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Discipline and the Special Needs Child

Parents of a special needs child can sometimes find themselves in sticky situations in regards to disciplining their special needs child. Most parents realize too late that discipline should start earlier rather than later. While you may not be able to discipline a special needs child the same way you would a child without disabilities, you can adapt your disciplinarian techniques to your special needs child. Adapting is something that a special needs parent know all about.

Kelli Reynoldson and her son, Alex, 5, read to...

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Create simple rules for the whole house. Use simplified rules according to your child’s ability to understand them. Cover the most problematic behaviors first and then work from there. However, do not throw a lot of rules and regulations at your child at one time. Start with five or ten and you can begin to build from that. It may take a while to get the first five or ten down before you can move on to others.

Always praise for positive behaviors. Let’s face it what child doesn’t like praise at any age or cognitive level. When you reinforce the good behaviors, children will be more likely to repeat them. When the child preforms several good behaviors in a row, reward the child with something that they really love. The same can go for bad behavior, by taking the object away from the child, the child will make the connection. Not right away but eventually. This leads to the next topic.

Be consistent with discipline, without consistency chaos reigns. This rings true for every child but especially those with special needs. You provide structure for your child to live by and special needs children thrive on structure.

 

Filed Under: Parents, Specialty Schools Tagged With: , ,

Tips For Raising A Special Needs Child

It is hard to raise kids these days.  If you have a special needs child your load just got a lot heavier.  It takes extra effort and thought on the part of parents with a special needs child.  More often than not you are sleep deprived your energy is drained and you still have to maintain some sort of normalcy to your life and schedule for your other children.  Between doctor’s appointments, work and your child’s education needs your life can get pretty hectic.  Here are a few tips for parents with a special needs child.

The biggest thing that you probably are already familiar with is patience, patience and more patience.  You are learning just as much if not more so than your child.  A special needs child will take longer to learn and understand concepts than a normal child sometimes a lot longer if at all.  You may have to train yourself to accept that this is what it takes to help your child progress.  Do not stress you or your child out.

Understand your child’s personality.  If the child cannot speak her wishes, you should understand that she still has a mind and personality all her own.  If you need to cater a little bit to her needs then do so.  Even if your child has full capabilities it is still a good idea to cater to their needs as long as it is not hurting them.

Try not to cloister your child.  Protecting your children is an automatic thing for parents, for moms in particular.  You are not helping your child by protecting her from all harms.  Let your child experience things as other children would.

Filed Under: Parents, Teachers Tagged With: , ,

Counseling Can Help Your Special Needs Family

Any family who has a special needs child will inevitably have hurtles and mountains that will need to be climbed.  Odds that most “normal” families will not need to endure.  Marriages where there is a special needs child involved will often become strained to the point of separation or divorce.  A special need counselor can help a family deal with day-to-day issues and also prepare the handicapped child for an adult life with independence.

If a parent is concerned about a child growing up with a disability or handicap counseling can help figure out a plan for your family.  A counselor helps the family with daily issues as well as giving your special needs child someone to talk to besides parents and peers.  With a disability there is often depression and isolation and a counselor can help with this.  A counselor can also help the family with any adjustments they need to make in regards to a handicapped child.

When a parent feels overwhelmed by social, behavioral and learning challenges that are associated with a special needs child a counselor can also find ways for the family to deal with that as well.  Your school may find that a special need child will benefit from a counselor but if your family struggles with the disability seek counseling before the school advises it.

Independence comes naturally to normal children and they have no problem as adults functioning in a normal society.  Special needs children and their families can be counseled so that the child becomes an independent adult who can function without the help of a caregiver or a parent.  You want your child to succeed in life and extra help is always appreciated.

Filed Under: Parents, Students Tagged With: , ,

The Differences In Gifted And Exceptional Students

Every parent is concerned with their children’s learning capabilities.  As parent’s we often wonder if our child is where he should be developmentally.  So when a school tells us that our child is gifted or exceptional, what exactly does that mean?  You may think your child is gifted but maybe your school does not agree.  Below you will find what exactly gifted and exceptional really means.

When a teacher tells you your child is gifted it could mean broadly or specifically.  A gifted child excels in areas of study either creatively, intellectually or in specific areas of academics.  Your child may be way ahead of his peers in his reading level but cannot write a complete sentence.  Also, your child may excel across the board on all subjects.  Parents will often find that their gifted children have a hard time making friends with children their age.  Either because the child is so far advanced the other kids feel put off by that or because they choose not to associate with their peers.  Most gifted children are very humorous because of their quick thinking minds and they tend to get along with people who are older than they are.

