Learning Resources is sharing 6 must-have teacher resources and 6 free teacher resources for teachers of students with special needs.
Children with special needs require special resources – and special teachers! The education experts at Learning Resources are sharing some of our favorite tools for working with children with special needs. Here are six resources designed to make your job easier and more rewarding for your students. Additionally, we’re including six free resources every special needs teacher should know about. Read on for our frustration-free picks and links, including:
For Color Learning
Being able to identify and distinguish colors is the first step to other basic skills, including sorting, matching, and more. The Birds in a Nest Sorting Set includes six colorful, stackable “nests,” six mama birds that double as finger puppets, and four baby birds in each color. Use the puppets to reinforce color names, then challenge your students to place the baby birds in the matching-colored nests, building their fine motor skills as they work.
Perfect for visual and tactile learners, the pieces can also be used to introduce basic patterning, counting, addition, and subtraction skills. They’re great for pretend play, too!
For Fine Motor Development
Some children with special needs struggle with motor development. In order to do things like stack blocks and hold crayons, students need to develop the small muscles in their hands and fingers. Play is a great way to build these fine motor skills—working with materials like molding dough and blocks, scooping and dumping sand with a play shovel, stacking blocks, and stringing beads are all beneficial.
Interactive tools like Spike the Fine Motor Hedgehog® are also effective. Students simply place Spike’s missing quills into the slots on his back to practice dexterity and motor control. They can also use the colorful, chunky pegs to practice colors, sorting, matching, and patterning in a fun and rewarding way.
For Letter Learning
Many IEPs start with letter identification. Learning Resources’ ABC Puzzle Cards provide a colorful, tangible way to introduce students with learning disabilities to letters and initial letter sounds. Each two-piece puzzle features an upper- and lowercase letter on one half and an object that starts with that initial sound on the other.
Start with the letter pieces, pointing to the letter and saying its name, then ask your students to repeat it. Once your student has mastered the first card, add another, a few at a time, and practice the letters in batches. When it’s time for letter sounds, pick up the picture cards, point to the images, say their names, and press the puzzle pieces into place.
For Number Learning
Knowing their numbers is the first step to counting, a critical skill for everything from following directions to mastering money. The key to understanding numbers is associating them with quantities. The Snap-N-Learn™ Counting Cows can help!
Each colorful cow comes in two pieces – a front half featuring a numeral and a back half with the corresponding number of dots. Start by laying a few front halves out and speaking each number as you point to it. Add another and another, asking students to “find the 3” or 4 or 5. Then, let students snap the matching-colored fronts and backs together, while you point out the numerals and count the corresponding dots together. When they’re ready, give a student a numeric piece and ask them to find the half with the corresponding number of dots, and vice versa, counting and speaking the numeral aloud each time.
For Social Emotional Practice
Recognizing emotions in others can be extremely difficult for some students with special needs, making it harder to make friends. The Big Feelings Pineapple™ can help, with 26 snap-on pieces, including smiles, frowns, and everything in between. Pick your eyes, brows, and mouth, and ask your students how the pineapple might be feeling. Is it happy, sad, angry, or silly?
Give your students a go (they’ll also be building fine motor skills as they make their faces) and guess how their pineapple is feeling. The two-sided pineapple also introduces the idea of opposites – make a happy face on one side and a sad face on the other.
For Support with Transitions
Transitioning from one activity to another is tricky for many kids, including those with special needs. Sticking to a predictable schedule is step one in managing transition time. Ample notice, in the form of a verbal warning or special song, is another helpful strategy. So is the Time Tracker® Mini! This simple, programmable timer features three colored lights offering a visual cue to coming transitions – green for plenty of time, yellow to signify that time is almost up, and red noting the end of an activity.
In addition to these helpful classroom resources, special education teachers can find additional free resources, professional development opportunities, ideas, activities, and support from the following sources:
The National Association of Special Education Teachers: Offers free forms, checklists, charts, parent handouts, helpful articles, and more to keep you organized.
The National Center for Learning Disabilities: Provides videos and articles to help with IEP plans, teacher-parent relationships, assistive technology, and more.
Learning Disabilities Online: A site developed by educators, for educators, featuring articles that address everything from social emotional learning to teaching math and language.
Teacher Vision: This site offers free, print-ready and digital resources that teachers can trust.
Do2Learn: Find thousands of free – and FUN – games, songs, activities, and downloads from some of the world’s most gifted clinicians and teachers.
6 Must-Have Teacher Resources for Students with Special Needs