Teaching Mental Retardation
Students with Mental Retardation
Mental retardation- A disability in which sub average general intellectual functioning is associated with deficits in adaptive behavior.
Strategies for Mental Retardation
Make your objectives small and achievable That does not mean lower your expectations for learning, rather it means that instead of trying to teach five things in a lesson, focus on two things.
Use multi sensory approaches to teaching (sight, sound, taste, movement, touch) because this enhances the number of ways information can enter a student's cognitive processing system.
Talk about strategy use out loud If you want your students to use strategies when problem solving, model how you use them. Narrate, draw, act out, etc. how you make decisions about what strategies to use when.
Use wait time After asking a question, give the student a few extra seconds to process the question before expecting an answer. The student is often capable of answering what you ask, but if you move too quickly, they don't have the chance to fully identify all the features of the question to then draw the answer from their memory.
Build bridges between information Students with cognitive difficulties often have problems recalling information placed into their long term memory. When you teach a new concept make sure you articulate how it is linked to something they have learned before or will learn about, so that you create a small bridge you can help them use in the future.
● Be sure to provide prompts, give additional instruction, and allow extra guided practice time.
● When it appears that a student needs help, ask if you can help. Accept a "No, Thank You" graciously.
● Develop a protocol for the student to tell you when he/she anticipates a need for assistance.
● Learning strategies, such as mnemonics, provide quite god ways to access information;...
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