Learning the Right Language
Through her research, Ms. Nolan discovers that a key to helping students with learning disabilities develop better self-regulation skills is teaching them the language for describing their own emotions, strengths, and struggles.
Ms. Nolan spends time with her whole class going over vocabulary students can use to describe their emotions, like 'happy', 'distracted', 'frustrated', and 'excited'. Then, when she notices her students growing distracted or beginning to act out, she directs their attention to a chart at the front of the room with appropriate emotional vocabulary and asks them to describe how they're feeling rather than act impulsively based on their feeling.
Ms. Nolan is pleasantly surprised to discover that when her students have the vocabulary for describing their cognitive and emotional states, they are better able to identify and describe what is going on inside themselves. This ability leads to increased self-awareness and improvement in the extent to which students are able to refocus on their work.
Accommodating Assignments
Of course, providing vocabulary is not the end of the story. Ms. Nolan also becomes increasingly sensitive to the ways she can accommodate, or modify, assignments and daily tasks to make them more accessible to students who struggle with learning. She learns that many issues with self-regulation arise when students get frustrated with their assignments. Ms. Nolan begins making certain modifications more regularly, such as:
- breaking up assignments into manageable chunks
- allowing students to do more assignments that involve visual arts, performance art, hands-on projects and other creative activities rather than intensive reading and writing
- incorporating graphic organizers and planning structures into assignments
- allowing students to work with partners more frequently
- incorporating assistive technology into more of her assignments
The more she incorporates these and other accommodations, the more improvements Ms. Nolan sees in her students' ability to self-regulate.
Providing Breaks and Outlets
Ms. Nolan also begins to understand that some students, particularly those with learning disabilities, require more breaks and outlets to express themselves physically, artistically, and musically. She builds in breaks throughout the day and gives students a chance to play games outdoors for short periods of time, do yoga and other meditative exercises as a class, and participate in different forms of artistic and musical expression. Although she is initially hesitant to take time away from academic instruction, she finds it is ultimately worth it because the students are more able to regulate themselves and stay on task when they return to their work.
Celebrating Small Victories
Finally, Ms. Nolan makes a newly explicit effort to celebrate the improvements she notices in her students' performance and self-regulation. She plans little parties and special trips, activities, and other meaningful rewards when she notices her students performing well and staying on task. She also becomes increasingly mindful of communicating to parents and other teachers in the school about the improvements and incremental victories she notices in her students, so that celebrating their efforts can become a responsibility of the whole community.
Lesson Summary
Students with learning disabilities sometimes struggle emotionally and behaviorally as well as academically, but a thoughtful teacher can do a lot to support these students. By teaching students vocabulary to describe their emotional and cognitive needs, giving them accommodations and appropriate breaks and outlets, and celebrating their minor victories and improvements, you set them up for academic and behavioral success in school and in life.
