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Date
27 September 2023
Link
inclusive.tki.org.nz/guides/speech-language-and-communication-needs/support-processing-and-organisation-skills

Support processing and organisation skills

Suggestion for implementing the strategy ‘Using whole-class strategies to support students with speech, language and communication needs in years 7–13’

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Offer visual timers

Offer visual timers

Visual timers, can help students "see" the time they have for a task.

This can reduce stress and increase motivation.

Video hosted on Vimeo http://vimeo.com/27596627

Source: Time Timer (US) (opens in a new tab/window)

No captions or transcript

Source:
Time Timer (US)
http://vimeo.com/27596627

Ideas to support concentration and memory

Ideas to support concentration and memory

Provide options to support concentration and short-term memory.

  • Monitor and moderate the classroom for visual and auditory distractions.
  • Present information in a range of ways over an extended period of time (for example, a week) to help students to retain information, build their understanding and familiarity of the topic, and stay stimulated and focused.
  • Discuss the effectiveness of the classroom environment with students and make modifications and remove barriers where needed.
  • In online environments, make effective use of visual prompts and cues to support understanding and navigation. Make hyperlinks to background knowledge or previous learning to increase connections.
  • Schedule regular short breaks to allow students to move physically.
  • Slow the pace of your instructions or give students additional time to complete their work.

Support planning and organisation

Support planning and organisation

Help students to be more independent by providing tools that support planning and organisation.

  • Use charts, visual calendars, colour coded schedules, visible timers and cues to increase the predictability of regular activities and transitions.
  • Encourage students to use their mobile devices to schedule alerts and reminders for regular and novel events and task deadlines.
  • Model and make available graphic organisers and flow charts to support planning and thinking in all curriculum areas.
  • Break tasks and lengthy assignments into small, manageable parts. Schedule workflow using Trello to organise what needs to be done and when.
  • Provide options so that students can submit work online.

Support thinking

Support thinking

Tools and approaches to help students to recognise patterns, critical features, big ideas and relationships.

  • Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas and relationships using visuals, mind maps, 3-D manipulatives, outlines, flow charts and real objects.
  • Give students multiple opportunities to engage with new ideas and concepts.
  • Provide extra time for students to think and process before needing to respond in a discussion.
  • Use mind maps to brainstorm ideas and make connections.
  • Support group and class discussions with visual annotations to prompt later recall of key ideas.
  • Offer students a variety of graphic organisers and flow charts to support thinking in all curriculum areas.

Graphic organiser templates

Graphic organiser templates

Website

Free graphic organiser templates

Free graphic organiser templates in pdf format.

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Visit website

Next steps

More suggestions for implementing the strategy “Helpful classroom strategies years 9-13”:

Return to the guide “Speech, language and communica­tion needs ”

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Speech, language & communcation needs

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Guide to Index of the guide: Speech, language & communcation needs

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