For teachers who want to work in special education, advanced literacy and development training are vital to engaging students’ learning needs. Teachers must understand reading comprehension tools, assistive technology and the effect of classroom environment on special education students, all of which are vital in supporting student needs.
Future special education teachers, or those who want to improve their skills in this field, may benefit from programs focused on the subject, such as Avila University’s online Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in Special Education (SPED) K-12. This program offers the strategies and hands-on experience to help every student thrive by encouraging differentiated instruction and empowering educators to do it well.
Understanding Reading Comprehension in Special Education Students
Reading comprehension skills are helpful for all students, but special education students may need differentiated instruction and more time to develop these skills. Special education teachers can help their students go further by understanding reading comprehension strategies.
To comprehend the importance of these skills, educators must first learn why some students find them more difficult to grasp than others. The difference lies in automatic versus cognitive thinking. With automatic thinking, a student answers a question quickly without much thought. With cognitive thinking, a student may need to think through every step of a problem, asking questions throughout the process.
This means questions that some students find simple can be time-consuming for others, leading to a lag in reading comprehension skills. The authors of a Lexia article explain that “because these students might lack the cognitive processing skills it takes to read and write, they tend to avoid doing those activities — which puts them even further behind their peers.”
For this reason, special education students benefit from additional modeling and practice in this area of learning. Lexia recommends that educators provide explicit instruction step-by-step so students have a firm structure to follow and feel supported. Educators should also build on prior knowledge to help students connect exercises with their life experiences. Additional strategies include asking students to identify themes, using graphic organizers and developing peer-to-peer learning tools like group reading activities to further engage students and give them more chances to practice reading comprehension.
The Benefits of Assistive Technology Tools
There are many examples of assistive technology designed to facilitate activities for people with disabilities. These tools include hearing aids, screen readers, text-to-speech software, voice recognition software, braille displays, wheelchairs, eye tracking software, sip and puff switches, and more.
It is a testament to human ingenuity that more pieces of technology are continually being developed to assist those with disabilities. However, special education teachers also need to understand this technology and how to make the most of it for their students.
An Edutopia article on reading tools focuses on one specific area of assistive tech for students. Writer Kirsten Kohlmeyer explains that “students with reading disabilities can interact with texts in a variety of ways. They can decode, they can listen to an in-person read-aloud, or they can listen to human audio text or digital text, also called text-to-speech (TTS).”
Kohlmeyer continues, “Using TTS allows for equity and access. If struggling readers are limited to text they can decode, how can they enjoy the richness of written language, participate in class discussions, learn academic content, and develop a love for reading? Text-to-speech opens up new worlds for them.” According to the research the author cites, TTS tools increase engagement and should be considered a vital part of the special education toolbox. An article from Reading Rockets confirms that tools like TTS, optical character recognition, annotation tools and more can all support special education students with reading comprehension.
Maintaining Engagement With Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated instruction is important for all students. It’s helpful to understand where students are in the learning process and how to support individual needs to achieve the best results. However, students with disabilities face even more challenges in this area and benefit from even closer attention and more differentiated support.
One way to address this is by thinking about the classroom environment. Teach Love Autism offers advice about how visual tools like schedule boards, timers and other supports can influence behavior positively. Flexible seating options, noise-canceling headphones and other tactile tools also help students thrive.
For those who want to learn more about tools for increasing reading comprehension and making the learning process enjoyable for special education students, Avila University’s online MAT in Special Education K-12 program offers courses like Foundations of Literacy & Language Development, Language Arts Methods and Language Acquisition & Development to ensure a strong foundation in essential SPED concepts. Future special education teachers can harness the best developments to support their students and make a clear impact.
Learn more about Avila University’s online Master of Arts in Teaching in Special Education K-12 program.
