Special
Education 
South Salem has several special education resources housed in our school. A brief description of each service can be found below. Please click on the area of your interest.
Developmentally Delayed
Learning Disabilities
Reading Recovery
Speech and Language
Developmentally Delayed
The Developmentally Delayed Program at South Salem Elementary School provides a placement for students who do not clearly meet the diagnostic criteria for a handicapping condition. This noncategorical setting is for primary level children only ages five through eight years. These students must exhibit a significant delay in cognitive ability, motor skills, adaptive behavior, perceptual skills, and/or communication skills. Students may receive self-contained, resource, or consultative services.
The self-contained class should not exceed ten students, with one teacher and one instructional assistant. When special circumstances arise, additional paraprofessional support is needed, such as when disabilities involve visual impairments, hearing impairments and/or multiple handicapping conditions.
The curriculum is based on the Standards of Learning and the Individual Education Program. Students are serviced on their instructional level with adaptations as needed. Children are given opportunities for learning through concrete experiences and manipulatives. Instructional approaches are tailored to different learning styles. Students are mainstreamed into the regular classroom when possible.
The Developmentally Delayed classroom is located in the main part of the school building adjacent to the cafeteria. The room has a partial divider which separates the different grade levels being serviced. The common space is shared with two second grade classrooms.
The Developmentally Delayed Program Strives:- To enhance self esteem through successful learning experiences, positive feedback, and
motivational activities.
- To provide individualized and small group instruction appropriate to the students'
instructional levels and learning styles.
- To integrate Developmentally Delayed students into the regular education classrooms, as appropriate to the students' instructional needs.
- To provide ongoing evaluation to determine whether an appropriate diagnosis can be made.
The teacher must plan for an eventual transition out of the Developmentally Delayed
classroom by age eight.
- To eliminate the possible effects of mislabeling children at a young age.
- To consistently communicate with the regular classroom teachers regarding the students' progress in the mainstreamed setting.
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Learning Disabilities
The program for students with learning disabilities is an integrated program that provides specialized services within the total school experience. Special education may be provided in a variety of ways, such as in a regular classroom, resource room, or a combination of regular and special classrooms. The specialized services are provided by LD specialists in a time schedule that coincides with the student’s grade level schedule. There are two LD specialists and two part-time teaching assistants. Teachers are assigned to specific grade levels based upon student need. At the present time, one specialist services grades one, two, and three and is located adjacent to the third grade wing. The other specialist services grades four and five and is located in the fifth grade common space. A teaching assistant is assigned to each LD specialist. Areas for which the student receives services are based upon his/her Individual Education Plan.
The program for students with learning disabilities incorporates the Standards of Learning and each student’s Individual Education Plan to meet the needs of the students. The LD specialists use systematic, multi-sensory instruction to teach the general curriculum. Specific remedial programs may also be used. The Wilson Reading Program, a reading program designed for individuals with learning disabilities, is used to teach decoding and spelling.
The program strives to:
- enable each student to reach his/her academic potential.
- assist students in developing a positive self-concept.
- help students become active and involved learners in all settings.
- provide individual and small group instruction to meet the students’ instructional
needs and learning styles.
- maintain close communication between teachers, home, and community.
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Reading Recovery 
The reading recovery classroom is located in the first grade wing of South Salem Elementary School. This classroom is in close proximity to the first grade classrooms which is an advantage because it provides the reading specialist with quick and flexible access to the first grade reading recovery students. Additionally, the reading specialist serves as a resource to other high-risk primary students.
The reading classroom is approximately one-fourth the size of the first grade classrooms to accommodate a low teacher/student ratio. It is equipped with ample storage areas, a sink, books, and materials on many levels, and audio-video equipment. A two-way observation window may be used by parents and teachers who would like to observe a reading recovery lesson.
The Reading Recovery curriculum strives:
- to accelerate learning.
- to improve reading and writing of at-risk children.
- to foster independent reading and writing.
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Speech and Language Program 
The speech-language pathologist has an office /room in the kindergarten wing at South Salem. The role of the SLP in the schools is to meet the needs of the communicatively impaired within the school system. Services provided as part of the speech-language program may be either primary (when speech-language is the primary handicapping condition) or related (when other handicapping conditions take priority). These services include identification, diagnosis and appraisal, referral to other professionals, counseling and guidance of parents, children and teachers regarding speech and language disorders and the implementation of the lep and treatment of the various disorders of speech, language, voice and fluency. The school SLP also serves as a team member on the Child Study and Eligibility Committee at the designated schools.
The school SLP uses a variety of teacher-made materials, motivational games, books, specific programs, pictures and appropriate diagnostic tests in their program based on the child's needs.
The Speech and Language curriculum is designed to:(Adopted from State Guidelines for Speech/Language Pathologists)
- Identify, via screenings and full scale evaluations, communicatively impaired students
within the school setting.
- Implement the speech-language program procedures regarding the Child Study and
Eligibility Committees.
- Develop appropriate IEP goals and objectives for the communicatively impaired students
based on their specific area of impairment (articulation, voice, fluency, language).
- Implement the IEP goals as written for those students identified as speech and language impaired.
- Meet the needs of the communicatively impaired students within the school
setting via a direct or consultative model of delivery.
- Provide necessary documentation and reports for Central school files.
- Provide resource and consultation services to school personnel, parents and students' as needed.
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updated May 25, 2010
