Hello! My name is Jenny, and today I will be discussing different high- and low-prevalence exceptionalities that school counselors and educators may encounter while working with students. Throughout this presentation, one will learn more about the ways in which educators and school counselors can support students, how collaboration can help educators and school counselors with supporting their students, and how the variety of exceptionalities affects the best practices for educators and school counselors. Finally, this presentation will conclude with some advice for new educators and school counselors based off of my own experiences and learning from this course.

Throughout this presentation, different references will be made to my field placement experiences. Here is a list of my field placement settings that will be referenced throughout this presentation.

For this course, I had a field placement setting during ESY, or the Extended School Year, within the Exeter School District. During this time, I had a chance to observe and work with all the students within the ESY program. This means that I worked with students from kindergarten to 12th grade in various classrooms including learning support, autistic support, life skills support, and multiple disabilities support.

This past spring, I also had the opportunity to complete my school counseling practicum at the Lorane Elementary School, which is also located in the Exeter School District. During my practicum experience, I had the chance to work with students from kindergarten to 4th grade, their teachers, their parents, and other stakeholders.

Additionally, prior to beginning my graduate career, I also completed two student teaching placements in order to become dually certified in both early childhood education (PreK-4) and special education (PreK-8). One of these student teaching placements was in an inclusive 4th grade classroom located at the Northside Elementary School within the Palmyra School District. I completed my second student teaching placement in a life skills support classroom for students in kindergarten to 3rd grade at the Pine Street Elementary School within the Palmyra School District.

During these field placement settings, I have learned a lot about the different ways in which educators and school counselors can support their students. Let's begin by taking a look at a few of the many ways in which educators can support their students!

There are many ways in which educators support their students. Firstly, educators work to provide appropriate and differentiated instruction for all of their students, including their students with disabilities. For example, according to the American Institutes for Research (2018), teachers "are responsible for using a variety of instructional strategies to address individual students' strengths and needs, thereby ensuring each student has an opportunity to learn and succeed" (para. 1). In other words, teachers should differentiate their instruction based on students' needs. For example, when I was student teaching, I was responsible for differentiating my instruction in a way that met different students' needs. This sometimes meant that I would plan instruction in a way to meet students' IEP goals, or it sometimes meant that I would differentiate my instruction based on the differing ability levels of my students. I also observed differentiated instruction during my ESY field placement this past summer during which teachers and paraeducators would almost always differentiate their instruction based off the IEP goals of the individual students. For example, students were sometimes all given math worksheets; however, the problems on the math worksheets were differentiated based off of the IEP goals of each student. Educators strive to help each one of their students be successful.

Beyond differentiating instruction, educators also support their students by working to create a safe and supportive classroom environment for all of their students (American Institutes for Research, 2018). Educators can create this safe classroom environment in many ways such as by "seeking to prevent physical violence, bullying, and emotional abuse in their classrooms" (American Institutes for Research, 2018, para. 2). This safe classroom environment is important to the success of all students. Additionally, as stated by the American Institutes for Research (2018), it is important for educators to provide a supportive classroom environment by striving to create positive teacher-student relationships. This is important as these supportive and positive relationships between educators and students "can have long-lasting effects on the social, emotional, and academic development of youth" (American Institutes for Research, 2018, para. 2). Through providing a safe and supportive classroom environment, educators are able to provide an environment in which students are able to learn (American Institutes for Research, 2018).

Another way in which educators can support students is through serving as student advocates. As I learned from my time student teaching, both general education teachers and special education teachers will often participate in IEP and 504 plan meetings. During these meetings, it is important for educators to advocate for the different supports and services that they feel will best benefit their students.

These are only a few of the many ways in which educators can support their students. However, it is important to remember that educators are not the only ones who support students! School counselors also play a huge role in supporting students, and we will take a look at this next!

There are many ways in which a school counselor works to support all students within the school. According to the American School Counselor Association (2016), the role of the school counselor is to "encourage and support the academic, career, and social/emotional development of all students" (p. 55). This means that school counselors work to support all of the students within the school, including those students with disabilities. In order to accomplish this role, school counselors provide a comprehensive school counseling program to students with and without disabilities (ASCA, 2016). All students should be given equal opportunity to participate in school counseling lessons, group counseling, or individual counseling as appropriate (ASCA, 2016). During my practicum experience, we would ensure that all students who received special education services or other related services were always present within the general education classroom when presenting classroom guidance lessons. Additionally, I have provided both group counseling and individual counseling to students with and without disabilities. It is essential that all students are given equal access to the school's school counseling curriculum and school counseling services.

