Welcome back everyone. Today’s post is going to be geared towards caregivers of children with learning disabilities. However, a lot of these tips and tricks can be utilized for adults as well. Teaching any child is a difficult task but teaching a child with a learning disability is basically doing teaching on hard mode. Obviously when my family and I began trying to help my brother with school we made a ton of mistakes.
Disabilities vs Teaching Methods:
I have said it before and I will say it again. You have got to understand what type of disability your child is dealing with before you do anything else. If your child has dyslexia that is going to impact reading. If your child has ADHD, that is going to affect the length of your study session. If your child has memory issues, repetition is going to be your new best friend. Also, there is a difference between knowing about a disability theoretically and understanding a disability practically. Check out website understood.org, they have a simulator that demonstrates the issues facing children with a few different types of disabilities. When I went through them it was very eye opening and gave me a new appreciation how difficult it was for my brother at school.
Getting Organized:
When my brother got back from school his backpack was a mess. He had textbooks, notes, assignments, and tests all over the place. We didn’t know when assignments and projects were due or when his next test was scheduled. This would have been an impossible situation for an A+ student, much less my brother. So how do we get organized? The two main things that need to be organized for school work are materials and time.
Organize Materials:
Honestly there are so many ways to organize school materials and everyone should eventually find what works best for them. The below strategy is sort of a starting point to help you begin. This approach can work either keeping things organized on your computer or in a physical binder.
Now the point of the system is to overtime let your child take more and more responsibility over it. At the beginning it will be difficult, things will get missed or lost or put in the wrong section. It is important to have regular communication with your child and their teachers to make sure all school work gets filed away correctly. The point of this filing is that when exam time comes around you have all work readily available to be used as a study aid.
Organize Time:
First is to get a calendar, this can be either online or a physical calendar. Regardless of which you pick make sure it is one that you check daily. Next is to start putting due dates for everything you get, every project, every assignment, quizzes and tests. Speak with your child daily and ask what new work was assigned and when is it due. Then have your child put it on the calendar. Now remember your child may forget key due dates, especially in the beginning. Best to periodically follow up with their teacher to make sure things are not being missed. Now for the last step and most difficult step. Estimating how long each task will take and setting time on the calendar to complete it. In setting up the calendar also make sure to schedule in time for fun and relaxation.
During our next post we dive more into the at home teaching strategies to help your child dealing with a mental disability.