PE, IEPs, and New Federal Guidance

A 2010 report from the Government Accountability Office found that although PE is one of the general education courses in which students with disabilities most commonly participate, education had "provided little information or guidance on PE or extracurricular athletics for students with disabilities." The report further noted that few students with IEPs have specified accommodations for PE writen into their IEPs.

In response, in August of 2011, the U.S. Department of Education released a guidance statement titled Creating Equal Opportunities For Children and Youth With Disabilities to Participate in Physical Education and Extracurricular Athletics.  The statement is available online at:  http://www2.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/equal-pe.pdf 

Among other things, the DOE's statement notes that that according to researchers with the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Research Digest, children with disabilities are 4.5 times less physically active than children without disabilities. This concerned the researchers since higher levels of sedentary behavior during childhood are likely to continue into adulthood, and contribute to an increased risk of adult obesity, and other health problems.

The recommendations contained in the DOE guidance include the use of equipment, as appropriate, such as a treadmill with an even, predictable walking surface, the Wii, Xbox, and PlayStation, and devices like them, to simulate participation in sports that some students with disabilities can't do in the traditional way. Most of all, the guidance emphasizes the importance of student participation, and notes that team play and sportsmanship cannot be taught except through participation.

Yesterday's blog article by Bryan Tosporek was a real breath of fresh air for attorneys who are working to assist the parents of children who are being plagued by bullies.  Brian wrote about a program at Johnson High School in San Antonio, Texas.  At the beginning of the school year, a school counselor recruited three football players to help protect a freshman against a wave of constant bullying.  By November, the program was such a success, and had added nine more football players and four more bullied students in need of protection. Next year, 18 football players at Johnson High will help eight incoming freshmen as part of the program.

This week, the three original "Bully Guards"—seniors Cohner Mokry, Ryder Burke, and Austin Carson—were all recognized at a school board meeting by their district superintendent.  In order to carry out their mission, the three left their classes a few minutes early so they could meet up with and walk the freshman to each of his classes. Not long after they had started doing this, the freshman began fitting right in with the three seniors.  Burke told a local newspaper: "We went through high school and have had a great experience, It should be everybody having that great experience."

What a great developmental experience this is for the bully guards and the bullied kids alike! Kudos to the school counselor and football players who got this started!  How about bully guards who are wrestlers, basketball players, and volleyball players?  Is anyone out there in Iowa listening?


Brian's full article is at:   http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/schooled_in_sports/2012/04/texas_hs_football_players_spend_spare_time_as_bully_guards.html?cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2

Effective Use of Contingent Praise with Students Who Have Behavioral Issues

                I have never been ask to file a complaint on behalf of the special education needs of a child identified with behavioral issues whose teacher skillfully and consistently gives the child verbal praise contingently to increase the child’s appropriate behaviors.  In contrast, I am frequently contacted by parents of children who are concerned that the behavior procedures used by their child’s school/teacher have decreased the child’s behavioral performance, and/or resulted in a series of disciplinary actions.
  

                An examination of these situations usually indicates that the child’s school or teacher primarily relies upon control and reactive strategies to deal with problem behaviors, and delays incentives (“positive reinforcements”) until the student has “earned” them.  Under those circumstances, it is no surprise to find that the student has begun to manifest “counter-control” behaviors, and the teacher and student are engaged in ongoing and serial power struggles.  These cases demonstrate that despite more than fifty years of research, many educators have not learned that control and reactive strategies, and delayed reinforcement procedures, are vastly less successful in shaping, increasing, and maintaining appropriate social and academic behaviors in students who have behavioral problems at school.

                It is perplexing that, given the extensive base of empirical support for the use of contingent teacher praise in increasing appropriate student behaviors that so many educators have not learned how to competently use this highly effective means of assisting students whose behaviors interfere with learning.  A 2010 research article published in Preventing School Failure, titled Using Teacher Praise and Opportunities to Respond to Promote Appropriate Student Behavior (article is located at http://amywagner.wiki.westga.edu/file/view/teacher+praise.pdf/238204939/teacher+praise.pdf)  provided that teacher attention to students with behavioral issues comes in the form of high rates of teacher reprimands for inappropriate behaviors, and that students with the most aggressive behaviors have the highest rates of teacher reprimands and the lowest rates of positive teacher attention -  even when they appropriately comply with teacher commands.  

                The authors of the above-mentioned article point out that regardless of a student’s age or disability, teacher use of contingent praise has been shown to increase a variety of appropriate student behaviors and academic skills, including following directions, engagement in instruction, on-task behavior, correct academic responding, and work accuracy and completion.  They noted and cited supporting authorities who have found that the skilled use of contingent praise has been repeatedly shown to increase positive behavior while simultaneously decreasing and disruptive problem behavior, and that teacher praise combined with decreased attention to problem behavior lead to decreases in talking outs and arguing with teacher requests as well as other disruptive behavior.

                When considering the lack of a particular student’s progress on behavioral goals, as professionals, teachers should be aware of the amount of attention they are giving to desired behaviors and to inappropriate ones.  As a component a teaching improvement program, some schools might employ procedures like those set out in the above-cited article, as a self-monitoring exercise during which teachers review a series of 15 minute recordings of their classes, and record data on their use of commands, reprimands, and contingent reinforcement with all students or with a particular student.  

Students with Autism and Special Education Litigation

In an interesting blog article, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Thomas R. Insel, M.D., has written about the increased number of children in the U.S. who have been diagnosed in with autistic disorders. Dr. Insel concludes that diagnostic changes and ascertainment do not account for most of the increase, and that at this point, on the basis of data collected and analyzed to date, it appears that more children are affected with autism spectrum disorders, and more of those children are being detected.

Dr. Insel's article comes on the heels of a study published last year by Perry A. Zirkel, professor of education and law at LeHigh University.  In that study, Zirkel looked at the incidence education-related legal actions involving involving children diagnosed with autism and the issues of a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) and least restrictive environment (LRE).  He found that while the number of students in special education who are diagnosed wth autism has increased, between 1993 and 2008, the percentage of special education cases involving FAPE and LRE issues in the education of a child with autism, has remained at at around 32 percent of the total number of special education litigations involving those issues.  Among his conclusions, Zirkel states that the ongoing high rate of such cases is probably due in part to the limited success that school districts have had in effectively addressing the needs of children with this complex disability.

The full text of Dr. Insel's blog is located at:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/index.shtml 

The full text of Dr. Zirkel's article is located at:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/Zirkel%20Article%20on%20Autism%20Litigation%20Disproportional.PDF