Challenge / Strategies
Inability to follow instructions /
  • Gain attention
  • Break tasks into small manageable chunks
  • Provide checklists
  • Give directions one at a time

Poor language processing skills
Difficulty understanding /
  • Simplify language
  • Repetition
  • Visual supports
  • Sequencing skills development

Difficulty expressing /
  • Extra time to respond
  • Help with sequencing ideas/narrative/salience

Vocabulary Knowledge /
  • Engage in high quality discussion
  • Model reasoning skills by thinking out loud
  • Discussion of new vocabulary
  • Language Experience Approach

Poor social interaction skills /
  • Question the student to help them with more complex comprehension– what kind of person do you think the character is? How do you think he is feeling?

Difficulty sustaining attention/poor concentration /
  • Consider seating arrangements – where possible try to avoid distractions (internal and external)
  • Provide (regular) opportunities for movement breaks
  • Use age appropriate material
  • Ensure material is of interest to pupil/student
  • Make sure task has motivational value
  • Allow fidgeting – fidgeting can actually help some students concentrate
  • Plan positive consequences to reward effort

Poor self-esteem, relationships/disengagement /
  • Allow access to familiar reads – this provides opportunities for success and for practice /consolidation
  • Encourage teachers to get to know the students - base tasks on ability, needs, likes and dislikes
  • Allow the reader to choose the text relating to their interests– cartoons, buy and sell, farmers journal, football/other magazines, argos catalogues
  • Paired reading
  • Use positive, fun, achievable activities to engage the student and build self esteem

Comprehension /
  • Discuss what has been read at the end of each chapter
  • Summarise what has happened
  • Encourage student/pupil to predict what comes/ happens next
  • What/where/when/who/how?
  • Inference – what kind of person do you think the character is? How do you think he is feeling?

Organisational skills /
  • Student may have difficulty getting started on a task – right book, right page, right paragraph – Write it down for them on the board/post it note. Highlight the paragraph that you want them to read – a full page can be overwhelming/off putting
  • Student may have difficulty organising their materials/workspace to complete a task. They may become distracted by other material/work that they have to complete. Make sure they have somewhere to keep their books/possessions other than their desk.
  • Narrative skills are needed to self talk through what needs to be done to complete a written activity. Help the student by talking through what they need to write down and asking them to repeat the necessary steps/write down the steps for /with them.
  • Introduce them to mind-mapping

Narrative skills /
  • Oral narrative skills are essential for the development of writing. Oral narrative is a prerequisite to developing writing skills.
  • Ideas for development include;
  • Personal anecdotes - what I did
  • Anecdotes of vicarious experiences – do you know what M did?
  • Oral fantasies – if I won the lotto…
  • Original fiction – elaborating on the truth, lying, making excuses
  • Print source re-telling – summarising the plot, drawing a picture/series of pictures
  • Visual Media re telling – last night’s episode of ….
  • Narrative parodies
  • Collaborative narratives – reliving an event e.g., a school trip/funny episode/playground incident with others

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