This site provides comprehensive information on all aspects of Public Services and entitlements for citizens in Ireland, including education. Information is collected from various government departments and agencies, and presented in an easy-to-understand way.  The site is maintained by the Citizens Information Board, who provide free, confidential, independent and impartial information to all. They also produce a number of publications about your rights and entitlements. Information is also available by phone on 1890 777 121, or in person by calling to your local Citizens Information Centre.

The role of the Special Education Support Service (SESS) is to enhance the quality of teaching and learning in relation to special educational provisions in Ireland (SESS website). The website of the SESS is extremely useful and informative for both parents and teachers. It contains links to all important documents, reports and circulars relating to special educational needs, as well as information on a range of special needs and learning difficulties, appropriate teaching strategies and resources, information on behaviour management and many more areas.

This is an American-designed resource. The primary purpose of the F.A.C.E.S. curriculum is to teach meaningful, age appropriate skills within school and non-school settings and to systematically evaluate students' progress. The curriculum provides a framework for classroom teachers to use as they prepare students with disabilities to function as independently as possible. The curriculum covers Language, Maths, Personal Health, Science, Social Studies and Vocational Training. The resource is freely available online at the following address, and could provide a useful framework for teaching functional academics to children with Down syndrome.

This American website offers a phonics approach using 30 different nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes introduce young listeners to story structure in its most basic form. Nursery rhymes also greatly enrich young children's vocabularies and supply some early lessons in the ways our language works.

The website for the POPS Reading Scheme, a series of graded readers and supporting resources for primary school children with additional support needs. Speech Therapists have been closely involved with the development of the programme and each book has a Speech Therapist’s script to support language development. The books use some direct speech to model spoken language. Children who are struggling to read, reluctant readers, children with Autistic Spectrum disorders, Down syndrome and those with a speech and language impairment have benefited from this programme.

The website for the Numicon maths system

A link to a resource that allows you to design and print off visual timetables using a selection of supplied images, or images or photos you may have yourself.

This resource is part of the British SEAL curriculum (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning). Photocards showing people displaying a range of emotions can be downloaded here, along with prompts and notes to assist in the teaching of each emotion.  These may be useful when teaching children about feelings, and developing their understanding and vocabulary of emotions.

This website contains ready-made sample social stories for teaching children with learning difficulties about important social situations and how to cope with them.

A computer-based tool which can be used by parents, carers and teachers to create individualised social stories for children. Originally designed for use with children with autism, it is a useful tool for all children who may need social stories to aid their understanding of key social situations. It guides the user through the necessary steps to build a computerised story and contains a sample story which can be used on its own. People can use the 'shell' system to write a story based on the sample story, write a new story from scratch or edit a story they wrote earlier. The program runs on any PC with Microsoft Windows and does not need an internet connection once installed. Click here to download                          http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/inn/usabilityservices/download2.htm

Do 2 learn is an American-based website containing games, songs, communication cards, printable resources and special needs information. Many of the resources are freely available, and the site also sells some educational software.

A site providing free teaching resources for special needs, including printable worksheets, links to other websites, and free downloadable software.