Special Child needs an special treatment?

Question

I've been teaching, one day I met a child who is a mentally retarded, of all of my pupils she is the one who creates trouble and she cannot follow simple instructions.... I need some advice

Answer 1

I have to admit the I was a helling in I was in school. Chances are this child is not "mentally retarded", which I find obscene, but actually has ADHD. She has all the signs of ADHD. This child creates trouble and cannot follow rules which is an early sign of ADHD.

To learn more about ADHD, what the symptoms are, and how to handle such a child go to the website:

http://www.medicinenet.com/attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder_adhd/article.htm

Good luck.

Answer 2

First of all, the child is NOT mentally retarded - she may have mental retardation. Please, NEVER use a disability to identify a person, they are always a person first. Ok, off my soap box. What do you mean by "simple instructions"? Are you telling her to do one-step at a time or are you giving her multiple-step directions? Does she even understand what you are telling her? Is she in your class all day or does she spend most of her day in a self-contained special education class? Does she have an aide that is supposed to be there to help her? As a special ed teacher of students with mental retardation, your situation, on the surface and with current information, seems to be an infringment of her FAPE rights, and that is a federal offense. Isn't there a special education teacher in your school that can help you get the appropriate educational environment for this student?

She needs more wait time to figure out what you are saying and to figure out what her response is supposed to be and then to comply. This student needs you to get her attention before you start giving her directions, make eye contact, have her repeat the directions, one direction at a time i.e. (1) stand up (2) walk to coat rack (3) find your coat (4) put your coat on (5) open the door (6) walk through the hallway to the outside door (7) open the door (8) walk outside. It is difficult for genenal education teachers to be able to tell the rest of the class "Get ready for recess" and need to use 8 separate directions, in order, one at a time and only when the current direction has been completed correctly giving the next direction to one special-needs students. It is a total shift of your paradigm. I really feel for you and wish I could do more to change your situation.

Answer 3

Well nobody likes that word "mentally retarded".
Instead of saying that the student is "mentally retarded". Please say it in a different way like "She is mentally challenged". That Sounds better.

Maybe you need to spend more time with this student, maybe this student is trying to ask for help the hard way and doesn't know a better way to tell you that she needs more help.

At sometimes I was the same way when I was little.

Now when I was a kid I had some regular classes, but I have had special Education classes.

Is this child in Special Ed?

Now I am now age 30, and now going to college.

Answer 4

mentally handicapped children have different needs then main stream children , How did you just meet this child? were you not informed of his /her special needs ? seems the school where you teach is lacking in the information to teachers department , what were the previous schooling's of this child and what is the potential of this child's learning ability ? maybe the child needs to be in a special needs class before being throw into a class where the teacher is clueless to the teaching of a special needs child ... be kind and understanding and you may see a different child emerge !!

Answer 5

Report to the principal and the parents regarding the childs behavior and academic status in the classroom. Maybe a IEP (individual education plan) is needed for the child, so that the child can be properly accomodated.

Answer 6

Something is not logical here.How a mentally retarded child/if it is? will be placed in a classroom out of the blue.They usually have a history since early childhood, and a special program is assigned for them before they enter school.Are you sure about your statement???

Good luck!

Answer 7

If she's in a mainstream class then she has the capacity to learn there to some degree.

You need to sit down with her parents and with her spe ed teachers and find out how and why she responds to certain situations and how to keep her engaged in activities. You will need to make an effort to provide her with simple, clear instructions and will probably need to repeat them. But that's just general advice--for specifics, you need the input from the people who know her, as I said above.