Teaching Mental Retardation

Students with Mental Retardation

Mental retardation- A disability in which sub average general intellectual functioning is associated with deficits in adaptive behavior.

Strategies for Mental Retardation

Make your objectives small and achievable That does not mean lower your expectations for learning, rather it means that instead of trying to teach five things in a lesson, focus on two things.

Use multi sensory approaches to teaching (sight, sound, taste, movement, touch) because this enhances the number of ways information can enter a student's cognitive processing system.

Talk about strategy use out loud If you want your students to use strategies when problem solving, model how you use them. Narrate, draw, act out, etc. how you make decisions about what strategies to use when.

Use wait time After asking a question, give the student a few extra seconds to process the question before expecting an answer. The student is often capable of answering what you ask, but if you move too quickly, they don't have the chance to fully identify all the features of the question to then draw the answer from their memory.

Build bridges between information Students with cognitive difficulties often have problems recalling information placed into their long term memory. When you teach a new concept make sure you articulate how it is linked to something they have learned before or will learn about, so that you create a small bridge you can help them use in the future.

● Be sure to provide prompts, give additional instruction, and allow extra guided practice time.

● When it appears that a student needs help, ask if you can help. Accept a "No, Thank You" graciously.

● Develop a protocol for the student to tell you when he/she anticipates a need for assistance.

● Learning strategies, such as mnemonics, provide quite god ways to access information; it can be an essential component in learning for many students with disabilities.

● Encourage classmates to accept the student with a mental impairment.

Students with Behavioral Disorders

Behavioral Disorders- A disability in which students are characterized by inappropriate school

behavior.

Strategies for dealing with Behavioral Disorders:

● Come up with a plan with the student in which inappropriate behaviors are replaced with appropriate ones.

● Speak with the student's previous teachers about techniques they used that worked for that student.

● Determine whether or not the student is on medication and what time that medication affects the child and set your teaching strategies accordingly.

● Have the individual with the behavioral disorder be in charge of an activity, which can often reduce their aggresiveness.

● make sure the discipline fits the "crime", without using harshness.

● Be patient, sensitive, a good listener, fair, and consistent with those students with behavioral disorders and with all the students.

● If rewards are not effective for motivating behavior, change them out as needed.

● Special efforts should be taken to encourage interaction between the students with behavioral disorders and the general education students.

● Have a set of pre-established consequences for inappropriate behavior.

● Bring to the student's attention some role models with this disability and point out to the student how the individual got ahead by his own effort and by asking for help from other individuals when needed.

Students with Autism

Autism- A pervasive developmental disorder with qualitative impairments in communication, social interaction, and restrictive or repetitive patterns of behavior that first occur prior to age 3.

Strategies for dealing with Autism:b

Ð'* Students with autism often need highlt structured visual teaching.

Ð'* Behavior is communication. Work at reading the behavior and not taking it personally.

Ð'* Build a structured environment for the student; this reduces student stress, confusion, anxiety, and behavior problems.

Ð'* Gear activities so they end before the student becomes frustrated.

Ð'* Positive rewards work better than punishment.

Ð'* Use story webs and role playing to model appropriate behavior in social situations.

Ð'* Watch for likes, dislikes, and interests. Use their strengths.

Ð'* You need a method to let the student know there will be a change in the daily schedule or routine, or if something needs to be interrupted before it is finished.

Ð'* To help build independence, build on the student's strengths, desire for routine, predictability, organization, comfort with repetitive tasks, need to finish, and visual learning styles.

Ð'* Develop independent work systems geared to student skill level.

Students with Learning Disabilities

Learning Disability- A disorder in the ability to process information that can result in attention, perception, or memory deficits. Students with learning disabilities experience difficulty in school learning despite adequate hearing, vision, and intelligence.

Strategies for Learning Disabilities:

● break tasks into smaller steps, and giving directions verbally and in writing;

● give the student more time to finish schoolwork or take tests;

● let the student with reading problems use textbooks-on-tape (available through Record for