math, or may be able to memorize certain things. This is not always true. Yes, some people with autism do have special talents, just like people without autism, but others do not.
     Another myth about autism the article discussed was that people with autism are not friendly or caring. This is not always true. Many people with autism are very loving. There was a study happening about a broken neuron system in people with autism. This neuron was in charge of empathy and imitation. It made sense that it would be broken in people with autism. There was no evidence that could prove this. This theory was proven to be a myth.
     A big myth I always hear is that autism is being caused by the MMR shot, which is the measles, mumps, and rubella shot. This is proven false. It is very true that autism is becoming an epidemic, but the causes are debatable and still unknown.
     I enjoyed reading this article because it discussed many myths about autism that I think many people believe. It is important to know fact vs myth.


Jarrett C. Autism - myth and reality. Psychologist [serial online]. October 2014;27(10):746-749. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 5, 2015.