Developmental & Behavioral Disorders Lesson Plans

To better understand technical text developmentally disabled young scholars engage higher level thinking skills by making a hand movement while simultaneously speaking a number. They practice mental math by adding sums from 0-10.

Here are three assignments relating to decision-making and impulse control. Children with ADHD or behavioral issues discuss the need for making good decisions and for controlling their impulses. They make a timeline of ten decisions and their consequences from their own lives. Then complete a Personal Impulse Control Plan, and write a reflection piece that describes and explains the three things that they feel are the most important to self-control.

Explore human behavior by completing class activities. The class reads and defines comprehensive terms such as "delayed gratification" and "impulse control." They participate in a candy experiment in which young scholars who wait to eat a piece of candy receive more at the end of the lesson. This would be a perfect lesson for students with self-control issues.

Developmentally disabled students participate in the creation of their own social stories. They select a topic for their social story and work with the teacher to write a social story or create a video social story presentation.

Have your secondary special education class learn and practice effective communication skills. Both verbal and non-verbal communication is discussed and practiced. They communicate using body language, build listening skills, and discuss socially appropriate communication. This lesson may not be appropriate for completely non verbal or autistic students, it does involve strong eye contact and physical touch. Still, a great lesson.

Students with mild to moderate disabilities discuss human reproduction and the importance of preventing pregnancy. They review reproductive anatomy, sexual decision making, and what birth control is. The lesson concludes with a vocabulary game to help solidify concept understanding. A note to the care provider, game pieces, and handouts are included.

Explore communication techniques by using the latest video technology.  In this special education lesson, students create a video discussing their own social goals for the future.  Students utilize Flip Video cameras to document their behavior (autistic, and social anxiety disorders) and analyze ways to work through their disadvantages.

You can use this lesson whether your class needs to practice self-discipline or just understand it better. They identify the relationship between discipline and maturity while discussing their own maturity levels. Then they define a large list of vocabulary terms dealing with student psychology.

Students compare and contrast federal and state courts. In this judicial system lesson, students discover the jurisdiction of the federal and state courts prior to playing a jurisdiction game.

Students research a website to find people who made significant contributions to people with disabilities. In this disabilities lesson plan, students then rank the most important contributions.