The FAWCO Educational Support Committee's project to help support mainstream teachers worldwide is now in its second phase.
Additional participants are welcome at this time. Please return the evaluation form below as soon as possible.
Susan van Alsenoy, Chair,
Educational Support Committee, FAWCO,
AWC, Antwerp
Phone/Fax: +32 3 568 80 56
esc@fawco.org
Name of person completing this form:
Affiliations, organizations, titles and/or degrees:
Responding as (please circle): special needs specialist; mainstream teacher; parent; LD learner
Address:
Email/Phone/Fax:
____ Be aware that LD might be undiagnosed
as late as secondary school, university, or even never at all, and that there
are degrees of LD, mild, moderate and severe.
____ The younger the child is diagnosed, the more often remediation is possible.
When a student is older, you should deal more with coping strategies and self-advocacy
skills.
____ Recognize that the LD student may take up to ten times longer to learn and will tire quickly. They have to try harder, which can be exhausting.
____ Remember that LD students have good days and bad days. Performance inconsistency is part of the problem.
____ Recognize the frustration felt by the LD student.
____ Remember the student is more normal than different, and different does not mean defective.
____ Recognize that LD is a neurological condition that is beyond the control of the student.
____ Make sure the student feels safe and secure in your classroom and in your presence.
____Teachers are urged to re-examine the notion of what is "fair." "Fair" does not mean that every student gets the same treatment, but that every student gets what he or she needs.
____ Time, not money, is the coin we spend on children.
____ Encourage pupils to be aware of and to evaluate the strategies they use to study and to learn.
Auditory:
____ Allow a reader or taped version of exams where appropriate.
____ Allow oral or taped assignments.
Kinesthetic:
____ Allow credit for projects involving hands-on activities such as collages, dioramas, posters, and skits.
____ Use a wooden or plastic alphabet to teach names and sequence of letters - capital first, then lower case. Close eyes to feel the shape and remember its name and associated sound/sounds. Use pictures and memory hooks to provide pictorial and memory hooks for sounds.
____ Practice writing in the air, in sand, on a board and/or with play dough as well as in an exercise book.
Visual:
____ Use lots of visual aids such as overhead projectors, films, videos, slides, chalkboards, flip charts, computer graphics, diagrams, charts, highlighting, underlining, drawing arrows, and pictures to illustrate all subjects, including the teaching of language.
____ Write neatly on the board, using colored chalks or markers to emphasize
different sections.
____ Use mind maps, writing frames, and other graphic organizers to help the
student plan projects and papers.
____ Don't expect the student to listen and do simultaneously. For example, note taking can be extremely difficult for some.
____ Just as there are different learning styles, so are there different kinds of intelligence. It is usually the students who have good linguistic, logical, and mathematical abilities that are often the most successful in school. However, other types of intelligence, such as musical, environmental, spiritual, spatial, existential, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal, are just as valuable and add much to the knowledge and enjoyment of life. These intelligences need also to be recognized and educated.
____ Learning is best when brought through the modalities of hearing, sight, touch, and movement - multi-sensory teaching. Students retain 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they see and hear, 70% of what they say, and 90% of what they say and do. A cumulative, highly structured, sequential, approach, which uses multi-sensory materials and software, is what is needed.
____ Develop active listening skills for everyone in the classroom.
____ Be aware that the LD student learns in a different manner from the conventional methods.
____ Teaching spelling should start with a multi-sensory approach -- say the word, spell the word orally, then write the word.
____ Begin classes with a review of the previous lesson, an overview of topics to be covered that day, and/or an outline of the lecture.
____ Repeat, repeat, repeat - both new and old materials, in different ways.
____ Break down learning into small, sequential tasks. Give specific examples.
____ Provide a list of key vocabulary words, explaining technical language and any foreign words. Learned roots, prefixes, suffixes help to figure out new words.
____Across all subject areas, display and support the use of mnemonic strategies to aid memory formation and retrieval.
____ Make a conscious attempt not to speak too quickly because many LD students have difficulty following and processing fast speech.
____ Relate concepts to past experience.
____ Read all instructions aloud, even for tests and examinations, if appropriate.
____ Allow students to use highlighters to mark key points/words/instructions.
____ Actively teach study skills, like note taking and time organization.
____ Ensure that pupils know the PURPOSE of tasks.
____ Remember that LD students are intellectually at the level of their chronological age, although functionally they may not be. Therefore, activities need to be appropriate to intellectual levels to allow for success.
____ Provide the amount of support and structure the student needs, not the amount of support and structure traditional for that grade level or that classroom/subject.
____ Attention span tends to lengthen when tasks are short and successful.
____ Give study notes, models and guided outlines for projects and writing assignments.
____ Allow the use of any learning tool necessary - see Technology.
____ Accept typed or word-processed assignments.
_____ The design and presentation of worksheets needs to be carefully thought out - bold headings, clear print, less writing, more diagrams.
____ Choose only those accommodations and interventions that are the most needed. Attempt to select low-level accommodations and interventions before moving to more supportive or high-level accommodations and interventions. If high-level accommodations are necessary, choose them with the goal of slowly removing them whenever possible. The objective should always be to provide support while encouraging growth with these strategies to foster independence and self-advocacy.
____ For students with memory problems or unable to take notes in classroom, a fellow student might share notes by using carbon paper or photocopying, the teacher could provide a copy of the class lesson, or the student might be allowed to tape the lessons.
____ Do not use playtime to complete work.
____ Catch the student being good, and reward this behavior.
____ Help the students feel comfortable with seeking assistance. Many students with LD will not ask for help. They need to be taught how to ask questions.
