You're Not Alone- Walking Through the Special Education Journey Together

     I have done alot of research on students who have behavioral difficulties along with a chemical/emotional difficulties. Chemical makeup and how we genetically are made are factors that can not be changed. This makes things quite tricky for the ones who are trying to curb unwanted behaviors. Devising behavior plans and interventions for students who suffer from ADHD, Mental Health disorders, Cognitive disabilities and any other biological factors that effect the brain is extremely tricky. I have found through experience as an ESE teacher and as a Mom of a son with a cognitive disability that each child is different and that it takes many trials and many moments of "back to the drawing board" before finding a strategy that works for each situation. Research shows that "t here is no one method that should be prescribed for any one problem. The first essential is to study the individual concerned - his or her likes and dislikes, circumstances, idiosyncratic behavior pat...

            In my research into why students exhibit challenging behaviors at school I have come upon so many underlying causes into what goes on when they act the way they do. In turn so many reasons have also popped into my mind just from my 15 years of teaching experience. Some that I see often and that I have read about through research are poverty, trauma, academic struggles, and emotional struggles. The amount of stress, fear, anger, and sadness that students can carry on a day to day basis is heartbreaking. This heartache hits us teachers tenfold because our students become such a big part of us and they are with us the majority of the year we have them so we are given the difficult task of figuring out what is causing the behaviors and then devising a plan to correct them (mentioned in my last post).        The area that I have personally found the most difficult to deal with is trauma. "K ids often don’t express the distress t...

        Hey there everyone! This is my first blog post and I am so excited to share some of my experiences as well as any resources or information that I have learned or have been researching with you all. I have 15 years of teaching under my belt, the last four of which have been in special education and have been a mama of a special needs child for almost 9 years. I have three boys altogether and live in sunny central Florida. I am currently completing my graduate degree in special education and have been taking some courses on applied behavior analysis because assisting children with behavior difficulties is definitely where I am wanting my career path to go. I hope this blog helps you or creates a healthy discussion on the topics I discuss. I am a firm believer in collaboration, research and most of all advocacy.         For my first post I thought it would be fitting to discuss behavior and the importance of interventions on the school front...