Choosing a school for children with social difficulties is a very difficult task. Parents know that the school they chose will have a big impact on their childs self-confidence, their ability to learn and their childhood experiences. Get it right and you can help them learn and overcome many barriers and many difficulties they may have. Get it wrong and it can become practically a daily nightmare.
What are the options?
There are four ways to teach children with social difficulties:
Home Education or Private Tutoring
Special Schools for children with learning difficulties
Private Education
Regular State School that has special needs facilities
Each of these schools will have their own set of benefits and disadvantages. If you are looking for a specific type of school that teaches children with social difficulties then you may be lucky to have one close by or unfortunate to find that the closest one is 100 miles away. So your options are limited to whats available or what you are prepared to extend to.
Which option will be leading?
This depends on the child as well as the schools that are available to you in your local area. To determine which school is matchless, parents have to see what their child needs the most and what is going to the leading learning experience. Once the parent has a good idea about which school will be greatest then it is worth giving it time to allow the ups and downs to settle from the initial change. Even if parents make the incomparable choice there may still be problems. Certainly moving children from one school to another to try out the number one option is going to cause problems with the constant change.
So the matchless thing to do to find out which school is matchless is to do your homework into what the schools are offering. Talk to the headmaster. Get them to be straight with you about what facilities they have, what experience they have with children with social difficulties, how they would handle behavioral problems if they occur. See what the schools are like, if they have places for children to go to when they are feeling bad or want to get away from the noise of the playground.
What are you childs needs?
Each of the school choices can be a valid option and will depend on the needs of the child. For example children that are suffering with social difficulties may chose home schooling where their interaction with others can be farther closely controlled. Children that suffer with heavier severe learning difficulties or concentration levels may need in addition patient and understanding and so a special needs school may be highest. The following is a good checklist for things to consider when considering what type of school may be necessary.
Physical abilities
Concentration level when learning
Concentration level with others
Ability to interact with others
Ability to conform to rules
Ability to deal with ridicule/bullying
Ability to control own behavior and safety
Ability to be unsupervised
Self confidence and need for motivation
Some seem a little harsh to think about but these are serious issues that should be considered. For example, some children with social difficulties have a tendency to run out of class when their environment feels threatening, so you would not want to send them to a school where they can be easily lost or could spend time unsupervised. Some children are overwhelmed by the size of the school or number of children so you may want to send them to a small school with a small number of children.
Whatever your options are the choice is not an easy one. So if you are deciding between a specialist school that deals only with children with social difficulties, a private school that has a special needs program and achieves great results, a state school that has small class sizes (not likely), or even home education the choice may not be so easy to make. This is why the choice has to come down to the type of child because they could do great things in a low performing school or perform badly in a high performing school.
The foremost choice is a school that will make them feel the greatest, the most motivated, the safest and that they get the most from. So whether you chose home schooling, a special school, a private or even regular state school, if you choose a school that allows them to enjoy learning the most then you are not likely to go wrong.
About The Author
Ben Sidman is a Parent of an amazing autistic child and founder of http://www.autism-support-community.com – an informative and friendly web site for parents with autistic children.
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If you’re looking to travel, may I recommend Greece? Scanning
through some picture on the internet today, I was amazed at just
how much there is to see. The ruins, the culture, the
landscape…. everything! It is a beautiful country, which fits
well in beautiful Europe.
There is something like 15,000 kilometers of coastline to view
in Greece, which also includes numerous islands such as Rhodes,
Crete, and Kos. Although the edge is at sea level, approximately
80% of the land is made up of hills and mountains. Maybe this
isn’t a perfect destination for a walk, but what do the hills
and mountains contain?!
Sights to see! Things to experience! If you are into the picture
taking and the sight seeing,
target="_blank">Greece is the place for you. The ruins of
Ancient Greece are incredible. The architecture, and the sheer
amount of work involved in building these buildings isn’t the
only incredible part. The amazing thing is that they are still
standing this many years later!
And the culture of Ancient Greece, which is a period of about
one thousand years, is really something to sink your energy into
learning about. Their schooling, their housing, their cooking
and food, and their arts are all very interesting to take a look
at or to read about. Most historians believe Ancient Greece to
be the foundation of western civilization. It heavily influenced
our government, education, architecture, and language!
Greece has a little something in store for all of it’s visitors,
everything from history to the beach! Now for planning next
years summer vacation…
About the author:
Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the
article, this caption and author biography in tact with all
hyperlinks.
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine Brings a Fight for Dear Life to …USA Religious News, MN – Mar 28, 2007JOHNSON CITY, Tenn., Mar. 27 /Christian Newswire/ — No one should have the right to choose when to end a person’s life, but on March 31, 2005, …
After presenting these ideas at the NAREN (National At-Risk Education Network) in Wisconsin last week, I was asked to write an article that would be able to reach larger people to spread the exciting word about Dr. William Glassers work in the area of Quality Schools.
