Research guides: Special Education: Books

Recommended Library Resources

As a practitioner in the field of education, you may need materials to support your work with a variety of learners. The titles below range from general works about special education to resources designed to support specific needs; they may provide ideas for learning activities, best practices, and offer additional relevant academic research and support.

General Special Needs Education

Learning Disabilities: From Identification to Intervention by Jack M. Fletcher; G. Reid Lyon; Lynn S. Fuchs; Marcia A. Barnes
Call Number: OISE Stacks 371.9 F613L 2019
Publication Date: 2018
Foremost learning disability experts identify effective principles of assessment and instruction within the framework of multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). With a focus on what works in the classroom, this book explores the full range of reading, mathematics, and writing disabilities. It synthesizes knowledge from neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, and special and general education.
College Success for Students with Disabilities: A Guide to Finding and Using Resources, with Real-World Stories by Irene Ingersoll
Call Number: OISE Stacks 378.0087 I47C
Publication Date: 2016
This guide helps students, parents, counselors and psychologists find the appropriate resources and accommodations to help students with disabilities successfully transition to college. The author explains Americans with Disabilities Act laws and outlines steps for requesting and implementing college staff, classroom and testing accommodations. Student testimonies are included, advising on which assistive technologies and resources have helped them achieve academic success.
Special Education in Canada by Alan Edmunds, Gail Edmunds
Call Number: OISE Stacks 371.90971 E24S 2018
Publication Date: 2018
This insightful introduction to teaching students with exceptionalities uses real-life case studies to illustrate the educational realities faced by students with special needs, as well as their teachers and families.
Supporting the Emotional Well-Being of Children and Young People with Learning Disabilities: A Whole School Approach by Mark Fox; Tom Laverty; Sanchita Chowdhury
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2019
This is a practical resource for helping children with severe and complex learning difficulties, their classmates, their teachers and the schools that they attend. The highly adaptable materials, activities and ideas presented in this book will be useful both in the classroom and in staff training to promote understanding of emotional well-being and mental health of all pupils who may need support.
Special Education for Young Learners with Disabilities by Festus E. Obiakor, Jeffrey P. Bakken
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2019
Each chapter in this book is focused on a different special need that might be encountered in the classroom, breaking down how it might be identified, noting assessment tools and instructional methods used by experts in the field.
Special Education Case Studies: For Ontario Classrooms by Kimberly Maich; Randy Hill
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.90971 M217S
Publication Date: 2018
This is a resource for both teacher-candidates and fully certified teachers preparing to teach in inclusive classrooms in Ontario. Each chapter is composed of five original cases demonstrating the practices and processes of Special Education. Spanning kindergarten to high school graduation, these stories provide a practical and realistic snapshot of what teaching in an inclusive classroom in Ontario really looks like.

