Classroom support that a teacher can actually use

Changes that usually help this week

These are the asks we hear work in ordinary classrooms in Multan and across South Punjab — not a Western IEP copied onto a page. None of them requires a new teacher. They require one adult who will try them for ten school days and tell you what happened.

• Seat them facing the teacher, away from the door, windows and the class clown. For ADHD and language delay, what they see matters as much as what they hear.
• Give instructions in pieces. “Open your copy, write the date, copy the question” is three jobs. Say one, wait, then the next. Write the steps on the board.
• Shorten the copying. A child with handwriting difficulty spends the lesson on the board, not on the thinking. Let them write answers only, or photograph the board.
• Warn before a change. “Five more minutes, then maths.” Autistic children and anxious children cope with transitions they can see coming. A first–then board does this on paper.
• A quiet landing after break. Two minutes to drink water and sit before the next lesson prevents the first ten minutes being lost to settling.

If the school wants a fuller picture, what an IEP is explains the idea in plain words. Punjab does not run US-style IEPs in every private school; the useful version here is a one-page list of adjustments the class teacher has agreed to try. Hand them the about my child one-pager and, if communication is the issue, the communication passport. Put the asks in the letter template so there is a date on the trial.

What speech and language need in class

ADHD and autism get most of the classroom advice. A speech or language difficulty needs different asks: extra time to answer, the question repeated once, written steps on the board, and not being asked to copy while they are still listening. A child who “does not follow instructions” often heard only the first one. That is developmental language disorder or language delay until proven otherwise, not attitude.

Related: how Akasha builds classroom skills, preparing an autistic child for school, exam stress, school refusal, bullying, and the school-age hub.