Children with SEN are unique in their own way just like how you and I are. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses, the way we look physically does not define the person we are. They can be empowered to develop their strengths and with the right opportunities to maximize their potential to contribute to the society. We should always look beyond their disabilities and know each child as an individual. Children with SEN should never be defined by their diagnosis as every child is unique. What suits one child might not work for the other with the same diagnosis. Many children with SEN struggle academically and subjects such as PE, Art and Music are avenue which they can excel in. 

It is very important that teachers believe that every child can learn, just in different ways and one size does not fit all when comes to supporting children with SEN in school. It is the responsibility of teachers to help students learn when they do not match our teaching style. Accommodation such as allowing more processing time for student with ASD, provide student with Dyslexia a copy of notes to ease their struggles in copying and additional prompting for student with ADHD are simple strategies that can help children with SEN that are struggling with their learning. The design in learning for our classroom would benefit other children not just those with SEN. For instance, a cool down corner in the classroom can be use by any child who needs a moment to calm down. Other than teaching and learning, many children with SEN struggle with social skills and teachers should facilitate peer relationship in the classroom when required. Every child deserve to have someone who cared enough to foster relationship with in their schooling life; positive TSR is like a lighthouse for the ship (student) in the storm (amidst of all the struggles the child with SEN faces in school). Lastly, I would use person first language in addressing individuals with disabilities; “student with Autism” rather than “Autistic” student.    

We must always have a supportive system in every school to able to come out with ways and programme to help these kids. Teachers should learn to be mindful and show care to these kids no matter what. Teachers should practice differentiate instructions during lesson to help them because school is a place they spend alot time at. Teachers who are teaching classes with SEN kids should understand these kids because it’s vital for them to do so. We also have to educate their peers to develop cooperative relationships which is an effective way to help students to understand SEN students well and how they can help in every aspects in school. 

As a BT, I feel that in order to better support SEN children in school, we must first seek to understand the condition of the child. If we are unsure of their needs, it is important that we check with someone who is well trained to handle such students or knows the condition of this child well. Like what was mentioned, we must humble ourselves and ask when in doubt, instead of just going through the lesson and ignoring the child with SEN. After doing a proper diagnosis of the child, I would want to modify my lesson plans in order to cater to the needs of the child with SEN (giving out differentiated instuction to him/ her for e.g., providing more scaffolding etc). Furthermore, I would like to create a positive classroom culture that promotes understanding. It is important that the class does not ostracise students with SEN and view them as an 'other'. By exposing children to the range of SEN that exists, I hope that the class will come to accept and understand others with SEN for who they are. 

After watching the video, I feel that people with special needs are no different from people without special needs. They can function in life equally well like us. In fact, some of the people in the video are even more successful.  Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. We should always look at one another’s strengths first. 

- How else can you better suppport SEN children in school?

every single child is precious, and learning should be tailored to suit everybody's meet to the best extent a teacher can. The first step to better support is to build awareness and clarifying children’s and our own personal misconceptions to better address the actual needs of people with special needs.

I feel that teachers can work with the parents, counsellors, colleagues and principals to help children with special needs. 

Teacher can create a focused learning environment that are safe and secure for all children. 

Teachers have to be a good role model and provide the necessary guidance and care for children with special needs. So to create awareness for all the students to take care of one another. 

Teachers can help all children to build friendships by using peer mentoring, buddies, friendship benches etc.

Teachers can teach values such as kind, love, care etc to the class. 

It is in engendering greater acceptance and support starting from the classroom that will help lay the foundation for our students’ growth, and create an increasingly accepting and inclusive society at large.

In school, one way I would try to include SEN children is through identifying their unique strengths (eg. I had an ADHD student who was outstanding in building and crafting things) and acknowledging their strengths before their peers. Hopefully, it will help them realise that differences aside, we are all common in having individual strengths.

