Special Needs Information & Support

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Navigating our constantly changing world is challenging for any parent. But it can be particularly daunting if your child has special needs. Disorders such as attention deficit disorder/attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD), the myriad symptoms that can present themselves with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), anxiety/depression, and dyslexia can greatly impact your child’s learning. However, there are many resources and helpful strategies that you can use support your child both inside and outside the classroom, with the goal of educational equity for your child.

What do I mean by educational equity?

For example, suppose your child’s class is observing an outdoor presentation, and the students are standing behind a short, 4-foot brick wall to watch. Most of the students in the class are luckily taller than 4 feet, so they can easily see the presentation clearly over the wall. These students have unimpeded access to and can freely participate in the learning activity.

But what if your child is shorter than 4 feet tall, and cannot easily see over the wall to observe the educational presentation?

To be sure your child can see the presentation along with the rest of his class and have access to the same learning material, the teacher gives him a box to stand on. Now he can see over the wall and observe the presentation along with the rest of the class, and he has access to the same education as the rest of the students.

That is educational equity: giving individual children the support they need to succeed along with their classmates, so all students have access to the same education and learning opportunities.

Classroom teachers have a lot of tools at their disposal… guidance counselors, teacher’s aids, specialized training for teaching students with special needs, Individualized Education Plans (I.E.P.’s) and 504 plans that outline ways to provide equity for your child, among many other tools. But knowing how to support your child yourself can seem overwhelming.

But fear not! Testing Mom is here to help.

There are plenty of strategies and resources you can use to help your child academically at home, as well as supporting learning at school. Click the links below for lists of strategies and resources available to you and your child with some of the most common forms of learning disabilities:

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