Problem: Difficulty completing homework; exhausted and drained by end of school day from accumulated stress of school.
Accommodations: Modify homework assignments according to child’s fluctuations in energy and concentration. Lessen the workload when her energy and concentration are low; add challenging, stimulating material to the workload when she is feeling better and appears able to handle such assignments.
Problem: Episodes of overwhelming emotion; extreme anxiety, tearfulness, frustration, or rage.
Accommodation: Develop a “safety plan” that designates a person and place for child to go to– away from the gaze of classmates– when she needs to regain self-control.
Problem: Child experiences fluctuations in energy and motivation.
Accommodation: Devise a flexible curriculum that accommodates these sometimes rapid changes in her ability to perform consistently in school. When energy is low, reduce academic demands; when energy is high, increase opportunities for achievement.
Problem: Child has difficulty concentrating and remembering assignments.
Accommodations: Record assignments daily in a planner. Both teacher and parent sign the planner daily to monitor child’s progress or lack of progress.
Set up a system for reminding child at the end of the school day which materials she needs to take home.
Provide a second set of books for child to use at home.
Place an aide in the classroom to help direct child and keep her on task. Aide should be inconspicuous and not draw unwanted negative attention from classmates.
Modify classroom assignments according to child’s fluctuations in energy and concentration. Lessen the workload when her energy and concentration levels are low; add challenging, stimulating material to the workload when she is feeling better and appears able to handle such assignments.
Problem: Child has difficulty reading and comprehending long, written passages of text.
Accommodations: Provide her with recorded books as an alternative to self-reading when her concentration is low.
Break assigned reading into manageable segments and monitor her progress, checking comprehension periodically.
Problem: Child has difficulty understanding an assignment with complex, multi-step directions.
Accommodation: Break assignments into manageable steps. Have child tackle these steps one at a time.
Problem: Child has difficulty answering written questions within a designated time frame, even when she knows the material.
Accommodation: Have tests administered by a trained aide who can help clarify questions for child.
Problem: Child experiences episodes of overwhelming emotion such as sadness, embarrassment, and/or rage.
Accommodations: Provide an aide trained to work with RAD, depressed children.
Identify a place where child can go for privacy until she regains control.
Set behavioral goals each week with child and reward her for meeting those goals.
Develop methods (such as writing in child’s planner) for parent and teachers to communicate daily with each other about any behaviors or other incidents that are interfering with child’s ability to function in school. Positive behaviors and actions should also be noted.
Problem: Child demonstrates poor social skills/relationships with peers, such as being too bossy, misinterpreting jokes as attacking, and becomes emotionally or physically defensive or aggressive or shy and withdrawn.
Accommodations: Have child and the guidance counselor meet weekly to work on learning social skills.
Have child work with other students in a group or class specifically addressing the development of social skills.
Problem: Child experiences episodes of frustration and/or rages at school.
Accommodations: Child is smart and creative. She becomes stressed by boredom. Provide accelerated individual work in areas she is excelling in. Make sure her creativity is engaged in every class.
Child can experience stress if pushed too hard in an area of difficulty or on a day she is more depressed. To accommodate her at those times, reduce academic demands to a manageable level for child.
Child should be placed in a classroom with other emotionally vulnerable and fragile students, NOT with students whose behavior is the result of criminal or gang activities.
Include art therapy or music therapy classes as part of child’s curriculum.
An aide should attend child each time she is out of the classroom to assure her safety and that she arrives at the destination in a timely fashion.
When attending mainstream classes, child will be attended by the aide at all times to assist her in maintaining appropriate behavior and to stay on task.
Credits: Used with permission from
Cathy Manning
