Javeria Shahid A Quick Guide
Understanding that the learning goals of students with developmental delays go beyond scholastic success is crucial when working with them. Students with developmental delays may exhibit symptoms of inattention, aggression, and a lack of social skills despite the fact that those things are essential. To successfully reach every student in your classroom, you must use a variety of instructional strategies that are tailored to their individual learning needs.
Understanding developmental delays
Thinking and everyday abilities are delayed in young children with developmental delays or intellectual disability/global developmental delay. They might have delays in their motor, language, and social abilities, among other areas. These children may struggle to learn, so they require more time and assistance to pick up new skills. They might find it challenging to follow directions with multiple steps. It can be difficult for them to control their behavior and feelings. The developmental stages of young children can differ greatly. Early intervention can frequently lead to improvements in thinking and everyday activities in children who initially appear to be behind.
Teaching Children with Developmental Delay
There is much more to an effective special education program than just incorporating innovative teaching methods for students with
For instance, the decorations found in many classrooms might distract students who learn and think differently. Try dividing up the classroom with furniture like shelves to establish distinct limits that can be helpful to many students for a more well-organized learning environment. Then, evaluate the curriculum and resources you have available, and be sure to discuss with your administrators what you need to do to ensure that students succeed.
Finally, keep in mind that even though these suggestions may be labeled as classroom activities, many of them work well at home, in daycare environments, and in day programs for students with developmental delays. It might be beneficial to explain your classroom procedures to the parents so that they can, whenever feasible, practice using them at home.
Effective teaching strategies for students with developmental delays
Here are some suggestions for classroom adjustments for students with developmental delays:
Encourage social interaction through different activities
Students with developmental delays are occasionally excluded from social encounters with their typical classmates. Although there are many reasons why identified students might not be completely a part of social groups. You can take steps to encourage relationships between special needs and typical children:
- Provide the student with “helping roles” like passing out snacks or providing other students’ work materials. Encourage the student to converse with peers in a socially acceptable manner e.g., ” Would you like to have a snack?”.
- Other students will feel more at ease around the identified student and will likely have more favorable perceptions of the child the more often they have neutral or positive interactions with that student.
- Give the child simple ways for interacting socially with others. Showcase and emulate these techniques. After the child has a chance to test them out, provide feedback and encouragement. Train the student, for instance, to inquire of a friend, “What’s that?” whenever he or she notices something strange in the immediate vicinity. Or demonstrate to the student how to address a group and request to participate in a game or other activity e.g., “Can I join your game?”.
- Training typical peers to serve as “social interaction coaches” who can constructively role-model social interaction for identified children is a similar idea.
- If a student is preoccupied with a specific subject related to classwork, the instructor may be able to use them as a peer resource. For instance, a kid with autism who is fluent in geography or astronomy may participate in a review session. They may respond to inquiries from other students who are revising for a test.
How do “group ambassadors” or peer buddies help?
The instructor can designate one of the typical students to serve as the “group ambassador” whenever groups are formed in the classroom. The “group ambassador” is in charge of:
- Welcoming new members,
- Making sure everyone knows how to engage in group activities,
- And providing extra support and guidance to any student who requires it.
“Group ambassadors” need to be taught how to identify when a student might need help. And how to do so in a manner that is encouraging and non-intrusive.
If the child has a teaching assistant designated, have the assistant prepare the peers in the room to offer academic support while the assistant watches from a distance. Children can be “signed up” to assist an identified child’s peer learning on a rotating basis. This tactic will motivate the identified child to consider all of the other people as potential supporters.
When a child with special needs is moving around the building, playing outside, or attending assemblies or other activities, pair them up with a peer buddy. To give the identified child a chance to make friends and avoid relying too heavily on any one student for support, choose various students to act as peer buddies.
Guide students in the classroom using visual cues
When there are clear visual cues to lead them through the classroom’s physical area, children with developmental delays can become much more independent. You could, for instance: Use boundary markers to demarcate the boundaries between areas that are used for various purposes, such as furniture such as bookcases or other barriers, rugs, and colored tape on the floor. Children find it simpler to understand when they are in a play area, a study area, etc. when there are clearly marked boundaries. Of course, the majority of the classroom area is utilized for various uses.
Signs or other visual cues can be used in multi-use spaces to indicate that the area is being used for a specific activity at a particular moment. To indicate that snacks are about to be served, you might, for instance, make a sign with the words “Snack time” and an image of kids consuming snacks and place it on a table.
Place popular classroom supplies, such as school supplies and games, on reachable shelves or in transparent storage bins. When appropriate, label these items with both words and images. Teach students the steps you want them to take in order to access the materials, such as
- Raising their hands first
- Asking the teacher for approval
- And then going to the supply shelf to pick up a pencil
Have a clear and predictable daily plan
Students with developmental delays and typically developing students both seek discipline and stability in their school day. But when confronted with an unanticipated change in their daily routine, children with special needs can occasionally react more strongly than their peers without disabilities. When making daily schedules, be careful to adapt the format to the child’s level of development:
The “schedule” would be made up of objects that stand in for schedule items for a young child who cannot read or doesn’t understand that images are representations of real objects and events. For instance, a wrapped snack bar could stand in for snack time. And a book could stand in for circle time when the instructor reads aloud to the class. The schedule can have images for each planned event to make it easier for people who can’t read to understand. For example, a picture of the occupational therapist might denote a weekly pullout OT appointment. The schedule pairs images with text that describes the day’s activities for beginning readers.
