Just because your child may have special needs doesn’t mean he can’t have those needs met at home. This past year I worked with children who were two-three years behind in reading. I found myself frequenting the Special Education Teacher’s classroom for tips and ideas.

Guess what? This wonderful, experienced teacher who had specialized training was using “normal” methods to educate her special needs children. By “normal” I mean methods you and I could use without training. Some techniques were unique, but nothing you’d need years of training to utilize. All you need are the tips, not a Master’s Degree in Special Education.

The same sort of thing happened with the Speech and Language teacher. I needed ideas to help my 3 year old niece with some speech issues. I approached my friend with tact and caution, not wanting her to think I thought I could do her job.

She was happy to help me and gave me lots of ideas of how to work with my niece. Ideas that I could use without years of speech and language training. Again, all I needed were the tips, not the extra training.

Here are both traditional and unconventional ways to help your child as he pursues the learning process.

Difficulty with Handwriting
If your child has trouble making letters or her handwriting is illegible, have her try these exercises before writing.

Use a tweezer to pick up small items.
Remove a pen’s cap with one hand.
Twist caps off and on bottles.
Walk fingers up and down a pencil. Use one hand.
Work small items from fingers to palm, then palm to fingers.

Pencil grips can be used to reduce hand fatigue. My favorite is the “gel” kind of grip.

Provide a very short pencil for a preschooler who is beginning to learn to make letters. This will help him learn to hold a pencil correctly.

Reading Helps
If your child can read, but tires easily, perhaps tired eyes are part of the reason. Slant a board at a 15-25 degree angle on a desk and have your child work at this angle. This technique can reduce eye strain.

Some learners find that wearing sunglasses inside helps them read better. Others may use a colored sheet of cellophane over the text to help eliminate the “scramble” of letters they sometimes see. Let your child try different colors to see which helps most.

Instruction using word parts helps children learn to read without “jumbling” up the letters. Teach small word parts such as “an”, “in”, “op”, etc. – then connecting them with initial consonants to form “fan, man, pan, pin, tin, win, mop, top, pop”. When teaching larger words, ask your child to search for the word parts he knows. Then sound the word out together.

Writing/Composition
Color is often used as a memory booster. Allow your child to use different color pens and markers as she writes. This technique can also be used in note taking and outlining, mapping out ideas, etc.

Brain Strategies/Movement
Check out the list of Brain Strategies on Homeschoolhelper.com. Children with special needs can greatly benefit from these strategies.
Brain Gym, a book on educational kinesiology, explains step by step exercises one can use to make learning easier. It is one of my favorite brain strategy book.

Perfectionism
A trait many of us suffer from, it is doubly difficult to see perfectionistic tendencies in your child. As you home school, emphasize the importance of making mistakes in the learning process. If you aren’t making any mistakes, chances are you’re learning very little! If your child realizes mistakes are inevitable and even expected, perhaps an early ulcer can be avoided!

Software
Our special education teachers emphasize the need to make learning fun. Some software that scores big with both teachers and children is

Reader Rabbit Presents
Learning Company
Jump Start Spelling and other activities (though one teacher did not find the typing CD Rom helpful)
Math Journey