Special Needs teaching in the classroom? Does it come up often?

8 comments

1. Repetition works well. Chunking work, so instead of giving them an overwhelming worksheet, break it down into smaller tasks instead. Learn what their individual needs are as those with SEND have their own strengths and difficulties, use that knowledge to understand how best to get through to them and support them. Lots of visual aids and games if possible. Hold them to high standards, as you would with any student, and praise them heavily when they’ve done something well. Likewise, with any other student, they may have off-days and make mistakes. Have fun with them. A lot of this advice is also applicable to students of any level or background.

2. I visited a special needs school a few times at it was great! Although the students I taught were only physically disabled, so it wasn’t much different from a regular classroom.

   But when it does come to students with intellectual disabilities, I think about one of the workshops I did at orientation when I first arrived. Even when teaching “English class”, the goal or end result isn’t necessarily to learn English, and that’s ok. Sometimes the goal is just to introduce to them how English sounds, or some of the letters, or even most importantly give them the opportunity to interact with a foreigner. And that is enough!

3. I’m a SEND support worker, working with adults, and my main advice is re-frame your thinking. Instead of thinking how to ‘get through to’ a student or how to make your lesson go in their head, think about what they would benefit from most from you.

   (I’m not telling you off by the way – that you’re asking how is a credit to you. I’m just hopefully showing you how once you get the right perspective, everything is google and trial and error. You’ll pick it up much faster and easier than you think)

   You build their lesson around them, and their support needs, rather than flinging whatever accommodations the doctor says they are allowed. This doesn’t mean you have necessarily have 40 different lessons at once, but it does require a little forward planning and a lot of on the spot thinking.

   If you’ve got a non-SEND class with a SEND child in it, you want to make the lesson approachable. Other people have given you good advice about chunking and keeping things more simple. This works for any level of English as people with SEND aren’t necessarily lacking in intelligence (I’ve got a degree, but struggle with forms and worksheets due to my ADHD).

   All behaviour has a purpose, and if you can redirect that behaviour rather than punishing it things will be smoother for everyone. Kid with ADHD keeps wandering – send them to the photocopier. Ask them to name three things they saw in English when they come back. Spends their energy, gives them a brain break, but most importantly, it does so by keeping their dignity and giving them confidence because you trusted them with a job.

   That said, don’t let people walk all over you – the man I’ve made the best relationship with I absolutely roared at once. People with SEND test boundaries for many reasons (some the same as other people, some more complicated), and my personal approach is that I don’t say ‘no’ very often, but when I say no, I mean it. But also remember that one of the main reasons for ‘boundary testing behaviour’ particularly in non-verbal people, is that they’re trying to make you laugh, or otherwise communicate with you. You might find you have better luck communicating back on their level rather than as a ‘teacher’. For example, there’s certain kinds of playfighting and ‘naughtiness’ (like knocking on the table) that I will engage with by joining in or pretend telling off, and there’s kinds I will just give a sad face too and turn my back (like spitting). Patience and consistency wins the day.

   Don’t assume people will ask for help when they need it, because they often won’t due to embarrassment. Deaf people in particular are buggers for telling you they understand when they haven’t heard half of what you’ve said. Ask for someone to repeat an instruction back or watch them attempt the task for a couple of minutes before you move on. Of course, I’ve never taught in Japan before, so my advice of ‘it’s okay to let people fail first’ might not apply!

   If you have profound students, think less about ‘English’ and more about ‘culture’. When we did Japanese class for a class of profound students (all non-verbal, all wheelchair users, all had sensory impairments, all severe learning disabilties, half display challenging behaviours) we didn’t do language. We watched a cherry blossom walk on a big screen which most of them loved instantly, and the few that didn’t understand what they were looking at did when we touched them with a tree branch from outside. Then we used their postural management time (where they all get out of chairs and do physio) to mix red and white paint on the floor which I later cut up and made a cherry tree out of it. They listened to Japanese folk music, and were pushed around for wheelchair dancing to it. For the few that signed, we did do Japanese words, but we used it to further promote signs in English (i.e, sakana means fish, Steven, how do you sign fish? Fish? Is it like this, or like this? That’s right, it’s like this: fish. Lucy, Steven has signed sakana, which is fish. Can you sign fish? etc).

   Hopefully I’ve not confused you further, I’ve found SEND teaching is something you learn by watching, not by doing. But I suppose the main piece of advice is this: if you treat them as their own person, and communicate with them, you’ll find out the best way to get the best from them, whatever their needs or struggles are. And that’s true of people without SEND too.

