Special Education In India

Information delivery

• Give instructions one at a time and repeat as necessary.
• If possible, work on the most difficult material early in the day.
• Use visuals: charts, pictures, color coding.
• Create outlines for note-taking that organize the information as you deliver it.
• Make sure your child has a quiet, uncluttered place to do homework.
• Help your child with homework, breaking down assignments into smaller tasks and keeping the child focused. Have a regular time for homework and allow for frequent breaks.
• Reinforce study skills such as highlighting, note taking (for older kids), and reading out loud.
• Praise your child for work done well — and remember, “good” is not necessarily the same as “perfect.”
• Check that completed homework and other materials are where they’re supposed to be when your child leaves for school.

Language Arts and Reading Comprehension

To help children who are poor readers improve their reading comprehension skills, try the following instructional practices:

• Silent reading time. Establish a fixed time each day for silent reading (e.g., D.E.A.R.: Drop Everything and Read and Sustained Silent Reading).
• Follow-along reading. Ask the child to read a story silently while listening as you read the story aloud.
• Storytelling: Schedule storytelling sessions where child can retell a story that he or she has read recently.
• Playacting: Schedule playacting  time where the child can role-play different characters in a favorite story.
• Word bank: Keep a word bank or dictionary of new or “hard-to-read” sight-vocabulary words.
• Board games for reading comprehension: Play board games that provide practice with target reading-comprehension skills or sight-vocabulary words.
• Computer games for reading comprehension: Schedule computer time for the child to have drill-and-practice with sight vocabulary words. (ppt can be made).
• “Backup” materials for home use: Make available to child  a second set of books and materials that they can use at home.

Phonics

To help child master rules of phonics, the following are effective:

• Mnemonics for phonics: Teach the child mnemonics that provide reminders about hard-to-learn phonics rules (e.g., “when two vowels go walking, the first does the talking”).
• Word families. Teach the child to recognize and read word families that illustrate particular phonetic concepts (e.g., “ph” sounds, “at-bat-cat”).
• Board games for phonics: Have child  play board games, such as bingo, that allow him to practice phonetically irregular words.
• Picture-letter charts: Use for child who know sounds but do not know the letters that go with them.

Writing

In composing stories or other writing assignments, children benefit from the following practices:

• Standards for writing assignments: Identify and teach the child classroom standards for acceptable written work, such as format and style.
• Recognizing parts of a story: Teach the child how to describe the major parts of a story (e.g., plot, main characters, setting, conflict, and resolution). Use a storyboard with parts listed for this purpose.
• Visualize compositions: Ask the child to close his or her eyes and visualize a paragraph that you read aloud. Another variation of this technique is to ask child to describe a recent event while you close your eyes and visualize what is being said as a written paragraph.
• Proofread compositions: Require that the child proofread his or her work before turning in written assignments. Provide the child with a list of items to check when proofreading his or her own work.
• Ask the child to write with paints on a rough paper. Make him write on a board at home.
• Give him a thick pencil to write.
• To help a child who is poor spellers, the following techniques have been found to be helpful:
• Everyday examples of hard-to-spell words. Take advantage of everyday events to teach difficult spelling words in context. For example, ask a child eating a cheese sandwich to spell “sandwich.”
• Frequently used words: Assign spelling words that the child routinely uses in his or her speech each day.
• Dictionary of misspelled words: Ask the child to keep a personal dictionary of frequently misspelled words.
• Manipulatives: Use cutout letters or other manipulatives to spell out hard-to-learn words.
• Color-coded letters: Color code different letters in hard-to-spell words (e.g., “receipt”).
• Movement activities: Combine movement activities with spelling lessons (e.g., jump rope while spelling words out loud).

Handwriting

Students with ADHD who have difficulty with manuscript or cursive writing may well benefit the following instructional practices:

• Individual chalkboards: Ask the child to practice copying and erasing the target words on a small, individual chalkboard or white board.
• Quiet places for handwriting: Provide the child with a special “quiet place.”
• Spacing words on a page: Teach the child to use his or her finger to measure how much space to leave between each word in a written assignment.
• Special writing paper: Ask the child to use special paper with vertical lines to learn to space letters and words on a page
• Assisting children with time management.
• Children often have difficulty finishing their assignments on time and can thus benefit from special materials and practices that help them to improve their time management skills, including:
• Use a clock or wristwatch: Teach the child how to read and use a clock or wristwatch (for older kids) to manage time when completing assigned work.
• Use a calendar: Teach the child how to read and use a calendar to schedule assignments.
• Practice sequencing activities: Provide the child with supervised opportunities to break down a long assignment into a sequence of short, interrelated activities.
• Create a daily activity schedule: Tape a schedule of planned daily activities to the child's desk.

At home

• Let your child know that you are interested in their school work.
• Set up a study area for him or her that is free from distractions.
• Study time should be part of the child’s routine and schedule.
• Go over your child’s assignments and calculate how much time it will take the child to complete the work.
• Offer incentives to the child who needs extra motivation with school work. This could include watching a program on television, or playing a game with the parent.
• Understand that children do better when they learn things over a period of time. Allowing a child to “cram” for a test is not a good habit to allow.
• Teach your child how to make notes and how to properly review material. (for older kids).
• Set priorities for homework. If a child has a large project, help him or her figure out how to accomplish it by the due date.
• Take control over the television in your home. Do not allow child to do homework in front of the television. It will only take the child longer to complete the work, and less of it will be retained.
• Figure out a good time for homework. Many children do well working on their homework right after they get home from school Others need a break of an hour or more to regroup before tackling their homework.
• Look over your child’s homework after it has been completed.
• Be available to your child when he or she is doing homework to help.
• Attend sports engagements that your child or your child's friends participate in.
• Take them to play in a park full of grass and trees than on a concrete playground as researchers have found that they benefit.

Teaching Patience

• Do not expect children to understand vague responses when they ask you a question.
• If a child asks you when he or she can do something and you say “in a little while” or “in a minute” he or she will become confused and will keep asking. Give your child a meaningful and concrete answer to help him or her understand when something is going to happen. This can be telling a young child “when Mommy is through folding clothes” or “when Daddy gets home from work” When speaking to an older child it could be something like “you can do that when school is over on Friday” or “we will do that at seven o’clock.”
• Follow through with what you have told your children.
• If you have told a child that you would play with him or her after dinner, make sure to do it.
• If you do not follow through with your promises, children will have difficult time learning about patience. This can cause your child to whine and be very demanding.
• Give your children something to do with their time while they have to wait.
• Praise your child when he or she has shown patience.
• Teach your children at a young age that everyone is different, special and beautiful.
• This can be demonstrated to young children by showing them different colors of flowers, plants, birds, people, dolls, dogs, cats, etc.
• This can be pointed out in older children by teaching them about different cultures, races, societies, religions and belief systems.
• Use things in your daily life to show your child about the differences in people.
• This can be demonstrated through a television show, book, and movie or simply walking through a mall.
• Teach a child that no two people think or feel the same way about something. Teach a child to respect the feelings of another.