Autism

Autism, Pedagogy and Education: Critical Issues for Value-Based Teaching by Carmel Conn
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2019
This book discusses critical issues concerning autism and education, and what constitutes effective pedagogy for this group of learners. This book introduces and expands upon a strengths-based approach to pedagogy.
Autism in Your Classroom: A General Educator's Guide to Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders by Deborah Fein; Michelle A. Dunn
Call Number: OISE Stacks 371.94 F299A
Publication Date: 2007
Part I provides a complete overview of the types, causes, characteristics, and treatments of autism spectrum disorders. Part II focuses on the student in the classroom, covering a variety of strategies to manage learning and behaviour. Part III features two useful case studies. Both stem from the authors' hands-on work and consultation with teachers, students, and parents. The book concludes with an appendix of frequently asked questions about children with autism asked by educators.
Teaching Children with High-Functioning Autism: Strategies for the Inclusive Classroom by Claire E. Hughes-Lynch
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.9046 H894T
Publication Date: 2011
This book provides realistic descriptions of autism in the classroom, ideas for working with a wide range of professionals and integrating the various therapies within a classroom, suggestions for assessing students' learning, and a range of teaching ideas from behavioral interventions to content-area instruction. It also includes ideas for writing a very strong, helpful IEP, as well as ways to accommodate and manage the social, language, and anxiety-related issues children with high-functioning autism face in a general education setting.
Educating Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders by Beth Harn; Erin E. Barton
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.94 B293E
Publication Date: 2012
This book is aimed at providing strategies for teachers, school counselors, and psychologists to help address the needs of children on the spectrum, as well as their families. Barton and Harn draw on current research and practices to discuss the possible causes of autism and to help prepare educators not only for teaching children in the classroom but also for providing families with the tools necessary to continue the educational process at home. Included are topics such as: improving communication and socialization; developing instructive lessons; assessing students' progress; including families in educational goals; finding students' special interests and using those to help facilitate learning; and managing challenging behavior. The book also includes forms, charts, and a range of classroom activities.
"You're going to love this kid!": Teaching Students with Autism in the Inclusive Classroom by Paula Kluth; Sheila Danaher
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.94 K66Y
Publication Date: 2010
Gathering feedback from teachers across the US during her popular workshops, autism expert Paula Kluth targeted this second edition to the specific needs of today's primary- and secondary-school educators. Still packed with the ready-to-use tips and strategies that teachers are looking for, the new edition gives readers: dozens of new reproducible forms, checklists, and planning tools; photos of curricular adaptations, sensory supports and classroom scenes; thoroughly revised and updated chapters on today's hottest topics; a study guide with challenging discussion questions for each chapter; and new ideas throughout the book based on the latest research on autism, inclusion, literacy, and behaviour.
Autism from the Teacher's Perspective: Strategies for Classroom Instruction by Kathleen M. McCoy
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.94 A939
Publication Date: 2010
This book provides a helpful and balanced perspective for teachers who provide services for children and youth with autism. It also would be fitting for general and special educators, speech and language personnel, social workers, nurses, educational psychologists, and any service provider for individuals who fall on the autism spectrum.
Using Drama with Children on the Autism Spectrum: A Resource for Practitioners in Health and Education by Carmel Conn
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2019
The focus of this new edition is on learning outcomes as expressed by autistic people, for example, to develop better understandings about the social world and to know how to manage everyday situations more successfully. This practical resource book contains more than 150 activities for use with children aged 5-11 years old. This book includes case studies, photocopiable resources and step-by-step instructions for facilitating activities.

Speech and Language Development

Building Language Using Lego® Bricks: A Practical Guide by Dawn Ralph; Georgina Gomez de la Cuesta (Foreword by); Jacqui Rochester
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.94 R163B
Publication Date: 2016
Building Language using LEGO® Bricks is a flexible and powerful intervention tool designed to aid children with severe receptive and expressive language disorders, often related to autism and other special educational needs. This practical manual equips you for setting up and adapting your own successful sessions.
Common Core State Standards and the Speech-Language Pathologist: Standards-Based Intervention for Special Populations by Lissa A. Power-De Fur
Call Number: OISE Stacks 616.8550071 P887C
Publication Date: 2015
This text offers a practical approach for application of the CCSS with a parallel analysis of children's strengths and needs to create a template for intervention. It addresses strategies to facilitate the success of students in accessing and achieving the expectations of the general curriculum, with a focus on students with communication disorders, hearing loss, vision loss, deaf-blindness, specific learning disabilities, autism, multiple disabilities, and English language learners.
Writing Development in Children with Hearing Loss, Dyslexia, or Oral Language Problems: Implications for Assessment and Instruction by Barbara Arfe; Julie Dockrell; Virginia Berninger
Call Number: OISE Stacks 371.90446 W956
Publication Date: 2014
Three clinical groups are considered: children with hearing loss, oral language difficulties, and dyslexia. Each contribution comes from an expert or team of experts in these three areas and in the field of language and writing. The volume provides current understandings to help guide and support practitioners and researchers alike.
Inclusive Literacy Lessons for Early Childhood by Pam Schiller; Clarissa Willis; Kathy Ferrell (Illustrator)
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 428.4 S334i
Publication Date: 2008
A collection of one hundred literacy lessons designed for educators to use with children ages three to six. Each of these simple, fun lessons includes adaptations for children with special needs, focusing on: Visual impairments, Hearing impairments, Cognitive challenges, Motor delays, Speech/language delays, and Emotional/behavior issues. The first page of each two-page lesson features an introduction, the literacy activity, extension activities, a daily reflection, vocabulary, related children's books, and learning objectives. The second page has adaptations specific to the literacy lesson for children with special needs.
Assessing Multilingual Children: Disentangling Bilingualism from Language Impairment by Sharon Armon-Lotem (Editor); Jan de Jong (Editor); Natalia Meir (Editor)
Call Number: OISE Stacks 618.92855 A846
Publication Date: 2015
Second language learners often produce language forms resembling those of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). At present, professionals working in language assessment and education have only limited diagnostic instruments to distinguish language impaired migrant children from those who will eventually catch up with their monolingual peers. This book presents a comprehensive set of tools for assessing the linguistic abilities of bilingual children. It aims to disentangle effects of bilingualism from those of SLI, making use of both models of bilingualism and models of language impairment.

