Challenges of teaching a child with special needs

DR RADICA MAHASE

“FIVE years ago, my principal came to me and said that there is a special needs child who will start attending our school and he wants to put her in my class. The little girl was six years old; she was on the autism spectrum and diagnosed with ADHD.

With her, I had to learn to teach. I had to adapt the curriculum so that she would understand, I had to come up with strategies to keep her interest. Sometimes I felt like a total failure but I was lucky to have support from my principal and her parents. Because of her, I learnt more about teaching a special needs child that any book could have ever taught me.”

Since March 2020, with the closure of schools and the change to an online/blended learning environment, teachers who worked with special needs children have been struggling. According to one teacher, “It is one thing to teach a child in a physical classroom where you can sit with the child and have a hands-on approach, and another thing to try to reach a child across a screen.”

There are many challenges that teachers are faced with regarding online teaching but these challenges are often worsened for students with special educational needs. Most of the time we tend to look at the students and how they are at a disadvantage but it is important to understand that teachers are also in a situation where restrictions prevent them from really helping their special needs students.

One of the biggest setbacks to special needs education during covid19 restrictions is the lack of flexibility in the syllabus at all levels. Our antiquated education system requires all students to do the same curriculum, write the same exams, be assessed in the same way.

When the transition was made to online or blended teaching, the curriculum remained the same. It was expected that teachers would simply move from a physical setting to an online setting and continue as normal, trying to finish the syllabus and meet curriculum requirements. Those in charge did not think that the requirements might need to be adjusted given the situation.

One special education teacher said, “It is very difficult for me to prepare my special needs student for the SEA exam. He doesn’t have a teacher’s aide and I rely on his parents to help him at home and we are moving along slowly. However, our education system doesn’t cater for slow movement because we have to complete the syllabus in time for exams in June. I really wish there was something in place to assess them differently because as much as I try and as much as they try, the system just works against them.”

One of the biggest setbacks for special needs teachers is the lack of resources, lack of training and lack of support from the Ministry of Education (MoE). One teacher stated, “I wish the MoE would have some training sessions to help those of us who teach students with special needs. It’s not about the technology, it’s about strategies to reach them virtually, to give them emotional support. I also wish that we had more help from guidance counsellors. I have students who are struggling who need counselling but the counsellor cannot work with him regularly.”

For students with special educational needs to thrive in an online environment, they need the extra support. This support has to come from the MoE as well as the parents/caretakers. This support goes beyond just making sure that the child has a working device and access to the internet.

Another special education teacher noted, “I have two students on the autism spectrum and they have already fallen behind. This is not because of a lack of effort on my side. When I do a topic in class with them, they need that extra help to go through the topic and in both cases, parents cannot work with them at one. One lives with an elderly grandmother and in the other case, the parents are illiterate. None of them have teacher’s aides despite the fact that they applied years ago. How am I supposed to help these children get a good quality education when they do not have the support they desperately need to keep up with the class? When they fail their exams, they will be kept back, not because they are not trying or I am not trying but because the entire education system does not facilitate students with special needs.”

Radica Mahase is the founder/director of Support Autism T&T