The research on the benefits of social-emotional learning SEL as a lever for academic learning is more than compelling. Indeed, for students with learning disabilities, one of the key factors for academic success is having support systems, like caring adults who help them navigate the challenges they face. The good news is, educators can be a daily dose of buffering care for children with special needs, just by connecting on a personal level with their students.
When students and indeed adults feel safe, seen, and supported, they experience more positive emotions, which boosts cognitive resources for learning. And, yes, there are ways to engender genuine moments of connection, even on Zoom. Here are three resources that will get children ready for learning by building connection first:.
While connection is the foundation for all learning, there are also universal design tactics for distance learning that will help all students with engagement. However, students with special needs will undoubtedly need more than connection and a cool Zoom engagement trick to succeed. Just like in the classroom, specialized support is often needed.
Many students with special needs have challenges with independent learning. They often need specialized instruction and more scaffolded support, such as having tasks broken down for them into more manageable chunks, visual aids, and frequent check-ins to ensure they are on the right track.
In the classroom, teachers can give instant feedback and support. Students may also get pull-out services with specialists to teach them needed skills for focus, problem-solving, and emotional or behavioral self-regulation. One of the strategies that came up over and over in my online communities was using individual and small-group breakout rooms on Zoom.
This extra support can be done for longer blocks of time to do entire tasks together, or short check-ins before independent work to make sure the student knows what to do in a breakout room and has an opportunity to ask clarifying questions.
Instructions on how work can be modified to the just-right level can also be communicated in this time. For instance, the student can be given reading assignments at their instructional level, alternative assignments that meet the same learning target, or shortened assignments that emphasize quality over quantity, such as doing every other math problem in the time period.
For example, one school psychologist in the Thriving School Psychologist community created a Bitmoji classroom full of online calming strategies for children who need a brain break, mindfulness activity, movement break, or self-regulation tool to use when they were overwhelmed. The teacher offered this to students who appeared to be struggling, and as a proactive strategy to prevent overwhelm in the first place. One of the challenges for students with special needs is that their support is more disjointed and remote.
This is why building out a team of support is even more critical than ever before. Grouping two general education students with one special education student as buddies bypasses another roadblock by ensuring that students interact with each other. Play is not the only way schools foster social inclusion, though.
Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia brings middle and high school students with and without disabilities together to engage in service projects , giving them all a chance to develop relationships with their peers and do something useful for their community.
Inclusion efforts can be simpler than that, too: Special and general education students at Salem Junior High and Salem High School in Ohio meet once a month in the library to have lunch and do activities together. Working toward social inclusion can be as simple as talking with general education students about students with disabilities. In fact, federal law says that kids who get special education services should learn in the same classrooms as other kids as much as possible.
This is known as the least restrictive environment or LRE. The services and supports for one student may be very different from those of another student. For example, some students may spend most of the day in a general education classroom. Others may spend just an hour or two in a resource room working with a specialist. And others might need to attend a different school that specializes in teaching kids with learning disabilities.
They get individualized teaching and other resources at no cost to their families. Specialists work with kids on strengths as well as challenges. And families are key members of the team that decides what kids need to thrive in school. It requires public schools to provide special education services to children ages 3 to 21 who meet certain criteria. To qualify, a student must:. Have a documented disability in one of the 13 documented categories covered by IDEA, and.
Access is an important term in education. Making learning accessible to kids with disabilities means finding ways to remove the barriers to their learning. School districts have a process in place to determine which students are eligible for special education.
This process involves a full evaluation that looks at the ways kids think.
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