Visual Impairments and Braille

ECC Essentials: Teaching the Expanded Core Curriculum to Students with Visual Impairments by Carol B. Allman
Call Number: OISE Stacks 371.9110973 E17
Publication Date: 2014
This is the first comprehensive book for teachers of students with visual impairments to focus on the nine areas of the ECC that encompass the unique skills children and adolescents with visual impairments need to learn, including compensatory access, sensory efficiency, assistive technology, orientation and mobility, independent living, social interaction, recreation and leisure, career education, and self-determination. The book includes learning activities that combine several areas of the ECC, information about additional resources, and specific guidelines and strategies for teaching each of the nine areas of the ECC.
Itinerant Teaching: Tricks of the Trade for Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments by Jean E. Olmstead
Call Number: OISE Stacks 371.9110973 O51 2005
Publication Date: 2005
This completely revised and updated version is a practical guide to organizing materials and time, programming events and activities, working in teams, traveling, negotiating diverse school environments, and dealing with diverse caseloads. Itinerant Teaching is full of tips, techniques, strategies, and helpful forms, with new sections on young children, children with multiple disabilities, orientation and mobility, assistive technology, and stress management.
Looking Good: A Curriculum on Physical Appearance and Personal Presentation for Adolescents and Young Adults with Visual Impairments by Anne Lesley Corn; Michael J. Bina; Sharon Sacks
Call Number: OISE Stacks 646.700871 C812L
Publication Date: 2008
This guide starts by explaining the perceived relationship between looks, self-concept and competence, and why the sighted judge others by their appearance. It covers clothing choices and use of accessories, but also addresses gestures and nonverbal expression, finding role models, dealing with family and cultural values about appearance, and expressing yourself to others in attractive ways. Appendices include extensive resources on independent living skills, including help with fashion trends, wellness and dressing for success on the job.
Beginning with Braille: Firsthand Experiences with a Balanced Approach to Literacy by Anna M Swenson
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.911 S974B 2016
Publication Date: 2015
This resource is an essential guide to helping educators teach braille to readers who are visually impaired. Now revised, it contains new sections on a range of critical topics, including trends in general education literacy instruction and the teaching of braille, working with dual-media learners, and addressing diverse needs effectively. Updated with UEB, the second edition also includes new teaching materials, record forms, and braille activities.

Children's Literature Research Guide: Braille Dual-Format Books
The OISE Library's Children's Literature Research Guide includes a list of Braille dual-format children's books and tips for finding Braille dual-format books when searching the catalogue.

Dyslexia and Dysgraphia

Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can't, and What Can be Done About It by Mark Seidenberg
Call Number: OISE Stacks 428.40711 S458L
Publication Date: 2017
Internationally renowned cognitive scientist Mark Seidenberg reveals the underexplored science of reading, which spans cognitive science, neurobiology, and linguistics. How we teach reading places many children at risk of failure. Interventions for children with reading disabilities are delayed because parents are mistakenly told their kids will catch up if they work harder. Furthermore, learning to read is more difficult for children who speak a minority dialect in the home. By building on science's insights to redesign how we teach reading,this book takes real steps toward solving the inequality that illiteracy breeds.
Struggling Readers Can Succeed: Targeted Solutions Based on Complex Views of Real Kids in Classrooms and Communities by Nina L. Nilsson (Editor); Sandra E. Gandy (Editor)
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 428.4 S927
Publication Date: 2013
This text addresses learning-related needs of individual students in addition to interventions for the challenges they face. Through case studies, this book considers factors that influence literacy development and suggests ways to adapt research-based instructional strategies and approaches, as well as classroom practices to address them. It also includes related recommended resources.
Teaching Students with Dyslexia and Dysgraphia: Lessons from Teaching and Science by Virginia Wise Berninger; Beverly J. Wolf
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 616.8553 B528T
Publication Date: 2009
The only teacher training text to cover the three learning disabilities that require differentiated instruction (dysgraphia, dyslexia, and oral and written language learning disability [OWL LD]), this book prepares educators to teach students with learning differences in explicit, reflective, and intellectually engaging ways. This text contains both critical insights from scientific studies, and lessons learned from actual teaching experience. Throughout the book, relevant research from diverse fields including genetics, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, and education is partnered with extensive instructional guidelines, applicable across school settings and specific curricula.
That's the Way I Think: Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and ADHD Explained by David Grant
Call Number: OISE Stacks 616.8553 G761T 2010
Publication Date: 2010
Many people with dyspraxia and dyslexia also have ADHD. The accessible style of this book, which includes numerous anecdotes and personal insights, will immediately strike a chord with anyone who has first- or second-hand experience of these specific learning differences. Essential and enlightening reading for people with specific learning differences as well as their parents and/or partner, this book also provides an invaluable insight for teachers, teaching assistants and SENCos.
Coping with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and ADHD: A Global Perspective by Catherine McBride
Call Number: OISE Stacks 371.9 M119C
Publication Date: 2019
McBride combines a solid research base of interviews with specialists in learning disabilities, with the personal insights of parents, teachers, and students from around the world who experience dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD learning difficulties. The basics of each of these learning difficulties are covered in single chapters followed by three chapters on their remediation. The book also covers topics such as comorbidities across learning or other difficulties, learning of multiple languages, facilitating self-esteem, and enhancing reading comprehension and writing composition. Appendices with short, practical tips on learning, multi-media resources, and ways to test and train cognitive-linguistic skills are included as an additional resource.

