Teaching Strategies for Physically Disabled Children

To remove handicaps and create an efficient inclusive learning environment, there are many strategies that can be applied if are used in these settings to increase performance of students with physical disability. Some of the strategies that can be considered to improve quality of education are listed below.

1. Students can be observed as what they can do independently and the acquired knowledge should be applied in classroom activities that requires different sets of skills. Teacher should choose these activities accordingly so that all children can perform independently if he/she wants physically disabled children to participate fully, too. So teachers should give students enough time to discover and get comfortable in their environment to see if it is efficient for learning.
2. Teachers should learn how to use the specialized equipment’s such as wheel-chairs and others to help children if needed to and how to care for and maintain the items in a learning environment. As a result, teacher would know which instruments are correctly used from student’s perspective and which are not so to help children to learn.
3. Students might be late or absent from classroom due to the distance between teaching venues and since it might be tiring to use wheel-chairs and crutches, teachers might need to recap any information that is mentioned at the beginning of the class.
4. Teachers should encourage children to spend time outside classroom activities. To do so, the sites should be accessible to the students with physical disabilities.
5. Using toilets might be a hard work for students with physical disabilities. One-to- one help can be very useful though sometimes minimal assistances such as opening the door could be enough to support children in that manner.
6. Children with physical disabilities might need tape-recording or assistance at note taking in classroom. Extra time might be needed for these students.Recording lectures might be helpful for children when absence is required due to hospitalization.
7. Adjusting class environment would be helpful for children with physical disabilities. Teacher should make sure there is enough space for children to move around using wheel-chair and to access to a desk if needed.
8. If student with disability experiences difficulties, fatigue and pain in classroom, teacher should find what it might stem from to interfere and solve or learn how to manage student’s conditions. Finding out if the medication helps might be crucial.
9. Some students with disabilities might need to stand in lectures due to back problems rather than sitting. There should be an environment for children to express these kind of needs.
10. Some students might face academic isolation to perform some tasks that are given in class; so one to one sessions with a tutor might help them to catch up.
11. Giving clues and answers would lower the standards of education so it should be avoided in assessments.  Rather, teachers should give opportunities them to demonstrate what they learned in class.
12. Speaking directly to the student is very important rather than accompanying supports.

These teaching strategies might improve learning environment so that children with disabilities can express themselves better and freely. New models and techniques allow us to develop new ways to communicate with the needs of physically disabled children.