Teachers' Aides

Teachers' aides, or Student Learning Support Officers as they are now know in the NSW Department of Education system, are one of the most used supports for children with disabilities in regular classrooms. They are very valuable, but we as teachers and parents need to be aware of their role in the classroom.

Myths and misuse


Myth #1: Teachers' aides are responsible for the education of the child with a disability in the classroom.

Teachers' aides are not trained in education. They are not teachers. They do not have training in the syllabus or accreditation requirements for education. Therefore, they should not be called upon to plan or program for a child.

Teachers' aides may have achieved a Certificate in working with children. You can visit this TAFE NSW page for information on what Teachers' aides may have studied. For example, their subjects include learning about different types of needs and workplace safety.

So, in the classroom, aides are there hands-on support for the teacher. They help implement, assess and provide feedback for programs planned by the teacher and/or support teacher (whose role I will discuss in a future post). The primary responsibility for the day-to-day education of the child is the classroom teacher. The long-term planning is the role of the Learning Support Team.


Myth #2: Teachers aides should only be used to work one-on-one with the student to which they have been allocated... or are there to do the photocopying.

The funding for teachers' aides is based on the needs of an individual child. The number of hours they are employed is determined by the assessment of the child's needs - a process determined by the Learning Support Team. Therefore, a teacher's aide is employed to assist the teacher in furthering the education of one child.

However, this does not mean that they must sit at the back (or front) of the classroom with the child and constantly scaffold their learning. In fact, as discussed in previous posts, this can be detrimental to the inclusion and independence of the child.

Watch this video from the Teachers.TV site to get an idea of how teachers' aides can be used least intrusively: http://www.teachers.tv/video/1522

So basically, there are a few options:

- Circulating: a teacher's aide can be used to help answer questions of students, thus freeing up the teacher to give adequate support to all children in their classroom. It also ensures the child for whom they are employed gets the chance to be independent, but also gets their questions answered immediately.

- Small groups: To maximise the hours a teacher's aide is employed, schools often group students with disabilities into the same class - whilst taking care to minimise the impact of this on the way the classroom operates and the learning of other students. In these cases the teacher's aide may work with small groups of students, especially when the class whole class is involved in small group or cooperative learning. A teacher's aide may also be used to withdraw a number of students from different classes to implement a specific program planned and supervised by the support teacher - for example, literacy programs.

- Physical assistance: A teachers' aide may also be needed to assist a child in the physical demands of movement around the school or writing.


Myth #3: A student with a disability will have a full-time teacher's aide.

It is quite rare for a child to have a full time teachers' aide. As discussed in a previous post, teachers' aides are usually allocated to a child for a certain percentage of the week. It is then up to the Learning support team to determine when it is best to use that teacher's aide.

For example, if a child with a physical disability's main difficulty is increasing physical tiredness during the day, then the teacher's aide will most likely be used in the latter half of the day to support movement around playground, and scribe for the child in classes later in the day.

If a child with Autism struggles most with the social demands on the playground, then the teachers' aide will be used to support the child on the playground through extra supervision and possibly some structured games.

You might want to look at the NSW DET Students with Special Needs in Regular Classes: Funding Support document to find out more about how funding might be used to support children with disabilities at school.


So while teachers' aides are a valuable resource, we need to understand that these are some of the ways to best utilise this resource without expecting too much or too little from them.


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Helping teachers know your child and visa versa…

One of the things Gina said in her guest blog about Mac’s transition to school was:
“First term was very much about … settling in and literally giving the teachers and aides time to ‘learn how to drive Mac’.”

This is a very significant point when we are thinking about our child’s transition either to school or to high school. As Seefeldt and Wasik (2002) explain, teachers need to get to know the unique strengths and difficulties of their students to make adaptations so they can be included effectively in the classroom. And your child needs to adjust to the new adult or adults that will be a big part of their weekdays for the next phase of their life.

This will take time.

We also need to recognise that the process may take longer and be a little more difficult if your child is transitioning to an inclusive or mainstream classroom rather than a specialist one.


A note for teachers of inclusive classrooms

Including a child with different needs into your classroom can be a challenging task. But here are some things to think about that may help with the process.