Hearing Impairment

Early Listening Skills for Children with a Hearing Loss: A Resource for Professionals in Health and Education by Diana Williams
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2019
This is a practical manual for use with children and young people with underdeveloped listening skills related to hearing loss. Thirteen clear and easy to follow sections focus on skills such as auditory detection, discrimination, recognition, sequencing and memory. Each one is filled with a series of carefully designed activities to stimulate and develop auditory awareness and discrimination skills in children with a range of developmental levels and abilities.
How Deaf Children Learn: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know by Marc Marschark; Peter C. Hauser
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.912 M363H
Publication Date: 2011
In this guide, renowned authorities Marc Marschark and Peter Hauser highlight new advances in scientific and educational research that can help parents and teachers of students with significant hearing loss improve educational practices at home and in the classroom. They offer innovative strategies that parents and teachers can use and provide a wealth of advice on how we can best support the language development, social skills, and academic success of students with hearing loss.
Evidence-Based Practice in Educating Deaf and Hard-Of-Hearing Students by Patricia Elizabeth Spencer; Marc Marschark
Call Number: OISE Stacks 371.912 S745E
Publication Date: 2010
In this critical evaluation of what we know and what we do not know about educating deaf and hard-of-hearing students, the authors examine a wide range of educational settings and research methods that have guided deaf education in recent years, assessing their successes, failures, and unanswered questions. The book provides a focus for future educational and research efforts, and aims to promote optimal support for deaf and hard-of-hearing learners of all ages, summarizing and evaluating research findings across multiple disciplines pertaining to the raising and educating of deaf children.
Bilingualism and Bilingual Deaf Education by Marc Marschark (Editor); Harry Knoors (Editor); Gladys Tang (Editor)
Call Number: OISE Stacks 371.912 B595
Publication Date: 2014
Bilingualism and Bilingual Deaf Education brings together diverse issues and evidence in two related domains: bilingualism among deaf learners - in sign language and the written/spoken vernacular - and bilingual deaf education. The book examines each issue with regard to language acquisition, language functioning, social-emotional functioning, and academic outcomes. Through quantitative and qualitative investigations, it considers bilingualism and bilingual deaf education within the contexts of mainstream education of deaf and hard-of-hearing students in regular schools, placement in special schools and programs for the deaf, and co-enrollment programs, which are designed to give deaf students the best of both educational worlds.
Auditory Communication for Deaf Children: A Guide for Parents, Teachers and Health Professionals by Norman P. Erber
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 419 E65A
Publication Date: 2011
For hearing-impaired children, the development of listening skills is the basis for successful spoken language, communication, and conversation. This book presents a rationale and framework for auditory learning in childhood, and it contains not only basic activities for listening practice, but also proposes methods for adaptive auditory assessment, conversation-based therapy, telephone-communication training, self-help communication strategies for children, and use of a hearing-loss simulator to develop speech and language clarity in communication partners. It also shows how adults can become better communicators and how they can help hearing-impaired children maximize their listening skills. References to supporting literature are provided throughout the text.
Literacy Instruction for Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing by Susan R. Easterbrooks; Jennifer Beal-Alvarez
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.91246 E13
Publication Date: 2013
Most students who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) struggle with acquiring literacy skills. Additionally, instructional practices for DHH students tend to be directed toward two sub-populations of DHH students: those with useable access to sound and those without. Literacy Instruction for Students who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing describes current, evidence-based practices in teaching literacy for DHH students. The authors refer to evidence-based best practices and case studies while addressing the five key areas of instruction identified by the National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Gifted Education

