It seems like every day we, as educators, are faced with an ever-growing number of students with needs that extend beyond the reach of what was once considered “the traditional classroom”. These needs run the gamut of cognitive, mental, and behavioral health challenges. Cognitive needs have long been recognized, and it seems systems are more firmly established to support these learners… although in the primary years, it can be a challenge to navigate the system to establish the need for support. The need for support with mental and behavioral health challenges seems like a more difficult path to navigate. There are many places where no systems are in place to provide educators with the training, guidance, and support they need to best serve students with challenging needs. Is the child who routinely throws pencils at the start of every math lesson a behavior problem or a child with an undiagnosed learning difference for whom that physical response is the only way they know to get ahead of what they know will be a frustrating lesson?

Increasingly, as educators, we take on the front-line roles of not only delivering our lessons and guiding our students to understanding, but also responding to students navigating some type of crisis in their lives, where how we respond has a direct impact on the individual student and the classroom environment in which we all must operate. 

I spent many years teaching students of different ages, but over a decade in the primary grades. Every teacher has a sweet spot of students for whom they have a special connection, and the primary grades are mine. My class size at that time was typically 19-26 students. Every year, I would have two or three students with behavioral challenges (with many different triggers) and two or three students with cognitive challenges. With only four to six children out of 19-26, I was able to spend the extra time needed to get to know each of these students more thoroughly so that I could tailor instruction, depth of lesson, follow-up supports, seating locations, environment design, peer-to-peer supports and interactions, and small- group supports to the individual student. This all seemed manageable to me. I could accomplish many of the goals of “differentiated instruction” and advance the understanding of the instructional material for all my students.

There were administrative challenges as my groups were always dynamic and changing. The group memberships differed for my academic subjects and my “social skills” sessions. Yes, I made “social skills” a key component of my instructional day even though it was not explicitly part of my curriculum. So many of my students lacked basic social interaction skills that it hindered their ability to navigate academic content. If you can’t manage the behavioral component of getting through a lesson, the cognitive/skill component of the lesson never has a chance to sink in. If I were to be called out on doing a “social skills” lesson, I could always reference the academic content that anchored the lesson.

It is always a challenge to support the complexities of the varying learners in our classrooms. I encourage you to utilize all the skills and talents that are available to you …from district resources to the skills available from the students in your classroom. Consider the following approach to managing all the exceptionalities.

• Develop a sense of connection and trust among members of your classroom- everyone matters.
•  Learn all you can about each student entrusted to your care.
• Be flexible. Use flexible groupings to meet your students' needs. Adapt as the needs change. Use small groups to provide specific support to several students rather than focusing on the needs of a single individual. Tap into student strengths to support their peers. Address unique individual student needs as time allows. Maximize the impact of the resources you have.
•  Be willing to let go of relatively small things that irritate you but ultimately do not impact instruction or student learning. (Think of the random humming that calms a student but irritates you).
•  Use a central processing point to manage multiple behavior chart entries. Lay out the classroom flow to minimize time and instructional interruptions to make any required notations. You could even have students make their own behavior chart notations and then confirm/adjust them with a quick comment to the student.

When the number of needs to be addressed exceeds your individual capacity, focus on grouping as many similar needs together as possible to have the greatest impact with the resources you have available. It really does take a village to advance everyone’s learning…even if the village is primarily populated by the individuals you find in your own classroom.