Accommodations: why they matter
When thinking of accommodations in a traditional sense you might think of amenities at a hotel. For instance, if there is a spa or a restaurant. If you use a wheelchair, you might call ahead to ask if the hotel has a ramp. Some accommodations are designed to make people feel more comfortable, relaxed or well taken care of. Others are essential to living your best life.
In the context of this blog, accommodations are supports to facilitate a child’s educational, social and emotional experiences at school or daycare. Children with an IEP (individualized education program) receive accommodations. In many settings, there are students who struggle but do not have services and they, too, benefit when given extra support to accomplish their goals.
Basic accommodations for a student with developmental delays include but are not limited to:
- giving a child extra time to get seated at circle time
- adapting lesson plans to differentiate instructions
- offering a child extra prompts to help them finish tasks
- modifying a daily schedule and presenting it with visuals
- preparing the environment with a variety of fidget toys
- scheduling sensory breaks for movement ideally in a gym
- incorporating sign language and/or assistive technology
- praising a child’s good behavior as positive reinforcement
- using “First/Then’ tools and other behavior strategies
- creating a safe space for all students to thrive.
Denying a child the accommodations they need is no different than denying a ramp to a person in a wheelchair.
Paraprofessionals
There are a variety of paraprofessionals who assist children with behaviors, speech, sensory perception, and gross motor skills— to name a few. When paraprofessionals are in the classroom or daycare, a student often has an easier time while receiving 1:1 support.
Requesting accommodations for your child at school or daycare is especially important for the parts of the day when the paraprofessionals are not present, since they typically have relatively short sessions.
In busy classrooms and daycares, accommodations for students with special needs run a risk of possibly being underweighted if teachers and daycare staff are not trained or lack resources to implement alternative programming when the paraprofessionals are not present. A child might be non-verbal or too young to communicate or advocate on their own. When possible, it is empowering to ask a student which accommodations would be helpful.
Conclusions
Building trusted relationships with a child’s teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals and IEP coordinators is an organizational success factor. Tackling challenges together, one-by-one, leads to small wins that, over time, result in the best possible outcomes.
