Teaching the Exceptional Learner

Course Description

Teaching the Exceptional Learner equips students with instructional approaches for educating young learners from birth through age 8 who have exceptional needs. The course is a required component of the Associate in Science degree curriculum focused on Early Childhood Education.

Within the SCNS taxonomy, EEX is the Exceptional Child Education prefix. Daytona State publishes this at 3 credits, offered spring. ⚠ The single term of offering is worth planning around in a required course.

The birth-through-eight range is what makes this course distinctive, and it is where the highest-leverage work in the whole field happens. Early intervention has stronger evidence behind it than almost any other educational intervention: developmental differences identified and supported before school age produce outcomes that are very difficult to achieve later. Which means the practitioner in a childcare room or a preschool classroom — frequently the first professional to notice — occupies a genuinely consequential position.

Daytona State does not publish a contact-hour figure for this course. It is an unsuffixed lecture course, and the institution's lecture convention is 15 contact hours per credit — SYG2000, PSY1012 and AMH2010 are all live at 3 credits and 45 hours. This course is priced at that convention.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

• Describe typical development from birth through age eight.
• Describe the range of exceptionalities encountered in early childhood.
• Distinguish developmental variation from a developmental concern.
• Describe developmental screening and its purposes.
• Describe the referral process and the practitioner's role in it.
• Describe early intervention and its evidence base.
• Describe Part C early intervention services and the transition at age three.
• Describe the individualised family service plan and the IEP.
• Describe the legal framework governing services for young children.
• Describe inclusion and the least restrictive environment in early settings.
• Adapt the physical environment to support participation.
• Adapt materials and activities for varying abilities.
• Apply universal design for learning principles.
• Describe embedded instruction within routines and play.
• Support communication development, including augmentative approaches.
• Support social and emotional development and peer interaction.
• Support motor development and adaptive skills.
• Describe positive behaviour support in early childhood.
• Respond to challenging behaviour by identifying its function.
• Collaborate with families as partners and respect their expertise.
• Communicate concerns to families sensitively and appropriately.
• Collaborate with therapists and specialists in a team.
• Observe and document children's development systematically.
• Describe confidentiality and professional conduct requirements.

Optional Outcomes

• Describe assistive technology for young children.
• Describe trauma-informed practice in early childhood.
• Describe cultural and linguistic diversity in identification.
• Describe transition to kindergarten for children with exceptionalities.
• Describe advocacy and family support resources in Florida.
• Describe the ESE endorsement pathway.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Typical development birth to eight
• The range of exceptionalities
• Variation versus concern
• Developmental screening
• Referral and the practitioner's role
• Early intervention and its evidence
• Part C services and the age-three transition
• IFSPs and IEPs
• The legal framework
• Inclusion in early settings
• Adapting the environment
• Adapting materials and activities
• Universal design for learning
• Embedded instruction in routines and play
• Communication support
• Social and emotional development
• Motor and adaptive skills
• Positive behaviour support
• Function of challenging behaviour
• Partnership with families
• Communicating concerns
• Team collaboration with specialists
• Observation and documentation
• Confidentiality and conduct

Optional Topics

• Assistive technology
• Trauma-informed practice
• Culture, language, and identification
• Transition to kindergarten
• Florida advocacy and family resources
• The ESE endorsement

Resources & Tools

• Florida Department of Education — Bureau of Educator Certification (fldoe.org) — free and authoritative on requirements, subject areas, and routes to certification.
• FTCE/FELE official site (fl.nesinc.com) — free test information guides, competency and skill lists, practice materials, and registration. Read the guide for your test in your first term.
• Florida's Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession (State Board Rule 6A-10.081) — free; the ethical standard you will be held to.
• Your college's tutoring and writing centres — free, and directly useful for the reading, mathematics, and essay sections.
• Your local school district's human resources pages — hiring timelines, shortage areas, and salary schedules are public.
• Your programme's certification advisor — the person who knows which test you need and when; see them in your first term, not your last.
• Florida Department of Education — Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services — free; Florida's rules, forms, and guidance.
• Early Steps (Florida's Part C early intervention programme) — free; how referral and services actually work for children under three in this state.
• CDC "Learn the Signs. Act Early." (cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly) — free developmental milestone checklists and family-facing materials; genuinely usable in practice.
• Division for Early Childhood (DEC) recommended practices — the professional standards for early intervention and early childhood special education.
• Center on PBIS (pbis.org) — free evidence-based behaviour support materials, including the Pyramid Model for early childhood.

Career Pathways

• Elementary school teacher — SOC 25-2021.
• Middle school teacher — SOC 25-2022; and secondary school teacher, SOC 25-2031.
• Special education teacher — SOC 25-2050; a persistent Florida shortage area with strong hiring.
• Exceptional student education and ESOL endorsements — both widely needed and both improve employability substantially.
• Preschool and early childhood education — SOC 25-2011; see this repository's CHD guides.
• Paraprofessional and instructional assistant roles — a common entry point while completing certification.
• Reading and mathematics specialist roles with additional endorsement.
• Instructional coaching, curriculum, and school administration — after classroom experience and further qualification.
• Educational technology, instructional design, and corporate training — genuine exits from the classroom using the same skills.
• ⚠ Be realistic about the conditions. Florida teacher pay, workload, and retention have been the subject of sustained public debate. Look up your target district's actual salary schedule and talk to working teachers before committing — the work is valuable and many find it deeply rewarding, and it should be entered with clear information.
• Early childhood special education — a shortage area with strong hiring.
• Early intervention provider roles — frequently home-based and family-centred.
• Childcare and preschool practice — see this repository's CHD guides; and note the honest caution there about entry-level pay in this sector.
• Paraprofessional roles in ESE classrooms — a common entry point.