   Specific advice depends entirely upon people’s conditions, desires and environments, but I’m totally happy to answer specific questions through DM if anyone does have SEND students and wants advice. If I don’t have a good idea for you to try, I will pass it on at work. (That’s another good SEND advice – not every student opens up for every person, so ask for help at every opportunity.)

4. Because Japan is… Japan… you’ll likely have a few special needs kids in every class you teach. In my experience, parents refuse to get their children additional support, because the don’t want their child stigmatized. They’d rather stick their head in the sand, while their precious Taro runs around screaming during lessons (everyone will ignore this, and it’s very jarring the first few times).

   Just be patient. Sometimes during games I will deliberately go try and talk to those students and find something that interests them.

   I had a boy last year who never came to class and would roll around in the hallways instead. He liked dinosaurs and Pokémon, so we’d talk about that. Now he knows me and he seems to be more focused and interested this year.

   The goal is to just keep them engaged. I T2 a Special Ed class every week and it’s my favourite lesson. Keeping things simple, like watching English cartoons and playing games.

5. I can’t speak for high school and don’t have much to share for junior high school. For elementary school, I usually have anywhere from 1-3 kids in a class that need assistance during a lesson. There’s almost always an aid or two in there to help them out, sometimes those students sit close together to be better assisted by one person. These aid teachers help out a ton with communicating things more effectively to those students. I almost never have any kind of issue. Very rarely, an aid isn’t present. In this case the homeroom teacher steps in. At two schools, I occasionally teach lessons specifically to special education class. Usually the class is shortened to 30-35 minutes instead of 45, and it may be topics some of the students have already learned, as they span from grades 1st to 6th.

   For JHS, I haven’t noticed if the special education students are in my regular English classes or not, as I just for the first time since working there was requested to co-teach a lesson for them, so I’ll have to verify that next time I have a lesson at that school. I haven’t noticed a special education aid in any JHS classrooms, though for each class it’s me and two JTEs, one who is part-time and acts as an ALT, essentially. It’s possible that the second JTE has been assisting these students, which may be why I haven’t noticed, or they aren’t present during class as they have their own separate English lessons.

   This was very wordy, apologies there. Anyway, in either case, I have never felt like these students weren’t able to get support during my lessons. A Japanese teacher has always been present to assist with any clarification and translation of activity instructions and vocabulary. In elementary school, most of my special education students are excited about English class and enthusiastic. They raise their hands frequently and love to volunteer. I imagine this has been cultivated by the good support they receive in these schools.

6. I taught larger 5th and 6th grade classrooms a few years ago, and I had three or four special needs students scattered throughout my classes. I was lucky enough that they had support workers who were with them about 90% of the time, and on the rare off chance that a supporter had to step out of the room (usually to accompany another special needs student to the bathroom, out for a hall break, etc) the other kids in class always stepped up and were very supportive and kind. For me it didn’t come up often, but your mileage may vary.

   A good thing to remember is that, on JET, you SHOULD be team-teaching with another teacher at all times- I say should because there is always the possibility you may wind up alone for whatever reason in front of a class. Lean on your partner when you can, just do your best to be a good human to the kids when you can’t. The main teachers are a great resource to help you learn about the accommodations that would help these students with your lessons, as are any teaching aides who work with the students themselves. I co-taught with three different teachers (JTEs), two of which were very willing to talk and plan ahead, and one of which was totally uninterested and pretty harsh on the kids, so how much planning you will do really depends on what your contact with them is like.

   With the teaching aides and more cooperative teachers, I would often touch base before class to briefly discuss the materials for the day’s lesson, and we would try to make small adjustments if necessary for the level of the students. For example, a student who really struggled with focus in class and was not very verbal was encouraged to use an extra notebook to draw pictures of something we were learning that day (for example, in the “let’s go” lessons to draw foreign foods). He would show the class and we’d all use some of our topic sentences with the word he picked- so even if he couldn’t totally follow along at the pace of the other kids, he wasn’t being disruptive and everyone was able to stay on topic and have fun together. I had another student that would frequently get upset and start yelling, and that was really just about learning what to do in that situation so the students could be comfortable and we could continue the class (usually his aide or one of his friends would hold his hand and he would calm down, if not he’d go for an accompanied hallway break and come back when he said he was ready).

   All of the students you’re teaching are individuals, who will have varying levels of needs and present unique challenges even if you are teaching the highest level English class in your school. At the end of the day, be kind and be flexible, and I am confident you will be able to handle it. You will not be alone- you, the other teachers, and the students are in this together.

