Motivating students with learning disabilities should be a top priority for teachers in an inclusive classroom setting. There are many accommodations and ways to adapt a classroom for children with LD so that they will progress and stay motivated with their schoolwork and homework. This article will present some tips for teachers who want to keep their students with learning disabilities from becoming discouraged and apathetic as academics become harder.
Many children with learning disabilities may find that they have strengths in some academic areas, but weaknesses in others. Often, these kids will spend a lot of time focused on tasks that highlight their proven skills, while avoiding or even completely ignoring schoolwork that is difficult for them.
For example, a child who is really good in math but struggles with writing will spend be very focused on learning math in class. However, when there is a writing assignment, the child may rush through it carelessly or avoid it completely. A child with LD who experiences enough criticism or failure in a weak subject may even begin to blame the class, teacher, or disability and stop trying.
Accommodating the Student With Learning Disabilities
Setting high expectations and remaining positive while delivering student feedback are important to help students with learning disabilities to stay motivated in the classroom. There are many accommodations that teachers can employ within their classroom to help students with learning disabilities. Here are some ideas that may work:
- Provide consistent, positive feedback to a student with learning disabilities when he succeeds.
- Communicate classroom standards and expectations clearly.
- Do not accept work that does not meet your standards, but give support when showing how it should be done.
- Give rewards and incentives to help motivate students, continuously setting the bar higher.
- Provide choices for homework assignments and schoolwork that will demonstrate knowledge in the tough subjects.
- Help connect knowledge and skills to the real world.
- Show how students’ current work ethic will positively impact their future work.
- Provide small steps in assignments that will reduce the possibility of error, while helping students stay on track and not become overwhelmed.
- Help students understand that failure is an opportunity for them to get better.
Children with learning disabilities can be taught to cope with failure if teachers anticipate the possibility of mistakes happening, and lend support while giving positive feedback. Helping students to see the big picture – how much they have improved along the way – will also be key to building their tolerance for making mistakes. Progress charts can really help to demonstrate to a student that even though he has had some failures, he is still improving.
Promoting Self-Motivation in Students With Learning Disabilities
There are many ways that students with disabilities can be motivated to complete assignments and learn new things at school. One very important concept that needs to be addressed is how a teacher can promote independence and help students take responsibility for their own progress.
Provide the tools and skills necessary for students to be self-motivated. Teaching students how to set their own goals, providing lots of choices, helping kids monitor their own progress, and showing them how to come up with plans to improve are some ways to achieve self-motivation.
It will be very helpful to come up with a list of questions to help students evaluate where they are at with a particular subject. Help them to come up with a plan to improve, listing small goals that need to be met along the way. When doing schoolwork, provide the student with a list of steps or prompts to help lower the incidents of error. Students can then track progress on a bar chart.
Motivating students with learning disabilities is something that teachers will need to do in order to help them reach their academic goals. Making accommodations for kids with LD in the classroom is a good first step. Most importantly, helping a child with a learning disability to find the motivation within will set the tone for a lifetime of positive learning.
For further motivation, teachers of students with LD might be interested in presenting to their classes a list of famous people with disabilities.
Karen Plumley - Karen Plumley is a writer specializing in parenting and education. She works for Parenting NH and the Hippo, NH's most widely read ...
