Learning disabilities is an umbrella term covering a wide range of disorders that affect cognitive processes related to learning. Although it’s sometimes confused with intellectual deficiency, students with a learning disability demonstrate average abilities essential for reasoning or thinking. Learning disabilities may interfere with learning basic skills such as reading, writing, or math. Beyond academics, they may even impact relationships with families, friends, and colleagues.
Factors like genetics and neurobiology can alter brain function. Because of this, a person is unable to carry out normal cognitive functions. Examples of learning disabilities include dyslexia, ADHD, dyscalculia, and processing deficits. These disabilities are often not apparent to others because either a student is reluctant to disclose this information for fear of being stereotyped or is unaware of it.
As a teacher, you can follow these five tips to create an environment inclusive of students with learning disabilities.
1. Gain relevant knowledge
Teachers may often confuse a learning disability with laziness or unwillingness to perform in a traditional classroom. Despite increasing awareness about these disabilities, teachers and parents remain woefully underserved in understanding and addressing them. Therefore, there is a growing demand for special education teachers to cater to students on a broad spectrum of exceptional needs.
Consider upskilling if you wish to provide an all-inclusive classroom setting for your students. Enrolling in programs such as online MAT in Special Education help you learn ways to develop interactive learning experiences without putting your job on hold. Additionally, special education is a gratifying career because all your efforts and hard work might help your students overcome complex challenges.
2. Break lessons into small chunks
Most schools make the biggest mistake of overloading their students with information and classroom lessons. As a result, the students barely retain any knowledge and feel anxious about not knowing anything. Those with learning disabilities suffer even more as their cognitive skills already put them behind everyone else in the class. George Miller, a Harvard psychologist, once determined that people can only handle five to nine pieces of information at a time. He introduced the technique of chunking to help store more knowledge and take advantage of long-term memory.
You can use this technique to break down big lessons into small manageable sections that build upon one another and aid students in learning better. For instance, instead of giving students a long chapter to read for homework, divide it into smaller chunks that will help them understand better without overburdening them.
3. Appeal to multiple senses
It’s important to understand that no two students are the same. Every child, even one with a learning disability, has different strengths and weaknesses. While some students are visual learners, others are kinesthetic learners or prefer audio-based lessons. A school or teacher must identify where a student performs best to plan lessons accordingly.
For audio-based learning, you can:
- Read books aloud or play tapes with stories
- Watch videos that include explanatory audios
- Compose rhymes, poems, chants, or songs to memorize lessons
To address visual learners, you can:
- Hang pictures or posters in the class
- Use colored highlighters to mark information
- Ask students to create artwork
Kinesthetic learners can be encouraged to learn through:
- Designing experiments
- Making models and objects with clay
- Solving puzzles and tracing lessons in the sand
4. Provide regular feedback
When students with learning disabilities enter the classroom, they must face many challenges that pose roadblocks to their learning. One of the most significant factors that impact a student’s growth is receiving effective feedback. And since every student learns differently, the input they receive must also be just as unique. It’s our responsibility as teachers and parents to facilitate students with disabilities through their learning journey so that they can stand an equal chance of facing the world on their own.
To guide your input, you can provide students S.T.R.O.N.G. feedback:
S: Start positive
T: Tie your feedback to the learning target you set earlier
R: Relate to what your student has performed
O: Offer advice or strategy for improvement
N: Nothing standard or generic is helpful
G: Growth and accomplishments are crucial
5. Build meaningful relationships
For any teacher or educator, reaching all students is a challenging task. Each child enters the classroom with diverse backgrounds, struggles, strengths, limitations, and expectations. And while you can’t implement any one strategy that caters to all their needs, you can create a meaningful bond with each of them. Therefore, it is vital to infuse deliberate time and effort into building relationships with your students.
Some strategies you can implement to build relationships are:
- Always offer greetings or salutations to your students. Whether it’s a fist bump, a wave, or even a simple hello,’ greetings go a long way in showing them you care.
- Set out time from your busy schedule to sit with your students and talk to them. Ask them about their interests and see how their responses will help you produce more productive lessons.
- Be honest and open about your vulnerabilities and failures. Teach your students how failure doesn’t define them but is just part of learning.
Conclusion
It’s important to understand that no one strategy, one educational program, or one activity can cater to the needs of all students in your classroom. But, by gaining professional knowledge and identifying individual needs, you can be one step closer to making an all-inclusive environment for students with learning disabilities.
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