Curriculum Development and Teaching Strategies for Gifted Learners by C. June Maker; Shirley W. Schiever
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.953 M235C 2010
Publication Date: 2010
This book offers an introduction for beginning and early career teachers new to gifted education, helping them recognize and address the needs of these students, encourage their creativity, and apply teaching strategies. Chapters address definitions of giftedness; getting started as a teacher; building support; recognizing differences and identifying students; talent, social, and emotional development; accelerated learning; differentiation; pre-assessment; understanding academic success; nurturing leaders; working with the librarians and art and other teachers; opportunities for these children; and factors that mask giftedness. Included are tips from other teachers.
Teacher's Survival Guide: Gifted Education by Julia L. Roberts; Julia Roberts Boggess
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.95 R645T
Publication Date: 2011
This book is filled with practical information, tips for success, and advice from experienced educators who work with gifted children and youth. Starting with a plan to ensure that gifted kids thrive in the classroom, the book then asks teachers to examine their school setting, suggesting ways to involve school personnel such as librarians, counselors, arts teachers, and others in a team approach to ensuring the unique learning needs of gifted students are met. The authors provide tips and strategies for recognizing and identifying giftedness, encouraging creativity, removing the learning ceiling, and providing the multiple opportunities and resources gifted kids need.
The Underachieving Gifted Child: Recognizing, Understanding, and Reversing Underachievement by Del Siegle
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.95 S571U
Publication Date: 2012
Why are some gifted children willing to tackle new challenges whereas others seem insecure or uninterested? Why do some gifted students achieve while others become caught in a cycle of underachievement? Achievement-oriented students exhibit four key traits: (1) they believe that they have the skills to perform well, (2) they expect that they can succeed, (3) they believe what they are doing is meaningful, and (4) they set realistic expectations and implement strategies to successfully complete their goals. In this volume, parents and teachers will learn specific strategies to improve student achievement by improving students' attitudes in these four important areas.
Emotional Intensity in Gifted Students: Helping Kids Cope with Explosive Feelings by Christine Fonseca; Prufrock Press Inc. Staff
Call Number: OISE Curriculum Resources 371.95 F676E
Publication Date: 2010
This resource explores why gifted children are often extreme in their behavior and provides specific strategies for teachers and parents to teach gifted children how to live with their intensity. Presented in an easy-to-read, conversational style, it uses real-world examples and provides worksheets, tip sheets, and checklists to help parents, teachers, and students learn to cope with the explosive feelings that often accompany giftedness. Specific strategies for stress management, underperformance in school, perfectionism, and social anxiety are included.
Bright Not Broken: Gifted Kids, ADHD, and Autism by Diane M. Kennedy; Rebecca S. Banks; Temple Grandin (Contribution by)
Call Number: OISE Stacks 649.1528 K35B
Publication Date: 2011
The gifts and talents of some of our most brilliant kids may never be recognized because these children fall into a group known as twice exceptional, or "2e." Twice exceptional kids are both gifted and diagnosed with a disability--often ADHD or an Autism Spectrum Disorder--leading teachers and parents to overlook the child's talents and focus solely on his weaknesses. Bright Not Broken sheds new light on this vibrant population by identifying who twice exceptional children are and taking an unflinching look at why they're stuck. Most importantly, the authors show what we can do to help 2e children, providing a whole child model for parents and educators to strengthen and develop a child's innate gifts while also intervening to support the deficits. Drawing on painstaking research and personal experience, this book offers groundbreaking insight and practical strategies to those seeking to help 2e kids achieve their full potential.

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Key terms and related terms that you may want to include in your article searches:

“special education” OR “special needs education” OR “inclusive education”
“special needs students” OR “exceptional students” OR “students with disabilities”
“assistive devices” OR “assistive technology” OR "adaptive technology"
“developmentally disabled” OR “developmental disability”
“learning disability”

Also, consider alternative spellings of the following:

“Down Syndrome” OR “Down's Syndrome”
Asperger OR Asperger's
counselling OR counseling
behaviour OR behavior

(These lists were adapted from original lists of terms produced by Georgian College for developmental services workers.)

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Special Education