Competencies for Teachers of the Severely and Profoundly Handicapped

The purpose of this review was to identify competency statements specified in the professional literature for teachers of severely and profoundly handicapped students. Computer searches and hand searches of the literature of the past 10 years were undertaken. As a result, 59 competency statements were found. These competencies fell into nine categories: general knowledge, planning, assessment, curriculum, behavior management, instruction, physical/ medical, other personnel, and parents. An overwhelming majority of the statements were found to be based on opinion or opinion with limited substantiation. Implications for further work in this area are discussed.