Build on Strengths

All Children Can Learn

Building on The Strengths

Often the focus and emphasis is on the weaknesses of a child with special needs. This is a common occurrence for the child with poor social skills, communication skills, learning disabilities, and/or any other disability. This is especially true of a child with unacceptable behavior related to a disability.

Children with disabilities already feel they are different. It is up to us to teach all children that different is not bad, and that each of us has special strengths. We can help that process along by showcasing each child's special strengths and interests.

Years of remedial effort are often spent trying to fix the deficit or weakness, rather than capitalizing on the strengths. In other words, if a child can't read, hours are spent teaching that child with methods that didn't work in the first place.

A child acting out is frequently a sign of frustration over failure or perceived failure. If a child cannot learn the way he or she is taught, that child might as well be in a foreign language class. Boredom, frustration, a sense of failure, can all lead to unacceptable behaviors.

When inappropriate behaviors are addressed, the team should first consider whether a child is progressing academically, and if not, why not.

Behavioral Support

If there are behavior issues, the same punitive measures are often repeatedly utilized. Yet there is no improvement. It just does not make sense that children are repeatedly sent to in-school suspension, or some such punishment that does not support teaching a child more acceptable behaviors. Unacceptable behaviors can get in the way of teaching to a child's strengths. Those behaviors should always be addressed in a positive way to reduce unacceptable behaviors. Interestingly, unacceptable behaviors often recede and frequently disappear when positive behavioral supports are in place and the focus returns to a child's strengths.

Islands of Competence

Child psychologist and recognized authority on ADHD, Dr. Robert Brooks, developed the term "islands of competence" in reference to these areas of strength. I interpret his concept in the following way:

Everyone has strengths, but sometimes they're not obvious. We must find those areas of strength and build on them. Every person must feel they are making a contribution to their environment. If we accept both these concepts, the obvious thing to do is to build upon them. Every child must feel important and every child must taste success.

Explore such areas as sports, the arts, and hobbies, to identify a child's strengths.

If your child does not have an obvious area of interest, explore every possibility, be it in the arts, sports, collecting bugs, photography, solving puzzles, mechanical inclinations, anything of interest that is creative and stimulating for him or her. An IEP team and instructional staff can always incorporate ways to see that a child can make a presentation, have a display, or have some other way of showcasing an individual's endeavors in an area of interest. Such opportunities can build confidence, self esteem, and a sense of community for a child to connect to peers.

A daily job at school

Once academic needs are determined and appropriate services are in place, it's extremely important to begin building self-confidence and self-reliance. It is essential to have a concerted effort both at home and at school, with clear communication between the school officials and the parents. Dr. Brooks insisted that each of his young patients have a special job at school in an area related to the child's interests and needs. It can be something like feeding pets or assisting with a classroom chore, just something that is a regular job. The job does not need to be time consuming. Ten minutes a day can work. Accommodating this need can take creativity and ingenuity, but it's essential. Usually the jobs go as rewards, when in fact they should go to those in need of support. Dr. Brooks believes everyone needs to feel they are making a contribution to environment.

When schools cooperate in this approach, they find that children do feel important when they are singled out for a special responsibility such as a little job. Inappropriate behaviors usually diminish or even disappear. The child walks taller, gains self-confidence, and has a more positive outlook.

Sadly, the child with a disability that impacts behavior and social skills is often the last child picked to help out with different tasks. In reality, it's one of the single most effective tools to help your child gain self-confidence, and should be included as a need, not a reward.

Test the knowledge, not the disability

Following are just few examples and suggestions for compensating effectively for weaknesses and for building on strengths.

	If your child has excellent verbal skills and is creative, but writing is a struggle, you might ask for daily use of a computer.
	If a child demonstrates such a need, (and I see this often in ADHD and learning disabilities), than the school is responsible for providing that assistive technology. Necessary equipment must be in working order and be made available in the regular learning environment.
	Perhaps your child grasps math concepts, but has difficulty performing the actual calculations on paper. A calculator can be a great assistive device for such children. Educators have told me that if a child can't perform very basic math calculations by, say, the fifth grade, it will probably always be somewhat difficult. Accommodations should be made so we test what the child knows, not test the disability.

Computers can help level the playing field

	Or take the fifth-grader who's struggling with second-grade spelling, perhaps spending as much as two hours a night trying to learn a list of twenty words. The most common modification is to cut the list in half. What if we let that child spend spelling time becoming computer literate? With the use of a spell checker and word processor program to offset organizational difficulties and spelling difficulties, children suddenly blossom into creative authors. Children can continue to work to improve their spelling with their particular learning style.
	A child who is very distractible in the classroom can show dramatic improvement when work is produced on a computer. One child, who is highly distracted by sounds, explains that when his eyes connect with the computer screen, all distractions seem to fade away.
	Headphones can also enhance learning for some children, actually helping them focus on the task at hand.
	Many children with disabilities tend to lose the thought somewhere between brain and pencil, but are excellent writers when using a computer. There seems to be an instant direct connection between brain and screen. Organizational skills show improvement as the computer seems to eliminate many of the necessary handwriting steps to get communication from the brain to the screen.
	Problem solving skills are also honed on the computer, bypassing faulty circuitry that gets in the way of real learning. In each of these instances weaknesses are diminished by technology that levels the playing field for people with disabilities. The spotlight then shifts from the weakness of handwriting to the strength of the content.
	Experimentation and patience can often solve such problem areas.

Often the IEP team can arrive at some creative solutions to help support a child's weaknesses with modifications/accommodations. More time and energy is then spent on learning, rather than compensating for a deficit.

Always build on your child's strengths.

Information at this site is not to be construed as legal advise. Rather it is designed to help parents utilize advocacy strategies that will empower them to be equal participants in the education of their child.

Ó 2000, 2007 Judy Bonnell