Teaching English to Students with Learning Difficulties by Elena Xidopoulou

1. 34 TESOL Conference
th
Athens, 30-31 March, 2013
Elena Xidopoulou
English (SEN) Teacher (MA)
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2. Dyslexia signs in classroom
Children diagnosed with dyslexia-at school age- have multiple and profound
difficulties. Please remember that we may not be able to determine if a child has
dyslexia. We usually detect early signs that suggest further assessment by a health
professional in order to actually diagnose the disorder. Some of these signs are:
• The child appears bright, highly intelligent and articulate but unable to read,
write, or spell at grade level. This is diagnosed when the child goes to the first grade of
the Greek primary school.
• They have difficulty separating sounds in words and blending sounds to make
words.
• Most of the times, teachers tend to label dyslexic students “lazy”, “dumb”,
“careless”, “immature” and so on. Please, think of that next time you say so!
• The dyslexic students feel dumb, have poor self-esteem, hide or cover up
weaknesses with ingenious compensatory strategies and get easily frustrated and
emotional about reading or testing, especially at school.
• They seem to "zone out" or daydream, get lost easily or lose track of time
(especially in tests).
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3. • They face difficulty sustaining attention.
• They learn best through hands-on experience, demonstrations,
experimentation, observation and visual aids (flashcards).
• They confuse letters, numbers, words, sequences.
• Their reading or writing shows repetitions, additions, transpositions,
omissions, substitutions and reversals in letters, numbers and/or words.
• They seem, at first, to have difficulty with vision, yet eye exams don't reveal
a problem.
• They read and reread with little comprehension or even they have difficulty
remembering or understanding what they hear.
• They have trouble with writing or copying. Their pencil grip is unusual, their
handwriting varies or is illegible at times.
• They often confuse left/right, over/under.
• They have difficulty telling time, managing it, learning sequenced
information or tasks, or being on time.
• They can be class clowns, trouble-makers or too quiet.
• When talking or writing they may use the wrong word or a similar word.
Dyslexic students may know what they want to say but have trouble finding the actual
words to express their thoughts. They are also slow to add new vocabulary words.
• They have poor memory skills and complete assigned work more slowly than
expected. At times they cannot even complete it.
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4. ADHD signs in classroom
The behavior of ADHD children is classified into three major groups according to
the type of their behavior; Hyperactivity-Impulsivity ADHD, Inattention ADHD
and Combined ADHD. More specifically, in class students may…
• Have difficulty in establishing friendships with the fellow classmates
• Have difficulty in communicating with the teachers
• Lose their self-esteem
• Become over sensitive and/or exhibit short tempers
• Ignore necessary rules
• Disturb or hurt their classmates deliberately
• Have difficulty concentrating during the lesson, focusing and sustaining
attention
• Have unrelated thoughts
• Have poor performance depending on the difficulty of the task given
• May have better attention to enjoyed activities
• Have difficulty planning, organizing, and completing tasks on time
• Have problems learning new things
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5. • Seem unable to sit still (e.g. squirming in his/her seat, roaming around the
room, tapping pencil, wiggling feet, and touching everything)
• Appear restless and fidgety
• Often try to do more than one thing at once
• Blurt out an answer before the whole question has been asked. They may also
act and speak without thinking
• Avoid or strongly dislike tasks (such as homework or games) that require
sustained mental effort
• Lose important things or items needed for tasks and activities, such as toys,
school assignments, pencils, books
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6. Borderline Mental Retardation signs in classroom
There are many different signs of intellectual disability in children. Signs may appear
during infancy, or they may not be noticeable until a child reaches school age. It often
depends on the severity of the disability. Some of the most common signs of intellectual
disability are:
• Difficulty in remembering things
• Inability to connect actions with consequences and difficulty learning social
rules
• Behavior problems such as explosive tantrums
• Difficulty with problem-solving or logical thinking
• Delays in oral language development
• Deficits in memory skills
• Lack of social inhibitors
• Inability to meet educational demands at school
• Lack of curiosity
Children with borderline mental retardation learn more slowly than a typical child.
