Teaching Independence for Children with Special Needs

My child is always forgetting to bring home her homework, lunchbox, or other items. How can I help my child remember what needs to come home from school each day?

I have a student who tends to avoid starting independent work and will put it off even with several prompts. If the student doesn’t finish in the time provided, I ask them to stay in for recess to finish in hopes that this will spur on some productivity. Are there any alternatives to missing recess to help students focus and get to work?

I teach 2nd grade in a very busy classroom.  There is one student who has major difficulty with certain academic tasks and will melt down whenever he gets frustrated.  We don’t know what to do when he gets like that – it’s very disruptive!  Sending him out of the classroom isn’t the answer.  What can I do to help him calm down?

How do you teach a child about not talking to strangers? My 11 year old child will open the door for anyone and also will just go up to people at restaurants/malls or various events and talk to them. She will introduce them to me as her friends. I have tried to verbally explain to her not to just go up to anyone unless I am there but this has not worked.

My son has issues with receptive speech. When I tell him something, like this morning I was trying to tell him we would have cheerios for breakfast and eggs for lunch, all he could hear was he wasn’t getting cheerios right now. I kept repeating “we will have cheerios and then eggs after” but he still was not hearing me and continued to cry and scream. I then put him on the table at eye-level and validated him by saying “I will get you cheerios” but I couldn’t explain to him that we would have eggs after. My son will be 4 in May and this is probably the most frustrating thing we deal with on a daily basis…

My child is 14 years old and really struggles to get out of bed and get himself ready. We have tried making checklists and use alarm clocks. He has to be constantly reminded and prompted to brush his teeth, eat breakfast, etc. The routine remains the same everyday but he never catches on. How can we help him become more independent and do these things in the mornings without being told?

As a parent I would like to know some ideas or tips to help boost my children’s self esteem. It seems that they both struggle with not having much self confidence in what they are doing, mostly in school. They are very bright but doubt themselves in most things they do. Does anyone have any helpful ideas or tips that I can try? Thanks!

My 5 year old takes off her socks and shoes every 10 minutes when on her bus.  There is an aide on the bus, but the shoes aren’t always put back on. What can I do about it?

I teach high school math to life skills students. I have one student who continually calls out phrases in a perseverative manner. She also intermittently claps her hands. The other students in the class get upset and yell for her to “cut it out”. She is a good and caring student.  However, her behaviors interfere with the class and result in negative interactions with her peers. Additionally, she frequently asks for adult help or to have her work checked. All of these behaviors can be exhausting for the adults in the room by the end of the period.  Any suggestions?

One of the students in my Learning Support class requires prompting and reassurance for every problem on his math worksheet.  I want him to complete tasks more independently but he is constantly asking me for help or if his answer is correct.  I can’t work with other students who also need my help with all of these interruptions.  Do you have any suggestions?