Classroom Support with Mrs Spackman
DDA
Disability Discrimination Act
Some of you would be familiar with the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992. As a result of this Act, the Disability Standards for Education were provided in 2005, as a framework to ensure students with a disability are able to ACCESS and PARTICIPATE in education on the same basis as everyone else.
Sometimes the disability is a diagnosed disability, sometimes it is an imputed disability. Students, who struggle with one or more areas of learning, may have an imputed disability. More simply defined a learning difficulty in reading, spelling or maths. This does not mean they always have this difficulty; it may simply take them longer to learn to read.
ADJUSTMENTS
Teachers are continually making adjustments to their learning programs to ensure students can ALL access the curriculum. An adjustment for one child often benefits many children. An adjustment might include repeating instructions, giving ‘wait’ time before an answer is expected, using visuals, cue cards, voice activated soft-ware, modifying a task, reducing the task, extending the time to complete a task, allowing breaks from the classroom. There are many other adjustments teachers make every day to ensure the differentiation of learning best supports ALL students.
https://resource.dse.theeducationinstitute.edu.au/sites/default/files/dse_plus_guidance_notes.pdf
I would like to acknowledge the work of Glenn Gerreyn the founder of the above institute.
5 tips for Positive Parenting!
Identify your child’s strengths and work on fostering and developing them.
Applaud the process, not just the trophy!
Be present in the moment with your children, actively listening and communicating with them.
Share with your children the times you have failed. Allow children to learn strategies to be resilient.
It is okay not be perfect. It is okay not to win. Teach them to be gracious in defeat.
Home should be a happy place. You want your children to feel safe and loved. Tell them you love them. Tell them you are proud of them and tell them why.
SUPPORTING CHILDREN TO DO THEIR HOMEWORK:
- Make it clear that it is their homework, not yours!
Help your children to understand it is their homework and their responsibility to complete it. Guide them and help them and eventually they will do it themselves. It does not have to be perfect! It is their work!
- Don’t force them to do their homework!
Don’t make it a power struggle. Nurture your relationship, it is much more important.
- Discuss expectations and consequences with them!
Have a calm discussion with your child at the beginning of every term. This will help give them a sense of ownership. Set the time when homework will usually happen and where. Decide together which privileges will be off-limits until homework is done. Decide on the consequences together if the homework is not done.
- Don’t micromanage them!
It is possible for your child to do their homework on their own. As you support them in the early years, this help should become less and less. Some children are very independent and don’t need your help. They can just do it. Praise them for doing it on their own. Others need your support, but it doesn’t need to be perfect!
- Create a distraction-free area for homework and studying!
Setting aside an area for study will help with focus. Make it an area where there is no TV or digital device distraction.
- Acknowledge their good behaviour!
Be observant and find opportunities to praise your children for their efforts. Eg. “That’s great that you focused on your work for 20 minutes.”
- Do your homework at the same time as them!
While your children are doing their homework, read, pay your bills, do an online study course so they see the importance of completing homework.
Homework is important, but there are other things that are even more important: Responsibility, persistence, commitment, curiosity, a love for learning. Homework is just one tool to reach these higher goals.
https://www.daniel-wong.com/2015/03/16/homework-without-nagging/