Learning disability: strategies to deal with cognitive, intellectual disabilities
Learning
disability: strategies to deal with cognitive, intellectual disabilities
Classrooms mirror the diversity of the
country – of languages, socio-cultural environments economic and religious
backgrounds etc. They are often represented by demanding circumstances like deprived
access to / lack of ample information pertaining to health, hygiene, nutrition.
It is imperative to keep in mind that these situations also severely impact a child’sdevelopment which, in turn, can reflect in how a student attends to and learns
in the classroom. Here are the learning needs that we need to focus on, especially
those that are related to the influences and impacts on the brain.
We come across several students who are
not able to learn or articulate their learning. Many of the student behaviour are
not a result of sensory, physical or motor impairments. To identify for many of
these cognitive and intellectual impairments, a series of appropriate or
standardised tests are needed which may either be not available or easily
accessible for a large population of children who depend on the government
schooling in India. A lot of these children experience important challenges—due
to restricted exposure, unequal access to opportunities, and in many instances,
challenges associated to growing with restricted resources or poverty. Such conditions
also impact and/or inhibit learning.
HOW TO CREATE AN INCLUSIVE LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT--- SOME TIPS AND STRATEGIES
Classroom Strategies to Include Different
Learning Styles and Needs
Planning:
1. Special service providers
may be consulted like special education teachers, physical, occupational or movement-orientation
therapist, psychologists, who may be involved in working with students with
special needs (SWSN) in the classroom. Try to know the specific
needs, strengths of the SWSN from
the special services providers and follow these throughout the time the SWSN is
in the classroom.
2. Understand the needs of
advanced learners as well as the learners who may find the classroom learning a
struggle for a variety of reasons or causes.
3. Make classroom rules, daily
and/or weekly time-table; display them in the classroom.
4. Design cues so that the
students are aware of when it is time for transition to another lesson or activity,
calm down or become at ease, to collect material etc.
5. Engage children and older learners
in setting up classroom activities. This will bring in more variety and
richness in classroom processes (NCF, 2005).
Group Work:
Class can be divided into
small groups or pairs for activities such as assignments as well as on-going
teaching. This facilitates to move from group to group and help in learning. It
is important to motivate students with poor social skills to participate in
group or play activity by presenting appropriate support /reinforcement.
Balancing Teamwork and Individual work:
A good way to do this would be
to walk around the classroom, provide support or intervention when needed and creating
opportunities.
Reflections:
Children learn in varied ways
– through experience, creating and exploiting things, testing, reading,
discussing, asking, listening, thinking and reflecting, and expressing oneself
in speech, movement or writing, both individually and with others (NCF 2005). Different
strategies should be used to promote learning as well as ongoing evaluation of
teaching-learning in classroom by utilising varied approaches. These approaches
should be responsive to physical, cultural and social preferences within the
wide diversity of characteristics and needs (NCF, 2005). For example, depending
on the needs of the students, the teacher can –
1.
Teach lessons in smaller units and move from simple to complex
tasks;
2.
Give more time and practice to children who require it;
3.
Provide concrete concepts;
4.
Use multi-sensory approaches – visual, kinaesthetic, tactile and
auditory;
5.
Use language and vocabulary the child is familiar with.
Peer mentoring:
Changing the pairs in the
group work allows the learners to benefit from learning with different
classmates.
Project Based Learning
Project Based Learning (PBL)
actively involves students and helps them engage in learning,
encouraging them to obtain a deeper knowledge
of the subjects they are studying.
Project-based learning essentially involves -
1. Students learning through
direct and/or hands-on learning;
2. Students having control
over their learning, allowing them to learn at their own pace;
3. Teachers allowed building
on and facilitating learning;
4. Greater opportunities for
students to learn collaboratively when projects are taken up in pairs or
groups. (Barron & Darling-Hammond, 2008; Thomas, 2000)
Providing supports and
scaffolds:
Teacher should provide supports or scaffolds by modelling first to
the students as they are learning new material
and gradually withdraw these when they are able to perform the task on their
own (Bender, 2002).The sequence would be
teacher modelling------group practice -------individual practice.
The whole class
should be engaged in an activity that the CWSN is strong at.
This encourages the children
to participate better in the classroom processes. For example,
tactile learners do good with hands
on activities and/or learning by doing, kinaesthetic learners learn through
movement and playing games, visual learners learn best through pictures and
graphics and have the opportunity to see what everyone else is creating,
auditory learners study better through dialogue, discussions and debates and by
talking about what they are doing.
Some Child Characteristics and strategies to
deal with these:
Strategies
Out of seat behaviour
(unable to sit at one place
at a stretch)
|
Provide work in small
segments followed
by a break, for example, to
run a chore
(work).
|
Impulsive behaviour such
as throwing material,
pushing peers, shouting
etc
|
Have a structured seating
arrangement
(preferably in the front
bench), activity
schedule and physical
movement of class
inmates. Remember to prepare
the child in
advance if there is any change in the above.
|
Unable to complete given task.
|
It may be useful to split
assignments in
small parts with frequent
checks for task
completion by peer.
|
Lack of eye contact.
|
Build up a secure level of nearness
in
terms of distance, position
of head etc.
|
May not give verbal response.
|
Recognize how the child communicates best,
that is, through eye
movement, pointing,
use of picture cards etc.
Make provision
to provide required material
and accept
the response given by the
child. Do not
tease/scold for the above
condition.
Give enough time for response.
Frequent and steady encouragement/reinforcement should be given.
|
Inability to write or slow, illegible
handwriting.
|
Provide adequate time or
scribe. Do not
assess strictly for neatness
and handwriting.
In case the child is not
able to write, allow
the child to give a typed
report.
|
Inability to tolerate
minute changes in routine
|
Ensure familiarity and
predictability in
surroundings (seating,
lighting, peers etc.).
|
Involuntary movements
and coordination
problems
|
Have patience and seat the
child in a way
that gives him/her enough
space so as to
not disturb classmates. Give
customized
pencil; make sure book does
not drop off the desk.
Give short breaks out of the
class.
|
To conclude, it is extremely important for
the teachers to understand how to create inclusive classrooms, particularly where
children with special needs are present, teachers must widen their awareness
and skills, and an understanding of key strategies essential to achieving
success.
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