During the global pandemic COVID-19, the whole sector of special education has emerged as one of the most significant concerns for families and schools, with much ofit focusing on the plight of students who are separated from the teachers and specialists that ensure they have equal opportunities to learn. But it is also a fact that students who have still not been diagnosed with any kind of learning disabilities till then, may also be missing out on services and support during distance learning.

Let us see how families and care givers who suspect that their children may have disabilities or developmental delays can help them lead a better life.

Discussed below is a short guide that walks parents and care givers through four steps—Notice, Observe, Talk and Engage (N.O.T.E.) —to enable them to get acquainted with the patterns in a child’s behavior, have a clear and effective conversation with the teachers and inform them about what they are noticing about their child, and also engage with pediatricians and specialists so that they can help understand why their child is struggling. In other words, N.O.T.E. tries to encourage language reciprocity among both the parents and the school.

Take N.O.T.E. is a great help for both parents and schools so that they can work together to address concerns about learning differences and difficulties among the children concerned.

1. How can parents distinguish between potential signs of ADHD or a learning disability and the struggles that may come from being unfamiliar or uncomfortable with distance learning?

First, we as parents need to accept that now we are in a virtual environment a lot of time and then understand the difference between how much of this kind of unusual behavior is just being in a different environment and chaos in the world and how much of it is something seems to be really going on with your kid.
 

Recognize Signs of Potential Learning Disabilities in Preschool

With the help of N.O.T.E. which has been successfully implemented abroad, parents can look for patterns and then take advice on how to talk to their pediatrician, how to talk to their family, and how to talk to the child to help them figure out what’s going on, and then how to communicate that to engage the school to get the support they need.

If you start noticing a huge difference in reaction in your child, then it is very likely that it is the result of a learning difference that has gone unnoticed so far by the school as well as by the parents and care-givers. N.O.T.E. acts as an easy tool for parents that would help them think through their child’s newly discovered learning disabilities thoroughly, instead of getting overwhelmed and reacting, jumping to conclusions, or doing just the opposite, i.e., doing nothing.

2. How should parents and educators work together to understand what students are experiencing or what support they may need?

Cunningham: The communication between families and school is of utmost importance, it is that point where the rubber meets the road; this is the basic foundation of a strong relationship. Therefore, when a parent expresses his concern to the school regarding his child by saying something like, “I’m concerned about what I’m seeing with my kid,” and if in response the school doesn’t provide any solution that you as a parent was expecting or hoping for or they find themselves failing to provide the understanding and clarity that you might be looking for, for your child’s behavior, then that could [throw off] the whole process.

Conclusion

Since parents are with their kids the longest, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, they know their kids the best. As a parent, you will be able to quickly notice when something seems off and know when something is not quite going well. By pursuing Special Education courses in Kolkata, we hope that schools and parents can communicate more conciselyand more effectively to get the right kind of support for the kid when in need.

Written By : Soma Adhikari