1- Collaboration and teamwork
As teachers we are often used to working alone, having full control over what happens in our classrooms. However, when we include a child with a disability we need to be ready to listen, learn and adapt. We can learn a lot from parents about a child’s likes, dislikes, abilities and communication strategies. This is essential information to help us engage the child in the classroom.

We need to be open and willing to learn from specialist staff such as support teachers and speech therapists. For example, you may have a support teacher for integration who will be helping the child make the transition to school or high school. They may have some strategies and ideas for you to incorporate into your lessons. Working with them will play a significant part in helping the inclusion process successful.

Some children will have a teacher’s aide for a certain number of hours per week. Just remember that a teacher’s aide is not a trained teacher. You still have the primary responsibility for curriculum planning and assessment for the child, in collaboration with a learning support team. A teacher’s aide is there to assist you in the day to day implementation of the program and supervision of the child.

For both teachers and parents, Who's Going to Teach My Child is a useful document to help you become familiar with different types of services. It is a document written by the NSW Department of Education.

2- Attitudes
Attitudes play a very big part in the success of inclusion because there will be challenges and the road may be a bit bumpy at first. As teachers we need to retain the following:

- a recognition that it is the right of every parent and child to choose to be educated in an inclusive environment. This is called equal opportunity. You can read more about this in part 4 (p17) of the Disability Standards for Education 2005.

- a realistic, but optimistic view of our abilities. Know what support you can get, but also know that your skills as a teacher can be used for children of all abilities so long as we have a basic understanding of the child’s unique characteristics. This might involve reading about or going to an in-service course to learn about the disability the child has been diagnosed with.

- openness to and respect for ideas and information from parents and other support staff.

- a willingness to creatively and collaboratively problem-solve. This often means prioritising – dealing with one set of difficulties at a time, taking small steps to ensure you and the child are not overwhelmed.

- a sense of humour LoL


Helping teachers get to know a new student

Butt and Cosser (2004) discuss a program established by the Derby City Special Educational Needs Support Service for children transitioning to school. One of the strategies they used to help teachers get to know students with special needs who were transitioning into their classroom was a personal passport.

They stated that these passports could be in the form of a simple notebook, or a small pocket photo album. The smaller, the better as this could mean that a teacher can carry it around and show it to all other teachers and staff who will need to interact with the child on the playground, in the library, on assembly, at the canteen and so on.

The elements of this passport included:

Child’s name and title page – a photo can ensure easy recognition by school staff as they work on the playground etc.

Important things about me – This information is important to ensure health and safety issues are addressed, or staff are aware of things that could help calm a child if they are upset.

Family and friends – again, photos might be helpful. Identifying siblings or peers attending the school who know the child is important in helping the child settle in and feel safe in their new environment.

Things that make me happy and how I show you
Things that may upset or frighten me and how I show you
What I need to help me understand what you are saying
Systems of communication – These four elements are about understanding the triggers and functions of the child’s behaviour. For many children this is essential information to assist in preventing explosive behaviour or melt-downs. It can be a key tool in ensuring a peaceful, smooth-running day. Being able to effectively communicate with a child is essential, so we need to understand if they have different ways of communicating.

Things I am learning to do by myself
Things that are rewards for me - knowing the student’s abilities and strengths give the teacher a starting point for working with the child. It ensures that they have realistic but high expectations for the child. It also means that they will use rewards that the child will respond to, the only really effective reward.

A profile of the child is often developed by a learning support team and presented in different formats. However, we need to ensure that the information in the profile is presented to all the people who need to know, is positive and not labelling or demeaning the child, and is easy to read.

That is perhaps why a personal passport has become so widely used in some countries/counties. It has all these characteristics. It can also be adapted for any age group (below is an example from http://www.allenshea.com/AllStatesPassport.pdf). And it is something that a teacher could do with a whole class if they wanted to do a get-to-know-you exercise to promote empathy and inclusive behaviour.

Helping a student get to know their teacher

As with the familiarisation with the physical setting, photos are one of the most effective tools to help children identify and get to know their new teachers (Butt and Cosser, 2004).

As soon as you chose a school, start developing a photo book of the important adults your child will need to get used to and trust. You might not know who your child’s teacher may be – sometimes the school doesn’t know until the final sorting of enrolments just before school starts. So start with people like the principal. Then, as soon as you find out who they are, add the child’s teacher and teacher’s aide.

