Case Study: Teaching Special Needs Children
Weronika Stencel, Poland
Weronika Stencel has graduated from the English Unlimited Teacher Training College, under the academic supervision of the University of Gdansk, Poland. Currently she is working as an English teacher at “English Unlimited” school of foreign languages and this year she is finishing her MA studies in English Philology at the University in Gdansk, Poland.
E-mail: veronique_s@wp.pl
Menu
School profile
Class profile
Information about Małgosia
Observation of an English lesson
Observation of a Polish lesson
My reflections
The observation that I carried out took place in the third class of primary school in Banino, Poland. The headmistress told me that in the school there is one integrated class and the school has three years of experience in working with this class. The school employs one supporting teacher who takes care of children with special needs. I have also found out that SEN children are under the psychologist’s care and school cooperates with parents to provide the children with the best possibilities of development.
The tutor of the class helped me to gather some information about an integrated class. She informed me that it is not an average class but a very good one. Many students from this class achieve remarkable results in learning and take part in various contests and Olympiads within and outside the school. There are nineteen students in the class. One of the students attending this class was transferred from the first class straight to the third one due to his extraordinary abilities. There are three children with special needs: Krystian with ADHD, Małgosia with Down syndrome and Jaś who is shortsighted. As far as Jasiu is concerned, he just needs to wear glasses and sit close to the blackboard. Krystian is a very polite and cheerful boy. He sits alone at the separate desk so that nobody distracts him and he can concentrate better (unless there is a cooperative activity). My first impression of Krystian was that there is nothing wrong with him apart from the fact that he used to stand up during the lessons and walk around the classroom chatting with other children. However, he was never aggressive or rude to anybody. The class tutor told me that there is a suspicion of ‘dyskalkulia’ in case of Krystian but they are waiting for the results of psychological examination. Krystian, as all children with ADHD, have some problems with following teacher’s instructions and concentration. That is why the supporting teacher needs to control him all the time so as to make sure that he knows what to do. Finally, there is Małgosia, to whom I decided to devote most attention in my case study.
The supporting teacher told me that Małgosia is the most problematic child. She has a global retardation of psychomotor development in light degree. Both Krystian and Małgosia are taught according to the individual programme, different for each child, written by the supporting teacher. When Małgosia appeared at school for the first time she was completely non-adapted to school life and it took quite a long time to teach her basic things, for example that she is supposed to sit when all other children are sitting or that she has to take out her pencil case and notebook. The supporting teacher told me that, when she was asked to do it, she used to scream, spit, scratch and pinch. It was very difficult to make her disciplined and took almost the whole first year. Małgosia’s mother said that Małgosia does not have any sibling so they devote her a lot of time. Actually, at home she has a ‘status of a princess’ and each her whim is immediately satisfied. Probably, that is why it was so difficult to make her obey the teacher’s instructions, as it was something totally new for her. At the beginning, she used to throw tantrum and the supporting teacher told me that the worst thing for Małgosia was ignoring her. The teacher used this method to show her that her behaviour does not bring any results. She just could not stand being ignored and finally became obedient to avoid it. Now Małgosia is much more adapted and knows how to function in a school. However, she tends to be aggressive and vulgar and has problems with controlling her emotions.
I have also read a psychologist’s opinion about Małgosia. It said that she:
- actively uses speech and eagerly takes part in conversation
- understands the instructions and properly communicates her needs
- uses full sentences while talking
- has a short attention span
- is eager to cooperate in situations demanding seeking solutions
- has a tendency to avoid any effort, both physical and intellectual
- works more effectively during short activities.
The supporting teacher told me that Małgosia made a significant progress during the last two years and now she is taught according to the programme that other children with this degree of retardation usually are taught at fifth class of primary school. Also, the teacher told me that she prepares programme and materials for such subjects as Maths and Polish and as far as other subjects are concerned it is the duty of the teacher of given subject to prepare special materials for students. I talked to Małgosia’s Maths’ teacher and asked about her abilities. The teacher told me that she is satisfied with Małgosia’s progress. She can already count to one hundred, and add and subtract numbers using an abacus. Also, Małgosia is developing her social skills. Apart from attending an integrated class, she has an individual therapy, corrective gymnastics and speech therapy. Moreover, she dances in the school dancing group ‘Kashubian tunes’.
The first lesson that I observed in an integrated class was English. Małgosia was the last one to take her sit. The supporting teacher helped her to take out her books. Then the girl asked whether she could go outside on swings. The teacher told her that if she worked during the lesson, they would go during the break. Małgosia’s first task was to draw the fruits that the teacher drew on the blackboard and then match them with their names. She started drawing the fruits with the pencil but did not have a rubber so she took it from the person sitting next to her. After using it she threw it at her colleague. ‘I am tired’ she shouted in Polish. The supporting teacher told her that all other children have to draw and there is no reason for which she would not have to. She was polite but very firm. Małgosia still did not want to draw so the teacher said that she would count to three and if she does not start drawing by this time, they will not go on the swings. It persuaded Małgosia and she drew the fruits. However, she needed much more time for this than other children. Then she started to copy the names of fruits from the blackboard, asking several times whether she could go on the swings. During the lesson, I have noticed that Małgosia knows a lot of English vocabulary: all the colours, numbers to ten, certain names of animals and the names for the seasons of the year. Later on, it turned out that she takes extra lessons in English. When Małgosia drew the fruits, she managed to match them with the names as she knew them but she needed teacher’s support and directions. The supporting teacher had to ask about each fruit and make sure that she draws the lines because otherwise she would stop after one fruit. Then she got a picture with different kinds of weather and had to write under each picture adjectives such as: sunny, rainy, windy, or snowy. Again, she was reluctant to start doing the task and needed a lot of guidelines to do it, making lots of spelling mistakes, borrowing rubber and throwing it at her neighbour. The lesson passed very quickly and Małgosia managed to do all the things that the teacher planned for her. At the end of the lesson, the suporting teacher wrote on a small piece of paper the numbers of exercises that Małgosia was supposed to do at home. She told me that it was for her mother, so that she can make sure that Małgosia does her homework.
