How can a parent help a teacher in a classroom where every child has an individualized program?

Parents are natural teachers adept at treating each of their children as an individual. Of course, some parents have better skills than others, but any parent can list the individual traits of each of their children. This is often much more difficult for teachers whose sources are usually written assessments and reports and/or verbal accounts from previous teachers and staff.

If a teacher is having difficulty with a particular student, often it's because that teacher has not figured out what that child's individual needs are or the teacher knows what they are but may be unable to adequately meet them due to lack of staff and/or resources. For example, when I was a teacher intern, a fifth grade student was reading way below grade level. This student's father had died a few years earlier and left him a horse.

That child loved that horse more than anything in the world. I found a reading cassette/book program based on horses and offered to buy it and work with the student one-on-one since I knew the teacher didn't have the time. The program was only $12, affordable even with my small stipend.

However, that teacher insisted that the student use the fifth grade reading text exclusively in his classroom and not be given any supplemental reading program or individual attention. The student and the teacher both failed in this instance. The child failed because his needs were not met and the teacher failed because he was not interested in meeting the child's needs.

Teachers in special education classrooms are very much interested in meeting each student's needs. However, if those needs exceed the time, resources, and staff available, they may not get met. How can a parent help? Parents are often available to volunteer time to assist teachers and their students who need one-on-one instruction.

Parents may also help find resources to purchase materials not in a school's budget like the reading program about horses I wanted to buy to meet a student's individual need to improve his reading skills.

Teachers benefit when parents are willing to and welcomed to help in classrooms. Of course, a teacher with a parent volunteer should provide clear and precise instructions for the parent that clearly detail what is to be taught and how. Likewise, parents should be careful to follow the teacher's instructions to provide clear and understandable assistance for the student in need of individual
guidance.

Teachers and parents working together for the benefit of children is a win-win situation in Special Education classrooms where individualized instruction can make all the difference and help students who may have difficulty learning specific skills understand material or concepts that are difficult for them to master.

Teachers should consider bringing willing parent volunteers into classrooms to employ their expertise in understanding the unique individuality of each child.