- Will routine classroom instructional adaptations be sufficient to help a student reach academic success?
Adapting a classroom routine and instruction to set up a child for success is key for their development, however, simply implementing an adaptation is not going to guarantee success. When individualizing instruction to fit a child’s needs, some trial and error will have to be done to ensure the changes made are as beneficial as possible – it’s not enough to arbitrarily decide on an adaptation and implement it. Changes to routine need to be communicated with the child and the child’s family – the family will likely have insights on how to modify a structure to fit their child’s needs. Keeping a child involved in the changes made when possible helps them feel like they have autonomy and input in their learning; this will help their willingness to adapt along with the instruction. Additionally, when adapting classroom instruction for a child, the educator will have to be regularly informally assessing the student in order to assess the success of the adaptation made.
2. Can an individualized intervention plan carried out in general education setting bring the student up to academic level of his/her peers?
In theory, the answer to this question should be yes. An individualized education plan can bring student’s academic functioning up to the same level as their peers, but it may not always do so. In some instances, the plan may serve to improve that specific child’s academic level, but in the meantime their peers academic levels are also improving. Additionally, the issues with carrying out an intervention plan in a general school setting also influence how well this will work in reality; schools are often low on support staff, meaning the teacher has to handle her general classroom on top of ensuring that the intervention plan is being implemented properly and consistently. The family’s involvement in the student’s education will also affect how well an individualized intervention plan can work. With lots of hard work on the teacher’s and student’s part, and open lines of communication, an individualized intervention plan can serve to at least bring the child’s academic level closer to that of their peers.