The next day I came to observe another lesson. Before the lesson, the supporting teacher informed me that Małgosia got a punishment and will not get lunch that day. I asked why and she explained that in the morning, Małgosia was sitting in the cloakroom instead of coming to the classroom and later she went to school canteen and ate everything that she found in the fridge. That is why the supporting teacher made a decision that Małgosia would not eat with other children since she had already eaten her lunch. I think that it is also worth mentioning that Małgosia is quite obese so probably the decision of supporting teacher was supposed not only to teach the girl that there are certain rules that must be obeyed but it was also beneficial to her health.
The second lesson that I observed was Polish. Małgosia was given different tasks than the rest of the class. In the first activity Małgosia was supposed to practise degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative degree. She was supposed to draw three houses: a small one, smaller and the smallest. The aim of the activity was also to practise precision of movements. The teacher told me that she tries to incorporate the elements of movement into the activities as often as possible because it helps Małgosia to develop her motor skills. Małgosia had some problems with estimating the size of the houses but finally she managed to draw them appropriately. The next activity for Małgosia was to transform the sentence into plural form. The original sentence was: ‘One happy ladybird is counting black spots.’ The second sentence was supposed to start with ‘Two happy ladybirds....’ Małgosia lost interest in the exercise and started to look around the classroom. The supporting teacher had to read the sentence aloud to her and elicit the second sentence word by word. Then she started to shout that the exercise is stupid and she does not like it. The other activity was to develop the sentence ‘An ant is carrying a needle’ using such words as ‘diligent’, ‘quickly’, and ‘of pine.’ Again, the teacher had to read the sentence because Małgosia would not do it otherwise. This is not because she cannot read but because she avoids any effort and if she is not forced to do something there are little chances that she will do it. I think that she could have got used to the fact that the teacher would read it for her and sometimes even write for her. I talked to the supporting teacher about it and she told me that she is thinking of introducing the system of counters that Gosia would get for each task that she does. Then after collecting the given number of counters, she would get an award. The next task for Małgosia was to imagine that she is a ticket inspector on a train. She got a pile of tickets and had to pierce them with the punch. The main purpose of this exercise was to improve physical efficiency of her hand and to improve writing skills as a result. Małgosia got very excited about this task and used too much strength to pierce the tickets. Still, she enjoyed it a lot. The supporting teacher told me that she did not manage to do everything that she prepared for Małgosia and that her pace of work usually depends on her mood. Again, the teacher wrote Małgosia’s homework for her mother on a piece of paper that she put into her pencil case. I have also spent some time with Małgosia and Krystian playing ‘memo’ game after the lesson. The supporting teacher told me that Krystian always wins as he has an amazing visual memory. Małgosia was constantly picking up the same card - with a tiger - as it was her favourite animal. The moment Krystian found a pair to tiger and wanted to take his cards, Małgosia started crying and saying that it was not fair. She said that she would take revenge on Krystian, which made me very anxious. The supporting teacher explained her that it would not be fair if Krystian did not take the tigers only because she likes these cards and finally Małgosia calmed down, came to the teacher and gave her a hug and a kiss. Indeed, Krystian was the winner. The supporting teacher congratulated him and then Małgosia and I did the same. It looked like Małgosia learned to lose, which was a huge progress.
I was impressed by the way, in which the supporting teacher coped with Małgosia and other children. I have noticed that she was very firm, consistent, calm and always kept her promises. I realized that this job requires a lot of patience but at the same time, it is very rewarding and gives a lot of satisfaction, especially if you see the progress of the child. Another thing that I observed is that if there are several children with special needs in a class, it is very difficult for one supporting teacher to help them. Usually, the moment the supporting teacher went to Krystian to tell him what to do, Małgosia stopped working and did not know what to do. She was completely lost. Another reflection that crossed my mind is that the development of children with special needs also depends on the parents and their cooperation with the school. It was visible especially in case of Małgosia. At school, there were certain rules and norms that she had to obey whereas at home she did not have almost any rules and therefore there was no consistence in the methods of bringing her up. Also, I noticed that these children tend to be very emotional and sensitive, and I realized that during our meetings I developed a true empathy for them. I think that it requires a lot of effort from the parents to help these children function in the society but it is possible. The satisfaction from their achievements is by no means smaller than in case of healthy children. And helping them is extremely rewarding and definitely worth the effort. Before doing this project, I thought that the idea of integrated classes is not a good one. I thought that the children with special needs may feel worse and healthy children will not accept them. However, I realized that they cannot be isolated from healthy people because later on it will be even more difficult for them to function in the society. Now I think that the idea of integrated classes is a very good one. Not only does it help SEN children to find their place in the society but it also teaches healthy children tolerance.
Please check the Methodology and Language for Primary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Dealing with Difficult Learners course at Pilgrims website.
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