____ Recognize the EFFORTS the student employs toward attaining a goal, and be aware of the problems resulting from skill deficits versus non-compliance.
____ Avoid blaming and name-calling. Label the behavior, not the person.
____ Have pre-established consequences for misbehavior. Enforce classroom rules consistently.
____ Sensitively share the knowledge of your student's difficulties and advocate on behalf of your student with other teachers, with the school administration, and with the parents, if necessary. In some countries, you might need to have the student's permission in order to do so.
____ Insure that the information concerning the student is passed on when the student is in transition from one teacher to another, from one year to another, and from one school or country to another. Do not assume that this will be done automatically.
____ Designate one teacher as the advisor/supervisor/coordinator/liaison for the student and the implementation of the student's educational plan, who will periodically review the student's organizational system and to whom other staff may go when they have concerns about the student. This teacher would also act as the link between home and school.
____Place the LD student in the front, middle of the class, thus reducing the angle of eye-to-board-to-book contact and minimizing distractions.
____ Resources in the classroom should be clearly marked and neatly arranged so things can be found easily.
____ The working environment should be quiet, non-distracting and attractive.
____ LD students should sit alongside well-motivated children or a "study buddy" whom they can ask to clarify instructions for them either during or after class.
____ The teacher, the student, and the parents should recognize that test grades may not reflect the true potential of the student to achieve well in life, nor will grades in a specific subject reflect abilities in other areas.
____ Mark positively - tick the good bits; mark for knowledge - not presentation.
____ Check that homework assignments have been copied down correctly, or provide a written copy or a study-buddy for the student.
____ Reduce the number of items to be completed in a given assignment (for example, the number of words on the spelling list).
____ LD students might have difficulty with such organizational tasks as keeping their things tidy at school, getting dressed, remembering their PE kit, looking for something they have lost, packing their school bag and organizing the equipment needed for homework. The teacher should work with the student and the parents to devise strategies to help with organization, such as lists, timetables, and color-coding books.
____ Be aware that the pace of a normal class is likely to be too fast for LD students because they often need more time to process language. Give more time to think, to respond, to plan, to start, and to complete.
____ Don't make the student work for long periods without a break.
____ LD students need a lot of structure. Lists of the day's routine and expected behaviors can be of great help. Give plenty of warning when changes are made to the timetable, teacher or task.
____ Be prepared to learn from the parents. Interest, involve and work closely with them. You both need each other's help.
____ Frequent parent/teacher communications (once a day, once a week or once a month, depending on need) via whatever works, home/school agendas, face-to-face meetings, phone calls or emails.
____ Providing a list of topic words at the beginning of each unit helps parents know what's going to be covered, helps students to assimilate new vocabulary, and provides material for spelling development.
____ Make sure that all students have had proper eye and ear check-ups. This is particularly important in the mobile population.
Students'
____ Seek opportunities to praise and build self-esteem.
____ Encourage expectations of success by having clearly set objectives.
____ At all times avoid the use of sarcasm, continual criticism, or bringing attention to the student's different needs in front of his peers. Recognize that this student will respond significantly better when encouraged and when positive achievements are noticed and mentioned.
____ Comparing LD students with other pupils or siblings does not improve self-esteem or behavior.
____ Actively teach social skills and self-assessment.
____ Show empathy, concern and understanding.
____ Be a good listener.
____ Avoid letting the student become aware of your own frustration.
____ See that the peer group understands the nature of the LD problem so that the student is not mocked or bullied. LD students are vulnerable to bullying.
____ Emphasize to students that their worth as a person is not related to their test scores or how well they did on a particular assignment.
____ Encourage the student to compete against him/herself, not others.
____ Remember that tasks that seem simple to you may be complex for the pupil.
____ Talk to the student. Ask him/her what strategies might be better.
____ Let the student know privately that his/her difficulties are recognized.
____ Show patience, understanding, encouragement, and friendship at all times.
____ Praise in public, seek an explanation of bad behavior in private.
____ Students with LD problems often feel they are stupid, dumb, and worthless, and that they are the only ones with this problem.
____ All efforts should be made to build the confidence of the pupils through the development of their superior aptitudes, be it in music, sport, design, technology, science or drama.
____ Give private, discrete cues to the student to stay on task, cue the student in advance before calling on him/her, and cue before an important point is about to be made (for example: "This is a major point.").
Teachers'
____ Get support for yourself through your administration, colleagues and community. Seek the help of special educators and learning disability organizations. Draw on their expertise. Do not be afraid to acknowledge what you don't know.
____ Keep your education ongoing. Attend conferences, read books, and visit websites, take classes.
____ Be aware of when the student is losing concentration or not understanding.
____ Recognize self-esteem/depression problems.
____ Use Sassoon Primary, Comic Sans MS or Arial fonts in size 12-16, with double-line spacing. Times Roman is to be avoided.
____ Teach keyboard and word-processing skills, beginning in primary school.
____ Allow the use of any learning tool necessary, such as tape recorders, spell checkers, Misspellers' Dictionaries, laptops, voice-activated software, or calculators.
____ Provide study questions for exams that show the format that will be used as well as the content.
____Vary the format of tests: true/false, matching questions to answers or words to definitions, multiple choice, labeling diagrams, sentence completion, title-paragraph match, table/grid completion.
____ Make sure you are testing knowledge and not attention span.
____ If necessary due to the student's preferred learning and expressive style, test orally whenever possible.
____ Avoid double negatives, unduly complex sentence structure and embedding questions within questions when composing examinations.
____ If necessary, allow tests/exams to be taken in a quiet room, alone, with no distraction, and with a teacher available if needed.
Suggested references for mainstream teachers wishing further information on learning differences