Springtime, Standardized Testing, and Kids with Special Needs. How can a parent help?
Guest blog by Dr. Susan Brefach
It’s spring, and that means more daylight, spring flowers…and standardized testing. For children with special needs, this often means endless hours of stress. Tasks that are too difficult are presented in a quiet room away from other students, with the help of a teacher or paraprofessional, broken down into smaller time blocks and smaller “chunks” of work—and it doesn’t matter. The children who struggle with reading, writing, attention, fine motor skills, comprehension or language are not well-served by these tests. As parents of children with special needs, you know how much you worry about your child’s learning and progress. You want to know how your child is doing. You worry about the testing that seems to take more time every year—time when your child could be learning. It wouldn’t be so bad if the test results were helpful, but in many cases parents tell me they don’t get anything useful from the results. That’s because the tests are designed for children who are learning (and hopefully mastering) the material at an average pace. This does not describe most of the children we know and love.
Read more about what you can do to help your child
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