- Children who find it difficult to communicate may express their frustration in bad temper or aggressive behaviour. This may mean keeping a note of what leads up to the bad behaviour; in other words, trying to establish the triggers.
- Try to keep the classrooms structured and keep the child aware of the pattern of the day – you might use a picture timeline.
- Have a de-stressing area and teach child what to do if he/she feels angry and frustrated.
- Try to seat the child in an area of low distraction at least for some of the time. This could be made particularly attractive and could be made available to the whole class as an area where you go as a reward for hard work and good behaviour.
- Consult a physiotherapist or occupational therapist as to correct seating for the child.
- Allow him/her more space at a table as he/she will fidget more and this is likely to be annoying to those seated close.
- Lighting can affect some children with cerebral palsy. They may need to be seated in front of a light source so that there is no glare.
- Some children with cerebral palsy have poor memories. They may have short concentration span and difficulty in retaining new vocabulary. They may learn better from visual stimuli so it is useful to use picture clues for the main points of the lesson.
- Use reinforcement regularly and from lesson to lesson recalling previously learnt points.
- Chalk and talk is not the best way for children with cerebral palsy to learn. They learn best from sensual experiences, games and pictorial worksheets.
- Mindmaps are good, as are songs and rhymes.
- Children with cerebral palsy can have difficulty with spatial awareness. As well as getting in other people’s way it can cause problems with copying from the blackboard. If possible, get children to copy from paper with enlarged print and/or reduce the amount of writing necessary by using fill the blank activities, joining phrases, points etc.
