Strategies for differentiating learning for a down syndrome student:
Most children and adults are helped to learn from good visual analogies or icons, from coloured, eye catching, illustrations and objects that support spoken or written information, and from doing activities 'for real'. People
benefit from multi-sensory experiences and images to develop their understanding and remembering, so children with Down syndrome are not unique in benefiting from these teaching and learning experiences. For this reason, increasing teachers' differentiation skills and expanding schools' teaching resources will improve educational experiences for many more children at school.
For children with Down syndrome, many of the recommendations for teaching are aimed at:
•reducing the speech and language demands of tasks
•reducing the motor skills demands of tasks
•reducing the amount of work and/or time spent in sustained concentration
•supporting memory skills, with pictures, lists and text
•teaching that actively teaches language and new skills in a clear way, with creation of tasks, methods of
responding and assessment to do this, making use of visual styles of presentation, in situations and through experiences that children enjoy and understand.
More Precisely:
•Provide visual supports
•Provide taped versions, e.g. stories, instructions
•Provide alternative methods of recording (see list below)
•Ask pupils to write about topics within their experience and understanding
•Pace an dictation appropriately and include repetition; check and change vocabulary and grammar as necessary for the child's level of engagement and language understanding
•Provide picture and sentence sequencing practice (from two picture sequences to story boards, webs, maps, etc)
•If copying from the board – select and highlight words in a different colour, or prepare a shorter version for the pupil to copy
•Model activities – allow children to watch others, if they wish to, before participating
•Teach key words or new vocabulary – teach these carefully, use them in natural language and provide a list with their meanings, reinforced with illustration as necessary for the individual
•Summarize and simplify key points, having pupils write and/or draw their own key points, with support as necessary to think, remember, write and spell
•Allow students to be tested orally with questions and answers recorded by Dictaphone at the end of a series of lessons for routine formative assessments
•shorter sessions of individual teaching
•Peer tutoring or working in small groups
•Jigsawing: breaking projects down into small interdependent parts which can be achieved by individual or small subgroups of pupils who all need to work together cooperatively to achieve the end result
Ways to support recording and responding:
•Provide visual supports such as pictures, sentence or word card sequences, story board, webs, maps, frames, etc
•Card sorts of various types
•'Cloze' procedures (sentences with gaps indicated by lines and a choice of words to select from)
•Prompt sheets using pictures and/or words
•'Answer–question' links
•'Yes/No' tick sheets
•Use of the computer, tape recorder, Dictaphone
•Help from a scribe
•Discussion
•If copying from the board, provide shorter text highlighted within larger text
•To enable writing - provide the words within pupils' sight vocabulary, including lists of key words
•Acting out, role play and drama
•Modified work sheets (especially visual worksheets using the printed word, with pictures and diagrams for reinforcement)
•Photograph objects, materials, result or process of lesson (e.g. group work, talking in group, pupil engaging in activity) and print as a record of the lesson, write explanatory sentences or print and paste words and sentences into the child's book or file. Video diaries and records add an extra dimension to learning and recording, and are especially good for teaching children with more significant learning and language difficulties
•Clearly written words, word cards, sentences or print from the computer or an assistant (assistants can also draw illustrations for pupils and paste suitable pictures or even pieces of equipment they have used into the pupils' record books) will enable pupils to look back through their work, remember and rehearse the activities they undertook and the vocabulary and ideas they learned about
•If possible, relate writing tasks to what the pupil knows most about: their own life and interests
Summarized from: "Accessing the curriculum - Strategies for differentiation for pupils with Down syndrome" (http://www.down-syndrome.org/information/education/curriculum/?page=2), (http://www.down-syndrome.org/information/education/curriculum/?page=3) and (http://www.down-syndrome.org/information/education/curriculum/?page=4) Dozens of wonderful examples of the above strategies can be found on the second website, along with student work.
Resources:
1. "Assessment : In Special and Inclusive Education" by John Salvia and James E. Ysseldyke
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
2. "Teaching Kids with Mental Health and Learning Disorders in the Regular Classroom : How to Recognize, Understand, and Help Challenged (and Challenging) Students Succeed" by Myles L. Cooley
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
3. "Including Students with Special Needs : A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers" by Marilyn Friend and William Bursuck
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
4. "Success for All Students : Promoting Inclusion in Secondary Schools Through Peer Buddy Programs" by Carolyn Hughes, Carolyn and Erik W. Carter
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
5. "Inclusive Physical Activity : A Lifetime of Opportunities" by Susan Kasser and Rebecca K. Lytle
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
6. "Be Good to Eddie Lee" by Virginia Fleming and Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
1. "Assessment : In Special and Inclusive Education" by John Salvia and James E. Ysseldyke
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
2. "Teaching Kids with Mental Health and Learning Disorders in the Regular Classroom : How to Recognize, Understand, and Help Challenged (and Challenging) Students Succeed" by Myles L. Cooley
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
3. "Including Students with Special Needs : A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers" by Marilyn Friend and William Bursuck
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
4. "Success for All Students : Promoting Inclusion in Secondary Schools Through Peer Buddy Programs" by Carolyn Hughes, Carolyn and Erik W. Carter
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
5. "Inclusive Physical Activity : A Lifetime of Opportunities" by Susan Kasser and Rebecca K. Lytle
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab
6. "Be Good to Eddie Lee" by Virginia Fleming and Floyd Cooper (Illustrator)
Location in U of L Curriculum Lab