Teachers can be great allies in keeping your child with learning disabilities safe and successful in school, but you'll need to make sure they have all the knowledge they need to help. Use these suggestions to create a information packet to bring educators up to speed.
Five Things Teachers Need to Know
1. My child sometimes misbehaves, becomes distracted, or shuts down to hide his difficulty with schoolwork. Academic strategies will solve the problem better than disciplinary ones.
2. My child may be embarrassed to ask for help. Please help her get it in a way that is not socially stigmatizing.
3. Teaching strategies intended for children with learning disabilities will help my child learn better and make him easier for you to deal with.
4. Though my child has some areas of weakness, she also has areas of great strength. Please use these to give her experiences of success.
5. Please keep the lines of communication open between our home and the school. My child needs all the adults in his life working together.
Tips for Teachers
[The following tips are excerpted from Learning Disabilities, a publication of the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities.]
Seize the opportunity to make an enormous difference in this student's life! Find out and emphasize what the student's strengths and interests are. Give the student positive feedback and lots of opportunities for practice.
Review the student's evaluation records to identify where specifically the student has trouble. Talk to specialists in your school about methods for teaching this student. Provide instruction and accommodations to address the student's special needs. Examples include breaking tasks into smaller steps and giving directions verbally and in writing; giving the student more time to finish schoolwork or take tests; letting the student with reading problems use textbooks-on-tape; letting the student with listening difficulties borrow notes from a classmate or use a tape recorder; and letting the student with writing difficulties use a computer with specialized software that spell checks, grammar checks, or recognizes speech.
Learn about the different testing modifications that can really help a student with LD show what he or she has learned.
Teach organizational skills, study skills, and learning strategies. These help all students but are particularly helpful to those with LD.
Work with the student's parents to create an educational plan tailored to meet the student's needs.
Establish a positive working relationship with the student's parents. Through regular communication, exchange information about the student's progress at school.
Printouts to Share with Teachers
Accommodations, Techniques and Aids for Learning
Source: Learning Disabilities Association of America
Good Classroom Teaching for All Kinds of Learners
Source: Ennis William Cosby Foundation
Accommodations for Students with LD
Source: National Center for Learning Disabilities
Strategies for Teaching Students with Learning Disbilities
Source: West Virginia University
Assistive Technology
Source: National Center for Learning Disabilities