7. The special needs students have their own separate English class at my school. We just do basic things for all the grades there ie; ABCs, colors, numbers.

   In general I just try to be open and friendly to them just saying “Hello” they’re very shy most of the time but very sweet. I don’t fret too much about it.

8. Special needs education in Japan is something I’ve been quite interested in recently and I’ve been researching it and talking to teachers about how the system works. Here’s an overview of the special needs education system in Japan:

   At the Elementary and JHS levels, special needs in Japan is divided into 7 types: intellectual, verbal, physical, chronic illness, visual, auditory, and emotional (ie autism). Students in the special needs program are usually put into a separate “class” with their own homeroom teacher. Depending on resources, each child may have their own homeroom teacher, especially if they fall into different categories of disability, or multiple students may share a homeroom teacher. I believe the max is 7 special needs students per teacher.

   Children with specials needs can receive classes in one of 3 ways: they join a class of able bodied students unassisted or only sometimes assisted, they join a class of able bodied children with an assistant teacher who sits next to their desk, or they’re taught in a separate room by their homeroom teacher. In principle, students are suposed to be taught via methods 2 or 3. Method 1 (no assistance) usually only happens due to staff shortages and doesn’t correspond to students support needs. Generally all students are given classroom support teachers, even if they don’t struggle academically or need any academic support. I’ve seen a special needs support teacher sleep in the back of class because the student they’d been assigned to help had the highest grades in the class.

   At the JHS level, if they’re taught separately they may not be taught by subject matter specialist teachers. For example, at my JHS none of the special needs kids who are taught separately learn English from any of the JTEs. They learn English from their homeroom teachers, who don’t speak English.

   In addition to the special needs homeroom teachers (who may or may not have special needs specific training, by the way) there are also unlicensed teacher assistants called School Suport Staff. Their job is that upon parent request, they work with students who are struggling in school, but haven’t been identified as special needs. This is often a loophole parents will use if they know their kid is struggling, but don’t want to get them tested or labeled as special needs. I know at my school at least, students with ADHD will often just be assigned a school support staff member rather than be put in special needs.

   At least at my JHS, we also have TTs (stands for team teaching, but it’s not) in English and Math. They’re a teacher from another subject who joins the class and goes around helping struggling students during independent work time. The TT isn’t assigned to a specific student, but sometimes they end up acting essentially as school support staff member for students who are struggling or (imo) possibly have a learning disability, but their parents refuse to get them tested or request a school support staff member.

   Unfortunately in Japan, students with special needs are often viewed as kids who “can’t learn.” Because of the category system, not much differentiation is made between a student with dyslexia and someone with a higher support needs intellectual disability. They’re both just labeled as “intellectually disabled.” I’ve seen teacher more or less write off dyslexic elementary schoolers as “kids who will just never be able to read well or do well in school because they’re disabled.” It’s not because the teachers are bad people, but because awareness of how to teach for different abilities levels is just utterly lacking in Japan.

   Another important point is this: High schools are not required to have special needs programs. Most have no special needs programs whatsoever. That means that if a student isn’t able to attend without any support, they’ll be unable to attend a regular high school and will be limited to attending a Special Needs High School. This is why so many parents avoid getting their kids tested. If students are taught in a separate classroom in Junior High, they run the risk of not earning the necessary credits to attend regular high school (slightly tangential but there’s been an issue recently with schools labeling immigrant children as “special needs” in order to give them Japanese classes in a separate room. Missing regular classes though has the unfortunate consequence of making any of these children unable to matriculate into Japanese high schools due to not having enough credits)

   For my special needs students, they have to decide where they’re going to high school before they even graduate elementary school. The classes that they take in Junior High are tailor made to get them the minimum credits they need for their desired high school and nothing more. One of my 6th graders wanted to go to the local high school, but was told that would be impossible for him due to his learning disability and was basically forced into selecting the Special Needs high school. Now, despite having taken and enjoyed English classes in elementary, he’s no longer allowed to study English in JHS because the special needs high school doesn’t require or teach English

   I would say the good parts of the Japanese system is the very low student teacher ratio in special needs classrooms. The education system also seems willing to invest some money into solutions (all those helper teachers aren’t cheap). The bad parts are the rigidity of the cirriculum making it difficult to adapt things for different learning needs, the one-size-fits-all approach to support needs, and way that special needs students’ potential is often overlooked