Supporting Students with Intellectual Disabilities in the Classroom – Page 2 – Psychoeducational Assessment Resource Hub

Suggestions for Reading and Language

Work on building your client’s vocabulary. When learning more abstract words, try to use concrete materials as much as possible to help them make associations.

Encourage your client to communicate verbally as much as possible. He/She should be given a great deal of support and encouragement for doing so.

Teach the clients word families to help them simplify the task of reading new words.
- Use two colours of ink so that they can see the differences visually (tan, ban, can, fan, etc.; lid, hid, rid, Sid, etc.).
  - Have them say the words and then ask “Same or different?”.

Since many words in the English language do not follow phonetic rules and patterns, clients will need to build a sight vocabulary for common words and non-phonetic words.
- This could be done using flashcards, which would help the students to rely on nonverbal abilities.
- This should not begin until they are able to identify all of the letters and their associated sounds.

Use controlled vocabulary readers to build confidence and fluency.
- Do not expect your client to read aloud unless doing paired reading with adults (or others) who will correct errors immediately, and who will provide word-attack strategies or words when they are stuck for longer than a few seconds.

Your client will benefit from help in developing practical skills such as telling time and working with money.
- An analog clock is helpful in reinforcing the passage of time and can be used to track how long it takes to complete certain tasks, or how long one must wait before an activity is scheduled to begin.
- Make time and telling time part of family conversation.

Provide lots of tactile stimulation, e.g., place a thin layer of salt of fine sand in the bottom of a shoebox lid and ask Your client to trace letters or words with his/her finger in the sand.

Send home books for them to read that she has already mastered so that she can get lots of practice reading fluently.
- Patterned books (e.g., “Polly went to the store; Polly went to the park.”) are especially useful because of their repetition.

Have a scribe write down Your client’s stories that she can then read himself. Have him/her draw a picture that goes along with the story. Creating these stories will make a good book that Your client can read frequently.

Take frequently occurring words from his/her stories and print them on cards. Cut them in half and have him/her put them together to make the target word. As your client learns the most frequently occurring words, add in harder words.

Phonemic Skills

Your client will require specific teaching of phonemic skills, including the ability to assemble sound patterns into whole words and to dissemble sound patterns into letters when reading, spelling, and writing.

Students with conceptual problems need to be taught these skills specifically and sequentially because they do not easily recognize and remember patterns that others learn with relative ease. In addition, their phonetic errors compound the problem because they begin to learn the errors. Ideally, these students need error-free learning (with mistakes corrected immediately, followed by practice of the correct response)

A Solid Phonetic-Skill Program Should Include:

■ Letter-sound matching (m = “mmm”; b = “b”; build speed and fluency), using “key words” that he/she can associate the sound with (e.g., “a” as in “ant”; “i” as in “igloo”; “e” as in “egg”; “o” as in “ox” – “u” as in “us”)
■ Letter-pattern matching (igh = “I”; er = “ur”; le = “l”; wh = “wh”)
■ Phonetic rules (“e” at the end of words is a silent letter and makes the previous vowel say its own name: “hop” becomes “hope”)
■ Sound-blending skills (c-a-t => cat; build speed and fluency)
■ Sound-analysis skills (breaking words down for spelling and reading)
■ Syllabication (un-der-ground)
■ Identifying root words (backpack = back + pack; history = his + story)
■ Both spelling and reading practice

Literacy Games

There are a number of games that can enhance learning:

Bingo: Your client fills a bingo card with words as a caller names a word and holds up the matching card. This can also be adapted for math.
Newspaper Search: Your client searches a newspaper page for a word and circles each one.
Alphabet Race: Start with a racetrack containing a sight word.
- Your client throws the die and can then move that many spaces if she or can identify the word.
- The rules can also be modified so that they must identify one word for each space they move.
To provide practice in word discrimination, play a word game using “dominoes.”
- Flash cards, divided in half by a line, with a different word on each side of the line are the “dominoes.”
- Make sure words are repeated several times on different cards.
After mixing the cards, the game proceeds the same as dominoes. Your client pronounces the word as she matches it. Use sight words that cause him/her difficulty in sentences or words that are visually similar (e.g., “thought,” “though,” “through”).

Links to other online sites with word games:

Additional Information

For more information on and targeted interventions for individuals with IDs in the classroom, see this handout: Intellectual Disability School Handout