Students who exhibit learning difficulties in the general education classroom often share common characteristics, specifically poor memory skills, poor listening skills and poor attending skills.  Students with these characteristics would usually have a learner style labeled  dependent. Dependent learners, according to research, typically require structure, direction, external reinforcement, encouragement and esteem from authority (Wood, l998).  The research also shows that they "tend to be significantly less visual and auditory and have higher preferences for tactile/kinesthetic stimuli and greater needs for mobility and intake (food or drink) than successful learners" (Wood, l998, p.308).  It is further noted that these students function best either early in the morning (after breakfast), or early in the afternoon (after lunch).

Teacher Accommodations

Following are accommodations a teacher can make in the general education classroom. These accommodations help provide the extra needed structure and direction to a student who has the above discussed difficulties.  Listed below are accommodations to consider in order to help students with learning difficulties become more successful students.

1. Speak slowly and distinctly when giving directions or other important information. This allows the student maximum time for hearing as well as understanding.

2. Keep directions as short and simple as possible. Many students with learning difficulties have low receptive language skills.

3. When presenting more than one direction at a time, verbally number each one. This provides structure to the verbal information being given.

4. Give a visual or auditory signal (turning off and on lights, clapping hands, etc.) prior to presenting important verbal information. This will alert the student to pay close attention.

5. Make sure the student is looking at you when key information is being presented. A verbal signal of "Everyone look at me" may be needed for especially distractible children.

6. Use stress, intonation and pausing to verbally alert all students to key pieces of information in an oral lecture.
 
7. Repeat information verbatim, then paraphrase the information. Do this frequently.

8. Teach the student to repeat then paraphrase to himself, or into a tape recorder.

9. Circulate the room during verbal lectures, standing close to students and occasionally touching them on the shoulder or touching their desks. Do this with all the students, not just singling out the one having difficulties.
10. Call students by name frequently to redirect inattention. Again, don't single out the student having problems.  Calling out anyone's name usually gets everyone's attention.

11. Call a student by name before asking a question, pausing slightly after the name to give him time to attend and look at you.

12. When asking a student a question, allow plenty of time for him to respond. Research says that while teachers usually only wait one second for an answer, students may need up to 5 seconds to give their response.

13.  Review frequently. Most teachers preview before and review after, but students with learning difficulties need reviews more frequently and throughout the lesson.

14. Review key words in oral lectures before and after lesson.

15. Ask "check" questions frequently and throughout lesson ("Did everyone understand?",  "Is everyone with me?", "Does anyone have questions?", etc.).

16. Tape record directions for assignments. Make the tape available to anyone in the class to play back and check notes.
   
17. Periodically review good listening behaviors: good eye contact, attempting to remember, ignoring distractions.

18. Provide as much visuals as possible to accompany auditory stimuli (flash cards, videos, games, pictures).

19. Provide study guides before a test which provides information not only on what is being tested but also how it is being tested (i.e., the test format).

20. Develop "mini-tests" to be given between major tests, either for a grade or simply for a review activity.

21. Break a task into smaller units. For example, give tests one section at a time. Or let students work in short periods, broken up by motor activities (games), visual activities (videos), etc.

22. Have a corner set up in your room that's clean and quiet, free of extraneous visual stimuli, and that's easy to access whenever a student is having especial difficulty attending.

References

 Wood, J. (l998).  Adapting instruction to accommodate students in inclusive settings (3rd Ed.).  New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.