Going along with the school counselor's role, it is important for school counselors to provide interventions for all students as needed (ASCA, 2016). When working with students with special needs, school counselors may also provide necessary interventions or supports that are outlined on a student's IEP or 504 plan (ASCA, 2016). For example, according to the American School Counselor Association (2016), school counselors might provide "short-term, goal-focused counseling in instances where it is appropriate to include these strategies as a part of the IEP or 504 plan" (p. 55).

Additionally, school counselors support their students by advocating for all of their students (ASCA, n.d.). For example, school counselors advocate for "equity and access to rigorous educational experiences for all students" (ASCA, n.d., p. 1). In other words, school counselors work to ensure that all of their students, whether they have disabilities or not, are provided with an appropriately rigorous education. Additionally, school counselors advocate for the human rights of all their students (ASCA, n.d.). I personally take this statement as meaning that school counselors advocate for all of their students to be treated with dignity and respect as all human beings should.

In order for school counselors and other stakeholders to best provide this support, it is important that they engage in collaboration. This next slide will take a look at collaboration and how it can assist educators, school counselors, and other stakeholders in best supporting their students!

Before discussing the role of collaboration among educators and other stakeholders, it is important to establish a common definition of collaboration. A simple definition of collaboration which can be used in this case is that collaboration occurs when "members of an inclusive learning community work together as equals to assist students to succeed in the classroom" (Powell, n.d., para. 9). In other words, the role of collaboration is to help ensure that students are able to succeed.

Collaboration is also important as it supports inclusion in the classroom (Taylor, Smiley, & Richards, 2015). For example, through collaborating, the general education teacher is able to work with the special education teacher and other stakeholders "to create and present an effective curriculum and learning experience" (Taylor et al., 2015, p. 57). This means that collaboration can help educators find ways to best support their students in an inclusive classroom. I have learned this myself from my student teaching experience in a general education classroom. During this student teaching experience, I would meet with some of my students' special education teachers at least once a week to discuss the students' IEP goals and how the students were progressing towards their goals. When students were not progressing towards their IEP goals, the special education teachers and myself were able to work together to find other ways to support the students. Additionally, as stated by Taylor et al. (2015), collaboration is important as it helps to ensure that all teachers or other stakeholders that work with the students understand the students' accommodations and how to implement these accommodations. This is necessary to ensure that the student is being consistently and correctly provided with the accommodations he or she needs. For example, as a student teacher, I was sometimes unfamiliar with how to best provide a student with some of the accommodations needed for the student to succeed in the inclusive classroom. Collaborating with my student teaching supervisor and the special education teachers allowed me to learn how to go about providing these accommodations.

Another huge role of collaboration is that it allows different stakeholders to share their expertise (Taylor et al., 2015). This is important as each stakeholder can share his/her own expertise on ways to best support the student. For example, through collaboration, educators may learn new instructional strategies that they can use with their students (Powell, n.d.). This is important as a different instructional strategy that the teacher did not know beforehand may be the strategy that best helps the student to be successful in the classroom. From my field placement in ESY this course, I have also seen how related service personnel and teachers can share their different expertise with one another through collaboration. For example, I have witnessed a lot of collaboration among the special education teachers and the occupational therapist, speech and language pathologist, and the physical therapist at the school. One specific example occurred while I was in a VB (verbal behavior) classroom which consisted of students with autism. The speech and language pathologist came in and was struggling to get one of the students to drop his iPad and work on speech. The special education teacher shared with the speech and language pathologist how she uses puzzles and other activities of interest to get the student to put down the iPad. Additionally, the special education teacher then worked with the speech and language pathologist on finding ways to best support some of the verbal students with their speech. Meanwhile, in the multiple disabilities support classroom, I observed both the special education teacher and the occupational therapist sharing the different strategies they were aware of for helping a student with cerebral palsy with handwriting.

It is also important to note that a school counselor should also participate in collaboration to share his/her own expertise. During my practicum experience, I was able to partake in multiple IEP and 504 plan meetings. Within these meetings, my supervisor would often share her expertise in different areas such as ways to support a student's social-emotional development or suggesting that the student may benefit from group counseling with other students to learn about specific topics of concern such as anger management. My supervisor from my practicum experience would also often meet with teachers to learn more about how a student was performing in the teacher's classroom and to share ways in which the teacher could further support the student.

