I do not have much experience with speech and language disorders. I worked for a long time in preschools, so I do have some experience with emerging language, and some children developed their language faster and more deftly than others, but at a preschool level most speech delays are not diagnosed yet. Many speech delays straighten out before kindergarten.
My own daughter turned 5 and was still not pronouncing her L's, K's, or G's. I had been working with her on flashcards, trying to get her to pronounce these sounds. When she turned 5, I became concerned. She would be starting kindergarten in a few months and she was calling it "tinderdarden". I called the school district and made an appointment for my daughter with the speech pathologist, 3 weeks away. During the next 2 weeks, my daughter started pronouncing all of her letters correctly. I cancelled the appointment, and my daughter never had any speech problems again. Some speech problems are temporary, and some are permanent. In early childhood, language can develop slower than "normal". Some impairments require accommodations. The media portrays people with speech impairments as people with intellectual impairment. The media is reflective of our culture, and our culture is mean and exclusionary. People with speech impairments are different, and people who are different get ridiculed. It's terrible, but it is true. When I thought about a famous person with a speech impediment, Elmer Fudd was the first to come to mind. But then I thought about a real human example and I thought of Mike Tyson. People will make fun of Mike Tyson's lisp, but never to his face. I found this great video of Mike Tyson 30 years ago, on the Joan Rivers Show. Young Mike Tyson was so soft spoken, level-headed, and humble. https://youtu.be/1C9dNG1-uIc
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Teachers, parents, and community members can all find much valuable information on autismspeaks.org. Visitors to the site can find great links to resources. For educators, it provides teaching strategies to help students with autism.
Motivation is important. Keeping yourself motivated as a teacher and motivating your students with positive reinforcement strategies will help make your classroom enthusiastic about learning. Children with autism can be frustrated easily with negative feedback. Using assistive technology in the classroom will help your students with autism communicate their knowledge. They can use headphones with the technology, and that helps the student block out distractions in the environment. A Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) can help students with limited verbal communication skills express themselves. Using a set code of pictures for words and thoughts, the students can help make themselves understood. The autism genome database is revolutionary. By gathering genetic information worldwide, researchers have identified 18 new autism-linked genes, so far. This new database helps to better illustrate that autism affects the entire global community. I took the Light it Up Blue quiz on the website. I got 6 out of 6: I am a "Awesome Autism Advocate". The questions all pointed to the main idea: People with autism should be treated with dignity and respect. The website even has a link for parents to find autism-friendly events in their area. This gives the kids a place to go where the sensory input won't upset them, and it gives parents a way to gather with other parents who can appreciate what they are going through. The first step to successful differentiation in your classroom is acknowledging that all students learn differently. You must understand and respect that each learner is a different person with individual needs. Differentiation means acknowledging and teaching to these differences.
The classroom should be arranged to accommodate both individual and group work. Some learners work better in groups and others do better individually. Form learning groups in your classroom with differentiated learning styles, capabilities and interests. Provide more information to the kids who want more. Provide resources to help individuals and groups work according to their capabilities. Present information several ways. Different learners learn differently. Visual learners benefit from books. Auditory learners fare better with audio books. Kinesthetic learners will learn better from an interactive assignment online. Recognizing each individual's potential and limitations is the key to differentiation. Helping each student perform to the best of their individual abilities is the ultimate goal of education. Students with ADHD perform better in a classroom that is structured with clear rules. The rules should be posted. The expectations of behavior should be established.
Students with ADHD have less distraction if they are seated in the front row. Also, if seated close to the teacher, the teacher can prompt them to stay focused. Tables arranged for group seating can be too distracting. Windows and hallways can be distracting. Certain other children are distracting. You can try different seating locations in the classroom and see what works for this particular child with ADHD. Headphones can be helpful for concentration and blocking out auditory distraction. Designate part of the classroom to be less distracting. A quiet reading area can be arranged without bright colors or artwork hanging from the ceiling. It should be a visually quiet space. All the children in the class will benefit from having a serene reading corner. There are four assessment strategies listed in the text: norm-referenced assessment, criterion-referenced assessment, curriculum-based measurement, and portfolio assessment.
Type of assessment: Capability is measured by: Work is sampled: Norm-referenced assessment performance of peers one time/test score only Criterion-based assessment particular level of mastery one time/test score only Curriculum-based measurement their previous performance frequently and on curriculum systematically Portfolio assessment their previous achievements across subject areas and over time All four strategies have benefits and using all four together seems like the most comprehensive strategy. Norm-based assessment is useful because it is an easy way to identify the children who are not learning at the same rate as the others. After identifying the students who need more help, further assessments can be helpful. Criterion-based assessment is helpful because it does not depend on comparison to other children. These teacher-made tests test for proficiency in specific areas. These tests are another tool that help identify children who need extra help. Curriculum-based measurement is effective to track a student's progress within the curriculum. Student performance is compared to their previous progress. So the student is on his own educational journey, not compared to performance of peers or arbitrary generic scoring criteria. Portfolio assessment is an authentic assessment. It is the most accurate assessment of what a student has accomplished in all subject areas. Recognizing multidisciplinary progress gives a stronger assessment of how much the student is capable of achieving. |
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April 2017
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