Special Education StrategiesA Quick Guide for Teachers

What is Special Education?

A student who qualifies for special education receives specifically designed instruction in the regular education classroom and in the special education classroom that meets their individual needs. Services provided by the public school system are free of charge. Students identified as having learning disabilities can range from mild to severe and include mental, physical, behavioral, and emotional disabilities.

13 Categories of Special Education• Autism• Blindness• Deafness• Emotional Disturbance• Hearing Impairment• Intellectual Disability • Multiple Disabilities • Orthopedic Impairment• Other Health Impaired• Specific Learning Disability• Speech or Language Impairment• Traumatic Brain Injury• Visual Impairment

Strategies in the Classroom • Reading

• Writing

• Math

• Behavior

• Speech/Language

Reading

Reading Strategies• Make certain he/she is reading material on his/her level• Have them verbally paraphrase material• Highlight or underline important information the student reads• Reduce the amount of material to be read at one time; gradually increase it• Have the student use a highlighter to highlight the facts required by the

teacher• Create a list of weekly words to be reinforced at home• Modify or adjust reading materials to the student’s ability level• Have the student read aloud daily• Assign a peer tutor or volunteer to read with him/her• Give additional time to reread a selection

Writing

Writing Strategies • Highlight or underline all the capitalized words or punctuation marks in

a selection and have the student identify why each is used

• Engage in authentic, real life writing activities like letters to friends

• Use graphic organizers

• Help the student read aloud his works to identify errors in organization

• Have the student read a peer’s writing that is well organized

Math

Math Strategies • Make sure an inability to read is not the source of the problem

• Highlight or underline key words in word problems

• Provide sufficient time to grasp new math concept

• Continuous practice of basic facts

• Post multiplication and division charts if not checking fluency

• Peer tutor

• Spiral Curriculum

Behavior

Behavior Strategies• Given a number of items to do, allow the student to choose which problems to

complete• Communicate clearly the time limit for completion• Communicate daily with parents in an agenda• Maintain close proximity to the student• Assign shorter tasks; gradually increase the length as the student is successful• Avoid arguing with the student • Be consistent in expectations and consequences of behavior • Avoid frustrating or anxiety producing situations • Talk to the student about what he/she did wrong and what they should do

instead

Speech/Language

Speech/Language• Teach new vocabulary within the context of known categories or

associations

• Allow the student to speak without being interrupted or hurried

• Demonstrate acceptable and unacceptable speech

• Ask questions to stimulate language instead of yes/no questions

• Encourage verbal output.