Intervention in School and Clinic

Reading is a critical skill for student success in school and postschool opportunities. Although a number of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will develop the decoding skills necessary to read text, many will continue to struggle with reading comprehension. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) mandated that all children receive evidence-based reading instruction consistent with the National Reading Panel (NRP) recommendations. Beginning evidence suggests that children with ASD can benefit from instruction consistent with the NRP recommendations. This article illustrates how to implement question-and-answer relationships (QAR), a specific NRP-advocated strategy, using research-based instructional supports found responsive in meeting the learning needs of students with ASD.

In the upper elementary grades, content-area text gains increasing importance as a primary source of reading and information. This article focuses on the specialized vocabulary demands of social studies texts and presents a framework of teaching and learning strategies based on vocabulary research. Strategies are introduced before, during, and after social studies text reading, illustrating how to develop and relate vocabulary knowledge to social studies concepts and content.

Comprehension instruction for students with learning disabilities (LD) is explored from three perspectives, all within the framework of engaging students in meaningful conversations about text with their general education peers. First, excerpts from lesson transcripts are provided to illustrate one special educator’s emphasis on student-generated questions about text, a comprehension strategy highlighted by the National Reading Panel. This same instruction is next considered from the viewpoint of the research base in special education to integrate principles of explicit instruction. Finally, student-generated questioning is presented from a third perspective not typically seen in special and general education: making transparent the relationships between comprehension strategies and active reading. Guided practice with tasks such as developing questions is unlikely to build the comprehension skills of struggling readers without explicit connections to the task of making meaning while reading text.

As a service delivery option for students with disabilities, coteaching continues to gain popularity. Successful coteaching largely rests upon the compatibility of coteachers. Sometimes conflict may occur when two teachers with different backgrounds and views work closely together. This article focuses on why conflict is inevitable in cotaught classrooms and how coteachers can address conflict professionally.