Individualized Instruction for Students with Special Needs Who Present Challenges with Regard to Understanding and Following Directions

When mentoring our pre-service and in-service teachers we need to describe and model both research-based and clinically tested best practices. Accordingly, our mentees should know how to individualize instruction.

Below you will find several modifications to individualize instruction for students with special needs who have challenges with regard to understanding and following directions.

Specific Learning Challenge	Some Suggested Modifications to Individualize Instruction*
Understanding and following directions	· Create a short instruction sheet or routine when giving directions.** · Give one direction at a time. · Have the student or a group of students repeat directions back to you to check for understanding. · Use signals or symbols to indicate the kind of directions being given (e.g. a pencil to signal writing directions, a book to signify reading directions, etc.).

*This is taken, with permission, from the website of the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ), special needs menu,http://urj.org/educate/specialneeds/. Retrieved January 30, 2009.

** The double asterisk denotes an activity that can be done by a teaching assistant, a trained madrich, a trained parent volunteer, or the student or co-teacher.

In the next post we will share specific modifications to individualize instructions for students who present challenges with regard to writing.