Strategies for Students with Disabilities: How to Make Learning More Effective

Any curriculum that a teacher is using in the classroom can be adapted for students with learning disabilities. Effective learning strategies for students with disabilities will ensure these children grasp new lessons presented. It is important that educators introduce new material in a way that the whole class will understand.

Students with learning disabilities need visual aids, graphic organizers and may need to process only one aspect of a lesson at a time. Having harder lessons recorded for learning disabled students will help them remember the material better. Presenting key information on the chalkboard or on a chart and restating what is written will give these students more clarity. Using an overhead projector during instruction is also effective because it provides a visual aid.

Teachers can also show these students how to underline important information. Educators can teach students mnemonic devices that will help them remember new material as well. Having handicapped students answer questions about the lesson is an effective way to examine if these children understand.

It is important to make sure that learning disabled children understand new material introduced before deciding to move on to the next lesson. Instruction should be presented at a speed where learning disabled students will be able to grasp the new information and not get lost. If their pace is rushed these students will fall behind. This is why instruction needs to be individualized for these students.

Learning strategies for students with disabilities need to be concrete and presented as clearly as possible. A learning disabled child should not just be told to do an assignment. The handicapped child needs to be shown what steps are needed to complete the assignment. The teacher can do this by modeling how to do an assignment.

The educator should make sure that the learning disabled student understands how to do work that is assigned. This can be done by repeating instructions and having the child recite what the educator wants done. If there is any misunderstanding from the learning disabled student the instructor should correct the child before the child has begun to work. The teacher can also use a scoring guide and show specific examples of work that would result in different grades. She should have an example of the completed result so that the students can visualize what the assignment should be like when it is completed.

Teachers should not just stand up in front of the classroom and lecture. This causes the learning disabled student to lose interest or misunderstand various aspects of the lesson. Having students actively engage in the classroom makes learning more hands on. Learning disabled students can come up in front of the class to the board and answer problems with assistance from the teacher. These children can be grouped together with other students to interact, share and learn from others. The teacher can have the students read together as a class or paired with another child. Learning disabled children will become active in this type of classroom environment and will learn more than if they were just to sit.