Teaching Assistants, Special Education

What Does a Teaching Assistants, Special Education Do?

Assist a preschool, elementary, middle, or secondary school teacher to provide academic, social, or life skills to students who have learning, emotional, or physical disabilities. Serve in a position for which a teacher has primary responsibility for the design and implementation of educational programs and services.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• 1Provide assistance to students with special needs.
• 2Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
• 3Supervise students in classrooms, halls, cafeterias, school yards, and gymnasiums, or on field trips.
• 4Provide students with disabilities with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
• 5Carry out therapeutic regimens, such as behavior modification and personal development programs, under the supervision of special education instructors, psychologists, or speech-language pathologists.
• 6Tutor and assist children individually or in small groups to help them master assignments and to reinforce learning concepts presented by teachers.
• 7Employ special educational strategies or techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, or memory.
• 8Enforce administration policies and rules governing students.

Required Skills

• Active Listening
• Speaking
• Social Perceptiveness
• Service Orientation
• Learning Strategies
• Monitoring
• Reading Comprehension
• Instructing
• Appletree
• Automate the Schools ATS
• Blackboard software
• Children's educational software
• ClassDojo
• Email software
• Flipgrid
• Google Classroom
• Google Meet
• Hand held spell checkers