This research was conducted to identify the problems encountered by special education teachers working with children that have severe and multiple disabilities. 14 special education teachers, had semi-structured interviews who are graduated from special education department and working with students that have severe and multiple disabilities. Transcripts of the interviews were prepared by transcription of the audio recordings of the interviews. The data was analyzed by descriptive analysis method. Mainly, the findings indicate that special education teachers do not have adequate knowledge and skills related with SMD, the number of specialists working in the field is insufficient, there are problems related with the training of special education teachers, team work is limited, the legal arrangements are inefficient, there are problems related with the placement of students in education institutions in-service education is inefficient and there are problems related with the curriculum. Based on the findings of the study increasing the number of courses regarding the children that have severe and multiple disabilities in special education undergraduate programs, and supporting theoretical lessons with applications, providing teachers working in the field with in-service trainings, and increasing the number of specialists in the field by starting graduate programs regarding the field of severe and multiple disabilities may be recommended.

The game has been accepted as an effective teaching method which can be used in learning period of the children in early childhood period. In this study, it has been aimed to investigate the self-efficacy of the special education teachers regarding game teaching with regard to self-efficacy of planning, application and assessment and career self-efficacy. In the study which was planned according to descriptive survey method, "Personal Information Form" and "Game Teaching Self-Efficacy Survey in Preschool Period" developed by Kadim (2012) were used. 127 special education teachers participated in the research. It has been found out that the self-efficacy levels of the teachers regarding game teaching do not differ, but there is a statistically significant difference between planning, application and assessment of game activities and game teaching career, self-efficacy levels and game total points in accordance with their alma mater, status of taking game teaching course and professional seniority. The educational status of the teachers generates a statistically significant difference on game teaching total points and their sex generates a in the sub-dimension of the game activity application. This study in which the game self-efficacy of special education teachers was? investigated is important to determine to what extend the teachers use the games as a teaching tool.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the writing performance of students with hearing impairment who are attending secondary school, on a text which has been dictated by the sign language. 10 students with hearing impairment, who are at 6th, 7th , and 8th grades, have participated in the study. A text prepared by the researchers which included 57 frequently used words, was dictated by sign language. Writing errors in the text were analyzed qualitatively. According to the results, students with hearing impairment have a number of limitations such as the omission of letters and/or morphemes, the addition of letters and/or morphemes, omission and/or adding words, mistakes on using the words and inflections. Also, it has been concluded within the scope of the information in the field that how these limitations affect academic and daily life skills.

Positive reinforcement is one of the most commonly used principles of applied behavior analysis field. The success of the positive reinforcement depends on the effective reinforcers. Therefore, the assessment and identification of effective reinforcers are too important before starting a behavior modification program. However, assessment of the effective reinforcers is mostly difficult especially for children who have severe or profound disabilities, multiple disabilities and early childhood children. Thus researchers had developed various procedures to assess and identify effective reinforcers. But there is very limited Turkish knowledge and studies in our country. Because of this reason, the purpose of this study is to investigate the systematical procedures which are used for assessing reinforcers and to provide information about properties of these procedures. It is contemplated that results of this study will be beneficial for practitioners and researchers and also future studies.

This study aimed to make an early literacy profile of kindergarten children educated in Ankara. Participants were 403 kindergarten children selected from several schools located in neighborhoods of different socioeconomic statuses in Ankara. The early literacy skills of children were tested with seven sub-tests (Receptive Language, Expressive Language, Category Naming, Function Knowledge, Letter Knowledge, Phonological Awareness, and Listening Comprehension) of Test of Early Literacy (TEL). All the testing sessions were carried out in a quiet room located on the school grounds of the tested participants, individually. All the gathered data were analyzed into two steps. Firstly, the descriptive statistics of children’s early literacy scores, then the distribution of these scores in each sub-test were analyzed separately. Findings from the present study indeed point that children were only close to the expected level in the vocabulary knowledge field but in all other fields, they were below than this level. All these findings are discussed with reference to the existing curriculum and the educational activities used in kindergartens.

Giftedness is defined as showing superior performance compared to peers in a specific developmental area. In this context, the commonly held preconception is that gifted children are superior in all areas. However, compared to their peers, they may be superior in certain areas, while being typical in others. Such differences in developmental speed in different areas is called “asynchronous development.” This concept is considered to be quite important for groups with special needs and has been the focus of different studies. Despite being one of the defining characteristics of giftedness, asynchronous development is often overlooked, not studied in depth and does not receive sufficient attention, motivating the focus of this paper. In the study, asynchronous development patterns of a child with gifted potential at the age of 5 years and 3 months, to whom we will refer to as Ruzgar, are presented using a case analysis method, thereby concretizing the concepts behind, and the recognition of, typical asynchronous development patterns. It is hoped that this study will support the long-term social-emotional development of gifted children, helping parents and teachers address potential problems before they occur by understanding both academic and social behavioral patterns of gifted children. Possible ways of early intervention are also discussed in light of observations and conclusions from the case study, providing suggestions for experts as well as teachers and parents of gifted children.

By the advancement of the technology, developments are recorded in intervention and materials used for education of individuals with autism. Touch-screen mobile device has been used as a device for generating speech with these advancements. New generation speech generating devices are one of the alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) systems that can be used to improve the communication skills of individuals with autism. In this study; 26 single subject design research article in which, individuals with autism use new generation speech generating device and published peer-reviewed journals are examined. Articles are found by systematic search in the databases ERIC, Academic Search Complete and Google Scholar. These researches, 81 participants take part in, are focused on requesting, matching, picture naming, responding questions about personal information, teaching contextual communication skills and reducing problem behaviors. Research findings show that interventions made by new generation speech generating devices is fairly effective on teaching these skills to individuals with autism. In this study, the data obtained from articles is interpreted and suggestions were made for future researchers and practitioners.