Teaching Literacy to Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

Overview & Synopsis

In 1997, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandated that students with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum. Access means more than being exposed to language arts, math, and science; access means academic progress. In addition, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 requires that all students have access to language arts, math, and science while showing annual yearly progress. The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004) ensures that students with disabilities have access to the general education curriculum and aligns the legislation with the NCLB Act. This ensures that students with disabilities participate in mandated assessment programs that are aligned with state standards. Although these laws are exciting opportunities, the requirements are proving to be quite difficult for many special education teachers to implement, especially with students with significant cognitive disabilities. Historically, special education teachers were not required to teach the Standard Course of Study (SCOS) to students with significant cognitive disabilities; they taught life skills instead. Many states are now creating extensions to the SCOS to enable students to have access to the general education content. This article describes four different models of teaching literacy to students with significant cognitive disabilities, each emphasizing the importance of using effective strategies for teaching students with significant cognitive disabilities within a comprehensive literacy approach. These models can offer special education teachers a menu of approaches to teach literacy to the diverse students in the general education and special education classrooms. These models help teachers address ways to provide students with access to the SCOS, keep students motivated, teach multiple grade levels of children all in one lesson, and teach students with significant cognitive disabilities in a small group format with or without nondisabled peers. (Contains 5 tables and 4 figures.)