Coronavirus: online lessons benefit student with learning difficulties – spared the scrutiny of classmates, he flourishes
- Teenager can choose how much, and with whom, he interacts – things he cannot do in the glare of the classroom. His focus is better and he is more organised
- Online lessons relieve such students of unwanted attention, and they tend to seize the opportunity for self-directed learning, experts say
I have been tutoring a Year 8 student maths and integrated science since I retired. While not explicitly diagnosed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in Year 5 he was identified as having difficulty concentrating and being unable to sit for periods of time appropriate for his grade level.
He has shown steady improvement with best-practice strategies that have included assigning work to his skill level, offering him choices for completing an assignment, and breaking down instructions into several steps.
However, he has made remarkable progress in his ability to stay focused since online schooling commenced in Hong Kong six weeks ago.
Students with learning difficulties tend to learn better in the online environment, but institutions are not doing enough to prepare instructors to meet their needs, says Mary Beth Crum, an online instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
The National Centre for Education Statistics concludes that students with learning difficulties might be affected by a group of disorders that affect their ability to acquire and use listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or maths skills. This makes the challenges each student faces unique.