If your child is going to a mainstream high school, they will need to get to know a range of teachers. One way of helping your child recognise their teachers, when they will be interacting with them etc is by using photos, folders and colour-coding.

For example, Mr Sims is your child’s Maths teacher. You have a red folder for Maths. On the child’s timetable, Maths is coloured in red. Just inside the front cover of the Maths folder, stick a small photo of Mr Sims. If your child has good literacy skills and has met the teacher before, then a photo may not be important. It may just be a matter of writing the teacher’s name inside the folder with the times and rooms where Maths occurs.

Meeting the teacher

Try to set up meetings between your child and their teacher before the school year starts. Most schools have orientation visits – but one visit may not be enough. And in many cases the Kindergarten teacher will change from year to year. So orientation visits to the classroom will help the child experience the environment, but won’t necessarily help them get to know their teacher.

So, if your child is transitioning to school, along with the photo book you should try to set up meetings between your child and their teacher before they attend school. You might ask to visit the playground when they are on playground duty. You might ask to visit their classroom, even if they are not teaching Kindergarten that year. And, hopefully, the teacher should be invited to any meetings you have with the school to discuss your child’s transition so that you can get to know them as well.

The transition to high school is a bit different due to the range of staff that might be working with your child. So it is best to find a staff member who can be a mentor for your child. For example, the year advisor. This staff member is responsible for the pastoral care of a particular grade. If, on meeting this staff member, you can see that your child is going to respond well to them, then they may be a great mentor for your child.

A teacher-mentor can be someone to whom your child can go whenever they are feeling uncomfortable. So it would be important to:

- Set up a few informal meetings between your child and the staff member before the school year starts. That staff member may be the one who helps to show the child around the school.
- If possible, supply your child with that staff member’s timetable or a way your child can find them whenever needed once school starts. For example, it may be agreed that your child goes to the front office when they need help, and the administration staff contact or help the child find the teacher-mentor. This procedure would need to be discussed and perhaps clarified in a note supplied to the staff working in the administration office.

For your information, here are the NSW DET guidelines on mentoring.


So, in conclusion, helping children get to know their teachers and visa versa is again about starting as soon as you can, using photos, sharing information and recognising that there will be a period of time that will be a bit “bumpy” as everyone gets used to each other.


References:

Butt, A., and Cosser, C. (2004). Supporting transition: Preschool setting into first placement. In M. Blamires and J. Moore (Eds), Support Services and Mainstream Schools, p 68-77. David Fulton Publishers: London.

Seefeldt, C. and Wasik, B.A. (2002). Kindergarten: Fours and Fives go to School. Merrill Prentice Hall: Ohio


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Home, preschool, school, high school – what’s the difference?

I just thought I would start this month’s blog theme with a bit of a summary of the different skills that are required in the different contexts - home, preschool, school and high school. These changes can bring challenges for all children, but we need to take special care to prepare children who have disabilities for these changes as many may take a little longer to learn the skills necessary and take a little longer to adjust to the change - expecially if they have developmental delays, Autism and Down Syndrome or find it hard to learn some of the expected behavioural skills.

Just a note: Here I am focusing on the social and emotional factors, rather than academic skills such as numeracy and literacy.


The Physical environment

Home:
Children become safe in their environment as they become familiar with its layout and learn the boundaries. Parents also may have put in place structures such as closed doors, gates and so on to provide physical prompts to those boundaries.

Child Care and other pre-school environments:
The physical environment begins to grow. There will be more space, more people, and it will contain more and different equipment, lighting and noises.

School:
The world opens up even further, especially when we begin thinking about the playground. Here the physical boundaries (ie. what is "out of bounds") may not be as easily to identified.

High school:
Moving to high school generally means attending different classes in different rooms unless the child is placed in a specialist classroom. It will mean more movement during the school day into a range of different spaces that might have different noises, smells, people and sights associated with them. The child may need extra help in learning to navigate around the larger spaces and identifying physical boundaries.


Relating to Adults

Home:
At home your child will spend most of the day with you or with a small number of familiar adults. For the most part, they do not have to adjust to the different way adults relate to them, or the different ways adults might do things.

Families with children who have disabilities will also grow to know what routines help a child cope in their environment. This means that the environment is less changeable, more predictable – especially in the context of who the child has to interact with.