With the huge number of SEN students in our education system, every teacher need to be prepared and equipped with sufficient knowledge and right mindset to welcome them in class. The first step is for us to read up more if we haven’t done so on different spectrums of special needs. At the same time, we need to bear in mind that every individual is unique and even if they belong to the same group, they might display different behaviours that have various needs to be fulfilled. Communication is key and we should seek to understand each student, where they are coming from and what learning style works for them. Keeping in mind that school facilities might not always be the most conducive, we can help out students with physical disability by being more lenient and considerate, such as arranging them at classrooms closest to the lift. Furthermore, I would seek help from seniors, allied educators and counsellors for more toolkits to better support students’ needs. The key is to treat everyone fairly but not necessarily equally. 

Having the knowledge of setting up an inclusive community and a supportive environment will help me to better support SEN children. I did see SEN children in contract teaching and I was at a loss as to how I can provide proper support and help to them. However with the knowledge attained through the courses at NIE I feel that I am better prepared to provide support. As a teacher, I am at the centre stage to building an inclusive community in my classroom. To ensure that they are all treated like individuals, that there is support in the classroom. I will put in time and effort to understand their needs and to ensure that my lessons, rules, routines and also physical setting of the classroom is suited to meet their needs.

As a teacher, I must seek to know and understand the SEN children in my class.  I should consciously plan DI in my lesson to include their learning preference and devise strategies to help them progress in their learning.  A safe and conducive classroom culture must be built by educating the rest of the class in accepting and supporting their peers while acknowledging their differences.  These SEN children should be given suitable duties/roles so that they are also seen as contributing members of the class at the same building their self-worth and self-confidence. 

Therefore, it is important for us to engage the parents so that we can better support SEN children as well. As the saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child, what more of a child that has SEN? These children might just need that bit more attention and love but they have their own unique learning styles and interest which they are able to pursue. As teachers, it is important that we pay more attention to these SEN children and truly understand where they are coming from and give them the same amount of opportunities to learn and not to sideline them. They do not want to be treated differently. In addition, it is also important for teachers to tap on their peers’ help for day to day activities whether it’s to keep and extra eye out on the student or even to just help the student with their work. This will also further enhance the learning experience for the SEN students, while teaching the other students to always be caring and to treat everyone the same regardless of their abilities.  

I feel that what I can do to better support SEN children is first to communicate with them and understand their needs. Understanding their needs is very important because this is the key to letting us understand in what ways can we help them out. This can be done through communication with them and also through communication, we can try to encourage them and let them feel that they too, have the ability to achieve stuffs just like the rest of their classmates. On the other hand, we should also educate the rest of the class that SEN students should be treated the same and viewed normally. It is definitely the responsibility of us as teachers to make SEN children feel included in the class 

As an educator, it is our duty to create a safe environment that helps every child to grow and achieve their highest potential, and this includes children with SEN as well. In school, we have to be more accepting and understanding towards these individuals. What they want is neither sympathy nor judgement from the community. As a teacher, it is important for us to establish a strong rapport with them and provide them with necessary guidance. We also need to identify possible triggers and learn to manage their meltdowns. It may be a huge challenge, but we must constantly remind ourselves not to give up on these children. Sometimes, these meltdowns occur because the child has trouble communicating their needs. The anger and frustration caused them to erupt. If we fail to empathize and attempt to understand them, everything is going to end up in a downward spiral. Thus, it is important for us to be more compassionate and give these individuals more time and space. In addition, it is also our responsibility to create an inclusive community by teaching our students to understand and accept the differences.

Although the term ‘Special Educational Needs’ is used to describe learning difficulties or disabilities that make it harder for children to learn than most children of the same age, it doesn’t mean that SEN students can’t learn or they can’t feel accomplished in life. Instead, with support from schools, Teachers ,parents and the society, they can definitely achieve their goals and be success in life.

- How else can you better suppport SEN children in school?

In order to better support SEN children, teachers should build a inclusive classroom culture by bring in more learners with special needs into normal classroom. We should take into consideration the profiles of students, especially those with SEN. Teachers can use differentiated instructions by allowing differentiated response from students who have difficulty articulating verbally. For example, students are allowed to use flash cards to indicate their responses. When grouping, teachers can arrange to have students with SEN and their buddies within the same group. It will promotes student to student interaction. As a result, active participation can be promoted among students, especially for students with SEN.

