Accommodations For Students with Learning Disabilities

Almost any academic content can be presented with accommodations. Accommodations For Students with Learning Disabilities give your child an ‘equal’ learning experience. If you are looking for options as Accommodations For Students with Learning Disabilities, check out the Learning Abled Kids’ assistive technology site too.

For example, if your child can’t read yet, he/she can learn the same social studies, science, grammar, vocabulary words, math and other subject content as typical children. Your child is capable of comprehending the material, but content must be presented in a format that doesn’t involve reading.

A reading disability itself does not limit your child’s ability to learn. Having all content presented via videos, read aloud text, play acting, or books on tape is a means of providing accommodations for students with learning disabilities. These accommodations provide equal educational learning opportunity for your child.

If your child has a reading disability, it would be unfair to present everything in written form. If your school dismisses your child’s inability to read, you need to advocate for your child to have appropriate accommodations.

For learning to read, modifications would be required until your child has been taught to read. While classmates may be reading chapter books, or involved stories, your child may be learning to read three letter syllables. This is an instructional “modification” and should only be used while your child is learning to read.

Exposure to great literature CAN still be provided to your child through books on tape, read alouds, etc. Since the knowledge of great literature builds a foundation for future educational activities, making sure your child has access to the same literature as classmates will keep your child on track for advanced studies in high school.

Remember: The inability to read does not limit your child’s ability to comprehend great literature.

When developing accommodations or modifications, you should always be mindful of your child’s ability to comprehend content. The goal is “equal learning through *any* path“.

When deciding what your child needs, your question should be “Can my child learn this? If so, how can we teach it to him so that he can learn the same content as all of the other students?”

Look at what your child’s IEP team has written.

Is the content the same content taught to the whole class?
Is the content a “watered-down” version of what’s being presented to other children? Is this necessary?
Is the information the same, but just in a different form?

When considering accommodations, think of your child’s “learning style”.

Do changes take advantage of your child’s learning strengths?
Can visual, auditory, or tactile presentation help your child learn?
Does moving around help your child learn?
Is there a different, more active or hands-on way to present learning content to your child?

To find accommodations that might suit your child, you may want to visit PACER’s parent training and information centerwww.pacer.org or look at their list of “Accommodation Ideas For Students with Learning Disabilities“.

List seven Accommodations For Students with Learning Disabilities which will help your child. Reference the Learning Abled Kids’ assistive technology site for more ideas about helping your child learn better.