How to Teach Children With Special Needs at Home During a Pandemic
Homeschooling is proving to be a challenge for almost everyone involved in the coronavirus pandemic, but this new educational reality is especially harsh for one particular population: students who require special education and their parents.
The needs of these students are more varied and more subtle than the needs of traditional education, which can leave parents feeling overwhelmed and helpless. As Jackie Spinner wrote in the Washington Post :
I am really worried that my autistic son will lose – or may not be able to retain – his skills while he studies at home. This worries many parents of children with different educational needs, and for good reason.
There is no guide to getting you through this unprecedented time, but we’ve put together a few ways you can help educate your special needs child and hopefully maintain your sanity.
Follow the schedule
Children need structure, and this is especially true for those with functional needs. “It can mean being tough,” says Swann Nolan, a special education teacher at Harris Elementary School in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
“Most of the kids in my class do well in structure,” she says. “They can’t put it into words or tell you they like it, but they have a hard time making a difference. The more you can do to stay on schedule, the better.
“One way to help your students stay on schedule is to stick to it,” says Adam O’Neill, a world history teacher at Manhattan High School in Kansas who teaches special educated students. Don’t worry about reading from 9 am to 10 am and math from 2 pm to 3 pm. Instead, it is about “reading in the morning” and “math in the afternoon.”
Because many students with functional needs respond well to verbal cues, another special education teacher tells Edutopia that in addition to displaying a timetable board with images of activities, a ringing kitchen timer can remind students of the school bell telling them to move on to the next activity.
Use what you have at home
Nolan sends families what she calls “daily additions,” which include sample schedules and activities that use items that many have in the home, such as edible clay with powdered sugar or marshmallow slime .
Jamie Derochers, director of special education at the Pennsylvania Distance Learning Charter School, suggested to NPR that instead of using cubes to count, for example, parents could use pasta. In an area lesson, students can count the number of tiles in the kitchen or the number of steps required to cross a room. And they can learn mathematical concepts by measuring out the ingredients in a recipe.
Match items to your child’s interests
As with any child, it is easier for a student with functional needs to pay attention to engaging work. To make class fun, Heather Haynes Smith, assistant professor at Trinity University in Texas, suggests tailoring lessons to suit your child’s interests.
One way Smith does this, she told the Washington Post , is to adapt what she teaches to what her son does. If he is playing with trains, she will use a book or dry-erase board to help him find the words that rhyme with “train,” or ask him to compose a story about trains.
Know where your child is studying
Parents of children with IEP or Individualized Education Program probably already familiar with the goals and adaptations of his disciples, but that does not mean that they know how to achieve these goals and to implement these devices.
Karin Fisher, assistant professor of elementary and special education at Georgia Southern University, told the Washington Post that parents should simply reach out to their students’ teachers and ask them. Nolan, a special education teacher at Fort Wayne, says she tries to answer her parents’ questions, but knows it’s not easy for them. In some cases, parents are important workers in restaurants or gas stations, and may be slightly off-duty with their children. Others work from home or have other children in school who have a more specific to-do list at school.
“People have a choice right now,” says Nolan. “It’s not beautiful. I just want them to know that I am ready to help them if they want to. “
Refer to Teacher Approved Resources
In a recent daily issue, Nolan included a link to an online video storyline of Chris Pine reading Clark’s Shark , a book on reflection. Parents can provide examples of being considerate from the Be Kind People project and then ask their children which of four examples are indicative of being considerate:
- Remove the bag from the chair so someone can sit down.
- Do not cover up a sneeze while sitting with a friend on the bus.
- Screaming for someone to hurry up at the drinking fountain.
- Sharing markers across your desk.
The wholly online PA Distance Learning Charter School uses PresenceLearning to help with special education services that are traditionally provided in person, such as various forms of therapy, according to NPR .
Peoria Public Schools in Illinois also posted in Twitter a list of YouTube channels, owned by another school, which include categories such training as social / emotional, natural sciences, relaxing / soothing and speech.
Be kind to yourself
What if you have a Zoom meeting at 10 a.m. that coincides with your general education student’s distance history lesson when your special education student wants to work on sensory play? Do you have only one device? And none of your kids can work on their own like Spinner, the Washington Post writer?
It is difficult for my kindergartner to focus on a task, especially when asked to write what he doesn’t like. My autistic son has a dedicated school assistant, and while he is much better at doing his job on his own, at least at home, he needs a lot more help than an average second grader.
At no other stage in history could this problem arise.
There is an understanding that education will be minimal now, says O’Neill, a world history teacher from Kansas. Moms and dads cannot provide such a dynamic learning environment as in the classroom, and that’s okay.
“It’s probably difficult for parents to understand now that teaching is very well thought out,” he says. “Teachers understand better that it is difficult to meet students where they are. This takes some experience. It takes some effort. It takes some planning. “
This is a tough time and, according to O’Neill, it’s important to understand.
“Parents lost their jobs or lost income,” he says. “They work from home. The graphs are inverted. Students lack social interactions. They lack the purpose and meaning of drama, art, sports, or a band. All those things that students are looking forward to are byproducts of how we teach, all of these things are also taken away. I think we all need to be careful to understand what’s going on in everyone’s life. “