Chances are, at least one of the following students will be enrolled in your classroom. Many students with special learning needs receive all of their instruction in general education classes, so it's important for you to be prepared to accommodate a wide diversity of learning needs. For this reason, in this course, you'll need to indicate how you might accommodate students with the following profiles, with the understanding that your accommodations/adaptations will reflect not only effective teaching practices but also the psychological needs and characteristics appropriate for the age/grade level and subject(s) you are teaching.

Jake is a student with emotional challenges. He is often late for school and, as soon as he arrives, draws attention to himself by his restless and constant activity. He frequently argues with and swears at the teacher and other students. He has an explosive temper and gets into frequent fights--usually the result of not getting his way. He has few friends. Jake's academic performance is adequate when he completes his work; however, this rarely happens.

Jake was diagnosed last summer by the psychiatrist at Community Mental Health as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). His parents have been resistant to pursuing mental health services in the past, but apparently Jake got to be too much for them when his baby sister was born last spring. They agreed to try him on Ritalin, and he's been taking this medication regularly. His mother has reported that it seems to make a difference but he's still a very difficult child.

He attends a social skills group with other students with ADHD at the Community Mental Health on Saturday mornings. Jake's full scale score on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Childre is 177. On the teacher and parent forms of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), his T-Scores for Attention Problems and Delinquent Behavior were above 80.  

If you want to learn more about the characteristics and learning needs of students like Jake, return to Topic 3.

If you want to be introduced to the other students, visit their biographies. [Irene] [Kitty] [Judy][Jose]