Education

A Passion for Teaching

If you are interested in helping children form the foundation for a happy and successful future, you’re probably already looking at an early childhood education degree. All young children deserve an excellent education, but some children require more care and attention to thrive than others. These special needs children may have fewer opportunities to learn because not all teachers know how to help them. If you want to be a teacher who can help these children, the first step toward that goal is to earn an early childhood education degree that focuses on special needs.

Holding a degree in early childhood education is quite an accomplishment, but holding one that focuses on special needs in particular will mean that you will always be in demand. Individuals with these degrees are highly sought after because few people choose to become special needs teachers. If you also have a deep passion for the work then you will be even more qualified because teaching children with special needs can be challenging on an emotional level as well as an academic one–and your passion can change the course of a child’s life for the better. If you want a rewarding career, one that leaves you not wondering but knowing that you have made a difference in the world, then this is the career for you.

Many universities offer early childhood education programs, but if there isn’t one in your area don’t worry–there are now online colleges offering online degrees in childhood education. There are hundreds of universities to choose from online and thanks to technology you can attend classes at any of them from wherever you live—as long as you have access to a computer and an Internet connection. Whether you go to college online or in person, the education that you receive will be as good as the college you choose, so pick carefully.

Filed Under: Teaching Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Child, Children Youth and Family, Early Childhood, Early childhood education, Education, Organizations, Research, Teacher

A Look at the Groundbreaking Victorian Deaf Education Institute

A new institute is set to open in Victoria, Australia, in 2011. As the name suggests, the Victorian Deaf Education Institute will focus on educating students with hearing disabilities. The main ambitions of this $9.2 million institute are to be innovative in its education and ahead of the pack in its teacher training. The institute will be established in the same location as the Victorian College for the Deaf. Some of the special provisions and resources offered to students at the institute will include the following:

The institute will be the technology center for educators and parents throughout Victoria. Workshops and lessons can be sent to the outer limits of the state, allowing for deaf students near and far to receive a quality and well-suited education.
The institute promises to employ some of the best educators and researchers in the field to aid in creating a forward-thinking community with a common goal.
The latest and most advanced digital equipment will be available to the students.

The Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development, Maxine Morand, recently provided all 85 of the enrolled Victorian College for the Deaf students brand-new iPads. This gift was part of the Brumby Labor Government’s iPads for Learning initiative, which provides iPads to students with special needs. The iPads represent a movement toward more technology in the classroom. With the iPad, students, and especially students with disabilities such as deafness, can benefit from the device in several ways. Some examples of uses for the iPad include the following:

Viewing interactive books
Downloading games catered to deaf children
Watching video with the option of closed captioning

Although the institute has not yet opened — it’s schedule to break ground in March 2011 — it’s clear that the motives are in place, the goals are high, and the kids are ready to learn. The word is becoming more and more digital; institutes like Victoria’s is only the beginning of the progression.

Filed Under: Family Support Tagged With: Education, Hearing impairment

Living with Another That Has A Learning Disability

For most of the world, one can walk through life and not be able to pick out which people have dyslexia, and which people don’t. Dyslexia is not painted on a person’s face and in fact, people with dyslexia do not have a lower intelligence than people without dyslexia. Some people live with people that do have dyslexia and at times they can see them struggle, not just with spelling, but with the emotions that surround being labeled as dyslexic.

It is important when you live with someone with dyslexia not to limit yourself by what the world labels people. The easy way out is to figure that a person with dyslexia is different and needs extra help. One may find themselves wanting to just pick up the slack and fill in the gaps for an individual with dyslexia. It is important asa parent, friend or spouse not to become an enabler. It is important not to become an enabler by treating that person as not good enough to do something on their own. By treating an individual like they always need extra help, you reinforce the label that they are not good enough. If you are told each and every day that you are not good enough and need extra help, most people will end up believing it. So, don’t be an enabler, not because of how it can make you feel, but because of the message you are sending to your love one. The truth is that a person with dyslexia is capable regardless of whether or not every word is spelled correctly in their essay.

