# Teaching Assistants, Special Education

> 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.

- **SOC code:** 25-9043.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-9043-00
- **Also known as:** Paraprofessional (Para), SPED Aide (Special Education Aide), SPED Para (Special Education Paraprofessional), SPED TA (Special Education Teacher Assistant), Assistant Instructor, Co-Teacher, Educational Assistant, Paraeducator
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Provide assistance to students with special needs.
- Teach socially acceptable behavior, employing techniques such as behavior modification or positive reinforcement.
- Supervise students in classrooms, halls, cafeterias, school yards, and gymnasiums, or on field trips.
- Provide students with disabilities with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
- Carry out therapeutic regimens, such as behavior modification and personal development programs, under the supervision of special education instructors, psychologists, or speech-language pathologists.
- Tutor and assist children individually or in small groups to help them master assignments and to reinforce learning concepts presented by teachers.
- Employ special educational strategies or techniques during instruction to improve the development of sensory- and perceptual-motor skills, language, cognition, or memory.
- Enforce administration policies and rules governing students.
- Observe students' performance, and record relevant data to assess progress.
- Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment and materials to prevent injuries and damage.
- Present subject matter to students under the direction and guidance of teachers, using lectures, discussions, supervised role-playing methods, or by reading aloud.
- Discuss assigned duties with classroom teachers to coordinate instructional efforts.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(transferable_skill)_
- Problem Sensitivity _(ability)_
- Speech Recognition _(ability)_
- Speech Clarity _(ability)_
- Reading Comprehension _(essential_skill)_
- Learning Strategies _(essential_skill)_
- Monitoring _(essential_skill)_
- Service Orientation _(transferable_skill)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Learning Strategies _(Specialized Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Instructing _(Specialized Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Psychology _(Specialized Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Writing _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Appletree
- Automate the Schools ATS
- Blackboard software
- Children's educational software
- ClassDojo
- Email software
- Flipgrid

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 34th percentile (Moderate) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 36th percentile (Moderate) — source: eloundou_gamma.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-25-9043-00_