What does a special education aide do?
A special education aide works with therapists and special education teachers to teach children with disabilities. Special education aides teach children with behavioral and emotional disorders, intellectual disorders, and those with physical and communication disabilities. They perform their job in a small group or individual setting. The scope of their job is performed outside or inside the classroom. Patience, attention to detail, and communication are necessary for performing their job.
Special education aide responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real special education aide resumes:
- Perform responsible human support and paraprofessional work assisting classroom teacher or other professionals, achieve institution objectives.
- Provide one-on-one and group instructional support assistance to students in math, English, reading, comprehension, and life skills.
- Assist teachers inside their special needs classrooms k-12
- Supervise students in classrooms, cafeterias and hallways.
- Substitute in various classrooms working with k-12 children.
- Check blood pressure, temperature, and vital signs, CPR.
- Help ESL students with English reading, writing and speaking comprehension skills.
- Assist department head in establishing daily schedules, curriculum and ESL activities.
- Conduct discrete trial training (DTT) daily as well as ABA therapy.
- Provide correctional counseling and ABA therapy by building a rapport to instill positive change.
- Tutor mathematics and all other curriculum.
- Provide instruction to students with autism in an elementary school
- Instruct individual student on a one-on-one basis in mathematics.
- Assist with intellectual and behavioral disabilities daily, IEP's, preparations and extracurricular activities.
- Work one-on-one with students with severe autism, severely multiply handicap students, and hard-of-hearing students
Special education aide skills and personality traits
We calculated that 14% of Special Education Aides are proficient in Behavior Management, Paraprofessional, and IEP. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Interpersonal skills, and Patience.
We break down the percentage of Special Education Aides that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Behavior Management, 14%
Assisted teacher with students' academic assessments to develop Individualized Education Plans, Transition Plans and Individuals Behavior Management Plans.
- Paraprofessional, 10%
Earned positive verbal/written feedback from parents and co-workers regarding my skills as a paraprofessional.
- IEP, 8%
Assist in maintaining student control and in implementing behavioral/academic modification systems as stated in student Individualized Educational Plan (IEP).
- Autism, 7%
Provided one-on-one support for a Kindergarten student with autism.
- Behavioral Issues, 6%
Work with the Guidance Counselor on a daily basis to communicate any behavioral issues with the students in the classroom.
- CPR, 6%
Administer first aid, CPR and CPI basic nursing care as directed by a School Nurse.
"behavior management," "paraprofessional," and "iep" are among the most common skills that special education aides use at work. You can find even more special education aide responsibilities below, including:
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a special education aide to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "teacher assistants need to be clear and concise in discussing student progress with teachers and parents." Special education aides often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "provided implementation of individualized or group instruction in communication skills, life skills, and behavior management techniques. "
Interpersonal skills. Another essential skill to perform special education aide duties is interpersonal skills. Special education aides responsibilities require that "teacher assistants must be able to develop relationships with a variety of people, including teachers, students, parents, and administrators." Special education aides also use interpersonal skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "applied behavior analysis to develop behavior modification techniques to foster an environment of understanding and appropriate interpersonal abilities. "
Patience. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of special education aides is patience. This skill is critical to many everyday special education aide duties, as "working with students of different abilities and backgrounds may be difficult." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "worked directly with students with autism spectrum with patience and various strategies. "
Resourcefulness. special education aide responsibilities often require "resourcefulness." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "teacher assistants must find ways to explain information to students who have different learning styles." This resume example shows what special education aides do with resourcefulness on a typical day: "showed resourcefulness and effectiveness in meeting the needs of students with limited english language proficiency as well as learning disabilities. "
The three companies that hire the most special education aides are:
- Morton High School13 special education aides jobs
- Irving Isd12 special education aides jobs
- Washington School District11 special education aides jobs
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Compare different special education aides
Special education aide vs. Teacher internship
Teaching interns are individuals who assist teachers and educators in the classroom. The interns are instructed to fulfill the tasks set out and provided by the supervisors for them. They take part in meetings and jot down their minutes. It is part of their job to conduct research at the request of the supervisor. They make updates to social media platforms and make posts. Also, they create images to be used in posts through different social media platforms.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a special education aide are more likely to require skills like "behavior management," "paraprofessional," "autism," and "behavioral issues." On the other hand, a job as a teacher internship requires skills like "classroom management strategies," "language arts," "professional development," and "learning styles." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Teacher interns really shine in the education industry with an average salary of $47,436. Comparatively, special education aides tend to make the most money in the education industry with an average salary of $31,679.The education levels that teacher interns earn slightly differ from special education aides. In particular, teacher interns are 3.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a special education aide. Additionally, they're 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Special education aide vs. Para professional
The man who is highly acclaimed working in the education field is simply known as the substitute paraprofessional. These professionals are education workers who help licensed teachers in student administration.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, special education aide responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "paraprofessional," "autism," "adaptive," and "math." Meanwhile, a para professional has duties that require skills in areas such as "taking care," "para-professional," "crisis intervention," and "independent study." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Para professionals may earn a lower salary than special education aides, but para professionals earn the most pay in the education industry with an average salary of $27,718. On the other hand, special education aides receive higher pay in the education industry, where they earn an average salary of $31,679.para professionals earn similar levels of education than special education aides in general. They're 1.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for special education aides in the next 3-5 years?
Chris Craig
Deputy Provost, Missouri State University
Special education aide vs. Substitute paraprofessional
Teacher assistants are responsible for aiding teachers in their needs inside the classroom. They help teachers prepare for lessons in class, set up equipment, distribute educational materials to students, and monitor the progress of the students. Teacher assistants also help in managing the children in the classroom, as well as providing the necessary assistance a child may need. This may include helping with the lessons by going table to table, assisting in writing exercises, and tutoring kids one-to-one. Teacher assistants are required to have patience, flexibility, and classroom management skills.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from special education aide resumes include skills like "paraprofessional," "autism," "cpr," and "adaptive," whereas a substitute paraprofessional is more likely to list skills in "para," "k-12," "public schools," and "classroom materials. "
Substitute paraprofessionals earn the best pay in the government industry, where they command an average salary of $28,129. Special education aides earn the highest pay from the education industry, with an average salary of $31,679.substitute paraprofessionals typically earn similar educational levels compared to special education aides. Specifically, they're 1.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.4% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Special education aide vs. Teacher assistant
Types of special education aide
Updated January 8, 2025
