Neurodiversity Resources

Students spend a large portion of the school day interacting with materials. Most instructional materials give teachers few activities or directions for teaching a large class of students who learn at different rates and in various ways. This section provides material accommodations that enhance the learning of diverse students. Frequently,

paraprofessionals, volunteers, and students can help develop and implement various accommodations. Material accommodations include the following:

• Clarify or simplify written directions. Some directions are written in paragraph form and contain many units of information. These can be overwhelming to some students. The teacher can help by underlining or highlighting the significant parts of the directions. Rewriting the directions is often helpful.
• Present a small amount of work. The teacher can tear pages from workbooks and materials to present small assignments to students who are anxious about the amount of work to be done. This technique

prevents students from examining an entire workbook, text, or material and becoming discouraged by the amount of work.

• Block out extraneous stimuli. If a student is easily distracted by visual stimuli on a full worksheet or page, a blank sheet of paper can be used to cover sections of the page not being worked on at the time. Also,

line markers can be used to aid reading, and windows can be used to display individual math problems. Additionally, using larger font sizes and increasing spacing can help separate sections.

• Highlight essential information. If an adolescent can read a regular textbook but has difficulty finding the essential information, the teacher can mark this information with a highlight pen.
• Use a placeholder in consumable material. In consumable materials in which students progress sequentially (such as workbooks), the student can make a diagonal cut across the lower right-hand corner of the pages as they are completed. With all the completed pages cut, the student and teacher can readily locate the next page that needs to be corrected or completed.
• Provide additional practice activities. Some materials do not provide enough practice activities for students with learning problems to acquire mastery on selected skills. Teachers then must supplement the material with practice activities. Recommended practice exercises include instructional games, peer

teaching activities, self-correcting materials, computer software programs, and additional worksheets.

• Provide a glossary in content areas. Students often benefit from a glossary of content-related terms.
• Develop reading guides. A reading guide helps the reader understand the main ideas and sort out the numerous details related to the main ideas. A reading guide can be developed paragraph-by-paragraph, page-by-page, or section-by-section.
• Use an audio recording device. Directions, stories, and specific lessons can be recorded. The student can replay the tape to clarify understanding of directions or concepts. Also, to improve reading skills, the student can read the printed words silently as they are presented on tape.
• Use of assistive technology. Assistive technology products such as tablets, electronic readers/dictionaries/ spellers, text to speech programs, audio books, and more can be very useful tools.

Accommodations Involving Interactive Instruction

The task of gaining students’ attention and engaging them for a period of time requires many teaching and managing skills. Teaching and interactions should provide successful learning experiences for each student. Some accommodations to enhance successful interactive instructional activities are:

• Use explicit teaching procedures. Many commercial materials do not cue teachers to use explicit teaching procedures; thus, the teacher often must adapt a material to include these procedures. Teachers can include explicit teaching steps within their lessons (i.e., present an advanced organizer, demonstrate the

skill, provide guided practice, offer corrective feedback, set up independent practice, monitor practice, and review).

• Repeat directions. Students who have difficulty following directions are often helped by asking them to

repeat the directions in their own words. The student can repeat the directions to a peer when the teacher is unavailable. If directions contain several steps, break down the directions into subsets. Simplify directions by presenting only one portion at a time and by writing each portion on the chalkboard as well as stating it orally. When using written directions, be sure that students are able to read and understand the words as well as comprehend the meaning of sentences.

• Maintain daily routines. Many students with learning problems need the structure of daily routines to know and do what is expected.
• Provide a copy of lesson notes. The teacher can give a copy of lesson notes to students who have difficulty taking notes during presentations.
• Provide students with a graphic organizer. An outline, chart, or blank web can be given to students to fill in during presentations. This helps students listen for key information and see the relationships among concepts and related information.
• Use step-by-step instruction. New or difficult information can be presented in small sequential steps. This helps learners with limited prior knowledge who need explicit or part-to-whole instruction.
• Simultaneously combine verbal and visual information. Verbal information can be provided with visual displays (e.g., on an overhead or handout).
• Write key points or words on the chalkboard/whiteboard. Prior to a presentation, the teacher can write new vocabulary words and key points on the chalkboard/whiteboard.
• Use balanced presentations and activities. An effort should be made to balance oral presentations with visual information and participatory activities. Also, there should be a balance between large group, small group, and individual activities.
• Use mnemonic instruction. Mnemonic devices can be used to help students remember key information or steps in a learning strategy.
• Emphasize daily review. Daily review of previous learning or lessons can help students connect new information with prior knowledge.

Accommodations Involving Student Performance

Students vary significantly in their ability to respond in different modes. For example, students vary in their ability to give oral presentations; participate in discussions; write letters and numbers; write paragraphs; draw objects; spell; work in noisy or cluttered settings; and read, write, or speak at a fast pace. Moreover, students vary in their ability to process information presented in visual or auditory formats. The following accommodation involving mode of

reception and expression can be used to enhance students’ performance:

• Change response mode. For students who have difficulty with fine motor responses (such as handwriting), the response mode can be changed to underlining, selecting from multiple choices, sorting, or marking.

Students with fine motor problems can be given extra space for writing answers on worksheets or can be allowed to respond on individual chalkboards/whiteboards.

• Provide an outline of the lesson. An outline enables some students to follow the lesson successfully and make appropriate notes. Moreover, an outline helps students to see the organization of the material and ask timely questions.
• Encourage use of graphic organizers. A graphic organizer involves organizing material into a visual format. To develop a graphic organizer, the student can list the topic on the first line, collect and divide information into major headings, list all information relating to major headings on index cards, organize information into major areas, place information under appropriate subheadings, and place information into the