When collaborating, it is also important for stakeholders to consider the needs of the students. As one is about to see, there are a wide variety of exceptionalities that can affect the best practices for educators or school counselors!

There are a wide variety of exceptionalities that one can find among students. These exceptionalities can be divided into high- and low-prevalence exceptionalities, or high- and low-incidence exceptionalities (Taylor et al., 2015). High- and low-prevalence exceptionalities will be further discussed on the next two slides.

It is important for educators and counselors to understand that there are a huge variety of exceptionalities that can be found among students, and this variety affects the best teaching or counseling practices for different students. When considering teaching or counseling practices, it is important to consider a student's needs to base the best practices off of. For example, a student with an emotional or behavioral disorder may benefit from being provided with a behavioral intervention plan(Taylor et al., 2015). However, a behavioral intervention plan may not be necessary for a student with another exceptionality who does not exhibit any behaviors. Therefore, it is important for educators and counselors to be familiar with a student's specific needs to decide what practices would be most effective and appropriate for each individual student.

Additionally, with the wide variety of exceptionalities, it is also important for educators and school counselors to be familiar with the different supports such as accommodations or modifications to best support students with different exceptionalities. These supports should also be based off of the individual student's needs to ensure the student is being provided with what he or she needs to be successful!

With this in mind, let's take a look at some specific examples of ways in which educators or school counselors may support students with high-prevalence exceptionalities.

High-prevalence exceptionalities are the disabilities which approximately 90% of students with exceptionalities have (Phelan, n.d.b). These high-prevalence exceptionalities include learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, emotional or behavioral disorders, and communication disorders (Taylor et al., 2015). It is important to note that with these high-prevalence exceptionalities there is a wide range of abilities and disabilities (Phelan, n.d.b). . This means that students can have differing needs, even students that have the same diagnosis! While a few of the best practices for these exceptionalities will be discussed below, it is important for educators and school counselors to remember that it is most important to base their best practices off of each individual student's needs and not the label or diagnosis they have.

Students with learning disabilities may benefit from additional explicit instruction in their area of need (Taylor et al., 2015). It may also be helpful to teach students how to use different cognitive strategies such as using mnemonic devices to help them remember information (Taylor et al., 2015). From my field experience at ESY, I also found that it is beneficial for explicit instruction to be presented to students in a way that is based off the students' interests. For example, one student in the learning support classroom with a learning disability in both reading and mathematics had an interest in the teenage mutant ninja turtles. The teacher wrote a word problem for the student, which was one of the student's IEP goals, on the teenage mutant ninja turtles. This student, who was usually resistant to reading, was very excited to read about the teenage mutant ninja turtles, and I found this to be a very effective strategy for motivating and engaging the student!

Meanwhile, students with intellectual disabilities may need to be taught functional academics (Taylor et al., 2015). According to Taylor et al. (2015), functional academics are "practical everyday problem-solving skills that will best serve the individual in his or her current and future life" (p. 143). During my ESY placement, I was able to work with a high school student who was being taught how to count money to "buy" items of interest from a catalog. It may also be helpful for these students to be taught life skills (Taylor et al., 2015). For example, I observed a student during my ESY placement who was being taught how to take out the trash and was responsible for taking out the trash for all of the classrooms.

Meanwhile, best practices for students with emotional or behavioral disorders may provide a mixture of education on academics, behavioral skills, and social skills (Taylor et al., 2015). During my school counseling practicum, I worked with students with emotional and behavioral disorders who needed support with different behavioral skills or social skills. For example, I worked with my case study student on teaching him anger management strategies.

On the other hand, for students with communication disorders, it may be helpful for the teachers to work with speech and language pathologists to find ways to support the students in their speech and language development within the classroom (Taylor et al., 2015). Additionally, I feel it is important to focus on whether or not students with communication disorders require further support in socialization or in their self-esteem. I had a student during my student teaching placement who had an articulation disorder and was very withdrawn in the classroom. The student later opened up to me that this was because she did not want to be teased due to her speech. I found it helpful to ensure she was connected to the school counselor to ensure she was being provided with support for her self-esteem.

It is important to note that these are only a few of the many potential strategies that could be considered best practices for students with these exceptionalities. However, it is important to remember that students with the same "label" could also have very different needs. Therefore, educators and school counselors should base their best practices off of each individual student's needs.

Now let's take a look at low-prevalence exceptionalities!

