Special Needs and Learning

Cindy at Apple Stars wrote a beautiful post bringing out some aspects of teaching special needs children that I had skipped too lightly over in my post on Readiness. She writes:
“However, I take exception with trying to connect these ideas with more challenged children, such as those with autism (not high functioning or Asperger’s), Down’s Syndrome, mental retardation, etc.. I have first hand experience in this area, and it is very, very different than just providing an unschooling environment. I have several children with autism and one with other pervasive developmental difficulties. If all it takes is the typical learning environment that values and respects the child’s timeframe, there would be no such thing as autism! There are some biologically different brain structures that prevent a child with autism, for instance, from learning from their environment.”

I do not have Cindy’s experience with severe developmental disabilities in children and I respect her wisdom on the subject. I think she is right to make the qualifier , so I wanted to post it on here. I should note, though, that the book I was commenting on does not support standing back from intervention or merely providing resources. (though I see that what I wrote originally probably sounded that way). Rather, it was talking about suiting the intervention to where the child was at the time, not trying to somehow “catch him up” to his chronological peers by skipping through important developmental steps.

So the focus was on critiqueing certain types of early intervention that look more like applying a band-aid of “scatter-skill” behavior than truly treating the disability at its source. My experience with Aidan’s Early Intervention, for instance, was that it sometimes functioned as a sort of “pre-HeadStart” — teaching the children to sit in circles and accomplish prescribed tasks that had little to do with his developmental level, and often in a behavioristic way that had limited effectiveness for him. I don’t feel he really benefited much from therapy until he got past the EI stage and started working with therapists who were more focused on him as a unique individual.
I am still thinking through how unschooling works with a child with significant developmental disorders. So far, my experience with “unschooling” Aidan has been positive. However, it has definitely been in a context of regular therapy focused on his developmental needs. He sees an occupational therapist weekly and receives speech therapy weekly during the school year. His team of therapists have been extremely helpful in targeting problem areas and giving suggestions for exercises. During the week, I look for ways to put these exercises into his life in natural ways suited to his interests. So there is a mixture of targeted therapy and flexibility. So far that has worked and he has progressed well.

In the spring I wrote an article about special needs for a Catholic newsletter. I’m going to post it here because it goes into more detail about the way I approach Aidan’s learning. I hope it clarifies what I was talking about with the interaction between developmental timetable and living environment. Because it was a homeschool newsletter, the article deals mostly with the academic side of learning, but it’s basically the approach I take with other aspects of his life too.

I should mention that Aidan has cerebral palsy which affects mostly his left side. He also has had many hospitalizations for complications related to his birth condition and subsequent liver transplant. He just turned 7 and functions as a 4 year old. So his delays are significant but moderate. He had less than twenty words at age 3 when he phased out of EI but by now has a pretty sizeable though slightly rigid vocabulary probably comparable to an average 4-5 year old’s.

Aidan learning to walk at age 2

Special Needs in the Homeschool

Aidan is going to be 7 this summer (website www.topm.com/aidan). He is a wonderful child who has some cognitive delays and processing difficulties. He has 5 older siblings, which has given me some experience with the quirks in “typically developing” childrens’ learning. So I have been trying to reflect on what has helped me with them and what parts of that can be applied to Aidan’s education.

First of all, I believe every child can benefit from a Catholic classical education. The goal for an Ignatian education is that the student learn to think, speak and act well, and to be a Christian influence on the sphere in which he lives and works. Aidan will do these things in a different way than his oldest brother who is presently attending Thomas Aquinas College. But the broad goal is the same: they are to do their best in whatever area God has called them to.

Secondly, Ignatian education is meant to aid the student in mastery at whatever level he is capable of. This means that the general methods used are effective for everyone, whatever their natural gifts or limitations might be. The methods are meant to lead to a higher level of achievement than the student would reach if left on his own. In other words, we can help our special needs students be successes in their own ways. A solid grounding in a few key skills is much better than superficial understanding of a scattering of subjects, for everyone, but especially for a child with learning difficulties. We do not have to hurry; we can take things at the child’s pace.

The first step in teaching, whether a lesson or a long-term skill, is preparation. Prelection, or the preview of a lesson, is basically whatever the teacher does ahead of time to prepare the student to learn effectively. Motivation, demonstrating a method, and providing an introduction to the material in the body of the lesson are all elements of a good prelection. These elements are all related to each other. Knowing how to do something ahead of time inspires confidence, which helps with motivation. When a student recognizes parts of the new concept or information already, it connects with knowledge already in his mind. This kind of recognition can also inspire interest because it forges a new connection.

For the special needs student, preparation is especially important. It is important to know what the child’s likely struggles will be so we can know how to lay the groundwork for his learning. For example, knowing Aidan will have trouble with fine motor control, there are lots of things I can do with him during the time (hours, days, or weeks) before we ever sit down to a handwriting lesson. Scribbling on a chalkboard, writing in the sand with a stick, pointing out letters on a license plate and tracing them with our fingers. Preparation for holding a pencil or crayon may include exercises for hand control and strength. The opportunities are everywhere and they don’t have to take long if the child has trouble with attention span.

Because these preparatory activities may take more time with a special needs child, I have found it useful to plan some general goals ahead of time, and list the special difficulties that might be obstacles in the path of the goals. That way, I can look for a variety of different ways to work on the tools he will need. Perhaps an older child could help set some objectives for himself. Knowing that I want Aidan to progress in reading, I look for different ways to find reading in his environment. Since he has trouble with concepts like numbers, we count wherever we can so he has a concrete understanding of how numbers work.

I have noticed that preparation also helps build motivation and confidence in my child, and inspires some interest that might not have been there otherwise. For example, when he sees an “A” on a handwriting page or a reading book, he already recognizes it from several different contexts. If he can already hold a writing instrument comfortably and is familiar with the form of the letter from tracing it in other contexts, he is much more likely to succeed in actually writing it.

Laying the groundwork is important for all children, but even more important for children with learning difficulties, I think. There are benefits for the homeschooling mother, as well. Working with him ahead of time helps me to understand Aidan better: how long he can focus, what he is interested in, what his strengths are, how much repetition he might need. If the groundwork is laid, sometimes the actual lesson itself can be very short. If the lesson seems too difficult for him, I go back to preparation. Sometimes there may be a learning obstacle that I hadn’t noticed, that the lesson itself brings out. Knowing that, I can figure out strategies to work with the difficulty.

Once new material is introduced, repetition and recitation ought to follow in order to consolidate the knowledge. These words simply mean that concepts usually need to be presented several times and that in some way the child should have the opportunity to display what he has learned. In the younger years, or with a delayed child, this can be very informal. When Aidan memorized a short poem, he was thrilled to repeat it to all the members of the family. This provided recitation and repetition at the same time, and inspired confidence and joy. We try to look for lots of ways to celebrate Aidan’s progress both for his sake and ours. This is a great life skill for him to learn!

The goal is mastery of the material or skill. Basically, mastery implies knowing the material well enough to use it easily in a new context. I found that Aidan knew how to write a number 6 when he came up and showed me he had written one on his arm! Patience and flexibility are useful teaching tools to develop with any child, but especially with the special needs student. They lead to perseverance which again, is useful for all students but especially to a student for whom progress is often a challenging as well as a rewarding task.