Educators

Resources that Promote Best Practices for Inclusion

National Organizations

The American Speech and Language Hearing Association: national organization committed to ensuring that all people with speech, language, and hearing disorders receive services to help them communicate effectively.

The Arc: promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and actively supports their full inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetimes.

Council for Exceptional Children: professional association of educators dedicated to advancing the success of children with exceptionalities.

Center on Technology and Disability: provides a wealth of free resources about assistive and instructional material – personal and professional development webinars, articles, guides, training materials and more.

Down Syndrome Education USA: US-based charity that transforms the lives of young people with Down syndrome by improving understanding of their particular learning needs and by helping families and professionals to provide effective support, early intervention and education.

The National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC): provides information, advocacy and support concerning all aspects of life for individuals with Down syndrome.

The National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS): the leading human rights organization for all individuals with Down syndrome.

Woodbine House: a trusted source for books about disabilities, Woodbine offers disability-specific books for parents, children, teachers and other professionals.

Wrightslaw: accurate, reliable information about special education law, education law, and advocacy for children with disabilities.

Local Organizations

The Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence Disabilities: develops and delivers high quality professional development and technical assistance to educators and parents through the State Support Teams (SST) and the Ohio Coalition for the Education for Children with Disabilities.

The Ohio Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities: statewide nonprofit organization that serves families of infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities in Ohio, and educators and agencies who provide services to them.

Helpful Links:

Handwriting without Tears: uses multisensory, developmentally appropriate strategies to increase success with early writing skills.

Intervention Central: provides teachers, schools and districts with free resources to help struggling learners and implement Response to Intervention and attain the Common Core State Standards.

The Learning Program Online: online educational community that utilizes online webinars to supplement educational interventions received in the classroom. Teachers and parents are encouraged to create a free account on the Down Syndrome Foundation of Orange County’s website to access the Learning Program archives–there are great math and literacy resources available.

See and Learn: evidence-based teaching programs designed to help children with Down syndrome learn early language, reading, speech, number and memory skills. These can be used as printed kits and apps.

Tarheel Reader: a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. You can also write your own books using pictures you upload, or pictures from their vast collection.