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Teaching
Strategies
For Children
With Learning Difficulties
(providing for an inclusive classroom environment)
Children with learning
problems often have poor short term memory and/or attention span. For
this reason they frequently demand more teacher time to keep on task.
Also, there are occasions when the class activity will need to be modified.
Often minor considerations are all that is necessary such as fewer spelling,
graded maths activities, personalised sight word list or homework, more
scaffolding in problem solving and research, reference readers at an appropriate
level of difficulty etc.
Some children require
more extensive modification if they are to participate in the same curriculum
activity. The following list suggesting various strategies is by no means
comprehensive. Rather, it is a compilation of some obvious and some not
so obvious strategies.
Good teaching practice
does this and much more. As a means of self reflection and for individualised
planning, there may be one or two strategies that are worth focusing upon
for a particular child. Sometimes it may be that more emphasis
on a particular strategy for a period of time will provide the most appropriate
support.
Classroom Environment
- Seating position
that provides
- optimal teacher
observation and ease of contact eg at end of row/near front
- least likelihood
of visual or auditory disturbance eg near the teacher to limit effect
of background noise and/or near quiet children
- Train a buddy who
can assist with reading instructions and/or working as a partner
- Appropriate reference
cues such as sound charts, essential spelling lists, etc as well as
concrete materials for easy access.
Work Organization
and Study Skills
- Teach the student
to monitor his/her involvement in the activity at hand by self awareness
and questioning with appropriate consequential strategies eg
- Am I on task?
Do I know what I am doing or is expected of me? If not, what do I
do?
- Use a ‘Reminder
Card’ on desk for selected outcomes eg when writing
- Use of a cue
picture/illustrations to reinforce steps such as: draw first then
write: use personal spelling list, etc or
- Use of cue words
such Write, Re-read, Read to buddy
- Maths reference
aids such a multiplication grid and ’How To Do It’ book
- Assist the student
to begin work and plan the next step(s)
- Train the student
to work independently if the teacher is with another student eg
- Recheck work
- Select another
task
- Seek a buddy
Giving Instructions
- Ensure student
is attending before giving instructions. Train the student to make
more eye contact. Insist on eye contact at times when it is particularly
important to listen: ‘Listen with your eyes too.’
- Call the student’s
name to regain attention before giving instructions.
- Give information
in small chunks. Ask the student to repeat and explain what is required.
- Model and provide
opportunity for practice and overlearning. Explicit teaching and scaffolded
practice is important as children with learning difficulties often
do not generalize and can only process information in small steps.
- Provide visual
information or write key words as well as verbal instructions.
Modifying Teaching
Methods
- Modify or individualize
the student’s assignments eg
- Reduce the number
of questions to be answered
- Reduce the amount
to be read.
- Provide a taped
recording of the text (use a teacher aide/parent/older student or
capable classmate to prepare the reading).
- Check understanding
by asking direct questions eg ‘Shane, what do I do next?’ or ‘Michael,
what did Jenny say then?’ i.e. Train children to develop good listening
habits.
- Encourage the use
of concrete materials where abstract thinking is difficult.
- In project or group
work, allow the child to illustrate rather than write on a particular
topic.
- Engage the student
in frequent verbal responses to keep on task as well as check understanding.
It is important that children with a reading disability develop good
listening habits and oral expression.
- Encourage the use
of a spell checker eg sound chart and/or a list of high frequency words.
- Allocate adequate
time to activating prior knowledge when introducing a new book/topic.
- Model strategies
of reading for meaning using the ‘think aloud’ approach eg
- ‘This is not
making sense’
- ‘I need to re-read
the last sentence and slow down’
- Promote pre, during
and post verbalisation of reading strategies. Eg encourage the child
to verbalise one or two strategies which they will focus on during the
reading. Also, reflect on strategies at the completion of reading.
- Provide books and
a reader (eg teacher aide, volunteer parent helper) where information
is to be sought. Allow the student to retell or identify the main points.
Scaffold by questioning to elicit detail and scribe for the student.
This can be typed for a later reading and discussion.
- In composing text,
model cohesion and sentence structures by engaging in a joint
construction of some pieces of writing.
- Also, in composing
texts, use paper or card strips to write sentences which can be edited
easily by cutting and substituting/adding/deleting (Transformations
approach).
John McKenna
(Reference: Teaching
Strategies For Children with Short – Term Memory Difficulties, Poor Concentration,
and Short Attention Span Cheryl Leber Remedial Association Newslatter,
Sept. 1997.)
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