A lot of substitute teachers fear stepping into the special education classroom because they don’t know what to expect. “Will it be more stressful? Will there be more behavior? Will I be able to competently teach these kids?” they ask themselves.
In my experience, the answer to the first question is sometimes, but not often. The answer to the second is usually, but it is manageable; and the third is yes, with the right information.
I’m here to help with the last question—how to competently teach these students. I’m a substitute who has a special education credential, and who has taught long-term in various special education classrooms for the past two years. I’m familiar with high-incidence disabilities—those disabilities that are common and that you will encounter the most when subbing. I will briefly define each group, as well as how to effectively work with each.
Learning Disabilities
This is the largest group of special education students. Children have the same life skills as typical children, like being able to use the bus or dress themselves. They also have average or high intelligence. However, they tend to perform below grade level in one or more academic areas. This is due to difficulty in processing information—tasks like memory, attention, organization and visual and auditory processing.
The danger with this group is that they look and seem like typical children, so sometimes adults expect too much from them and become critical. For example, an adult may express disbelief that an eighth grader is reading at a third grade level. However, there are many eighth graders like this, and it is not due to bad teaching or laziness on the part of the student, but usually to an audio processing difficulty that makes it hard to learn to read.
One of the best teaching strategies for this group is explicit instruction. Explicit instruction involves verbalizing the thinking or strategizing that you are doing to solve a problem. Strategies come naturally to good learners, but students with learning disabilities sometimes struggle to find them.
For example, good readers naturally notice that when an “i” comes after a “g” (as in “legion”), the “g” is soft, whereas a “u” after a “g” will be hard (as in “guru.”) To teach this explicitly you would verbalize the rule as well as show several examples of each side by side. Explicit instruction can be used for math, reading, writing, content areas and study skills. Simply “think aloud” your strategy for the problem, and model it until the student feels comfortable with it.
Speech and Language Delays or Disorders
If you work in elementary classrooms, this is more common, but it applies to secondary classrooms as well. This group of students has some difficulty in the areas of communication, language or speech. A common result of their difficulty is that they may have learned to use behavior to get their needs met as opposed to language. For example, instead of asking to go back a page during story time, a child may get up and run to the book and turn the page himself, disrupting the class.
There is a pervasive idea that the best teachers are the ones who keep their kids in order all the time, including special needs students. So a lot of teachers will try through stern words to keep these kids sitting down and following the rules.
What I’m about to tell you is counterintuitive—getting the kids to follow the rules through intimidation is not effective for them. Although it makes the classroom feel more orderly, the child may be experiencing a curriculum not yet relevant for her. The best thing you can do with children working on communication is just that—work on communication. Don’t worry if she’s across the room looking at the calendar when the rest of the kids are doing a math page. Find time to give her individual attention and talk about whatever she is looking at. Keep in mind that language is a precursor to learning academics, so it is more relevant to look at the calendar with her and practice vocabulary words. In my first teaching job, I nearly killed myself trying to get one of my kindergartners to sit down all the time, but what finally clicked for me was when I noticed him writing numbers on the whiteboard (without permission). I gave in and began talking about the numbers with him. Together, we got him to learn that 12 an 13 came after 11 that day.
Autism Spectrum Disorders
If you have worked in a special education classroom, you have inevitably encountered students on the spectrum. What was once an unusual disability has increased so rapidly over the past 20 years that my first classroom was made up mostly of students with autism. Children with autism or related disorders, like Asperger’s, have different ways of using language, interacting socially, and/or behaving. On top of that, more than half will struggle academically in one or more areas.
If the child struggles with communication, then the above recommendations for speech and language disorders applies to him as well—give individual language/communication practice. I also believe in giving students with autism a lot of attention in general. It’s common for them to struggle to form friendships and they can become lonely. It’s an outdated idea that they are “in their own world” and don’t want to interact. Every kid I’ve given attention to has loved it. Make jokes with them and listen to their stories.
Kids with autism are usually stronger in visual skills than verbal skills, and can be more gifted than typical children with visual learning. They also do well with routine and structure. Therefore, following a visual schedule or writing out a schedule on the board works well, as well as using visual rewards and rules, such as a sticker chart or rules poster. Draw pictures for math problems, and consider making unstructured assignments more structured. An open-ended essay question can be restructured with sentence starters and concrete examples for responses, for instance.
Emotional/Behavior Disorders
This is a large category encompassing everything from hyperactivity to anorexia. For kids who act out, there is again often a connection to speech and language—many of them struggled with communication when younger and learned to get their way with behavior instead of words.
Although “internalizing” disorders such as anorexia and shyness are in this category, I will talk about the harder to manage “externalizing” disorders, which involve acting out. A child with conduct disorder may slap another child across the head or push a chair over. The best thing you can do is to remove as much judgment from your reaction as possible. Apply the same consequences to the child as you would any other, doled out in a neutral way. However, it’s best to listen to the classroom assistant, because she will know how such situations are usually handled. Sometimes, the child doesn’t receive as harsh a consequence. Do your best not to judge. The consequence has probably been developed with a lot of practice and Wisdom.
Never get involved in a power struggle with a child who has an emotional or behavior disorder. You will lose every time. Sometimes kids will try specifically to hurt you, and then you want to get them back. But this is unwise. Always keep in mind what is best for the child, whether it is talking to him, applying a consequence, or giving him a break from work.
It is worth a mention that sometimes children do become physical and have outbursts. Classroom assistants should be familiar with how to handle such a situation. However, if a child becomes physical, you should immediately have one adult take all the other students outside, while one adult stays with the child and moves desks out of the way. It goes without saying that you should never become involved in a physical altercation with a child. If the child tries to hit or kick you, block yourself with your arms and stand sideways. Call the administrator for help. I hope I haven’t scared you! Teaching special education is a challenging but rewarding experience. You never know if you will be the adult who helps the student begin to read three-syllable words or count past thirty. And remember that there is almost always one or more classroom assistants who know the children well and can guide you through the day.
Happy teaching!
Carol Maskus is a freelance writer and substitute teacher. She writes funny stories and opinions about wine at www.diagonalwine.wordpress.com.
