8th January 2018

Discover their strengths

Discover your students' strengths by finding out about your students' strengths and abilities. Ask your special-needs students what they are interested in, what they feel like they're good at and what they would like to know about.

Learn to make eye contact with the child which is an important skill. This will help them pay attention to what is outside their realm of interest. Be patient and break the process down into fun, game-like steps that your child can enjoy.

Engage your child in activities of interest

Engaging the child in play activities is an effective and rewarding way to develop your child’s ability to focus. It’s important to choose activities that your child enjoys and finds interesting. Involve other students so your child gets to interact and focus on the particular activity.

Teaching special children is as much a challenge as the sense of fulfilment of enabling to develop them to be a part of the society at large and not be secluded out. Engage your child in short activities with a definite goal on a daily basis. This will help keep your child motivated and will prevent your child from losing interest in the activity.

Involve them in activities in parts which are as simple as changing from direct instruction to pair work, or from individual writing to sharing the work they have completed so far amongst a small group. Have the child focus long enough to perform part of the task, take a break, coming back to the project to finish.

Keep them on the move

One great way to channelize the energy of special children and improve their concentration is to involve them in a sport with lots of activity and motion. Teachers with special education teacher courses are trained to encourage in providing easy activity by taking them to playgrounds and other active spots. A mix of visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile play experiences helps anxious and fidgety children focus.

Repeat their communications

Make your child more aware of their actions and to help them focus on an interaction by repeating what they say and do. This will not only attract your child’s attention but may make your child curious to see what you do next. This becomes more of a game activity where you both take turns imitating each other.

Praise your child for paying attention

When you observe that the child is concentrating, be sure to reward them. The important thing is not just to praise the behaviour, but to be specific while recognizing them for their actions. Ensure the child that you are proud because of something in particular that they did. Children with special needs crave positive attention and respond far better to praise and rewards.