Top 12 Special Education Teacher Assistant Skills to Put on Your Resume
As a Special Education Teacher Assistant, you carry a toolbox that needs to be visible, credible, and specific. The right skills on your resume don’t just decorate the page—they signal you can support diverse learners, adapt in real time, and help classrooms run steady.
Special Education Teacher Assistant Skills
- Behavior Management
- IEP Familiarity
- Autism Spectrum Support
- Sign Language
- PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System)
- Boardmaker Software
- Nonviolent Crisis Intervention
- Sensory Integration
- Augmentative Communication
- Proloquo2Go
- Classroom Modifications
- First Aid/CPR Certified
1. Behavior Management
Behavior management means shaping the environment and teaching strategies so positive behaviors flourish, disruptions shrink, and learning has room to breathe. It’s practical, proactive, and deeply individualized.
Why It's Important
A calm, predictable space helps students access learning and practice social skills. It protects dignity, builds self-regulation, and keeps the day on track for everyone—students and staff alike.
How to Improve Behavior Management Skills
Set clear expectations: State them positively, teach them explicitly, and revisit them often with visuals and routines.
Build routines: Predictability reduces anxiety. Use schedules, timers, and simple transitions.
Reinforce the good: Catch students being successful. Offer immediate, specific praise and meaningful rewards.
Use individualized supports: Behavior plans should match triggers, skills, and strengths. Track data and adjust.
Co-regulate first: De-escalate with calm tone, space, choices, and empathy. Teach skills after the storm passes.
Reflect and grow: Seek coaching, observe peers, and practice restorative conversations.
How to Display Behavior Management Skills on Your Resume
2. IEP Familiarity
IEP familiarity means you can read, implement, and monitor Individualized Education Programs: goals, accommodations, modifications, services, progress measures—the works.
Why It's Important
Students receive what’s promised. Instruction lines up with goals. Teams stay aligned, and legal requirements are respected.
How to Improve IEP Familiarity Skills
Know the parts: Goals, present levels, services, accommodations vs. modifications, progress reporting.
Follow the plan: Embed accommodations in daily routines. Document what you implement and how it works.
Collaborate: Check in with special educators, related service providers, and families. Share observations that inform updates.
Attend meetings: Prepare notes on progress and barriers. Advocate for practical supports.
Stay current: Understand IDEA requirements and your district’s procedures. Keep FERPA and confidentiality top of mind.
Track data: Simple, consistent data collection drives better decisions and clearer progress reports.
How to Display IEP Familiarity Skills on Your Resume
3. Autism Spectrum Support
Support for students on the spectrum hinges on structure, communication access, and respect for sensory needs, all matched to strengths.
Why It's Important
When supports fit, students communicate more, engage longer, and build independence. That’s the goal: participation with dignity.
How to Improve Autism Spectrum Support Skills
Personalize learning: Use visuals, clear routines, and concrete language. Scaffold tasks and break them down.
Broaden communication: Offer options—PECS, AAC, sign, visuals—so students can say what they mean.
Teach social skills: Practice turn-taking, perspective-taking, and problem-solving through modeling and role-play.
Plan for sensory needs: Provide sensory breaks, quiet zones, and tools. Reduce known triggers when possible.
Work with families: Align strategies across home and school. Consistency speeds progress.
Learn continuously: Seek training on evidence-based practices and autistic perspectives.
How to Display Autism Spectrum Support Skills on Your Resume
4. Sign Language
Sign language—such as American Sign Language (ASL) or regionally used systems—relies on hands, facial expressions, and body language to communicate with clarity and nuance.
Why It's Important
It opens doors for Deaf and hard of hearing students, supports multilingual access, and strengthens inclusive practice across the classroom.
How to Improve Sign Language Skills
Take structured classes: Keep climbing from beginner to advanced; build vocabulary and grammar.
Practice with community: Engage with Deaf mentors and conversation groups. Real-world use cements fluency.
Immerse daily: Study fingerspelling drills, watch signed content, and practice receptive skills.
Learn Deaf culture: Cultural competence matters as much as vocabulary.
Seek feedback: Ask fluent signers to correct form, speed, and facial grammar.
How to Display Sign Language Skills on Your Resume
5. PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System)
PECS is an AAC approach where learners exchange pictures to request, comment, and interact. It builds functional communication without needing verbal speech.
Why It's Important
When students can ask, refuse, and comment, frustration drops and independence rises. Communication first—everything else follows.
How to Improve PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) Skills
Master the six phases: From single-picture exchanges to commenting and responding. Practice each phase consistently.
Customize books: Use highly motivating, clear images. Organize pages for fast access during real routines.
Practice everywhere: Embed exchanges in class, hallways, playgrounds, and lunch. Generalization is the win.
Prompt, then fade: Start with physical or gestural prompts; reduce quickly to build independence.
Team up: Coordinate with SLPs and families so everyone uses the same procedures and vocabulary.
Expand vocabulary: Add core words and topics as skills grow. Keep it relevant to daily life.
How to Display PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) Skills on Your Resume
6. Boardmaker Software
Boardmaker helps create symbol-supported materials—visual schedules, task analyses, communication boards, games, and more—so instruction becomes clearer and more accessible.
Why It's Important
Customized visuals reduce cognitive load, support routines, and give students concrete anchors for learning and communication.
How to Improve Boardmaker Software Skills
Learn the libraries: Get comfortable with symbol sets, search tools, and editing options to find or adapt the right visuals fast.
Use templates wisely: Start with schedule, choice board, or token chart templates, then tailor them to student needs.
Design for access: Prioritize clean layouts, high contrast, consistent icons, and clear labels. Test with students and refine.
