Exceptionalities

Kelsey Kennedy, Myranda Reconnu,

and Dana Koehler

Exceptionalities include...

Developmental Delays
Gifted and Talented
Hearing/Vision Loss
Medical Conditions
Intellectual Disabilities
Specific Learning Disorder
Physical Disability

How to adapt our teaching strategies to

students needs
If the student has difficulty learning by listening
Before the Lesson

Pre-teach difficult vocabulary and concepts

State the objective, providing a reason for listening

During the Lesson

Provide visuals via the board or overhead

Use flash cards
Have the student close his eyes and try to visualize the information
Give explanations in small, distinct steps
Provide written as well as oral directions
Have the student repeat directions

If a student has difficulty expressing himself

verbally

Provide a prompt, such as beginning the sentence for the student or giving a picture cue
Give the rules for class discussion (e.g., hand raising)
Give points for oral contributions and preparing the student individually
Specifically teach body and language expression

If the student has difficulty reading written

material

Find a text written at lower level

Provide highlighted material
Rewrite the student's text
Allow a peer or parent to read text aloud to student
Shorten the amount of required reading
Look for same content in another medium (movie, filmstrip, tape)
Allow extra time for reading

If the student has difficulty reading written

material continued...

Motivate the student, interesting him

Put the main ideas of the text on index cards which can easily be organized in a file box and
divided by chapters; pre-teaching vocabulary
Type material for easier reading
Use larger type
Be more concrete-using pictures and manipulatives
Provide experience before and after reading as a frame of reference for new concepts
State the objective and relating it to previous experiences
Help the student visualize what is read

Gifted Students

Remember that no two gifted children are alike. These children vary among themselves as much
as they do from typical children.
Bear in mind that being gifted or highly able is not a reward for anything. It does not necessarily
place children at an advantage over other children, giftedness does not mean superiority.
In some circumstances gifted children may find it difficult to fit easily into the average setting.
Provide opportunities for gifted children to think divergently as well as convergently. For example,
they need to have many educational experiences and problems for which there is more than one
correct answer. Questions such as "How many different ways can we ...?" imply that there are
many answers possible.

Holding Nyla
Nerves are normal when bringing students with disabilities
into your classroom.

...although Nylas special assistant and her three EI specialists had all been through the
necessary training, I was one of her classroom teachers and I was intimidated (Kissinger,
2007, p. 25).

Children feed off of your reactions/behavior.

As soon as I changed my behavior and began a relationship with Nyla, the other children
began to see her as a classmate (Kissinger, 2007, p. 26).

Holding Nyla
Use experiences and resources to expose children to social
injustices.

By the way, we never got a response from Lakeshore, but they have now fixed the gap
problem with the wheelchairs (Kissinger, 2007, p. 27).

A strong classroom community is beneficial for everyone,

including parents.

Later, Nylas mom told me that in her wildest dreams, she had never believed that Nyla
would have a best friend. And she was moved to see a whole classroom of children
welcoming her daughter into their community (Kissinger, 2007, p. 27).

In the LD Bubble
Be conscious of how students with disabilities may be feeling

My dyslexia is like a bubble. I am enclosed in an invisible sheath that allows me to come

excitingly close to being normal but never completely there (Pelkey, 2001, p. 24).

Avoid assumptions about academic ability simply based on

the LD title.

I felt humiliated going in and out of that room. The teachers were very kind, but I believe
now that they underestimated me (Pelkey, 2001, p. 25).

In the LD Bubble
View a disability as a unique characteristic as opposed to a
blanket label

She talked directly to me about my disabilityYou are truly special because you have
stretched your brain and learned beyond and outside your abilities, and this is something the
majority have not had to do (Pelkey, 2001, p. 23).

Finding the Right Track

You have the power to set the classroom tone.
If overturning tracking is not yet plausible, then we must think about what we can do within
our own classrooms to make them places where students will be motivated to achieve
(Haberman, 2002, p. 162).

All students deserve to be challenged, no matter the content

level.

When we enable our students to feel they belong in classes that challenge them and that
they have some power in deciding their futures, we take the first steps toward equitable
education (Haberman, 2002, p. 162).

Finding the Right Track

You can not necessarily decide what to teach, but you can
often decide how to teach it.

Those kids need structure, my mentors told me. More structure became the answer when
things werent working right. When we provided them with outlines and boxes to fill in--and
told them what to put in them--classes ran smoothly (Haberman, 2002, p. 157).

Once a child is put on a specific path, the change to a different

course is difficult

...I wondered why it wasnt our responsibility as their teachers to be sure that all of our
students are equipped with what it takes to succeed. Instead, we went through our rosters
and put our students in boxes (Haberman, 2002, p. 159).

Things to keep in mind

No one disability is the same so it is important to cater to the child as an

individual, make it personal to the child and their disability
Person First Language

It is important to define a person as an individual, rather than by his/her disability

Scaffolding is always beneficial

References

Bulloch, K. (2009). How to adapt your teaching strategies to student needs. Retrieved from
http://www.readingrockets.
org/article/how-adapt-your-teaching-strategies-student-needs
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2015). Exceptionalities. Retrieved from
http://www.ed.gov.nl.ca/edu/k12/studentsupportservices/exceptionalities.html

Haberman, S. (2002). Finding the right track. In L. Darling-Hammond, J. French & S. P.

Garcia-Lopez (Eds.), Learning to teach for social justice (pp. 153-162). New York, NY:
Teachers College Press.

Heward, W. (2014). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to special education. New Jersey: Pearson.

Kissinger, K. (2007). Holding Nyla: Lessons from an inclusion classroom. In W. Au, B. Bigelow & S.
Karp (Eds.), Rethinking our classrooms: Teaching for equity and justice (pp. 25-27).
Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. ISBN 0942961358

Pelkey, L. (2001). In the LD bubble. In P. Rodis, A. Garrod & M.I. Boscardin (Eds.), Learning
disabilities and life stories (pp. 17-28). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0205320104

Sweeney, N. S. (2008). GIfted children have special needs, too. Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodnews.
com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=248