Helping children to be helpless Helping children to be helpless...? Positive support for children with SEN in the classroom. by Aimee Wilcox

Helplessness is a learnt behaviour! Who may need that extra help? How can I stop children learning to be helpless? What should I do to develop independence? How can I change my practice to support all? My aims of the session….

EAL Emergent Readers and writers! Moderate and global development delays. EAL Autism and Aspergers Speech, Language and communication difficulties Visual Learners Who are we looking to support? Dyslexia Poor working memory and word finding difficulties ADHD/ADD and behaviour difficulties

Don’t… Don’t - expect children with reading difficulties and speech and language issues to be able to access your varied curriculum without support. The majority of special needs conditions will have some kind of language or related difficulty.

Do… Do – use symbols to support understanding. Unless you are testing their reading ability – make the work accessible especially if you are teaching them new vocabulary or concepts.

Do… Curriculum symbols Provide accessible word banks and over learn language before and during new topics. Teach new language and concepts with visuals where possible – this can benefit the majority of a class not just SEN.

Don’t… Don’t take a child’s word or phrase and scribe it into perfect English – this is demeaning for the child and provides a false picture of their ability.

Do… The hungry caterpillar ate... I found out that... Do – give them the tools to build their own sentences. Colourful semantics! These can be adapted to any structure/topic or theme and extended/reduced to meet the needs of the child. The hungry caterpillar ate... I found out that...

Don’t… Don’t differentiate by the amount of support given. If a child ‘always’ has support then they are learning to be helpless.

Use visuals and provide key language. Do… Think carefully about the learning objective - what can they do now? – what do you want them to achieve? - what resources will help? Differentiate! Give a clear/visual checklist to follow. Do – encourage independence - find out what they can do independently. Differentiate the task to their level and make it accessible (visuals/symbols). Give them clear expectations/checklist if necessary. Allow them time to ask questions befpre they start. Insist on times when they work alone. Set expectations, give time and warnings! Use visuals and provide key language.

Don’t… Over load with language on a page. Black on white busy worksheets!

Do… Try different fun activities - keep it practical and steer clear of language overload.