It is also important to take care of yourself and not find yourself feeling burdened like you always have to take care of your child, friend, or loved one. Feeling burdened by your love one can lead to feelings of anger and resentment. None of this is necesary. Remember that everyone with dyslexia is a capable human being.

Filed Under: Family Support Tagged With: Education, Learning Disabilities

Blindness-Friendly Print, Math, and Science Resources for the Struggling Teacher

As a teacher, what do you do when you know a student with blindness or a visual impairment will soon be joining your class? Do you panic and immediately feel unprepared? Of course, feeling unready is a natural reaction to a sudden need to accommodate for a student with a disability, but take a deep breath. You’re in luck. There are hundreds and hundreds of resources available for assisting blind students. These resources are easy to access, inexpensive to apply, and extremely beneficial to all parties involved. Using any of the resources that follow will provide comfort and calm for the teacher worried about helping a student with blindness learn and enjoy school.

National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped: At www.loc.gov/nls, visitors can browse a free library program offered through the Library of Congress. Many libraries across the country participate in the program, which offers free Braille and audio materials. The site is a clearinghouse for recently released Braille publications and audio books. The variety of materials is impressive, as is the ease of utilization.
Dancing Dots: Students with blindness or visual impairment should not be left out of the joy and positive experience of learning to play an instrument. The website www.dancingdots.com agrees and offers products and services for assisting the blind in reading music.
Barrier Free Education: This project’s goal is to provide educators with the tools needed to help their disabled students learn science, technology and math. At barrier-free.arch.gatech.edu, teachers can peruse the various subjects and find specific materials and tips for teaching. For blind students learning math, the site provides a math problem to Braille translator, for example.
Strategies for Teaching Blind Students: This very basic website, located at www.as.wvu.edu/~scidis/text/vision_impair.html, offers advice on general courtesy, strategies and presentation suggestions for math and science teachers with blind students. These tips involve suggestions such as using talking thermometers and calculators.

Filed Under: Teaching Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Education

Education Tips for Parents of Disabled Children

Education is one area that parents strive to do the best for their children. For some this may mean applying to the best schools, paying for private education, or home schooling. Finding the best style of learning often depends on the extent of the disability. Some disabilities are not recognized until there are problems in the classroom. Many times bad behavior or not completing assignments is because of how the child is comprehending the information.

Students with disabilities may need to learn in a style that is not an option inside of the traditional classroom style of learning. Looking for the best way that your child learns can take both time and effort.

There are educators and therapists that take their jobs seriously and have a desire to help. Parents may find that certain tests are required to find out the inner workings of their brain. These tests may focus on motor skills, language assessments, and cognitive responses. Understanding their disability can help lead both the family and educator to teaching methods that will reach your child.

Parenting children with disabilities day to day requires a great deal of patience. Choosing to be involved with their education is not just waiting until school starts the learning process. Small daily tasks are a great time to practice the way that they learn best. This could be by using the same techniques for learning that are taught at school at home. Building on the same teaching methods that the school is using can be done at home.

Teaching methods are more than just basic tools for education. They are the way that your child can learn basic concepts, form their own opinions, and develop ideas that expound on their imaginations. Being able to complete tasks or communicate effectively is necessary. Take time to understand the disability and find a learning solution that works for your child.

Filed Under: Teaching Tips & Tricks Tagged With: Education

The Intelligence Understanding: Learning Difficulty

It’s a common accusation. It’s a vicious belief. Teachers deem your child too strange, too hopeless, to educate. They claim his intelligence is lacking — a consequence of his disorder, a proof that he does not belong in the standard classes. He is beyond their help and must therefore be placed with others like himself: branded as a special needs pupil.

And it is not this name that offends you. It is instead the assumption that your child is not brilliant — because you know that he is. He simply can’t offer it in the usual ways, can’t verbalize his thoughts with ease.

