Just watched a video sent to me by a friend who saw Temple Grandin speak at a teaching conference today. (If you don't know who she is, she's a very successful engineer/professor who also happens to be autistic). Her basic message was don't just focus on a child's deficits, but focus on what they can do. If they are a visual learner-don't hold that against them when they don't understand something after your lecture. She had a teacher who let her explore her interests and learn the way that was best for her-she credits that for the beginning of her success. I think a good reminder for all of us! :thumb:
This is the advantage of a PS teacher. We are able to adjust our curriculum easily to accommodate different types of learners.
Thanks for the reminder....this comes at a time when I'm going nuts trying to figure out how to help an autistic student. This is a better way to think about it.
How would that help a visual learner become more of an auditory learner? Or help an autistic student?
A friend of mine is a school psychologist who just recently retired. He was fascinated with the possibility that PI might be tied in with autism. He told me that some of his clients liked to watch TV while lying on a couch on their backs and hanging their heads off the edge - upside-down. But I asked the question because you said that your school allows you to "adjust (y)our curriculum to easily accommodate different types of learners." Mine did not....
Of course, if a child needed to read upside down, he could. PS teachers are taught to take each student, evaluate where they are, and help them move on. I always had more trouble adjusting my curriculum to the gifted student, because his social, academic, physical, and emotional levels were all over the place.
