Do you know schools nearly excluded 1.8 million children with special needs as they had neither the means nor any desire to assimilate them into the traditional setting? It wasn’t until the implementation of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which later became popular as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that these special needs students were welcomed in schools worldwide finally.
Since then, special education has come a long way, and with it arrived innovations in teaching strategies for students with disabilities. More than 6 million children with disabilities now attend traditional schools, with 95% of them spending at least a significant part of their day in a classroom. And, 63% of them spend 80% of their time in a stereotypical school.
As the number of students with learning disabilities increases, it is vital for educators to be well-versed with remarkable techniques for teaching students with learning disabilities. However, you do not need to be a licensed doctor to implement brilliant strategies in your classroom.
In today’s blog post, we will walk you through certain remarkable teaching strategies that will serve as a useful starting point for the educational inclusion of students with SPLD-related barriers. Know that the below techniques are not an exclusive list but will help you create a learning environment that will help students bloom where they are planted!
Top 8 Teaching Techniques For Students With Learning Disabilities
Implement Chunking Technique
In the words of George Miller, a Harvard psychologist, people can handle between five and nine pieces of information at a time. However, chunking is a brilliant learning technique that allows educators to take advantage of long-term memory and handle more concepts. This would also help students receive quality assignment help they require.
Teachers can assist students in the learning process by breaking down humongous lessons into small chunks that build upon one another. Each block must refer to materials from the previous ones to connect concepts and utilize repetition. End each section with a task where the students get to summarize what they read.
Re-Arrange The Desks In The Classroom
If it is possible, try to set the desks in the classroom in rows, rather than using circular seating around large tables. Students with autism require their own space from time to time. Similarly, ADHD students become easily distracted. Thus, when a seat is kept face forward close to the teacher, they learn the best.
Organize Information Visually
Most students with learning disabilities tend to process information visually. Parents and educators can make use of those skills with comprehending lessons. Like, after reading a chapter in a book, you can ask the student to draw a picture representing what they are reading.
At the same time, you can also take advantage of several visual organizers to help your students in processing their thoughts. When the class goes through a novel, have these students jot down a cause-and-effect organizer. The causes are reasons that led to that event. The effect implies the big event in the story, and the climax is where resolution comes.
Create Classroom Themes
Since you will be teaching such a wide range of abilities, it can be arduous to create a sense of cohesion in your classroom. Students with various learning disabilities will perhaps have various educational needs.
To maintain the perfect equilibrium between whole-class and group learning, make sure to organize your lesson plans around central themes. Regardless of whether it’s a period of history, a talking point, or a recent event, setting a common theme will help you structure your teachings. It will also help in setting common objectives for students.
Like, you chose food as the theme. Group activities could incorporate learning about verbs by reading recipes, unraveling food from other eras, coloring pictures of different dishes, or completing math exercises based on the scenarios like purchasing groceries or receiving changes in a restaurant.
Appeal To Innumerable Senses
It is wise to include multiple senses to enhance the comprehension and retention power of your students while studying.
For visual learners, you can try-
- Highlighting the vital information in different colors
- Asking students to create lesson-based arts
- Hanging up pictures and setting up models
For children who prefer audio-based lessons, you can-
- Watch a video with accompanying audio
- Utilize rhymes, chants, and language games
- Listen to books or read aloud
Children who are kinesthetic learners learn through-
- Modeling objects or designs in a clay
- Lessons with finger paints, puzzles, or sand
- Using small objects to represent numbers
Include Mnemonics
Mnemonics are remarkable techniques that help students comprehend and organize the information they read through visual and audio cues. They typically depend on the use of keywords, rhymes, and acronyms. Like- most of us learning about the Great Lakes in school with the aid of mnemonic devices- Huron, Michigan, Ontario, Eerie, Superior.
Try not to use an acronym for all concepts. Rather, choose keywords you can relate to visuals. Like, the scientific name of the common frog is Ranidae. The keyword you choose might be ‘rain’. To assist students in remembering the name with ease, you also can show a picture of frogs hopping in the rain.
Make Use Of Peers
Peers can prove to be wonderful role models for students on the autism spectrum. Make sure to pair compatible children together while working on projects or taking part in classroom activities. Most children gladly accept the opportunity to be a peer role model to a student with learning disabilities. The experience turns out to be not only positive for students with autism but for the peer counselor as well.
Establish Consistency
A frequent change can be unsettling for any child. Research suggests that people with conditions like autism and ASD often thrive when they follow a constructive routine. So, how to implement consistency in the classroom?
Ensure to stick to a routine to help your students with learning disabilities stay on track. This consistency might be a daily or weekly schedule, the structure around a lesson timetable that incorporates regular breaks.
If you have determined to split your class into small groups, you should adapt your schedule to suit each group individually. However, it’s still always a good idea to follow a class-wide routine. It will provide an amazing sense of stability to everyone and help them prepare for the day ahead.
Final Note
Always remember it is a disservice to undermine the intelligence and potential for success of students with a learning disability and other disabilities. Learning disabilities do not ever indicate low intelligence. Some of the most challenging disabilities have been overcome by some of the world’s renowned personalities. Galileo had a visual impairment, Elton John had epilepsy, and John F. Kennedy had a learning disability. Howard Hughes and David Beckham had OCD, Winston Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt suffered from bipolar disorder.
You do not know the next famous individual who may hail from your class. Thus, as educators, we should continue to educate our students in ways they learn the best. As you create your next lesson plan for students with learning disabilities, make sure to implement the tried-and-tested strategies given above so that they feel valued, challenged, and fulfilled.
Do you have any other remarkable teaching techniques in mind that can help students with disabilities reach their full potential? Let us know in the comments section below.
Author Bio
Ethan Taylor is a brilliant content critique and an avid blogger all the way from the USA. An exemplary assignment help stalwart at Assignmenthelp.us, he has earned immense popularity among millions of students with his supreme yet cheap assignment help services for 10+ years now.