Low-prevalence exceptionalities are those disabilities that occur less frequently than other exceptionalities (Phelan, n.d.a). These exceptionalities include the following: hearing impairments, visual impairments, physical disabilities, other health impairments, multiple disabilities, deaf-blindness, and autism spectrum disorders (Taylor et al., 2015). Once again, it is important for educators and school counselors to be aware that students with these exceptionalities can vary greatly in their needs. Therefore, it is important to consider the specific needs of the individual student when deciding what specific strategies may be most appropriate and effective for the student.

An example of an effective teaching strategy for a student with a hearing impairment could be instruction in language or communication skills (Phelan, n.d.a). Meanwhile, students with visual impairments may benefit from being provided with tactile examples during instruction (Phelan, n.d.a). I unfortunately do not have any experience yet with students who have hearing impairments or visual impairments, so I am unable to share any personal experiences. I also do not have any experience with students who have deaf-blindness; however, according to Taylor et al. (2015), it is important to organize the environment for students in a way that maximizes any sensory abilities the students do have. For example, it may be helpful to focus on using tactile materials for these students.

Students who have physical disabilities or other health impairments may benefit from being taught with universal design to ensure that all materials and curricula are accessible for these students (Taylor et al., 2015). It may also be helpful for these students to be provided with adaptive technology and equipment (Taylor et al., 2015). For example, during my ESY field placement, I worked with a student with cerebral palsy who utilized an iPad to communicate.

Meanwhile, students with multiple disabilities may benefit from being taught using naturalistic teaching strategies that happen as situations occur during everyday interaction (Taylor et al., 2015). For example, when I was with high school students with multiple disabilities during my ESY placement, I took the students on a walk along with the special education teacher and the paraprofessionals. During the walk, the special education teacher pointed out different objects as they appeared such as flowers. The students would then be asked to use their communication devices to count the flowers or to answer questions about the flowers such as what color the flowers were.

Finally, students with autism spectrum disorders may need social skill instruction (Taylor et al., 2015). For example, it may be helpful for students with autism spectrum disorders to be provided with social stories to help teach them about different social situations and appropriate behaviors for those situations (Taylor et al., 2015). I have utilized social stories during my time student teaching to help prepare students for new social situations such as field trips.

It should be reiterated that these are not the only strategies or best practices for students with these specific exceptionalities. Educators and school counselors should be aware of different types of exceptionalities in order to become familiar with some possible supports and accommodations that may be beneficial to students with specific disabilities. However, it is also important for educators and school counselors to remember that it is most important that they consider an individual student's needs and not the student's label when considering the best practices for that student.

In addition to this advice for educators and school counselors, I have a few other pieces of advice that I would like to share with new educators and school counselors before concluding this presentation!

There is a lot of advice that I could share with new educators and school counselors; however, I will conclude with sharing only a few pieces of advice!

First of all, it is important to remember to be flexible! No matter how well-planned educators or school counselors are, there are always surprises that can occur during the school day! For example, during my ESY field placement, I observed many students with externalizing behaviors. Some of these behaviors would pose a safety hazard to the student as well as other students, and the tentative schedule for the day would then need to be put on hold to ensure the student's safety! Additionally, during my school counseling practicum, I have needed to help with crisis situations that happened without warning!

Next, I feel that it is critical for educators and school counselors to work to build rapport with their students! It is important that educators and school counselors are able to make connections with their students and learn about their students' interests and needs in order to best support them. Additionally, it is critical to have this rapport established with students to ensure students feel comfortable opening up to their educators or school counselors when they need to! For example, I learned during my school counseling practicum that students would be much more willing to open up to me about sensitive topics after meeting with me multiple times and establishing this needed rapport.

These next two pieces of advice go hand in hand! It is important to meet the needs of your students by ensuring that they are being provided with the proper accommodations. As we learned from this course, there are a wide variety of accommodations that can be useful to ensure that students are being supported in their classrooms and in their future and current lives! I was able to observe a wide variety of accommodations being put in place during my ESY field placement. These accommodations ranged from assistive technology devices such as augmentative communication devices to the use of specialized writing paper with raised lines. It is necessary that students are being provided with these accommodations to ensure they are being provided with all that is necessary to help them succeed!

Finally, I have learned from this course and all my field placements about the importance of collaboration! It is critical that educators and school counselors collaborate to learn more about ways to help their students succeed!

Thank you, and I hope you enjoyed my presentation!