Too often is it believed that children with learning disabilities are of low intelligence and cannot be taught. This is incorrect, however, and must be understood immediately as nothing more than a myth. Most individuals with forms of disorders are of above average intellect. They excel with creativity and can offer information in new ways. They are not — despite what so many declare — unable to learn.

The complication that comes from a difficulty, however, is in the way information is absorbed. Children can be precocious but can also be unable to demonstrate this. Words may elude them; numbers can confuse; and the necessary motor skills (such as holding a pencil properly) can disappear, leaving them unable to communicate as others do.

This is not validation of below average potential, though. It is instead a need for unconventional applications — all of which must be utilized by teachers to ensure that school becomes a welcoming environment and not a simple terror.

The misconception that plagues individuals with learning disabilities is that they can never succeed. Their intellect is thought to be weak. The truth, however, is that they are often the most dynamic students in the classroom. They simply must express their skills differently. And this requires patience from all.

A difficulty is not a failing. It is instead merely unique.

Filed Under: Learning Theories Tagged With: Child, Disability, Education, Learning disability, Special needs

Learning Difficulty: Understood

It’s an assumption of ignorance, of weak minds and flawed comprehensions: a disability brands all individuals unable to be taught and undeserving of the chance. There’s a confusion of intelligences, with labels flung out, naming each child futile. Parents despair; teachers falter; and the entire education system considers the cause to be a lost one. There’s nothing to be done and nothing to consider. These students are deemed failures.

And the stigma of learning difficulties continues.

The notion of a disability is one that’s too often met with worry, tension and misunderstandings. Children who are burdened by even a mild worry are often forced to suffer from the misconceptions of their family, friends and peers. Education becomes an impossibility — not because of their problem but because too many others refuse to help them.

It’s essential therefore that all individuals understand what a learning difficulty truly is and what must be done about it. This is not a failing of the brain. It’s merely a new way of receiving — and communicating — information.

Defined simply: a learning disability is when a child cannot process letters, numbers, phrases of speech or other elements as his peers do. It’s a disorder (with causes that cannot be directly predicted. Physical impairment, illness, genetics and more can spark a complication). It is not, however, a reflection of intelligence or ability. Students cannot absorb facts as others do; but they can still be taught. The methods may just require creativity, with an emphasis on visual aids and repetition.

And this must be recognized. Too often are children thought to be unworthy of their teachers’ time, left behind while their classmates move forward. They are deserving of an education, however. It merely must be presented differently. This is not an indicator of mental deficiency. It’s just a compromise of traditional methods.

A learning difficulty is not an excuse to abandon any student. It’s instead a demand for patience and understanding.

Filed Under: Children With Learning Disabilities Tagged With: Disability, Education, Learning disability, Mental retardation

The Input Worry: Learning Difficulty

It’s the wince at a blackboard, the slow beginnings of a frown: a child leans forward at his desk, trying to understand the words that are sprawled before him. But the letters start to tangle, and the meanings soon fade. All information is reversed, with entire sentences transposed (becoming parodies of themselves, baffling). He cannot understand the facts. He cannot comprehend the intentions. He merely stares, trying to hide his confusion. His peers would mock him for it, he believes. They’re all taking notes so efficiently and he… can’t.

He thinks something must be wrong with him. He thinks his mind must be broken.

It isn’t — the synapses are merely misreading what’s being presented.

The most common of all learning difficulties is the misunderstanding of new information. This is deemed an Input Disability, with individuals unable to recognize specific words, letters, distances or visual clues. Their perceptions are instead obscured. They do not see the world as others do. Their outlooks are shaped to miscommunication — with their brains unable to easily process facts and skills.

And this too often brands a child foolish. He is thought to be distracted and weak minded. Teachers assume a lack of effort; peers assume a lack of intelligence.

This is not true, however. Those who suffer from an Input Disability are neither inattentive nor ignorant. They are merely unable to understand information in the traditional ways. They must instead have help.

