You sometimes hear it said that children with special educational needs do not require different provision, only good teaching. The claim is often dismissed as naïve, even callous. Yet there is something in it worth examining.
Of course, what works best for children with special needs depends upon the precise nature of an individual’s particular needs. That said, we can draw some generalisable conclusions by thinking about some of the more common areas of need schools have to contend with. The practices that appear most effective tend to be the disciplined fundamentals of good teaching.
A child with a working memory deficit will predictably struggle when instruction is cluttered, when explanations meander, and when tasks require too much to be held in mind at once. If we want such children to succeed, we have to break content into coherent steps, sequence ideas with care, strip away distractions and make sure understanding is secure before moving on. Yet this is not a specialist trick r…