Children may take longer to learn language and develop social skills. Learning will take
them longer, require more repetition and skills may need to be adapted to their learning
level. Nevertheless, virtually every child is able to learn, develop and become a
participating member of our class.
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7. Asperger Syndrome signs in classroom
Asperger’s Syndrome, a neurobiological disorder on the Autism Spectrum, is one of the
fastest growing disabilities.
Having a student with Asperger syndrome in class can be extremely challenging. It
demands lots of patience and knowledge of the child’s deficiencies in order to treat
him/her properly. More specifically, in class, students may:
• Have concrete, literal thinking
• Have difficulty differentiating relevant and irrelevant information
• Have difficulty engaging in reciprocal conversation
• Have difficulty generalizing and applying learned knowledge and skills across
different situations, settings, and people
• Have difficulty interpreting others’ nonverbal communication cues
• Have difficulty with fine-motor skills, such as handwriting
• Show literal interpretation of others’ words
• Have narrowly defined interests
• Have poor problem-solving and organizational skills
• Have the tendency to speak bluntly without regard for impact of words on
others
• Have academic difficulties
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8. • Have poor concentration
• Have poor organizational skills
• Their vocabulary is usually great but their comprehension is poor
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9. Below you will see how we can “informally” assess our students’ phonemic awareness.
These exercises are all based on the principles of Special Education.
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10. Phoneme Isolation Exercise
Instruction: Does the /l/ sound come at the beginning, middle, or end of the word
/lemon/? Beginning  Middle  End 
(This exercise can be given orally or in written form if there is great difficulty.)
a) Does the /c/ sound come at the beginning, middle, or end of the word /cat/?
Beginning  Middle  End 
b) Does the /r/ sound come at the beginning, middle, or end of the word /jar/?
Beginning  Middle  End 
c) Does the /a/ sound come at the beginning, middle, or end of the word /hat/?
Beginning  Middle  End 
d) Does the /n/ sound come at the beginning, middle, or end of the word /fan/?
Beginning  Middle  End 
e) Does the /p/ sound come at the beginning, middle, or end of the word /pat/?
Beginning  Middle  End 
f) Does the /p/ sound come at the beginning, middle, or end of the word /nap/?
Beginning  Middle  End 
g) Does the /t/ sound come at the beginning, middle, or end of the word / tiger/?
Beginning  Middle  End 
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11. Phoneme Identification Exercise
Instruction: We pronounce the words, students listen to them carefully and then they
write the sounds/ phonemes in the boxes provided below.
These boxes are called Elkonin Boxes.
Variation of this exercise
Instruction: What sound is the same in the words “cap”, “car” and “cat”?
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12. Phoneme Categorization Exercise
Instruction: I will pronounce some words and you must tell me the word that doesn’t
belong in the specific group of words.
sat pan sad
small tall sell
cap mad man
bug pin pan
book cook zoo
lady day Monday
cap nap sit
drink blink brake
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13. Phoneme Blending Exercise
Put the number 1 in the box with the picture that has the sounds … /l/, /e/, /m/, /o/, /n/
Put the number 2 in the box with the picture that has the sounds…/z/, /e/, /b/, /r/, /a/
Put the number 3 in the box with the picture that has the sounds…/c/, /a/, /t/
Put the number 4 in the box with the picture that has the sounds…/d/, /o/, /g/
Put the number 5 in the box with the picture that has the sounds…/n/, /e/, /s/, /t/
Put the number 6 in the box with the picture that has the sounds… /h/, /a/, /t/
Put the number 7 in the box with the picture that has sounds… /f/, /i/, /sh/
Put the number 8 in the box with the picture that has sounds… /c/, /a/, /r/
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14. CORRESPONDING PICTURE CORRESPONDING PICTURE
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___ ___
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15. Do you face problems with new vocabulary? Do your students forget words
with double meaning? Let’s see how they can associate a meaning to a
picture.
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