Match Teaching to the Child’s Learning Style! The Three Must-Dos: Input, output, and processing speed! How does the child best receive information (input), communicate what he knows (output), and at what speed can he adequately process information? Identify and respect these three processes and maximize the learning. When advocating for your child at school, place emphasis on these three processing steps: 1. Learning style: Identify and cater to the child’s primary learning style. Most children are either auditory learners (learn better through hearing), visual learners (better through vision), or tactile learns (learning by touching and doing). Many children on the spectrum have auditory processing problems, so they are often visual learners; processing information better through written words and pictures. For these children verbal information can get jumbled up and lost before it is stored in memory. Verbal information is too fleeting, where as visual information is more constant and available to reference. However, some children have visual processing difficulties or visual learning disorders, and receive information better orally. They do better “hearing” the information. Thirdly, some children learn best by touching and manipulating, and need to physically explore what they are learning. Pattern how information is given, by how they receive it best. If the child has auditory problems, he may struggle understanding or remembering verbal information and oral directions. He will learn better with written material combined with pictures. So, when the teacher is giving directions she would be better off giving the child directions in writing. If the child has visual processing issues, then the child would do better with oral instructions, or listening to a story instead of reading it. It is important to isolate which sense is the primary processor and if any of the other senses have processing limitations. It is often recommended that the children go to an audiologist or ophthalmologist for comprehensive evaluations if they appear to be struggling with learning from hearing or vision. 2. Communication style: In addition to learning style, we need to understand the best way for the children to express what they have learned. Many children on the spectrum have fine motor difficulties and struggle with writing. For them, having to write out what they know (tests, papers, etc.) can be a real struggle. If you want to test what the child knows, then we have to use a medium for which they can express themselves easily. If the child struggles with writing, they have to focus so much on making the written symbols that they cannot concentrate on “what” they want to say. They cannot concentrate on (1) how to write, and (2) what to write about at the same time. They will get anxious and expression breaks down. For children who struggle with writing they need accommodations built in to take tests orally, type out answers, or have someone else write out the answers. We want to use the easiest way for them to express what they know. 3. Processing speed: Lastly, allow the child to “pace” the amount and speed in which they learn. This respects their processing speed. Many children on the spectrum have delayed processing problems. It takes added time to process the information and then formulate and execute a response. If we push them faster, the processing breaks down and interrupts their understanding and performance. We need to let their brains dictate the amount of time it takes for them to complete their work. Often it is “half as much work in twice as much time.” You cannot force the child to go fast, and doing so will only create more anxiety, which will inhibit his performance. It is very important at school, and elsewhere, that we recognize and respect the learning style, mode of expression, and processing speed of the children to maximize learning. So, have these three functions evaluated, identify the best way to learn and express what they have learned, and have those accommodations built into the IEP from year to year. Your child will do much better at school. This series on school issues can be found in the green book, Autism Discussion Page on Anxiety , Behavior, school, etc.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 13:25:19 +0000
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