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 Special Education Needs

  TEACHING STRATEGIES TO HELP WITH
SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS -

TEACHING PUPILS WITH SPEECH & LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES

Auditory Processing Problems Expressive Disorders Receptive Disorders (Elective) Mutism
  • Teach prepositions one at a time, perhaps using visual reinforcement.

  •  Use gestures, repetition and choose words at the child's level of difficulty.

  •  Talk to pupils as much as possible, using slower speech rate, shorter remarks, simpler sentences, repetition, exaggeration and gestures.

  •  Choose questions carefully giving pupils opportunities to use language; how? Why? If - then ...  Avoid closed questions with yes/no answers.

  •  Encourage games which use the senses.

  •  Play games that talk about making mistakes, then "fixing them".  E.g. If I said "I want a baw" I would have to fix it and say, "I want a ball." 

  •  Reinforce self-corrections.  i.e. if a child makes a mistake and corrects it himself, then praise him and say, "Well done, you fixed that up by saying 'ball'".

  •  Use labelled praise.  E.g. "You read that well.  I really heard the ch sound in cheese."

  •  Make modelled corrections.  E.g. child says, "Look at the bat cat".  You respond by saying, "Yes, a black cat, a dark black one."

  •  Don't ask the child repeatedly to say the correct word over and over.  Just say it yourself several times so that the child will notice.

  •  Verbalise thoughts and actions as they happen.

  •  Use role play to give children opportunities to work in pairs where they take turns at being speaker and listener

  • Encourage an atmosphere where children are not afraid to ask for clarification.

  • Try to find a 'buddy' for the child with speech difficulties - very often children can communicate better through each other.

  • Use carefully graded reading books.  Oxford Literacy Scheme publish a list of commonly used books and have graded them according to difficulty.

Auditory Processing

  • Play listening games where children have to listen for the sounds around them.  You could also record common sounds and ask children to identify them.

  • In science use containers with different contents and get children to identify them by shaking.

  • In music have children close eyes while teacher taps out a rhythm.  Children can try to count the beats or can repeat pattern back.

  • With closed eyes try to teach children to discriminate between near and far sounds, loud and soft sounds, high and low sounds.

  • Play find the sound where a ticking clock or a music box is hidden.

Expressive Disorders

  • Teach vocabulary through examples and demonstrations.

  • Keep instructions simple.

  • Prepositions are best taught one at a time.

  • Encourage children to speak by asking open-ended questions such as How? and Why?

  • Verbalise actions as you do them.

  • Have short role plays where child takes alternate parts in turn.

Receptive Disorders

  • Use gestures to help child understand your instructions.

  • Talk to the child in short simple sentences.

  • Encourage children to explore through their senses and talk about what they see, feel, hear etc.

Sample Phonics Lesson (pdf)

Prepositions worksheet 1  (for young children) (pdf)

Preposition worksheet 2 (pdf)

Rhythm Rhyme (pdf)

(Elective) Mutism

  • Think about using a picture exchange system. Take photographs of the child doing the activities he/she likes to begin with and also drink and items he/she would like to eat for break. This would be a starting point for helping him/her to communicate some choices. When he/she chooses the activity make sure she gives it to a member of staff who will say what is in the picture and encourage the child to do likewise.
  • If the child can read, could she read the book onto a tape on her own and bring it back for you to listen to? Then you will hear the voice but not directly.
  • Sometimes a child can be encouraged to read with partner onto tape and then in small group again onto tape. Plays were good for this.
  • Talk to the child and alternate with talking to a puppet! Get the puppet to answer . After a while the pupil hopefully will take the puppet away and converse with it. In time the hope would be that the child will converse with a puppet held by an adult with the adult talking through the puppet. Another idea is to have a bring small pets day and encourage the child to talk to a pet!
  • Another idea to try is having a small group of pupils sitting in a small comforting circle and saying easy things out loud round the circle eg counting a number each. You may be able to recite rhymes that had already been done with your whole class etc,
  • What about passing a soft toy as you say numbers, rhymes etc, emphasis on toy not what they are doing. Rewards can be given for even a slightest utterance e.g. clips which child then hooked together; again emphasis on doing something rather than correct production of language. A puppet for each person in group is another idea. (Ideas from Anne Stockdale, SENCO forum)
  • When trying to assess these pupils for oral examination you are going to have to be creative; You need to choose the best environment for him/her. Consider using a phone between pupil and examiner. Could you tape the questions and get the child to listen to and respond at home?

Resources

Communication Plan Reflexes, Learning & Behaviour; a window into the child's mind, by Sllay Goodard. This book includes an article by a 17 year old talking about the difficulties of elective mutism.

http://www.selectivemutism.org/read.htm

 

 

 

Further Information

Causeway Trust (Tel. 028 2766 6600) in conjunction with NEELB and Homefirst Community Trust (Tel: 028 2563 3700 have produced a booklet, "An Introduction to Coping with Speech and Language Difficulties in the Classroom" (March 2000).

 

   

Acknowledgements & Copyright