Child Care and other pre-school environments:
If your child goes to child care the first thing that will happen is that they will have to learn to trust and relate to a number of different adults. Secondly, there will be more children for the number of adults available, so they will have less one on one time with adults.

Children’s services Regulations 2004 state that the teacher to child ratios should be:
1:5 for children who are under the age of 2 years,
1:8 for children who are aged 2 to 3 years of age, and
1:10 for children who are 3 or more years of age but under 6 years of age.

While good centres do focus on consistency, there will be a range of different staff in one room each day. The staff may work shift work, and some of the staff may be part-time, casual or leave the centre during your child’s time there so further new faces may be introduced. So your child needs to be able to adjust to these changes, and interact with a range of adults who may have different expectations or routines, and relate to them in different ways.

School:
When your child goes to school, they will have one teacher in class, and a range of other teachers they will need to learn to trust and relate to on the playground. So, again, the change in the key adults in their lives will need to be considered. Further, there will be even less time that a teacher can spend with the child one to one.

According to the NSW Department of Education and Training class sizes on average so far in 2009 were:
- 19.3 for Kindergarten students;
- 21.3 for Year 1 students; and
- 22.6 for Year 2 students.

High school:
If your child is not placed in a specialist classroom, they will be taught by a range of different teachers. If your child is in a specialist classroom, they may integrate into regular classrooms for different subjects such as Personal Development, Health and Physical Education - being taught by different teachers in these classrooms.

As students move to middle school/high school, the relationship with their teachers changes. The are expected to be more independent. And because they spend much less time with individual teachers, they may form a closer, supportive relationship with only one or two of their teachers, their special education teacher, and/or their teacher’s aide.

Class sizes in high school vary depending on subjects and whether they are special education or general education, but there can be about 30 students in one classroom.


Adult-directed routines versus child-directed activities

Home:
At home you might have some set routines for meals, bathing and bed-time. You may also have some more irregular routines such as grocery shopping. But for much of the time at home there is freedom for a child to choose their own activities according to their interest.

Child Care and other pre-school environments:
The routines begin to increase. One of the times children struggle to adjust to the most is mat time, or the time where all children are expected to sit quietly and listen to a story or sing songs. This is often the first time children have experienced this type of group, adult-directed activity.

School:
While Kindergarten or prep classes often have set free-play times, the day is full of routines. It usually starts with assembly – and lining up and being orderly with the rest of the school brings unique challenges for all children new to the situation, but especially for children who have sensory sensitivities, problems staying still, difficulties following instructions and so on.

Then the day alternates between in-class, teacher-established routines, and the relative freedom and “orderly chaos” of the playground. And all these routines are determined by the clock, rather than by the preference of the child. This makes it a big change, especially if the child is coming to school having not experienced a pre-school environment.

High school:
There are added transitions and routines in high school due to the movement from class to class. And students are expected follow the routines more independently. For example, as they move through the high school years they are increasingly expected to follow timetables and get themselves to their allotted classroom at the appropriate time.


Social interaction and rules:

Home:
Social skills and expectations that might be important in the home might include politeness, sharing with siblings and following parent instructions.

Child Care and other pre-school environments:
In these settings, children will need to use further skills that relate to communal living. For example:
- sharing and taking turns with toys and equipment
- Sitting quietly on the mat during group time, waiting for their turn to talk
- Communicating using the conventions of language, rather than eccentric language or gestures used at home

From age three children are usually starting to form friendship groups as well, which requires another set of skills including empathy as children are expected to become less egocentric.

School:
Children are expected to become increasingly self-regulating. Some skills that they will need to learn include:
- sitting quietly and working at their desks
- sitting quietly on the mat to listen to a story
- putting their hand up to speak
- lining up and waiting
- staying in the class during lesson times
- participating in activities they are not necessarily interested in
- asking to go to the toilet

Friendship skills will also be important to help them participate more effectively in the playground.

High school:
The thing that is expected more in high school than in primary school is independence and what we might call maturity. That is, the ability to judge for themselves what might be appropriate behaviour based on where they are, who they are with and their knowledge of the social rules and consequences for their actions.

So, in short, home means fewer people, a smaller physical environment, more freedom and perhaps less social demands. School can be a tiring place as children need to practice self-control, follow routines and relate to more people - both adults and children.

Throughout this month I will try to discuss ways that you can help your child prepare for the next stage in their schooling career.

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