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Determining Special Education Needs (How can Differentiated instruction be…
Determining Special Education Needs
How can Differentiated instruction be used to assist?
Process at school
Scaffolding is effective because sometimes a student only struggles with part of a lesson or assignment.
Process at Home
Provide a challenge that is just beyond what your
child can already do easily by him or herself.
Give prompts.
Ask questions.
Model the steps involved.
Praise your child for attempting the task, not just for succeeding.
Watch to see if your child is
struggling or becoming frustrated,
as these may be signs that the task is too hard.
Source for information:
DI works to build self-esteem, independence, confidence and a sense of accomplishment
Model out loud. Wait to be needed and provide what's necessary
Create an atmosphere to inspire a love for learning
Arrange the classroom to be a sanctuary of accessible materials to learn.
Work one on one with the child.
Create tasks that expose the
strengths and weaknesses of
the student to truly get a sense
of how that particular student learns
Divide the class into groups so they feel they
have allies and don’t feel singled out.
How do teachers involve parents in helping Struggling students?
Teachers are not allowed to determine learning disabilities only special staff
or administrators can observe and make decisions. It protects the teachers.
No surprises, letting parents know their child is
struggling with certain aspects of learning or behavior issues.
Explaining timelines and expectations of the student progress.
Parent-teacher conferences.
Talk about behavior at home and in school.
Parents are involved with their child every day but
not every parent understands or can recognize learning disabilities.
Sometimes parents expect too much
from their child which can add stress to the student's school performance.
Talk about expectations for the age group
and timelines for certain cognitive and motor skills.
How do you determine if a student should be referred to SES?
Recognize red flags.
Diagnosis doesn’t start till 6 or 7 years old in most cases.
A teacher will assign a task with a benchmark and a timeline.
If timeline and benchmark are missed the teacher will adjust the task
or try another approach with a new benchmark and
timeline and try to determine if the student needs special education.
A person from the school's SAIL
Special Assistance In Learning
department will then monitor the student in the
classroom setting and make further observations.
What is the school administration’s directive for special education?
The school does a thorough
interview with incoming
families to determine
if the school is right for the child.
The school has a SAIL department, Special Assistance In Learning, but it does not cover special education needs.
The school will assist in finding help for
the student if it is determined
there is a learning disability.
We are a private school so we don’t have to
offer special needs or disabilities
like public schools do.
What are the signs of a struggling student?
Working hard but doesn’t make progress
Fidgety, can’t sit still
Acting out, runs around, distracts other from doing their work.
Change in behavior, Acting differently during different tasks.
Can’t engage, looking out the window during lessons, introverted.
Visibly nervous
Summary of Interviews
Summary: All three staff members were very similar with their answers. I’m always aware of the whole school meetings and the smaller group meetings going on in the school. It definitely has an impact of how all of the teachers and staff are all on the same page without much deviation in their knowledge of policy and procedure. My school takes a very conservative approach to any diagnosis of a learning disorder. All three staff members talked about exhausting the possibilities of strategies and scaffolding the learning process before taking further action. All three said the involvement of the parents is crucial to handling the needs of the student and moving them forward into a love of learning. This creating a love of learning through positive classroom experience is the core of Montessori learning approach.