Special Information

⚠⚠ You may be the first professional to notice — and how you raise it matters enormously

• Early childhood practitioners see children daily, alongside peers, across a long period, which puts them in a better position to notice a developmental concern than almost anyone except the family.
• ⚠ Screening is not diagnosis, and you are not diagnosing. Your role is to observe carefully, document specifically, and refer — never to tell a family what their child has.
• ⚠⚠ Do not wait and see. Delay is the enemy of early intervention, and "he'll grow out of it" is the phrase that costs children the window in which support works best. The cost of referring a child who turns out to be developing typically is very low; the cost of missing one is high.
• Document what you observe, not what you conclude. "Has not combined two words in three months of observation" is usable; "seems delayed" is not.
• Raise it with the family privately, gently, and specifically — not in a doorway at pickup, and not in front of other parents. Lead with what you have observed and what you appreciate about the child.
• Expect a range of responses, including anger and denial, and do not take them personally. Families are frequently frightened, and some have already been dismissed by professionals before.
• Know the referral routes in Florida — Early Steps for children under three, and the school district for children three and older — and be able to tell a family exactly what to do next.
• ⚠ Families can request an evaluation themselves, in writing, and telling them that is one of the more useful things you can do.
• Follow up. Referrals stall, and a practitioner who checks back is frequently what keeps the process moving.

⚠⚠ The legal framework is the part teachers most need and most often do not know

• The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the federal statute governing special education, and it creates enforceable rights for students and families rather than discretionary services.
• ⚠ A free appropriate public education (FAPE) is the central entitlement. "Appropriate" does not mean optimal, and it does not mean whatever is convenient — it means reasonably calculated to enable progress appropriate in light of the child's circumstances.
• ⚠⚠ Least restrictive environment (LRE) is a presumption, not a placement. The law starts from the position that a student is educated with peers without disabilities, and removal must be justified by the student's needs rather than by the school's convenience or by a category label. This is the provision most commonly misunderstood.
• The individualised education programme (IEP) is a legal document, developed by a team that includes the parents as equal members, and the school is obliged to implement it as written. A teacher who does not follow an IEP is not exercising professional judgement; they are placing the district in breach.
• ⚠ Read the IEPs of the students in your class. General education teachers are bound by them, they are frequently not read, and "I did not know" is not a defence.
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act is a separate route with a broader definition of disability and different procedures; a student may have a 504 plan without qualifying under IDEA.
• Procedural safeguards protect parents' rights — notice, consent, records access, and dispute resolution — and they exist because those rights were routinely denied.
• ⚠ Confidentiality applies under FERPA and under IDEA; disability information is discussed only with those who need it professionally.
• ⚠ Rule 11 applies. Federal regulations, Florida rules, and case law all change — verify current requirements with your district and with the Florida Department of Education rather than relying on this guide.

⚠ Language, labels, and the limits of a category

• A disability category is an administrative decision about eligibility for services, not a description of a child. Two students with the same label may need entirely different things, and two students needing the same thing may carry different labels.
• ⚠ Teach the student, not the category. Planning from a label rather than from the individual's actual strengths and needs is the commonest instructional error in this field.
• Person-first language is the general professional standard — "a student with autism" rather than "an autistic student" — and it is intended to keep the person ahead of the condition.
• ⚠⚠ But identity-first language is preferred by many people in some communities, notably many autistic adults and many Deaf people, who regard the characteristic as part of who they are rather than something attached to them. The respectful position is to follow the preference of the person or community you are talking about, and to ask rather than assume.
• Avoid language that frames disability as suffering or heroism — "suffers from", "confined to a wheelchair", "overcame". A wheelchair is a mobility tool, not a confinement.
• ⚠ Presume competence. Underestimating what a student can do is a documented and consequential error, particularly for students who do not communicate by speech — and the cost of underestimating is far higher than the cost of aiming too high.
• Be careful in front of students and families. Children hear how they are described, and it shapes what they believe about themselves.
• ⚠ Disproportionality in identification is a persistent and documented problem, with students of some racial and ethnic groups over- or under-identified for particular categories. Referral is a judgement, and judgements carry bias — which is why the data is monitored.

How Florida course levels affect transfer

The first digit of an SCNS number denotes the year of offering, not transferability. Courses at the 1000 and 2000 levels transfer transparently between Florida public institutions, and 3000 to 4000 is unproblematic since both are upper division. The boundary that actually matters is 2000 to 3000, where lower-division credit generally cannot satisfy an upper-division requirement.

EEX2080 is 3 credits and approximately 45 contact hours, offered spring only at Daytona State, and is required for the A.S. in Early Childhood Education.