Friday, September 6, 2024

How do you know how to address issues which arise associated with learning differences?

I realized you might want to know why I think I can offer advice for kids with learning differences.  My son was diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age.  We all scrambled to find ways to help him learn. He’s a priest and studied in Rome.  Things worked out.   At the last high school where I taught, I had two classes of Chemistry where kids with ADD, ADHD, autism, behavioral disorders, emotional disorders, etc were all thrown into Conceptional Chemistry.  I had these classes for many years.  Most of the kids were assigned to case managers, Special Ed teachers who kept track of their studies and progression.  I worked with team teachers, too.  Some students had an aide.  Many of the kids who didn’t have a defined learning difference spoke English as a second language or were reading at a third grade level.  Was this a circus?  Sometimes.  What did I do?  I learned how to make accommodations.  I talked to everyone! Through trial and error, I learned the kids do much better with hands-on labs or activities.  They completed and competed in Science Fair in groups.  The best reader read labs out loud.  The kid with the best handwriting recorded labs.  A few labs or activities were just to hard.  We scrapped them.  I taught the names of the equipment, reviewed, and immediately tested before the names would leak out of their brains.  I created templates to use for lab reports.  My experience working with a wide variety of kids with learning differences helped me devise a number of strategies.  I’ll share them with you.

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