It can be challenging for educators — especially those with limited experience — to work with students in special education. There are many misconceptions and fallacies around these students, and still not nearly enough research or understanding about their particular needs. However, a good starting point is evaluating how one communicates with them and their parents. Developing good communication skills is imperative to help students with special education needs achieve their full academic potential with individualized support. However, alternative forms of communication are often needed to do so.
Gestures and nonverbal communication are some of the first tools that parents and teachers can use, starting when kids are very young. Reading to children and providing visual references — such as drawings and photos — are other recommendations from the professionals at Care Inc.
As the authors from Pacer Center point out in their info sheet, “Effective communication is two-way, generating the understanding and support the professionals and the parents all need to make effective decisions about the child’s educational program. Communication involves listening, as well as speaking.” The latter remark is important because listening is an often-forgotten key to this mutual understanding.
Pacer Center also suggests that educators and parents listen closely to both opinions and data and pose questions or ask for sources relating to the data when needed. It’s important to take notes and let the speaker finish — one may miss out on important information if they interrupt. Keeping a home-to-school notebook where both educators and parents can share the child’s experience can also aid in this process.
Benefits of Finding the Right Assistance
In the classroom, Wendy Thompson from Smart Brief proposes that teachers use anything available at their disposal, especially in the field of technology. Tools such as TypeTastic, Flipgrid, Voki — that foster multimedia use, typing, text-to-speech and speech-to-text and video response can greatly help.
Thompson shares an example of her own experience: “When I began using TypeTastic in my classroom, I expected my students to learn some keyboarding skills. I didn’t expect it to help my students improve their letter-recognition skills. I didn’t expect it to improve their problem-solving skills, so they could meet the goals of two-handed instruction when they only have use of one. I didn’t expect it to help create an atmosphere of friendly competition as they raced their peers to reach the next level of the program. But learning to type has done all these things for my students […]”
Assessing special education students’ communication skills, though, can be challenging. Educators can use several approaches to assessment by following the guidelines provided by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Texas A&M International University’s Master of Science (M.S.) in Special Education with a Specialization in Education Diagnostics online program has a course completely geared towards this particular issue, titled Measurement & Evaluation, in which students learn the “use of assessment information for making educational decisions.”
The National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET) has compiled an in-depth file series on the importance and procedures of special needs assessment. The first step is collecting data on the child (school reports, teacher evaluations and observational notes) and then analyzing the information. Consider the following: are the behaviors a pattern or a phase? Is there something else going on at home that can be influencing how the child is behaving in class?
After this initial screening, it’s important to evaluate and then determine a suspected disability. Educators, parents, therapists and other medical professionals can all come together to make recommendations for students. For teachers, the most important thing is to recognize the uniqueness of a student’s needs beyond their diagnosis, and to carve ways to make their study individualized and appropriate to their level of disability.
Graduates of an advanced education program in special education and education diagnostics can equip education professionals with the necessary skills to evaluate special education students’ communication skills. With solid communication abilities, special education students are set up for success in their academic and personal lives.
Learn more about Texas A&M International University’s online Master of Science in Special Education with a Specialization in Education Diagnostics program.
