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About Special Education |
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3 Things Every Parent Needs When Raising a Child with Special Needs |
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When I travel by plane I'm always reminded of the "way things are". It is a fact of life that we must care for ourselves before we can effectively care for someone else. That's why flight attendants instruct us before every flight, "position your own oxygen mask before assisting others traveling with you". The lesson: You can't help anyone, if you are incapacitated. So I want to start this series by pointing out some critical things that need to in place for YOU so that you can be an effective parent and advocate for your child with special needs. 1 - A Personal Network of Support Dealing with the emotional turmoil of a new diagnosis is difficult, however it certainly isn't... |
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How To Tell If Your Student/Child Has Dyslexia |
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I work with students, either in small groups or individually, who have difficulty reading. Every once in a while, a pupil comes to me who just doesn't get it. Usually, accommodating the varied learning styles of each student, results in success. When that doesn't work, I start questioning my ability as a reading teacher. The first time it happened I felt that I had let my student down. My next step was to consult the special education experts and the school psychologist. They suggested the possibility that my pupil may have dyslexia. I was surprised to find out how many young people suffer from dyslexia. Dyslexia is difficult to determine until a young person is in their teens. We all... |
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The Use of Color to Treat Learning Problems |
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I am the queen of color. Or, so I tell my students as I work with them, invariably using color as a training tool. Of course, they also think I'm a nut case, and that may well be true, but the bottom line is this: I get results with color. A normal child spends most of his day in school, dealing with black and white. Most of this day is spent with a black lead pencil, books printed in black and white, and worksheets and workbooks also printed in black and white. It seems their world is black and white, perhaps with a few colored moments. For a left-brained child, this is not an issue at all. His brain does not require color to function well. However, a right-brained child, who sees the... |
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A Special Education Success Story With ADD and ADHD
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The Problem
In our rapidly moving culture, special education students, diagnosed with ADD or ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) are an ever-increasing challenge for teachers. Having taught in some capacity for nearly 40 years and being a parent of an active little boy, I have studied these conditions with immediate personal interest. Holding Their Attention?
Early in my work with the attentionally challenged, I observed that if the learning activity were engaging enough, many of these students could hold attention for long periods. Special Education students diagnosed with ADD or ADHD often have the ability to attend for long periods working with computers or video games. I wondered, could the problem lie more in the pace of the learning activity? Give Them What They Need
Subsequently, I began to provide activities in my classroom that had some of the same qualities of the immediate response achieved in those computerized attention-holders. One of the most successful of these was the excavation of fossils. The Setup
Fossil excavation was a 6-week class - more of a club, really – in which students excavated a real fossil fish from a soft rock matrix. This time the class was made up of many special education students with various learning challenges, especially ADHD. The outcome of the class was remarkable. Getting Their Interest and Attention
We started with a sort of guessing game involving fossils hidden in velvet bags and moved quickly into individual excavation of the fossils. Within minutes, my work was done; the students worked independently for the remainder of the two-hour class. My hardest work that day was to enforce clean-up-the students simply didn’t’ t want to stop working. Tools And Supplies
The only tools needed for this activity were small screw drivers-the sort that are available from any hardware store in a set of increasing sizes beginning with an eye-glass tool . I also provided magnifiers of varying types. The most sought after were the dissecting microscopes, which gave the individual the best view of the fragile fossil. However, much of the work could be easily accomplished using the naked eye or a magnifier in a stand, just to leave the hands free. And Then There Are the Behavioral Challenges
I was presented with a new challenge about halfway into the second class: a behaviorally disruptive student who had been removed from another class. I did what I could to introduce him to our work and bring him up to speed. His initial work was little more than digging a hole through his rock, paying little attention to the fossil it contained. Success!
Then a wonderful thing happened. Another boy, a challenging special education student who generally had little academic success, began to teach. You see, this boy was enthralled with digging out the fossil and he was having incredible success. He single-handedly took over and my work was done. Students Give Rave Reviews, Almost
The final endorsement came at the end of our 6-week class. Throughout the period, I had rarely interrupted their work, but I had shown a couple of videos to give the students some additional detail about fossil preservation and excavation, geologic history and so on. At the last class, I asked the students to verbally evaluate the class. When I asked how I could improve the class, all agreed: Only show the videos if we can continue excavating our fossils during it! This is a true story of success. In this six-week project middle school children diagnosed with ADD and ADHD and receiving special education services enjoyed the same success, if not more than, the other students. Even the most absorbing tool, the TV, was not high on these students’ list of significant work. As a teacher, I felt I had been given a great gift of learning about how to support these special students. I encourage you to try it!
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A Quick Note
From The Publisher...
If you like the article above, you may be
interested in the following article which is also related to Special Education...
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Online Special Education Courses |
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If you are just starting out in your career and would like to teach children with physical and mental disabilities, conisder enrolling in online special education courses. Nowadays, the need for special education is given priorirty attention, as it should. This is because the number of students who need to undergo special education is growing. And early identification and intervention is the first step in helping these students learn to rise above their situations and succeed in life. In some countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, it is a must for special education teachers to hold degrees to prove their competency, depth of training and exposure in the field. Although, because of the need, some are teaching with emergency certificates to immediately deal with the needs and requirements of these special kids. To address this issue, popular international schools have made special education courses available online to interested individuals regardless of where they maybe living. Thus, in effect, it speeds up the process of acquiring degrees and training certificates for those who want to teach children with special needs. Online special education courses work primarily through a set of modules provided by facilitators to educators. Each of the modules highlights categories and sections designed for certain teaching goals or objectives such as: to properly introduce and acquaint the teachers to the nature of special education and their future students, to orient and prepare them to the kind of environment they will be working in, introduction to specialized theories and research; systematic teaching strategies and identifying needs, methods and applications for successful student-teacher learning and more. Teaching methods and applications can vary... |
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