4 Ways To Make Specials More Functional When Working With Special Needs Children

			4 Ways To Make Specials More Functional When Working With Special Needs Children		

No matter what we call them (e.g., specials, allied arts), specials can be challenging when working with special needs children. Some schools have classes for art, music, etc. dedicated just for students with special needs. Others make a point to include the students from special ed. with their general education peers to create an inclusive classroom environment.

Regardless of how students are involved in specials, many teachers struggle for how to make the most of this time for their classes and knowing what the appropriate strategies are to use to support these students. I’ve had a number of questions about this recently and decided it made sense to post some thoughts and important tips about how to make specials meaningful for special needs students.

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Different Ways to Make Specials Meaningful When Working With Special Needs Children

1. DEFINE GOALS FOR EACH STUDENT AND CLASS

Define specific goals of what you want the students to be doing / learning in the activity. If they go all at the same time with their grade level, what do you (and the parents of children with special needs) expect them to get out of it? You need to look at their own needs to ensure these special classes have a positive impact on their individual needs when working with special needs children.

Just “being” with other kids isn’t really a goal unless active inclusion is being taught to all. You’ll have more luck advocating for ways your students can actively participate if it’s clear there is an educational plan for them during that time.

Goals for PE, for instance, might be focused on interacting with peers, taking turns, following directions, completing an exercise routine, working independently, or other social skills.

2. DEVELOP PEER BUDDIES

Next, work with the general ed. teacher and the specials teacher to promote some peer buddies. It’s important to include the teacher of specials because their goals for the activities they teach may not be the same as what you expect when working with special needs children.

Perhaps have a group of typical peers that they also have recess with on a regular basis. Use some of the recess time to teach the peers how to facilitate. Then have them pair up with them during specials as their partners. This can help to engage some of the students and allow the paras to facilitate or work with the more complex kids.

Case in point, I had a group of students working with a girl with autism who were absolutely amazing with her as peers. They included her with everything. But the PE teacher wouldn’t let them do it during his class. He said they would be missing their PE goals by helping her. So, always make sure to include the specials teacher in determining the goals whenever possible, or you might be surprised.

3. EDUCATE THE SPECIALS TEACHERS

Often the specials classroom teacher doesn’t know what to do when they are working with special needs and autistic children or how to engage them. But you may need to do this training to give them instructional strategies to support your special needs students. While the paras may know perfectly well what needs to be done, the teachers may not listen to them in the same way they will to you.

Giving the teachers tools to be successful is another way to help educate them in how to give extra help to autistic students. For instance, I had an art teacher who was so happy when I gave her the Climbing Art Obstacles book from Tasks Galore. Using it, she could plan meaningful art activities and have them ready to go for the students with special needs. And she found it was useful with some other classes as well improve student learning.

4. USE VISUALS

One of the things that you can definitely do that will help both your students and the teachers is to establish mini-schedule visuals that they can use. Making it easy for them to use visuals in their classroom is a great way to help them be successful when working with special needs children.

4 ways to make specials functional when working with special needs children.

These tips won’t solve all the challenges of specials, but hopefully they will give you some starting places to build strong relationships with the teachers and make it a meaningful time for when they are working with special needs students.

Looking for Visual Supports?

Looking for visuals you can use for your daily routine? I’ve created mini-schedules for general use that include tons of visuals for PE, for art, for music and other uses within the school day. And I’ve got some free ones down below as well.