Students with Special Educational Needs

What?
All students come with their own set of learning abilities. The more we learn about the student, the better we will be able to help them with both their strengths and weakness. We learned that students can blend into their surroundings if the materials they are studying are tailored to their own needs. There are several different types of methods that we can use in our teachings. While some methods will work with one student, it might not work with another. We need to be flexible in how we approach the students. While we are doing this, we need to remember to try to treat all the students with the same expectations to complete a task. While some students might complete the task quickly, others might need several steps to complete the task. Gardner teaches us that students might be able to accomplish their task by using different multi-dimensional models of intelligence.

So What?
We will need to know our students well enough to identify their skills and abilities. We need to know what our students already know. While working with our students we will need to use the specialists that are available in our schools. We can use these specialists to consult and collaborate with about what will work best for the student. We will need to involve the parents in helping us pinpoint thing, such as what is working well for their student and what is not. The parents can also help us to identify what things might trigger the student to be frustrated or display disruptive behavior.

Now What?
The goal is to work to help the students to feel that they are a part of their learning plan. Let them make choices about how they will accomplish the task. Involve parents in helping the student to accomplish the task. Sometimes it might work to have another relative or peer student help them. While implementing the learning material, continue to evaluate the students learning and keep your eyes open for students that might qualify for special services. We can often see the need of our students, but we will need the specialist to assess them to find out what will work best for them. The best outcome we can hope for is to reach each student on their individual level and help them to academically succeed by using whatever method we find works for them.