There can be a number of reasons why children need to attend a special education program at school, or require the help of a specialized reading program. Special education helps learners who struggle with developmental delays and have learning differences. For parents, to help students in special education is a crucial thing.
Just because a child receives extra support, it doesn’t immediately mean that they’re less intelligent or talented than their peers.
For this reason, one of the best ways parents and teachers can assist kids in special education is to focus on helping them find their strengths. To show an example, learners with dyslexia have a hard time reading, but can be extremely creative artists. Or for instance, kids with autism struggle with interpersonal skills, but can be great with computers.
Every learner is unique. In addition, it’s also key to introduce targeted strategy training. It may help with skills development and provide access to the right accommodations. Just like a live online tutorial or a special education instructor.
It may take a lot of cognitive and physical energy for some kids to overcome the challenges posed by their disabilities or their difficulties. If they find studying emotionally and mentally draining, lots of motivation and encouragement are needed to keep a child from developing a negative attitude towards, reading, learning, and even school.
How to Help Students in Special Education
Different students benefit from different kinds of support. In some cases, children and their parents may decide that it’s better to attend private reading programs where students with specific learning difficulties are catered to.
Helping frustrated students is very important, and here are 3 simple ways to help students in special education.
#1 Help kids find and develop strengths
A key to an inclusive special education program is accepting and understanding students for who they are. That means not just helping people overcome their weaknesses. It also involves helping them find and develop their real talents too.
Each student, no matter what type of learning difficulties they have, has strengths — even if they haven’t found them yet.
#2 Give the right strategy and learning accommodations
There are no two individuals that are completely alike. This is perfectly true when it comes to students who struggle with a physical impairment or a learning difference, like ASD, dyslexia, and ADD/ADHD. Lots of diagnostic testing result in a report where recommendations are made for strategy training. It will help a student cope with any issues that they might be experiencing.
What’s really important is to review the progress a child makes periodically. Strategy and training accommodations can be adjusted to ensure the maximum benefit to the learner.
#3 Encourage and motivate your children
Learners in the special education programs have to work harder than their other peers if they want to achieve the same results. School can be a place of exhaustion — physically, emotionally, and mentally.
That’s why it’s absolutely necessary to provide lots of motivation and encouragement, especially with kids who struggle with a particularly learning difference that may be hard to see.
The worst case scenario is that children will find school difficult and begin to avoid learning as a result.
Find role models and other successful individuals who’ve overcome this particular challenge. Or use what you know about your kids to find the points that drive them to achieve their very best.
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