There are many characteristics that are required in order for a school to be listed as a Quality School. There are currently 13 such schools in the country, with many increased on their journey to become Quality Schools.
In a Quality School , relationships are based upon trust and respect, and all discipline problems, not incidents, have been eliminated. Total Learning Competency is stressed and an evaluation that is below competence or what is now a “B” has been eliminated. All schooling as defined by Dr. William Glasser has been replaced by useful education. All students do some Quality Work each year that is significantly beyond competence. All such work receives an “A” grade or higher, such as an “A+”.
Students and staff are taught to use Choice Theory in their lives and in their work in school. Parents are encouraged to participate in study groups to become familiar with the ideas of Dr. William Glasser. Students do better on state proficiency tests and college entrance examinations. The momentousness of these tests is emphasized in the school. Staff, students, parents and administrators view the school as a joyful place.
All of the above criterion must be in place to be listed as a Quality School. When a school is a Quality School, the dictates of No Child Left Behind take care of themselves. Now, of course there will be a few children who have totally rejected school who are unreachable, but for the majority, they will learn and do quality work.
The way to achieve this is to implement the three conditions of quality. First, the school and each classroom must create an environment that will meet the needs of the students, and consequently of teachers. All humans are born with five basic human needs. We have the need for survival, connection/love, power, freedom and fun/learning. This is true of students and teachers.
In order to help students meet their need for survival, the school and classroom must be safe. They must feel that they wont be hurt physically or emotionally. When students feel safe, there is no need to threaten teachers or other students.
In order for students to satisfy their need for connection/love, they must have a relationship with the teacher and the other students. They must believe that the teacher has their outstanding interest at heart. The in addition you give love and connection away, the increased they come back to you.
In order to satisfy a students need for power, teachers must listen to and respect their students ideas and issues. This does not mean that teachers must agree with their students but they must at least let the students know that they are important. When students feel listened to and respected, they dont disrespect their teachers and they tend to listen farther.
For students to have freedom, they must have choices. They must not be bogged down in rules and regulations. When students have choices, they wont have the need to create destructive choices of their own.
In school, learning should be fun. Learning is always fun when the learning is useful and the students want to learn what is being taught. Imagine students having fun learning! Isnt that the dream of teachers everywhere? When your students are having fun, you do too.
I know this sounds like an impossible task but there are many schools doing just that with training in Dr. William Glassers Choice Theory. Creating a need-satisfying environment is what actually eliminates discipline problems. If someone has a legitimate, appropriate way to get his/her needs met, then there is no reason to create discipline problems.
Switching courses over to a competency-based approach is critical to the Quality School concept. Students are not permitted to get credit for less than B work and they have opportunities to improve their work until it meets the minimum standard for a B. Concepts are taught in such a way that reduces the need for memorizing facts that can be found in any encyclopedia or text.
This and farther speaks to the second condition of quality that students will only be asked to do useful work. It is the teachers job to convince students that what they are being asked to do is useful in the real world. If you are successful in that endeavor, you will have willing students. Wouldnt that make your job innumerable enjoyable for you?
The final condition of quality is self-evaluation. Students are asked to grade their own work. There are two essential items that must be met in order to get accurate self-evaluations from students. First, they must have no fear that the teacher or anyone else will hurt them with an honest self-evaluation. Second, there must be a clear rubric in place that will give students a model against which to compare their own work.
Self-evaluation does not replace the need of the teacher or teachers aide (another student already judged to be competent in that particular area) from corroborating the students self-evaluation. Students are not punished for less than competent work. Rather they are shown where their work is lacking and given the opportunity to fix it. This, again, is a skill that is seen everyday in the real world. Rarely do people actually lose their jobs for substandard work. They are told what is wrong and asked to fix it.
Of course this is just a thumb-nail sketch of what is necessary to become a Quality School but if you or anyone you know is interested in learning massed, visit www.coachingforexcellence.biz and check our calendar for upcoming teleclasses, chats and workshops.
About The Author
Kim Olver has over 20 years experience in staff development and supervision and is an expert in leadership skills, staff relationships and diversity. Certified in reality therapy/choice theory/lead management/quality school concepts, she works with counselors, schools and businesses to apply these ideas. Visit http://www.coachingforexcellence.biz.
Diary of a Homeschool MomAbout – News & Issues, NY – Mar 28, 2007How long has it been since you visited Julee Huy at her Homeschool Daze Blog…Textbooks, diapers and pull-ups, oh my! Julee’s blog lives here at the …
Citation Details Title: Surf ‘n’ homeschool: homeschooled surfer Adam Wickwire has found a way to combine extreme adventure with an academic education. Here is his story. Author: Carol Wickwire Publication:Practical Homeschooling (Magazine/Journal) Date: January 1, 2005 Publisher: Thomson Gale Issue: 63 Page: 49(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Governor Issues Homeschool ProclamationHome School Legal Defense Association – Mar 30, 2007Governor Charlie Crist has issued a proclamation to celebrate the contribution of homeschooling in Florida. To our knowledge, there has never been a …
