Essential Skills for Struggling Learners: A Framework for Student Support Teams

To provide the right supports for struggling students in grades pre-K to 12, your school team needs a thorough understanding of the skills that contribute to learning―and a systematic way to help students with a wide range of learning difficulties. This innovative planning guide is your key to identifying and prioritizing the essential skills that students with and without learning difficulties need to succeed.

This book presents 11 key domains of learning―divided into neurological, developmental, and educational domains―and gives your team a complete, collaborative plan for pinpointing where students need help and adapting your supports to meet those needs. For each of the 11 domains, the authors offer a logical framework that consists of critical skill sets and skills your students need for learning success. Every domain gets a dedicated chapter that helps you:

• Understand why the domain is essential to learning in both special and general education
• Learn about the research and resources used to develop the framework for that domain
• Take a deep dive and master key terms and definitions
• Discover how the skills associated with each domain develop in typical learners
• Find students who are struggling by making good observations, and by identifying missing or underdeveloped skills
• Identify your students’ strengths so you can help them build and expand on their skills
• Clearly communicate your observations to all team members
• Build better intervention plans and IEPs using the specific educational objectives, teaching strategies, and accommodations suggested in each chapter

PRACTICAL MATERIALS: Each chapter offers an in-depth Case Study example, a Skills Observation Sheet for notetaking during student observations, and a Skills Framework for use as a quick reference on skills when making observations and developing IEPs. Two practical appendices walk school professionals and team leaders through the collaborative process of putting the frameworks in the book into practice.

• Vision Skills
• Hearing Skills
• Motor Skills
• Formal Language Skills
• Pragmatic Language Skills
• Social Skills
• Executive Skills
• Affect and Self-Regulation Skills
• Reading Skills
• Writing Skills
• Math Skills

Erik von Hahn, M.D .Dr .Erik von Hahn has worked with children with diverse disabilities for more than 20 years . He has extensive consultative relationships with schools , especially in Massachusetts , and earlier in his career in New Hampshire . He has developed a deep understanding of children with disabilities , as seen through the lens of the school professionals who serve them .

In addition to his consultative practice with schools , Dr . von Hahn maintains a clinical practice in a teaching hospital . He uses his experience working with schools to help families in the clinic communicate successfully with their child’s school team . As part of his academic duties, Dr . von Hahn has substantial teaching duties with Tufts University School of Medicine . He provides training and supervision of future Developmental-Behavioral Pediatricians , future general pediatricians , and future allied health care professionals in social work , speech pathology , and psychology . Finally , Dr . von Hahn provides regular continuing education services to both educators and local general pediatricians in their practice . Successful service to children with disabilities occurs when adults can work successfully with one another . All of Dr . von Hahn’s clinical and teaching encounters emphasize service to children with disabilities through collaboration among home , school , and clinic .

Sheldon H. Horowitz, Ed.D. Dr . Sheldon H .Horowitz is a Senior Advisor at the National Center for Learning Disabilities .

Prior to his arrival at NCLD , he directed hospital-based evaluation and treatment programs in outpatient psychiatry and in developmental and behavioral pediatrics , as well as having taught at the primary , secondary, , and college levels , and served as a consultant to school districts throughout the New York City metropolitan region . He has published in the areas of fetal alcohol effects in children , language -based learning disabilities, and disorders of hyperactivity and attention and has contributed content and expertise to several web sites in the area of learning disabilities . Dr . Horowitz is a regular presenter at professional conferences and is frequently cited in the popular press on topics including parenting children with learning disabilities and other special needs , attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder ,assessment and evaluation , evidence-based interventions , parent advocacy and special education policy reform , post -secondary transition , and LD throughout the life span .

Caroline Linse, Ed. D. Dr .Caroline Linse is a Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast, where she teaches in the School of Social Sciences Education and Social Work . She teaches in the TESOL ( Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages ) program and works directly with current and future teachers who must address cultural and linguistic diversity as a core element of the instruction that they deliver . She has worked in a variety of countries with learners and teachers from different cultural and linguistic traditions .