Exceptional children encompass all children who have some type of learning disability.  These children can be either in a traditional classroom setting or need to be taught in a separate classroom depending on what their individual needs and learning ability happens to be.  Gifted children and exceptional children often have the same personality traits with the exception of their learning ability.  There are children who are classified as twice exceptional because they are not only gifted but they also have a learning disability.  The gifted may be overlooked because of the disability.

The school uses screening tests for both gifted and exceptional children.  So that your child will get the best education that they can receive.

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How Schools Identify A Special Needs Student

There are many ways that schools can identify a potential learning disability.  Parents usually know that something is wrong before the child goes to either daycare or school.  If a parent has several children they will be able to spot a disability more easily than they would with only one child.  When a parent is unable to note a possible disability it is usually caught either in a daycare facility or during kindergarten.

Most teachers have seen enough normal development in children and can more easily suspect a learning disability.  Most children learn at different levels, a special needs child could possibly be quite far behind other children their age.  However, some special needs children have no problem with keeping up, they have more emotional issues.  Some may still be able to function in a traditional classroom setting, while others may need to go to a special needs classroom.

Most school districts employ screening tests for suspected special needs children on a large scale.  If there is a potential learning disability found, then an individual assessment is done.  Usually a parent approaches the teacher or school counselor when a handicap is suspected, but more often than not it is caregivers and teachers who first recognize the handicap.  This is why the school employs these screening tests.  If a child has problems with fine motor skills, speech, hearing, or understanding simple direction this may indicate a possible learning disability.

Once a disability has been recognized the school will generally invite parents to the school to discuss their findings.  This gives the parent the opportunity to ask questions, voice their concerns and provide additional information to help solidify the schools findings.  Some parents find it hard to believe that their child may have a learning disability no matter how slight it may be.  Instruct the parent to seek the advice of a medical professional.

Filed Under: Education, Students Tagged With: , ,

Ways Around A Rambunctious Child

One of the most well known problems with a child who has a learning disability is that they may have problems sitting still while class is going on. Having a hard time grasping a subject for a small child can usually lead to becoming disinterested, bored and restless while class is going on. While they may not act out to the level where they are actually interrupting class or being totally disruptive there are other ways to cause a problem and one of those is constantly fidgeting in their seats.

Of course when the child is moving around as often as some of them will, the standard school desks will constantly creak and crack and even screatch across the classroom floor from time to time. Parents of special needs children should work closely with the child’s teachers to see what kind of solutions can be made to at the very least avoid as much noise as possible. One way to avoid the kind of creaking and cracking is to put a seat cushion down. A seat cushion that comes in the standard ‘O” shape can actually help because the child will think they are getting quite a bit of motion while in fact they aren’t moving that much.

Another technique that can be tried is to use a different kind of desk, one that is separate from the chair can work wonders in cutting down the noise because the one piece desks are notorious for creating more noise. Of course either one of these solves should only be used if the teacher and the school’s administration is 100 percent on board with the idea. There are going to be students who will resent the student who gets a more comfortable or different seat and that may cause more problems for the teacher than the noise that the fidgeting was making.

Filed Under: Education, Specialty Schools, Students Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Understanding The ESE Student

When parents are first dealing with what has recently been diagnosed as an ESE student they can feels somewhat adrift. They do not really know what the next step is in getting their child help and they don’t really understand what having an ESE child really means. First thing is first. ESE stands for Exceptional Student Education and any child who special education or any sort of related services who is also enrolled in a public school system. At times it can be hard for a family to accept that their child might need some extra attention or a separate lesson plan than the other kids in his or her class.

What parents of an ESE student need to understand is that being labeled as such does not mean a lifetime of agony and sadness for their child. In actuality there is a chance that in the long run an ESE student could actually have a happier life because their learning problems have been diagnosed and can be treated.

It is important to note that ESE students do not want to be treated as though there is something wrong with them or that they are in some way radioactive. This diagnosis is not a time to make it worse by acting as though they cannot still do things that other kids are able to do simply because they need different accommodations in the classroom. Parents of ESE students need to fight the urge to over indulge the draw to somehow drastically change the home life in a negative way because of a new diagnosis that can be uncomfortable to deal with in the beginning. Families of ESE students should make sure that while their children are undergoing a different type of education they are going through some counseling or therapy of their own as a way to make the transition easier for everyone.

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