Hi, I am doing a college assignment and I need to interview a child,a parent of a child, and /or a family member of a child with a disability . If you would be willing to answer the question , “What do special education teachers need, skills, knowledge, attributes, strategies etc… in order to be highly effective?”
Thank you for your time in helping me with this assignment.
Sincerely,
Linda
sped teacher
I’m a mother with a teenage daughter that has LD & participates in IEP classes. Some of her most frustrating problems arose when teachers couldn’t accept that she learned differently nor allowed her to learn from different methods from which they taught. They need better training and understanding of LD students & their learning methods. Methods that allow them to learn in a way that’s best for them. A few of my daughter’s teachers really made her feel that they didn’t want her in their classroom. Teacher’s comments like “There’s others like you” & “Hurry up, I can’t wait on you any longer” are only a few examples of comments that my daughter has endured. She’s a champ & keeps on going. Patience, respect & understanding are attributes we all need, especially teachers.
I hope this is useful.
God bless. LD Mom
Sorry, I accidently posted this reply by itself as a new post. Here is my reply….
I’m not really an expert in this area, because I don’t know what special skills they need in class, but I would say knowledge of various disabilities would be one thing. A teacher that does not know what dyslexia is or does not know what an auditory processing disorder is, would not be good. I would think knowing the various types and understanding what skills/abilities are affected would be important.
The other thing I would recommend, is strong skills in terms of relating to parents. Good communication skills and interpersonal skills. Knowing how to approach parents would be important as well as being sensitive to the fact that this is an emotional thing for parents.
Good luck! I hope this helps.
Kathryn