2) How else can you better support SEN children in school?
- Understand more about what they are interested in 
- Provide them a classroom environment that is conducive for them and which allows them to succeed, even in the smallest ways

There are a variety of ways which a teacher like me can consider to support SEN children in school. Firstly, the teacher needs to adopt the correct attitude and response when interacting with these students. While I should help them, I should not keep on highlighting their needs or what they lack. From the video ‘Look beyond my disability, See the true me’, the student with visual impairment emphasised that he would really appreciate it if he was treated as normally as possible. If possible, our attempts to help should be subtle, rather than always emphasising to the student and the whole class that he or she needs help. We should be gentle and eagerly helpful at the same time.

Another way I can support them is to be a role model to other students. Other students may not be experienced in their interactions with SEN students and thus might not be sensitive to their emotions. For example, they might make fun of their ‘flaws’. A teacher like me should teach the class how to interact with the SEN students by treating them with respect and be spontaneous in offering help readily. When other students in the class observe the teacher’s behaviour, they might be influenced to do the same. This would eventually help SEN students to feel the warmth in class.

While the common person may not be exposed to such an experience, teachers will surely come across children with SEN in the school setting. When talking about how to better support such a child, understanding the different types of SEN would be useful, but the additional effort of understanding the specific SEN child’s needs and implementing relevant strategies to accommodate can help us to run the class smoothly. If DI is challenging to implement, we can start with whole-class approaches that embed these SEN strategies, even in the little things such as our instructions or structure of our learning materials (e.g. PowerPoint slides, worksheets etc.). Based on my experience in my contract school, I would say that most teachers are aware of the need to make accommodations for SEN children, but they might not know the exact strategies to put in place. I was humbled to be given opportunities to share my ideas with the teachers there, and they also shared that they finally understood the rationale for certain strategies. In the same vein, I do feel that to better support the SEN children, we do need to build a support network for teachers too, with more dialogue between SEN support personnel in school, or even with our colleagues in SPED schools. I understand the constraints of time and differentiation, especially when the majority of our students are neurotypical, but as mentioned before, prevention would  be better.

 

After watching the video, my perceptions have not changed. From the time I started teaching career, I always believed that every child is different, regardless of race, religion or cultural background. Everyone is special and unique. There is no difference between a SEN child and a normal child as they all are equal; all have the right to learn. 

To know a person, you cannot judge him or her by appearances, or by the mouth of others. The best way to understand he or she is to spend time with him to find out what kind of person he or she really is.

We cannot deny the existence of stereotypes, but if we try to change it, it will gradually disappear.

 

2. How else can you better support SEN children in school?

 

I think it is crucial to provide a caring and inclusive learning environment, taking into account the needs and feelings of both the students and the SEN children. 

Building a positive teacher-student relationship and strong peer support can be helpful to SEN children too, especially when other students may not know how to work with SEN children, so teachers can provide them with more guidance.

It is also important to have good interaction with the parents of SEN children.

In schools, what we could do is to create awareness of what SEN means so that children do not discriminate anyone who may exhibit behaviours which may not seem usual to them. I think it is also important that SEN children are included in activities together with their classmates. We teach students that there is no need for segregation and this can further emphasize the need for an inclusive community. And also, in case I am unsure of how to handle certain behaviours, I can also check in with other teachers who are more experienced to see how I can better manage my own teaching in class. 

As an educator, I do not feel that I am prepared to handle a SEN child in my class but as the video has mentioned – we are not alone. It takes a village to raise a child. I will seek advice from my other colleagues, especially those who are experienced in dealing with SEN children. For one, I will ensure that they have a fair chance in learning and playing. This consists of including them in group and classwork. I would also educate my class about SEN so that my students are able to learn and accept them, fostering an inclusive class environment rather than ostracising them.

How else can you better support SEN children in school?
I think establishing an inclusive classroom culture is key to support SEN children. An inclusive classroom community means all students are treated fairly and respectfully, they have equal access to learning opportunities and resources regardless of how similar or different they are. With an inclusive environment, children with SEN are better supported as they can receive help not only from teachers, but also from their classmates who demonstrate great understanding and empathy to them.