This weeks articles were very interesting. While I am not a special education major, I have experience in the field and really appreciate when I am given the opportunity to learn more. I have heard all too many times that teachers feel inadequately prepared for students in their classroom who fall in the special needs spectrum. Of all of the articles we read this week, I found Breitfelder's to be the most helpful. It presented using visual aids in order to benefit students' learning when oral language was unsuccessful. The article was simple and did not try to use fancy pedagogical language in its description; it was fitting for the purposes of a classroom setting. I truly appreciated that the article discussed why it was important to use visual cues and supported these claims with fact based information about certain disabilities. The strategies discussed seem more valid and more effective when I am provided with specific information on how the strategies directly affect certain disabilities.
Even though the strategies have been proven to work, if I did not know what areas they were supposed to target, I would be hesitant to use them. For example, I worked with special needs students this past summer, and I was intrigued by one particular student. He was fairly non-verbal and lacked communication for the most part. Visual aids were a huge part of his day, but it was very important that the visual aids were used correctly. The Breitfelder article has great suggestions for how to represent the picture, but it is also important to be aware of how the pictures will affect the student. This particular student I worked with was absolutely terrified of balloons. He and his parents neglected to tell us this, and our camp was scheduled to see UP! in theaters. We had pictures up during the week which represented the activities we would be doing each day. He saw the picture and began to cry. I really appreciate the Breitfelder article, but I think it is also important that the teacher gather all necessary information, and evaluate how best to use a adaptations and accomodtions, especially visual aids, when working with special needs students.
After reading this article, I couldn't help but think about Marcus. The purpose of the strategies presented by Breitfelder is to avoid the problems that may be caused by the inability to understand verbal language. Marcus is a gifted and talented student who had great difficulty staying on someone else's time schedule. If he were given a daily schedule, or individual task schedules he may have been able to succeed because he could finish each step of the process at his own pace. Of course, there would need to be a beginning and end time, but he demonstrated that he could be successful if he was given warning of the time. I feel that this is a great example of how teachers can use visual schedules regardless of the ability or special need of a student. Yes, it works for different reasons and maybe more effectively with certain types of students, but all students can benefit from a different way of presenting schedules and tasks.
I completely agree with you and the Breitfelder article. I'm not a special ed major either, and I haven't had very many experiences with special education students. But the fact that this article did not use fancy language was very helpful, particularly because I know I wouldn't have been able to understand it.
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the visuals being implemented properly - one thing I have learned from working with severely autistic students is that they don't always take to change well. By beginning a program like this, they will have to be carefully and sensitively exposed to it in the beginning.