The Way of Success; Helping Your Struggling Learner (390 hits)
The flexibility of home education can make all the difference between a child who flounders and one who succeeds in school. But when a struggling learner reaches high school, is it still OK to make modifications for his individual challenges? Find out today on Home School Heartbeat with host Mike Smith!
Mike Smith: Faith Berens, HSLDA’s special needs consultant, is with us again today. Faith, if a parent is homeschooling a struggling learner or special needs child through high school, what sort of modifications can they make to the way they teach their student?
Faith Berens: When parents make modifications and provide accommodations, the aim should always be to help students attain their full, God-given potential, and to make sure the student is working up to his highest level of capability. Modifying the way we teach does not lower the standards or requirements, it just helps make the content accessible for the student with the disability. The accommodations that can be made are things such as extended time, or using adaptive equipment, adapted materials, such as high interest, low readability texts.
Also, using print recognition software or reading pens, as well as books on audio for the literature classes, can help the students access the content, and then the parents can give their child high school credit. For other students who may have a written expression disability, or a dysgraphia, parents could allow for oral tests or narration of assignments, rather than written essays.
