Special Ed 2 - Engagement

Recently, I wrote about my love of special education. My introduction to it began in the early 70’s, as a new teacher. Back then, I had always wondered why some of my students, aged 13-16 years old, were struggling academically.  I was puzzled. What had occurred during their formative years, a period of supposed great discovery and language acquisition? What had not happened and why? Then, I became a parent to boys, all born premature and the answers were made clear.

Modern life – as it is now - requires the absolute best from each and every one of us, especially, in the education of our children... One child left behind is one too many. A highly educated populace is critical to the health and wealth of any nation....Education is the foundation upon which our very survival is based.

For the 10-20% who are struggling academically in every elementary school - for reasons of undetermined origin-it behooves us to get involved and act in concert to help all children reach their potential. The influence of parent volunteers can have long term positive effects for a child stuck in a place of darkness. Long waits for  assessments, albeit necessary, are frustrating, painful and only serve to delay, make more onerous and perhaps near impossible the positive changes that could have resulted sooner had an assessment been made  and acted upon within a month. These miscues in an at-risk child’s life are life altering for him and his family. He cannot wait and neither can his ever changing brain.

We are all slow in something, I believe. For those children experiencing serious intellectual delays, we must focus more on engagement and less on curriculum. The teacher should be allowed to teach as much or as little depending upon the mood of the class that day while keeping an eye on the ball: the academic goals that must be met by year’s end. A need to alter the daily learning plan for the class should trump any academic goals planned that week. Would it make sense to sit down and just discuss the grade’s objectives or a current problem in the class while eating an ice cream cone or popsicle from the room’s freezer?  Yes. It would.  Sometimes, it is more prudent to remove stress from the minds of young children through activities they know than it is to focus on curriculum, at all costs. Group discussions in a relaxed atmosphere can bring about immeasurable change and comfort to the class and open the door to further learning and discovery. For the at-risk child, fun disguised as learning is the desired goal...(a baby cannot learn if it is not having fun.)...A ritual of success can be established in this way leading to more and more successful outcomes at the end of the day for each and every student in the class. The engagement of the whole child in the above scenario will go a long way to improving his learning and sense of self.

Every child in the primary special needs classroom is a potential teacher, assistant, or trouble shooter.  We must not debate who is capable of leadership. We must step aside and let the games begin. The more that is expected of a child in a fast paced learning environment, the more that he will achieve. Children live up to the expectations expected of them....  Next week – the focus on 6 senses of the body and their impact on the at-risk mind........