How to Deal With Students Who Have Disabilities...
I have a question. I have a couple of students that I suspect may have learning disabilities and are unwilling to ask for assistance. How do you assist these students?
Hi Randolph!
You are exactly right about the appropriate approach to a student with disabilities. The law is very clear that we cannot directly ask any student about a disabilitiy; however, what we can do is make sure they feel comfortable with sharing and/or asking for help.
Good job!
Jane Davis
ED106 Facilitator
You can ask the students if they need help but you must be very careful in asking if they thav a learning disability for these reasons you may offend the student and there could be right to privacy issues that may need to be adressed prior to asking
I have encountered students with what I thought were learning disabilities, but I could not get any kind of acknowledgement or confirmation from the students. Sometimes behavioral problems surface as a result of not being willing to acknowledge the problems and seek help. Have you found this to be the case in some instances?
I had a beginning student that I believe was functionally illiterate. (Not sure how he passed pre-admission testing). The young man gave up the first week, no matter what we tried.
First and for most, you most be sure of their disability. You may want to provide some testing or specialized assignments to confirm your thoughts. Once all is confirmed, then you should begin with providing any assistance possible so that those students can successed and without feeling like they are being pushed ahead or given special treatment due to their disabilities. Let them know, even with their disabiltiy, they can successed just the same as the other students,but they may need to put in a little exttra work in order to advance.
