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’s development 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 Team work 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.

Prof.(Dr.) Tandra Sharma

Professor of Education

Jagannath Institute of Education

JEMTEC, Greater Noida.

DCharacteristic Strategies