Support participation and confidence
Support years 1-8 students to be confident, active participants in the classroom and community.
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Recognise student effort
Recognise student effort
Students with FASD can become very tired from their efforts to concentrate and process information.
Use visuals to recognise small steps towards achieving larger goals.
Provide positive feedback frequently.
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Minimise or remove homework
Minimise or remove homework
When I am at school I use an enormous amount of my energy to keep myself safe and focused.
At the end of school I am extremely tired and do not cope well with homework.
Can you please think about ways to minimise homework for me and make it manageable?
Student
Use trauma informed approaches
Use trauma informed approaches
At Napier’s Henry Hill School, their trauma-informed approach includes yoga, regular ‘brain breaks’ and Te Āhuru Mōwai, the sensory garden which forms a relaxing zone, grounding students in the natural world.
Design the day
Design the day
Careful programme design can help all students, including those with FASD, to be successful, regardless of whether they are in a single classroom, an open plan space or other environment.
Each student will have different needs so collaborate with the ākonga, whānau and the school team.
- Schedule regular check-ins with ākonga.
- Assign peer support and supervision for all parts of the school day.
- Design a timetable to suit the learner with regular quiet or low sensory times.
- Reduce daily choices and decisions by creating a predictable personalised timetable.
- Limit the number of different people the student needs to interact with and the time spent with larger or noisy groups of students.
- Use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to provide flexible learning options to suit students.
- Design transition signals and consider personalised systems. For example timers, music, traffic light systems.
Give students time
Give students time
Consider reducing the quantity of work and providing students with extra time to complete tasks.
This reduces stress and enables the student to be successful.
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Source: Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga
Foster collaboration and group work
Foster collaboration and group work
Provide opportunities for ākonga to work with others. Carefully design group or pair based activities to maximise productive interactions and learning.
- Assign a peer to support students during group work.
- Plan turn-taking games and circle games to encourage appropriate social interaction.
- Provide physical items such as a cushion or mat to define personal space or a talking stick or stone for ākonga to hold when it is their turn to talk.
- Encourage tuakana-teina relationships and create a culture where students role model and provide support for each other.
- Create social stories that break down a task or social situation into small and easy-to-understand steps, accompanied by descriptive pictures.
- Teach specific speaking and conversation skills. For example, rehearse ways to start and close a conversation and read body language.
- Assign group roles such as speaker, listener, and note-taker to the group members.
- Monitor the discussions to ensure that all students understand the task and have opportunities to participate.
Next steps
More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8”:
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Current page Support participation and confidence
Return to the guide “Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and learning”
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How to use this site
Guide to Index of the guide: FASD and learning
Understand:
- Understanding FASD
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Teach students about alcohol harm during pregnancyShow suggestions for Teach students about alcohol harm during pregnancy
Strategies for action:
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Identify needs and how to provide supportShow suggestions for Identify needs and how to provide support
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Key areas to supportShow suggestions for Key areas to support
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Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 1-8
- Create structure
- Support participation and confidence
- Support understanding
- Support processing and organisation
- Provide options for students to create, learn and share
- Manage successful transitions
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Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13Show suggestions for Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13
