Special Education Addressing The Needs Of K-6 Students
by Mazi Capane
http://www.ropeducation.com
Specialized areas of special education have been
growing, especially in the elementary schools. Teachers
need to help children who have learning disabilities to
adapt to the specialized structure of their classes. This
is why Special Ed teachers look for new ideas to make this
area of education easier and more interesting both for the
students and themselves. They would like to use these
programs to help them to achieve educational success and a
healthy self-esteem. Special Ed teachers try to find new
approaches that will help them achieve these goals.
A major area in providing a positive experience towards
success for learning disabled students is the length of an
assignment. Giving ample time with shorter assignments
to special ed students makes them feel accomplished, since
children with disabilities need more time to complete the
work . In those subjects where the student has shown the
most weakness, this is especially important. Making minor
changes such as shortening assignments can make the class
room experience less stressful and promote more success.
Encourage students to employ simple hand exercises before
beginning their work, such as flexing their fingers,
clenching and unclenching their fists and pushing their
palms down on the surface of their desks or tabletop. This
loosens them up, decreases stress and helps them to begin
the process of focusing in preparation for their lessons.
Visually presenting material and information is very
important in teaching the learning disabled. Teachers
should make ample use of chalkboard designs, overhead
projections and lively posters. This is in addition to the
speaking part of the lesson, which is also very critical.
Interactive participation by students is very valuable.
Be careful as a teacher that your students don't get too
overwhelmed by the material and information that you
present to them. Break information down into chunks that
they can absorb slowly, rather than giving them a lot of
information at once. You still want to make sure that
all material is covered, especially the critical material,
but you may try to have them work on a half a page at a
time so they won't feel too pressured.
Students who have difficulty with reading retention might
have more success if you use audio cassettes of the book or
material. It may assist them to absorb and retain the
information if they hear the material as they read it.
If this material is not available at your library, you can
make your own or ask a volunteer to make recordings.The
extra effort will be worthwhile once you have built up a
library of your own, and you can continue to use it for
other students who may have the same kind of problem.
School systems do not expect learning disabled students to
work at the same pace as other students. The type of work
may have to be adjusted, in addition to modifying the time
allocation to these students time frames. A solution that
has proven successful in integrating special needs students
into the regular classroom is to cut and paste questions
for them onto sheets of paper and make copies. These
specially formulated lessons allow them to have work that
looks like the other students work but includes only the
assignments applicable to them.
A learning disability is not a learning inability. When
teachers can approach the task of teaching certain students
with new and different approaches, many things can done in
the traditional classroom setting. Such a setting can help
these children achieve success in their eduction, while at
the same time address their needs in terms of their
self-esteem.
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