How daily plans can be useful?
All of the children in the room are affected by the events on the daily timetable for the classroom. For students who receive extra or alternative services and support, teachers can also develop individualized schedules. But keep in mind that plans are only useful when followed. Prior to the start of the school day, students should check their schedules. Students cross off each action they have completed on their schedule or make another indication that the activity is finished, such as removing the image of the activity from the schedule board. When a student’s schedule item is abruptly rescheduled, teachers may discover that the student will adapt to the change more quickly if the teacher and the student review the schedule together and revise it to reflect the changed plan for the day.
Help students apply learned knowledge in different situations
Make a strategy to assist the student in applying what they have learned in different contexts and circumstances. Students with developmental delays are likely to require specific programming in order to transfer the skills they have learned in one classroom environment to other environments or circumstances.
Only teach a few “key” skills at once to give yourself enough time to work with the student on generalizing each one they have learned. List additional situations or scenarios during which you would like your student to demonstrate a skill after they have mastered it in one. After that, develop a training program to assist the student in applying the skill in these new situations.
For example, if a child succeeds at giving polite greetings in your classroom, you might take them to the school’s main office or elsewhere in the neighborhood, prompting them to do so, and then praise or reward them for a job well done.
Inform the parent, speech therapist, and regular education instructor, among others, about the abilities the identified student has attained. Give them suggestions on how to motivate the student to use the ability in a new situation or with new people and how to praise the student for doing so.
Increase student motivation
The “engine” that propels student participation and learning is motivation. Try the following strategies to inspire the students you work with:
Alternate between tasks that are more and less preferred. When they are aware that a fun or interesting activity is waiting for them at the end of a challenging assignment. Students are more likely to give it their all. This is known as the Premack Principle.
Adjust the duration and pace of academic tasks. Give the child choices that are meaningful and allow them some control and autonomy in the classroom. For instance, you might advise the student to
- Choose a book to read for an assignment
- Decide which task they will tackle first
- Pick a spot in the room to study
- Or choose a classmate to act as a study partner
Whenever you can, incorporate options into your schoolwork.
Before the student begins an activity, give verbal prompts (pre-correction) to encourage success. Phrase your prompt to reflect what you want to see the child do. For instance, ‘Robert, please get your math notebook and a sharpened pencil and join our math group at the back table,’ rather than what you want the student to stop doing. Adapt your vocabulary and grammar to the child’s developmental stage. Avoid using too many words.
Make sure your instructions are well understood
Instruct students using language they can comprehend. To aid the student in understanding the instructions, provide visual cues such as hands-on demonstrations and modeling, objects, and pictures as necessary. Encourage and direct the student as they go through the performance order.
Before providing instructions, make sure the student is paying attention. Even when paying attention to you, children with disabilities may not always establish eye contact. Watch out for additional indicators of attentiveness, such as an alert posture, an orientation towards you, a halting of other activities, and verbalizations. Include in your instructions additional material that will help the child understand the following four questions:
- How much effort is involved in completing this task?
- How precisely should I proceed?
- When will I work on it?
- What will I get in return for all this effort?
Best practice tips
Asking parents for assistance: To determine the best method to work with and support the child, consult the parents and the child’s support team. Parents can assist you in identifying a child’s special talents and areas in which they require additional support.
Divide skills into smaller chunks: In order to help students learn a skill, educators may need to divide it initially into manageable chunks.
Have a regular schedule: Routines aid a child in learning appropriate behavior. When children know what to anticipate, they frequently feel more secure.
Make a supportive environment available: Some children may lack confidence. Recognize efforts and promote participation.
Simplify instructions: Some students might need easy-to-follow instructions which may need to be retold multiple times. Repeat using basic language.
When providing instructions, lessen background noise: To ensure that all children can hear you and pay attention to you, minimize distractions and background noise when providing instructions. You may need to face the children away from the distractions behind you.
Watch: [How to help a child with Global Developmental Delay]
Keep in mind
It is crucial to keep in mind the significance of encouraging proper social interaction when creating your own teaching strategies for your classroom. Avoid making the student feel more isolated in the classroom by doing things that will point them out. One method to prevent that is by using age-appropriate materials. The chance for interaction will be provided by using activities that are similar to those of peers who are the same age. By taking these actions, the student can engage with others more comfortably and peers will be more likely to do the same. In this way, the educational process will be more enjoyable and advantageous for the learner.
We hope you found this article useful in learning more about effective teaching strategies for students with developmental delays.
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