Two things I greatly believe that are especially important for students with an NVLD and similar disabilities are that they need to be in regular classrooms as much as possible for both services and courses and that special education coordinators need to be very mindful of who they assign as a paraprofessional for these students. The reason is that these students need more practice with social skills than others so being in the classroom and having an aide who has the skills and the personality to connect with all classmates makes creating friendships easier. This can be tricky but I do believe it’s doable and will benefit you.
For example as I have discussed previously many students with an NVLD and similar disabilities received Pull-out APE early on so they are separated from their classmates which in many ways isn’t a good thing. The reason being is that many social interactions take place during gym class therefore pull out-APE should be limited as students with an NVLD need practice learning empathy, communicating, accepting, and gaining self-esteem. A regular gym class offers wonderful opportunities for this type of practice. I understand students have different needs so a suggestion would be to have the APE teacher provide push-in services for the beginning of class then students leave for the 2nd half of class for direct instruction. This way NVLD students can address both their gross motor skills deficits and learn appropriate social skills.
Next, during elementary school when academics are more structured, have a resource room be offered half push in and half pull out. Personally I would agree with the research that this model works great as students generally do understand their difficulties but truly just want to be with their “friends’ ‘ too Also, by offering support in the classroom the resource room teacher has a much stronger understanding of what you need the most help in as often they will join the class you are weakest in. Here the teacher can see first hand how well the student can interact with their classmates and how well they behave around their classroom teacher which makes it easier to support you both academically and socially.
Additionally secondary level students with an NVLD and similar disabilities should be placed in a fully inclusive academic environment and take as many regular level courses as possible as students tend to produce their best work when they are challenged. I believe this because this is what I did and it was clear I achieved more academically and personally compared to others with similar disabilities who did not challenge themselves. I believe this happened because being in the regular level I had strong peer support and my teachers saw my strengths first. Whereas the majority of our LD students took the C level for English and History for LD students only had less peer support and with a resource teacher teaching the courses the focus was on the “Dis”more than ability which limited achievements from happening.
Now in terms of being careful who is assigned as a paraprofessional you need to understand that students can become overwhelmed during the school day so fatigue can occur more often. So it is important the paraprofessional has the academic and social skills, empathy, and the patience to help you get through the school day but yet understands the need for personal space. My resource room teacher learned this when she switched up our paraprofessional after the first marking period and everything turned into a nightmare experience especially for me. The reason being my new paraprofessional would yell at me when I was very tired and edgy while my old one who was more experienced did not. Unfortunately these negative behaviors were all part of my NVLD and I needed support to get through them. Thankfully my resource room teacher supported me and never gave up on me. Fortunately having a resource room teacher and school counselor for parents everything got discussed in a professional way. So the following school year my resource room teacher made sure she had given us an academic and socially skilled paraprofessional which in turn made me a happier and more successful student.
All of this may seem difficult to address as you want to listen to your IEP team however they do understand the parent knows their child best. Therefore by speaking up they will likely agree to do things differently as they do want your child to be as successful as possible. Personally I look back and realize that taking full inclusion courses allowed me to maintain my personal connections and my resource room teacher wholeheartedly agreed with the academic path we chose to take and became incredibly supportive. So please suggest recommendations like these examples and your child will be more successful.
Eileen
Eileen is a Project Social Ambassador and blogger for The NVLD Project. She loves helping others understand they can achieve their goals and dreams through hard work and dedication.
