Welcome to the official website for the 2024 TASH Conference!
Each year, the TASH Conference brings together our constituents to share resources and success stories, learn about field-driven best practices, and network within a community engaged in shared values. The Conference is attended by passionate leaders, experts, and advocates from every corner of the disability community. Conference attendees are influential in their fields and communities, and play an important role in the provision of services and supports for individuals and organizations around the world; and include professors and researchers from leading institutions; those involved in local, state, and federal governments and public policy; special and general educators, and school administrators; self-advocates, adult service providers; students, family members, and many others. This year’s conference theme is Celebrate Together: Let the Good Times Roll!
Click on the "Registration and More" tab for additional information about our Conference location, registration, reserving a guest room, sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities, and more! The full Conference schedule is now available for viewing. Registered attendees will receive an invitation to log in and create a personalized schedule.
In this engaging presentation, presenters will discuss past research on writing instruction for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and describe two recent studies on the effectiveness of an intervention package including constant time delay, sentence frames, and technology-assisted instruction on: (a) writing within a shared story reading and (b) small group writing instruction for students with IDD. Additionally, we will provide teachers with writing examples that can be implemented in their classrooms without the need for additional funding.
Professor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Fred Spooner is Professor of Special Education at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Spooner has researched and written about instructional strategies for students with severe disabilities since the 1980s. Recently, he has focused on alternate assessment and linking both assessment and instruction... Read More →
This poster defines what self-injurious behaviors are and how to modify behaviors to decrease these behaviors with students with extensive support needs. Students with Extensive Support Needs (ESN) often display self-injurious behaviors (SIB), which is defined as any occurrence where an individual engages in hitting or slapping themselves by making a connection with any part of their body with a closed or open fist or banging head to make an audible sound. This behavior also includes pinching, scratching, or biting, any instance where on the skin it leaves a mark or breaks the skin, causing bleeding. Understanding this behavior can lead to better support for students and opportunities for them to be involved in more inclusive educational settings.
The fight for inclusion of students with disabilities post-Brown v. Board of Education emphasizes the civil right to education for all. Segregated education denies this right and perpetuates outdated practices. Inclusive education, proven effective, ensures access to grade-level instruction, empowering students for self-directed lives. It also combats disability stigma, fostering empathy and understanding. Moreover, inclusion facilitates meaningful relationships, vital for mental well-being. Ultimately, inclusion ensures equitable access to education and upholds the fundamental principle that education is a civil right for all students.
This presentation will address health self-management skill domains and strategies to teach learners with extensive support needs (ESN) how to actively participate in their specialized health care at school. The development of health self-management skills promotes health wellness, independence, and positive self-image in students with ESN, as well as positive perceptions of social competency on behalf of peers and adults without disabilities. Research shows that individuals with ESN who acquire health self-management skills are also likelier to achieve positive adult outcomes in education, independent living, and employment. These promising adult outcomes also support inclusion in post-school life. Presentation participants will learn (a) the scope of health self-management skills for learners with ESN and specialized health care, (b) IEP teaming around health self-management, (c) developing IEP goals centered on safe and feasible participation, and (d) core instructional strategies.
The 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known as ESSA, includes a 1% cap on state-level participation rates in the alternate assessment. Enforcement of this policy has required many states to revisit their alternate assessment participation criteria and implementation. Through engaging in processes to decrease alternate assessment participation, states have reported some push back from teachers as they navigate how to design effective school programming for students who have switched from the alternate to the general state assessment. State and district leaders need resources to support educators who are serving students who have shifted from the alternate assessment to general assessment. This presentation will showcase a series of newly-developed, research-based free resources that states, districts, and schools can use to ensure that all students with disabilities have equitable access to rigorous learning - no matter what assessment they take.
To help teachers identify priority grade-aligned learning goals to be taught in general education settings for students with complex support needs, we developed a priority planning intervention and tested it with 41 teachers. We determined if the priority planning intervention changed teacher planning for inclusive academic instruction, identified the general education content teachers prioritized, assessed the social validity of the priority planning intervention, and measured the extent to which students learned prioritized goals when taught entirely in general education classrooms. Our findings revealed that teachers were more likely to develop instruction based on the general education curriculum after the intervention. Teachers developed primarily math, communication, and academic vocabulary goals. Students were successful in learning those prioritized goals when taught entirely in general education settings, and teachers reported the intervention was helpful and efficient.