Today there are many children who are living their life with developmental or learning disabilities, which in turn has deeply affected following day-to-day activities. In fact, many of them are either suffering from high functioning Autism or Autistic tendencies. These problems have restricted them in learning the skills primarily required to survive in everyday life. Teaching everyday life skills to these students are not an easy job or everybody’s cup of tea. It actually requires a lot of patience and determination. It can be very challenging, but at the same time it can be fun and rewarding experience, if you as a special education tutor follow some of useful tips given below. These are few important guidelines that can help you to teach or educate a child that requires special education in a better way:

1) Selection of instructional style can help you a lot in a special education process. You can choose to educate in a very ordered way by prefabricated materials and using textbooks. However, you may even take the way of hands-on activity in a student-centered classroom.

2) Students with reading disabilities can be given oral instructions. You can present tests and reading materials in an oral format that you may access easily.

3) Regularly check the progress rate of learning disabled students and tell them about their frequency of progress. This will help them to know that how far they are from their individual or class goal.

4) Give response to the learning disabled students immediately. This may help you in understanding the relationship between what was taught and what was learned.

5) Try to shorten the class activities set for learning disabled children because lengthy activity projects are seriously annoying for such children.

6) Special children feel difficulty in learning abstract concepts and terms. So, provide them concrete or practical objects and events, for an example items they can touch, hear, smell, etc.

7) Disabled students require constant admiration. So, be sure, you constantly appraise them for their activities that directly help in boosting the confidence level.

Always encourage cooperative learning activities. Tell students of different abilities to work together on a single project. This will create environment where true learners can get the most or learn more out of the activity.

9) Try to engage youngsters more into problem-solving activities that may help them in solving their own conclusions.

10) Give these students opportunities to take initiative for any of the activity in the classroom. Other than that, also provide subjects that interest them for extensive reading activity.

Learning life skills and basic are significant lessons for a special education student. While teaching life skills and literacy, it is also important to remember that such students learn best by practical experience. With lots of practical learning and motivation, these children can learn a lot and faster than an average special child. So, follow these simple yet effective tips and watch them grow and doing well inn their daily work efficiently.

By: Erik R Johnson