Transformative Teaching Methods for Supporting Students with Disabilities

Every child has a right for education and for developing all his or her skills, talents, and capabilities to their fullest extent. With this goal in mind, for years educators have developed new and different ways of teaching children with diverse needs for them to receive the required support to achieve success in their academic journey.

In this article, some of the most recognized and practiced modes of transformational teaching by teachers and educators to improve the learning and education needs of students with special needs will be taken into consideration and discussed.

Assistive Technologies

Schools have availed themselves of various assistive technologies as technological advancement becomes sophisticated to improve students’ education with disabilities. Presently, such devices as voice recognition software, assistive listening devices, specialized keyboards, screen readers, and text-to-speech tools are now available almost everywhere on a very large scale to dramatically facilitate students with disabilities achieve their learning goals.

These tools promote student access to all sorts of educational materials and resources in support of self-learning and improvement of opportunities to fully participate in class activities as well as assignments.

Multi-Sensory Learning

A multi-sensory approach to learning involves engaging multiple senses and parts of the brain when learning. According to this school of thought, the whole brain learning theory involves engaging multiple senses that can greatly facilitate our learning and how to do things.

Multi-sensory learning involves the senses of taste, touch, smell, sound, and movement, and is used best for children who rely most on a particular sense than on others, like children with ADHD, dyslexia, autism, or other types of learning disabilities. Multisensory teaching methods and activities will help teachers ensure every child in the classroom is reached, so to learn more about resources for students with disabilities in South Carolina, go to SC academic resources.

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Social-emotional learning provides various forms of support to the student with a disability in that negative factors that occur in the process of learning may lower the student’s self-confidence and self-esteem. SEL enhances the development of a positive self-concept besides raising their self-esteem since it helps the learner to gain several skills that can help them manage their emotions and feelings of discomfort that them throughout their course of education.

This approach to education consists of five basic elements which include self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills. By going beyond conventional methods of learning, SEL recognizes the value of taking a holistic approach to education that addresses the emotional and social dimensions of a student’s learning and development.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

UDL is fundamental to the system of education, postulating that students learn differently and should, therefore, be given different ways of learning and demonstrating knowledge. This means that some children are more compatible with new information coming through as visual learning, while others would respond differently to audio cues.

UDL encourages teachers and educators to help students learn in different ways and supports choices that can be used to access and assess the learning requirements of students with special needs, which enables them to build their interest, engagement, and learning.

As we keep on learning more about the varied and unique needs of students with disabilities, innovations in teaching methods will definitely keep on strengthening their educational experiences.