Learning strategies with children with special needs

 The following are eight elements that teachers and researchers have found to be essential in adapting instruction to assist children with special needs to become successful readers, whether these children are just entering school or are older children who are learning to read. While these elements are key for the success of students with special needs, they are oftentimes valuable in assisting other student who are struggling readers. The eight elements are linked to the essential components for research-based program for beginning reading instruction:

1. Children with special needs benefit from explicit instruction
2. Children with special needs benefit from multiple opportunities to practice and demonstrate learning so that reading becomes automatic
3. Children with special needs benefit from instruction that includes opportunities to maintain and transfer (generalize) the skills and strategies learned
4. Children with special needs benefit from instruction in which their progress is monitored regularly and adjustments made as needed
5. Children with special needs benefit from instruction using materials at their reading level
6. Children with special needs benefit from flexible grouping and intense instruction
7. Children with special needs benefit from technology-assisted reading instruction
8. Children with special needs benefit from collaborative efforts among school personnel and parents that support the children’s unique learning abilities and needs

The goals of beginning reading instruction for children with special needs are the same as those for all children

• Provide opportunities for children to listen, talk, read and write in the many ways that children use language both inside and outside of the classroom
• to systematically develop the skills and strategies needed in the component areas of phonological awareness, word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and connecting reading and writing

so that reading, writing, listening and speaking become meaningful and effective ways of communicating in school and in life.

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