Introduction
This course will provide you with information and an opportunity to reflect on a range of issues that face students with multiple disabilities and complex needs.
What's in the Course?
The course is divided into eight modules. Below is a brief description of the content of each module.
Module 1: Intellectual Disabilities
In Module 1, you will learn basic information about intellectual disability, including definitions:
- Common characteristics of intellectual disabilities
- How intellectual disabilities impact students’ learning
Module 2: Movement
In Module 2, you will develop an understanding of how movement impacts students’ learning:
- How movement typically develops
- How movement disabilities can impact body structures and function
- The implications at school for students with movement disabilities
Module 3: Vision
Module 3 explores the visual system and how visual impairment impacts learning for students with complex needs:
- How the functioning of the eyes, visual pathway, and brain enable seeing
- How disruptions to the visual system can affect vision
- External factors that may impact functional vision
Module 4: Hearing
In Module 4, you will learn about hearing loss and the interconnection between our hearing and our cognitive function:
- The three main types of hearing loss
- Some causes of hearing loss
- The consequences of hearing loss for students, including those with complex disabilities
Module 5: Regulation and Sensory Processing
In Module 5, you will explore how regulation and sensory processing affects students with complex needs:
- How co-regulation practice best supports students with complex needs
- How levels of arousal and stimulation impact the success of co-regulation
- A general understanding of various sensory inputs and their impact
- The key to co-regulation is to know the student well
Module 6: Medical Complexities
Module 6 describes the co-occurring medical conditions that affect a student’s participation at school:
- Develop an awareness of some medical conditions often experienced by students with complex needs
- Understand the implications of medical conditions for learning and participation for students with complex needs at school
- Understand the importance of demystifying medical interventions for other students in the class
Module 7: Communication
In Module 7, you will explore how communication develops and how this impacts the learning of students with complex needs:
- To understand the development of communication
- That everyone, including students with complex needs, communicates in many ways, not just by speaking
- How much more complex communication is for children with disabilities
- How communication differences can impact a child’s learning
Module 8: Complexity
Module 8 explores a variety of factors that may add complexity for students with complex needs:
- Understand how individual learning differences can interact in complex ways
- Consider the student holistically when planning for their learning
- Explore how a student’s inclusion is impacted not only by their disability (or disabilities) but interpersonal and cultural factors as well
- Build awareness that a student’s cognitive and physical disabilities do not negate their ability to learn