Build interactive sets: Create printable and digital versions. Pair visuals with routines for smooth transitions.
Organize and share: Maintain a labeled library by goal, grade, or skill. Swap resources with your team to save time.
Practice and iterate: Short, regular creation sprints sharpen speed and quality.
How to Display Boardmaker Software Skills on Your Resume
7. Nonviolent Crisis Intervention
This training centers on prevention, de-escalation, and safety. You learn to read behavior, reduce risk, and, only if necessary, use last-resort physical strategies with strict safeguards.
Why It's Important
Safety first—for students and staff. Calm responses, clear choices, and environmental adjustments keep crises from boiling over.
How to Improve Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Skills
Know the early signs: Spot anxiety, agitation, and triggers before escalation. Respond early, gently.
Refine communication: Neutral tone, simple language, supportive body posture. Fewer words, more listening.
Adjust the space: Provide distance, reduce audience effects, remove hazards, and offer options.
Debrief and document: After incidents, analyze what worked and what needs to change. Update plans.
Practice skills: Role-play scenarios. Refresh certifications on schedule and follow district guidance.
Care for yourself: Stress management matters. Regulated adults help students regulate.
How to Display Nonviolent Crisis Intervention Skills on Your Resume
8. Sensory Integration
Sensory integration support helps students process input—sound, touch, movement, light—so they can focus, engage, and learn without overwhelm.
Why It's Important
Regulated bodies learn better. With the right input at the right time, students can participate more fully and with less stress.
How to Improve Sensory Integration Skills
Shape the environment: Manage noise, lighting, seating, and visual clutter. Offer quiet corners and movement options.
Schedule sensory breaks: Short, targeted activities—heavy work, stretching, deep pressure—at planned intervals.
Use tools thoughtfully: Fidgets, chewables, weighted items, and adaptive seating—based on student preferences and OT guidance.
Create sensory diets: Collaborate with occupational therapists to tailor daily input and monitor impact.
Teach with many senses: Blend visual, auditory, and kinesthetic elements. Hands-on wins.
Give clear directions: Chunk steps. Pair words with visuals. Allow extra processing time.
Move often: Build in movement to boost regulation, coordination, and attention.
How to Display Sensory Integration Skills on Your Resume
9. Augmentative Communication
AAC spans strategies and tools—from gestures and picture boards to robust speech-generating devices—that support or replace speech and writing.
Why It's Important
Access to communication is access to life. Students can ask, learn, connect, and self-advocate when AAC is available and respected.
How to Improve Augmentative Communication Skills
Customize: Match vocabulary, layout, and access method to the user. Revisit settings as skills change.
Model constantly: Use the AAC system yourself while speaking. Aided language input accelerates learning.
Train the circle: Teach peers, families, and staff how to respond, wait, and encourage.
Allow multimodal talk: Gestures, sign, vocalizations, and AAC together—communication is a toolkit, not a single tool.
Collaborate with specialists: Coordinate with SLPs, OTs, and teachers for consistent practice and progress tracking.
Reinforce and respond: Celebrate attempts. Expand utterances naturally. Keep it functional and meaningful.
How to Display Augmentative Communication Skills on Your Resume
10. Proloquo2Go
Proloquo2Go is a symbol-based AAC app with text-to-speech, customizable pages, and robust vocabulary systems—handy on tablets and phones.
Why It's Important
It gives non-speaking or minimally speaking students a clear voice, fast. Independence grows when communication does.
How to Improve Proloquo2Go Skills
Tailor vocabulary: Adjust core and fringe words, symbols, and folder structures to daily routines and interests.
Model every day: Use Aided Language Stimulation. Tap words as you talk so students see how messages come together.
Optimize access: Customize button size, color coding, and navigation for speed and accuracy.
Integrate visuals: Pair with schedules and social stories to boost comprehension.
Coordinate: Align with the SLP and family on goals, data, and carryover at home and school.
Review and refine: Gather feedback from the student, then tweak layout and vocabulary to reduce effort and increase use.
How to Display Proloquo2Go Skills on Your Resume
11. Classroom Modifications
Modifications adjust what students learn or how they show learning; accommodations change the access, not the expectation. Both help remove barriers.
Why It's Important
Students deserve equitable access. With the right changes, participation and progress are not just possible—they’re expected.
How to Improve Classroom Modifications Skills
Start from strengths: Assess needs and preferences. Build supports that fit the learner, not the other way around.
Adapt the environment: Flexible seating, quiet spaces, clear visual cues, and organized materials.
Leverage technology: Text-to-speech, speech-to-text, captioning, simplified readers, timers, and visual supports.
Differentiate instruction: Vary content, process, and products. Offer choices and scaffolded steps.
Team approach: Plan with teachers and service providers. Align strategies and routines.
Include families and students: Co-create supports that matter in real life, then monitor and adjust.
How to Display Classroom Modifications Skills on Your Resume
12. First Aid/CPR Certified
First Aid/CPR certification shows you can respond quickly and correctly in emergencies—stabilize, communicate, and hand off to medical professionals.
Why It's Important
In special education settings, health needs can be complex. Being ready saves minutes, and minutes matter.
How to Improve First Aid/CPR Certified Skills
Renew on time: Keep certifications current (typically every two years). Update with any guideline changes.
Practice hands-on: Skills fade without repetition. Join refresher drills and scenario practice.
Know student needs: Review health plans, allergies, seizure protocols, and equipment (EpiPen, AED) for your classroom.
Run simulations: Rehearse likely scenarios—choking, asthma, seizures—so responses feel automatic.
Debrief and document: After any incident or drill, note improvements and update procedures.
How to Display First Aid/CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
