How to become Special Education Teachers, Preschool in 2024

Special Education Teachers, Preschool Teach academic, social, and life skills to preschool-aged students with learning, emotional, or physical disabilities. Includes teachers who specialize and work with students who are blind or have visual impairments; students who are deaf or have hearing impairments; and students with intellectual disabilities.

Special Education Teachers, Preschool is Also Know as

In different settings, Special Education Teachers, Preschool is titled as

  • Early Childhood Special Education Teacher (ECSE Teacher)
  • Early Intervention Teacher
  • Exceptional Student Education Teacher (ESE Teacher)
  • Handicapped Teacher
  • Preschool Special Education Teacher
  • Resource Teacher
  • Severe/Profound Mental Handicaps Special Education Teacher
  • Special Education Resource Teacher
  • Special Education Teacher
  • Teacher

Education and Training of Special Education Teachers, Preschool

Special Education Teachers, Preschool is categorized in Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Special Education Teachers, Preschool

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Education Required for Special Education Teachers, Preschool

Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Degrees Related to Special Education Teachers, Preschool

Training Required for Special Education Teachers, Preschool

Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Special Education Teachers, Preschool in different industries are

What Do Special Education Teachers, Preschool do?

  • Arrange indoor or outdoor space to facilitate creative play, motor-skill activities, or safety.
  • Attend to children's basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, or changing their diapers.
  • Communicate nonverbally with children to provide them with comfort, encouragement, or positive reinforcement.
  • Confer with parents, guardians, teachers, counselors, or administrators to resolve students' behavioral or academic problems.
  • Develop individual educational plans (IEPs) designed to promote students' educational, physical, or social development.
  • Develop or implement strategies to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities.
  • Employ special educational strategies or techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, or memory.
  • Encourage students to explore learning opportunities or persevere with challenging tasks to prepare them for later grades.
  • Establish and communicate clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects to students, parents, or guardians.
  • Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among students.
  • Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment or materials to prevent injuries and damage.
  • Modify the general preschool curriculum for special-needs students.
  • Monitor teachers or teacher assistants to ensure adherence to special education program requirements.
  • Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
  • Organize and supervise games or other recreational activities to promote physical, mental, or social development.
  • Plan and supervise experiential learning activities, such as class projects, field trips, or demonstrations.
  • Prepare classrooms with a variety of materials or resources for children to explore, manipulate, or use in learning activities or imaginative play.
  • Prepare objectives, outlines, or other materials for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements.
  • Present information in audio-visual or interactive formats, using computers, television, audio-visual aids, or other equipment, materials, or technologies.
  • Read books to entire classes or to small groups.
  • Serve meals or snacks in accordance with nutritional guidelines.
  • Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, or social skills, to preschool students with special needs.
  • Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
  • Teach students personal development skills, such as goal setting, independence, or self-advocacy.
  • Administer tests to help determine children's developmental levels, needs, or potential.
  • Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, or teacher training workshops to maintain or improve professional competence.
  • Collaborate with other teachers or administrators to develop, evaluate, or revise preschool programs.
  • Confer with parents, administrators, testing specialists, social workers, or other professionals to develop individual education plans (IEPs).
  • Control the inventory or distribution of classroom equipment, materials, or supplies.
  • Coordinate placement of students with special needs into mainstream classes.
  • Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, or administrative regulations.
  • Meet with parents or guardians to discuss their children's progress, advise them on using community resources, or teach skills for dealing with students' impairments.
  • Organize and display students' work in a manner appropriate for their perceptual skills.
  • Prepare assignments for teacher assistants or volunteers.
  • Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.
  • Provide assistive devices, supportive technology, or assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.

Qualities of Good Special Education Teachers, Preschool

  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.

Tools Used by Special Education Teachers, Preschool

  • Adaptive paint brushes
  • Adaptive scissors
  • Adaptive utensils
  • Alternative computer keyboards
  • Braille writers
  • Canes
  • Communication boards
  • Communication symbol sets
  • Computer laser printers
  • Desktop computers
  • Digital audio recorders
  • Digital video disk DVD players
  • Educational board games
  • Educational puzzles
  • Emergency first aid kits
  • Eye gaze communication boards
  • Head operated joysticks
  • Hearing aid devices
  • Interactive whiteboards
  • Jellybean switches
  • Laminating equipment
  • Laptop computers
  • Motorized scooters
  • Mouth operated joysticks
  • Overhead data projectors
  • Page turners
  • Pegboards
  • Personal computers
  • Photocopying equipment
  • Play structures
  • Pointing devices
  • Reading pens
  • Sand tables
  • Science activity kits
  • Sound switches
  • Stabilizers
  • Standing aids
  • Toy block sets
  • Track balls
  • Video cassette recorders VCR
  • Walkers
  • Water tables
  • Wheelchairs
  • Wireless touch screen monitors

Technology Skills required for Special Education Teachers, Preschool

  • American Sign Language Browser
  • Children's educational software
  • Drawing software
  • Email software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Screen magnification software
  • Screen reader software
  • Web browser software
  • Word processing software