As a special education teacher, I always advocate every child’s growth, progress, strengths and potentials. Teaching and learning for children with disabilities involve creating an inclusive environment, using multisensory and differentiated instruction, and incorporating assistive technology. Key strategies include providing clear, consistent routines and instructions, using visual aids like color-coding and schedules, offering positive reinforcement and social skills training, and tailoring activities to individual learning needs. Collaboration with parents and other specialists is also crucial.

Teaching children with learning disabilities requires patience, creativity, and a well-rounded understanding of specialized methodologies. At the London College of Teachers and Trainers, we offer comprehensive training programs to equip educators with the skills necessary to support and inspire learners with diverse needs.

Learning disabilities (LD) refer to a range of challenges that affect a child’s ability to process, retain, and apply information. Common learning disabilities include dyslexia (difficulty with reading), dysgraphia (difficulty with writing), and dyscalculia (difficulty with math).

Students with LD are often bright and capable but struggle with traditional teaching methods. This is why educators must adopt specialized learning disability teaching methods to cater to their unique needs effectively.

How can teachers help students with learning disabilities? Use differentiation and utilize accommodation and strategies. Differentiation of instruction is a teaching model that looks at explicitly teaching content in different ways. One of the strategies that I find very much used in my school is the gradual release of responsibility. I see a lot of teachers modeling new concepts and skills, and then teachers provide guided practice where students, once a teacher feels that they’ve modeled enough, have the students walk the teacher through how to complete a task, or do an assignment. And then based on the guided practice and working together, talking it out, the teacher can get a sense of, ‘okay, I feel that this group of students can do it independently, go for it. Maybe this group of students need to be a little bit more supported with more guided practice or with modeling.’

I’ve seen teachers do rotating stations where there’s a specific task at each station for an allotted time. And it might have a vocabulary visual station, a hands-on station, and a conference with the teacher, so you’re kind of using a wide variety of different approaches to delivery of instruction, teaching and learning.

A lot of teachers I know use project-based learning, and giving students a choice on how they want to create a project is great.

Use students’ strengths to demonstrate and apply a specific skill. I’ve seen teachers who use a lot of assistive technology, speech to text, and audio books. I’ve worked with students in looking at different software to create projects, virtually and digitally.

https://www.londoncollegeofteachers.com/blog/learning-disability-teaching-methods/

https://ldaamerica.org/how-teachers-can-help-students-with-learning-disabilities/#:~:text=Differentiation%20of%20instruction%20is%20a,task%2C%20or%20do%20an%20assignment.