How can I support my neurodiverse / special needs child this school year (2022-2023)?

How can I support my neurodiverse / special needs child this school year (2022-2023)?

8/23/22

By Dana K (experienced educator and reading tutor)

In 2022, I tutored a neurodiverse student with language arts and helped her with daily classroom tasks. Besides chunking material, I had to investigate how she learned, determine her interests so she would warm up to me, and give her brain breaks. I realized that the student was a visual and a kinesthetic learner. I dug deeper and found out she enjoyed basketball and needed physical activity during brain breaks to relieve stress from learning new concepts. 

Neurodiverse children are intelligent and creative individuals, but they need assistance working out their learning and attention issues. Some have difficulties with ADHD (trouble focusing), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other learning disabilities. Determining how to help is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach. This article provides tips for parents/caregivers to help their neurodiverse children succeed this school year.  

 

Help with routines

A parent/caregiver can assist the child by focusing on executive functioning skills (e.g., planning, focusing attention, completing multiple tasks, and remembering directions). Parents/caregivers can help transfer these from the classroom to home by: 

1. Posting daily tasks on an agenda/calendar and highlighting/checking them when completed.  

2. Minimizing clutter and creating a student work area dedicated to homework that is free of distractions.

3. Creating a scheduled time to focus on homework. This could be right after school, after snack, after an extracurricular activity, or after dinner. Remember to reward your child with learning breaks (e.g, snacks, short outside activity, brief video game time, etc.) 

Inquire about your child's type of learning intelligence

Along with neurodiversity, come strengths. Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligence is a schema for understanding how your child learns. Determine your child’s strength(s) to understand how he/she learns (sample multiple intelligence inventory). To break this down further, your child may be any or a combination of the types of intelligence listed below.

 

-Kinesthetic intelligence (hands-on learning, athletic) -Children can stand up or move instead of sitting still. They also learn best with movement. For example, let them dance or dribble a basketball while they recall facts. Let the child help with "home" projects. Play with legos and be innovative. 

-Interpersonal (very cooperative with people) - These students like to share ideas with others, so at dinner let them share what they learned at school. Ask more open-ended questions to help the conversation dig deeper.   

-Linguistic (smart with language, and writing). Give children a journal/write to record their thoughts and stories/poems. Compete with word games like Wordle and encourage them to write letters to distant family and friends.  

-Logical/mathematical (excellent with math and complex problems, etc). Invite children to take those trips with you to Home Depot and solve those construction projects, or how to center the picture on the wall. Use graphic organizers to categorize relationships between vocabulary words and story elements.  

-Naturalist (keen interest in plants or animals). Have children help with gardening or be responsible for the household pets. Visit animal shelters and zoos. Go camping or enjoy family hikes. Ask your children if they prefer to read/study at the park, outside, or in a screen room rather than at their typical desk. 

-Intrapersonal (good leadership skills, smart with determining nonverbal communication)- Promote your child's independence with puzzles, scrapbooks, or writing a journal about his/her journey. Allow for independent reading time. Introduce a solo sport like running, swimming, and creating models/playing with legos. 

-Visual (visual learners)- Children learn by watching others (e.g., Youtube). Make memory card games/flashcards related to the subject. Alternatively, use digitized cards like Quizlet. Have children draw visual summaries for a novel. Write keywords to summarize sections in the text. Finally, highlight and underline important details in the text. 

-Musical (intelligence with musical concepts and instruments)- Introduce them to different types of music and rhythms. Also, have your child write and sing songs about facts he/she learned in history or science class. With reading, clap or tap the sounds of syllables. Use rhymes to help remember facts or spelling rules. Also, use instrumental music (e.g., classical) as background noise when reviewing for a test. 

Children get accommodations at school; provide these at home.

Here are a few suggestions that may help parents/caregivers. 

-Allow for flexible seating. It's okay for students to move, stand up at the table, or lay on the floor when they do work. Teachers do it at school, so parents/caregivers can do this at home, too. 

-Allow the student to use assisted learning technology tools such as text-to-speech tools like Immersive Reader (via Google Chrome add-on) or Speechify to name a few.

-Help students with the physical task of writing or those who have dysgraphia like Grammarly. Use the diction tool in Google or Word. 

Note: Use YouTube if you need help with these tools. 

Have fun!

Above all, make the process fun! Use your imagination!

Get help when you need it

I'm sure it's crossed your mind to get help or hire a tutor at some point. It's okay to get help whether it's from your independent school, public school, or a private tutor. 

Tutoring will provide a personalized learning experience for your child, as well as tips for the parent/caregiver to thrive. Both ways will help your child become confident and successful. 

What was your child’s biggest struggle last school year? Please comment in the section below.

Learn more about how I can help your child improve his/her reading by visiting www.actuallylearnit.com.

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Credit for tools mentioned in this blog:

1. Multiple Intelligence Assessment/Survey. August 2022. https://www.literacynet.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html
2. Learning tools, flashcards, and textbook solutions/ Quilt. August 2022. https://quizlet.com.