And this is offered in the form of auditory aid (with lessons explained verbally, allowing for greater comprehension), repetition, carefully worded guides (with all important factors highlighted and properly spaced) and elements that can be mastered through touch instead of reading. The intention is to strengthen the body’s ability to receive information by offering alternatives. Exposure must be wide and varied.

An Input Disability is not proof of a flawed intellect. It’s merely a requirement for different teaching methods. Understand the visual concerns and combat them.

Filed Under: Treatment Tagged With: Education, Learning disability, Understanding

Understanding Symptoms: Learning Difficulty

A child sits alone in a classroom, staring at the blank lines of a page — he’s meant to craft an essay within them, is supposed to offer reasons for his many daydreams (the little glances out a window, the minutes wasted with imaginary conversations). It’s a punishment of idle thoughts and idle hands. He refuses to learn and must now pay the price. The detention will last until his work is completed.

But charting out the explanations for his wandering mind isn’t easy. He can’t express the restlessness, the worry. He can’t tell of how information becomes tangled in his brain, all words blurring together until he can’t read their meanings. There is confusion in the simplest of tasks — and he’s afraid all will brand him weak if he admits it.

So he writes nothing and his problem remains unknown.

Learning difficulties are complicated things: with their symptoms often ignored, deemed a simple lack of focus. Too often do children refuse to confess their own worries; and too often do teachers misinterpret struggling minds. The cycle is a vicious one, if only because it’s perpetuated so easily. It continues when it shouldn’t have to.

It’s imperative therefore that all students, teachers and parents recognize the signs of a disability — and address them quickly. Understand the difference between a wavering attention span or a genuine concern.

Look for:

One: Transposing of letters or numbers.
Two: Difficulty in verbalizing thoughts.
Three: Unstable coordination.
Four: Weak memory.
Five: Inability to comprehend open-ended questions.
Six: Always distracted.
Seven: Failure to grasp new skills.

Most students will experience forms of these symptoms throughout their educational careers (they can be caused by stress or other factors). But individuals who suffer with them daily must be helped. A learning difficulty should be noted early and combated, not merely assumed to be a reflection of poor attention skills. Teachers must recognize the signs and discover ways to counter them effectively.

Filed Under: Treatment Tagged With: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Education, Learning disability

Integrating Information: Learning Difficulty

It was to be a simple exercise, an exploration of creativity — students were to craft a story, with each child offering their own ideas, allowed to create a masterpiece. And the fable began efficiently: the words were offered easily; the characters were formed. Each boy and girl was given the chance to use their imaginations, the tale bouncing from desk to desk. But the process came to a sudden halt as one child was unable to speak, could offer none of the needed coherency.

She didn’t understand the sequence. She couldn’t recall the events. And the story fumbled, losing all power. Her classmates weren’t pleased; her teacher was confused; and she was humiliated, unable to explain that — though she tried her best — she couldn’t track the logic.

She suffers from an Integration Disability and this must be understood before it can be helped.

Simply defined: an Integration Disability occurs when the brain cannot catalog information properly. Facts are recognized but cannot be placed into the appropriate order. There is no concept of minutes, sequence or organization. Instead all truths become clumsy, unable to be comprehended for their timelines.

And this can lead students to fail at seemingly easy tasks: such as explaining their morning, listing the alphabet or even being aware of the clock. All information is interpreted without true understanding.

This demands therefore aid from all parents and teachers. Students should be accommodated with highly specific instructions, ensuring that all facts can be followed. Extended deadlines may be needed to allow for any complications. Use memory exercises to help encourage learning of basic notions (such as the alphabet or mathematical properties). And be certain that all environments are organized — guaranteeing that items can be found with ease, rather than being forgotten.

Integration is a difficulty that cannot be denied. It can, however, be countered with attention and patience. Understand a child and her needs to make the learning process effective.

Filed Under: Learning Theories Tagged With: Child, Education, Learning, Student