Special Education Teaching Tips for Emotionally Impaired Students

Special education teachers face unique challenges with emotionally impaired children. The teacher must include an aspect of relationship building along with their general education curriculum.

This is the situation that presents the biggest challenge to a special education teacher who is dealing with emotionally impaired children. Part of the underlying set of symptoms in these cases is the inability to adopt positive relationships. This pertains to other students as well as to the instructor.

Special education teachers may need to pay more direct attention to the emotionally impaired students to help them cope with their struggles to function in a social setting. Positive reinforcement is the key, and supporting successful learning with a genuine feeling of congratulatory praise will help them feel more relaxed and willing to overcome their disability to react normally in a classroom context.

This can be problematic for a special education teacher. Behavior may affect other students, and will degrade the overall learning environment. How to teach special education students may include seating these children in an area where they are less likely to be distracted. For instance, being seated next to a pencil sharpener or a globe may create a distraction. In some cases, a student may need to be seated either in the back away from the body of the class, or in the front closer to the teacher.

Efforts in how to teach special education students can be aided by setting rules and routines for doing assignments. The teacher can break up tasks into small segments, provide written instructions that outline the exact steps the student will take to finish the assignment, and take any extra time necessary to fully explain an assignment. Separate grading may also be necessary, including a verbal assessment of the student’s performance. This can help the child to deal with any attention deficit difficulties, while at the same time giving them the moral support they require.

In some cases, special education teaching can include providing the emotionally impaired child with a “time out” area where they can go when needed, which can even be stepping out of the classroom. This can be enhanced by arranging for special cues that the child can give to the teacher when they need a break. Any behavior that requires discipline may be better addressed in an exclusive one-on-one method rather than in front of the rest of the class.

Special education teaching in the classroom environment will require an added effort to help these children deal with the dynamics of a group setting that can potentially have a negative effect on their capacity to concentrate on learning. Taking extra steps will help the student with their challenges, and may also avoid special education teacher burnout in the long run.

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