Among the disabilities covered at the state and federal levels, autism and related conditions are a sharply growing diagnostic category among children and young adults. In education, administrators and practitioners working with affected learners are continually faced with confronting difficult problems such as getting adequate personnel training and choosing appropriate tools and techniques that best fit the specific needs of their students while at the same time satisfying their budget, technical resources, curriculum, and profile of the ASD population they serve. The choice of appropriate tools is especially complex due to the intrinsic connection between technical specifications, educational/therapeutic methods, and the wide variety of ASDs and related conditions. In this respect, tools chosen to support children may need to target those diagnosed not only with ASD but also with such co-morbidity conditions as attention deficit disorder. The instructional strategies and use of technology currently have room for improvement for online, hybrid, and face-to-face counseling settings. Also, an effective evaluation of educational technologies and tools would be fundamentally incomplete without a thorough understanding and assessment of the related special education practices as well as psychological and neurological issues specific for ASD and learning disabilities. Education and Technology Support for Children and Young Adults With ASD and Learning Disabilities provides an in-depth analysis on the use of available technology solutions, instructional design methods, and assessment techniques in the context of standards and regulations in classroom or counseling settings. The chapters contain theoretical analyses, vital practical information, and case studies that can function as guidelines for those involved in helping children and young adults with ASD or learning disabilities in online, hybrid, or face-to-face environments. While highlighting topics such as inclusive education, online gaming environments, assistive technologies, and cognitive development, this book is ideally intended for administrators, instructional technology specialists, special education faculty, counselors, instructional designers, course developers, social workers, and psychologists along with practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, and academicians interested in education and technology support for children and young adults with ASD and learning disabilities.

Special education encompasses a broad range of techniques and tools for a catering to children with unique educational needs. Children in need of additional learning support, including children on the autism spectrum, benefit from continued research in emerging educational tools and pedagogies for best catering to their needs. Supporting the Education of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders focuses on a well-rounded approach to special education, including perspectives on administration and leadership, course development, psychological and counseling support, educational technologies, and classroom management strategies. Emphasizing timely research focused on creating opportune learning environments for children on the autism spectrum, this publication is an essential reference source for educators, school administrators, graduate-level students, and researchers in the field of education.

Heterogeneous classes including students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are increasingly becoming fixtures of the twenty-first century school. As a result, the question of how to devise more effective, innovative and diverse tools has posed a significant challenge for educators and the research community. This collection considers how technology may provide SEN children with greater opportunities to acquire academic skills, while preparing them for a successful transition to adulthood. Computers, and other new technologies, hold great promise for facilitating the inclusion of SEN individuals into modern society. Precisely because they are characterized by multiple representations of knowledge, computerized learning environments offer effective support tools for the instruction of SEN students faced with barriers that make learning a more complex process. Yet, despite the blossoming of this field, research on how the use of technology may benefit SEN students is in its early stages. The development of the theoretical knowledge and empirical databases necessary to assess the impact of computers on learners’ characteristics and educators' teaching goals lag behind the introduction of the respective technological innovations. To meet this challenge, this volume presents a review of the latest advances in how new technologies and their software may potentially enhance SEN students' performance, in school and out. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Special Needs.

Using Technology to Enhance Special Education, Volume 37 of Advances in Special Education, focuses on how general and special educators can use technology to work with children and youth with disabilities.

This guide presents strategies for applying technology to help students who have cognitive and physical disabilities, and shows how technology is useful not only in presenting curriculum and assessing students, but also in the administration and organization of special education programs. Case studies and descriptions of state-of-the-art applications illustrate how technology can help students with disabilities master complex materials and basic skills and how technology can support educators in assessing and evaluating students' progress. Chapter 1 describes the most common challenges associated with educating children with disabilities and discusses research-validated approaches in assistive instruction and assessment technologies. Chapter 2 demystifies the process of determining what technology will best meet student needs and discusses the cost effective acquisition of those technologies. Chapter 3 delineates strategies necessary to ensure that technology investments produce continuous learning improvements, including the establishment of a technology team and devising a long-range technology plan. Chapter 4 provides assistance in finding the help needed to make technology "pay off." It includes an extensive resource list that provides contact information and describes national, state, and local organizations, information centers, clearinghouses, and research group that provide services, information, and demonstrations of technology. An appendix includes relevant federal documents on assistive technology. (CR)

Technology for Learners with Autism Spectrum Disorders provides readers with an in-depth look at the characteristics of learners with ASD and explains how different forms of technology can be used to create learning opportunities for autistic students. The book is both academic and practical to appeal to multiple audiences: academicians, parents, teachers and therapists. Currently, there is scant literature speaking to the types of academic activities that should be developed and used to help children with ASD gain skills in academic areas: reading, writing, effective communication and mathematics. This book fills that void by including sample academic activities, explaining strategies for working with children diagnosed with ASD and examining ways a variety of technology tools can be used. All of the activities are visually appealing and they have been used with learners diagnosed with ASD.

Educating College Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders is one of the first books to specifically address the accommodation of students with significant learning differences in postsecondary education. Developed with the support of Autism Speaks, and piloted at Pace University, each component of this book is scientifically-based and provides a model of emerging best practices for college instruction involving students with ASD. The text is designed to give college faculty a deep understanding of students with ASD and help faculty to productively engage students with ASD, while also meeting the needs of all students in their classes. The strategies included in the manual are solidly grounded in principles of universal design and will prove indispensible for teaching college students of varying ability levels and diverse learning styles. A companion video shows clips of students and educators that are engaged in inclusive practices to illustrate approaches that have been successful in dealing with challenging situations in the classroom.