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Operant Conditioning
First significant advancement in special education was the implementation of the principals of operant conditioning. -
Fuller Experiment
Operant procedures with an eighteen year old boy, who had a very limited repertoire. Differential reinforcement was used as there were responses made by the participant that were not reinforced. This anonymous young man helped
launch a new field of inquiry about human behavior, yet the study probably did not benefit the participant much. -
Autism Social and Communication Skills
Lovaas, Freitag, Gold, and Kassorla (1965) showcased that students with autism could obtain social and communication skills through the use of behavior analysis. In the beginning, target responses, shaping, and data collection were used to monitor and influence the effects of social and communication skills. -
Systematic Instruction
Targeting behaviors and methods of transferring stimulus control (including differential reinforcement, systematic prompting and fading, as well as error correction) became known as systematic instruction. -
Functional Skills
The next advancement for students with severe disabilities occured when Lou Brown and collagues gave a strong argument for the implementation of washing clothes, selecting clothes, grocery shopping, public telephone use, riding a bus, crossing a street, and following job sequencing. -
No Child Left Behind
Impacted what students were taught, the types of tests that they had to take, the method in which teachers were trained, and how to use money within education. For students with significant disabilities, schools could report progress based on alternative assessments. -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Reauthorization
The act made sure that all Special Education teachers were "highly qualified". Research began to look promising but there were very few research studies conducted. Most importantly, there were far fewer research studies conducted within mathematics than literacy. -
Wary Travelers
Jackson, Ryndak, and Wehmeyer (2008–
2009) wanted to remove the ongoing reliance on self-contained settings and push for general curriculum access to occur in inclusive environments.
Ayres, Lowrey, Douglas, and Sievers (2011) were concerned that the focus on academic content was taking away from functional skills taught within a moderate to severe special education setting. -
Reading Skills for Students with Moderate to Severe Disabilities
Research on reading by Allor, Mathes,
Roberts, Jones, and Champlin (2010) suggests that students
with moderate to severe intellectual disability can learn
beginning reading skills, but may require more time to
acquire those skills. To manage both narrative and expository texts typical of their age and grade, students will need to acquire additional strategies to access and comprehend text like interactive read-alouds (Hudson, Browder, & Wakeman, 2013) and technology applications. -
Wait, There's More!!!
Currently, there needs to be more studies devoted to evidence-based practices of grade-aligned academic content for teaching students with severe disabilities. Moreover, these evidence based practices need to demonstrate how academic concepts are useful for students, collaborate with ongoing instructions, and assist in the transition of adult living.
