Mrs. Burton uses structured teaching with her students each day. Below is information on this type of teaching in her classroom.
Structured Teaching is a system for organizing a child’s environment; developing appropriate activities and helping children understand what is expected of them.
Structured Teaching utilizes visual cues, which help children focus on relevant information, which at times can be difficult for the child to distinguish from irrelevant information.
Structured Teaching addresses challenging behaviors in a proactive manner by creating appropriate and meaningful environments that reduce the stress, anxiety and frustration, which may be experienced by special needs students. Challenging behaviors may occur due to:
*Language comprehension difficulties
*Expressive language difficulties
*Social relation difficulties
*Sensory processing difficulties
*Resistance to change
*Preference for familiar routines and consistency
*Organizational difficulties
*Difficulty attending to relevant stimuli
*Distractibility
Structured teaching greatly increases a child’s independent functioning (without adult prompting or cueing) which will assist the child throughout their life.
A daily visual schedule is a critical component in a structured environment. The visual schedule tells the student what activities will occur and in what sequence.
Visual Schedules are important because:
*A visual schedule helps address the child’s sequential memory.
*A visual schedule helps with language comprehension problems.
*A visual schedule lessens anxiety levels thus reducing challenging behaviors.
*A visual schedule teaches independent transition skills-tells the student where to go next.
*A visual schedule may increase a student’s motivation to complete less desired activities.
