Competency Two--Identification and remediation of disabilities
Competency Two
Identification and Remediation of Disabilities
Identifying our student's needs is an important step to take. Without that classification, basic services are denied this student. Universal screening is one way school try to make sure no student is left behind in regard to needed services. By having each student screened during kindergarten registration, the school district can hopefully avoid denying students supports they immediately need upon enrollment. Later identification is make possible through the RtI framework, that attempts to remediate the student's struggles through more focused teaching. If the student is not responsive to that assistance, they are sent for additional testing.
Once we have identified a student's area of need, how can we ensure we are supporting them as thoroughly as we can? In today's society, we are offered a wide variety of supports that teachers in past decades could only dream about. The advances even in the past decade have dramatically changed the field of assistive technologies. Beyond AT, we as teachers have a much more thorough understanding of how important differentiation is as well as greater encouragment and support in actually differentiating. As we prepare to teach students with varying levels of need, it is important that we have an understanding of what techniques and technologies are available to us to help our students excel. While we learn what is available, it is also important for us to understand the real life challenges of differentiating and implementing AT.
In my classroom observation, I did not actually view assistive technologies, but I definitely saw the challenges presented in trying to reach special needs students while also maintaining control of the other student's present. Mrs. Sucise is lucky enough to have a small class, so I can only imagine the difficulties a teacher would experience in effectively assisting 2 students when there are 23 other students demanding attention. Another thing that really impressed itself upon from this observation was how challenging it is for Mrs. Sucise to help her ADHD student whose parents refuse to classify him or ask the family doctor for assistance. There is so much we can offer our special needs students, but when their basic needs are ignored by parents or caregivers, it is much more difficult to do our job effectively. Not classifying this student also means basic services at the school level, such as a student aide to redirect his attention and potential testing accomodations to help him be less distracted during testing. I think Mrs. Sucise had some wonderful strategies for helping all her students excel, even those she feels need so much more than what she can give them.
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