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When compared to their peers, most students with severe and multiple disabilities learn more slowly, forget more readily, and experience problems generalizing skills from situation to situation. These characteristics are best addressed when educators follow accepted practices.
- First, the public education of these students must start early and continue at some level throughout life.
- Second, all students typically need speech and language intervention, while many others will need physical and occupational therapy. Students with sensory impairments may need interpreters and mobility trainers, while some with medical needs may require nursing services or supervision.
- Third, because the educational teams of students are often large, close collaboration between members is essential if their expertise is to result in improved student functioning. The benefits of integrating therapy into natural activities are widely accepted over the traditional practice of isolated, or pull-out, therapy.
- Fourth, curriculum for these students tends to be functional in nature, reflecting skills needed in everyday life across domestic, leisure, school, community, and vocational domains. Students are taught to make choices, communicate in functional ways (which may include AAC methods such as signing, use of pictures, etc.), develop useful skills that reduce their dependence on others, and learn social skills suited to their chronological age.
- Fifth, when skills are taught in multiple, normalized settings, generalization problems are lessened. Thus, communication and social skills are most effectively taught in the context of interactions with typical classmates, while job and community skills are best taught during community-based instruction.
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