teaching resources learning difficulties

COVID Crisis Teaching at Home – Resources for LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

The COVID pandemic has forced us into – not “Homeschooling,” but – Crisis Teaching at Home, which can be especially challenging for students with Learning Difficulties. Before you explore these resources for teaching students with Learning Difficulties, check out my overall thoughts and suggestions for “Homeschooling” during COVID school closures by visiting this page.

Some notes about the info below for STUDENTS with LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:

  • For thematic learning, you can use several of the resources listed below to help you easily develop entire lesson plans around the topic. I indicated resources that are especially useful for thematic learning with [TL].
  • Unless otherwise stated, assume these resources are free (some are always free; some are just free during school closures). Please keep in mind that many businesses are struggling to stay open and pay their workers. So, if you enjoy the resources and are able to donate to the organization, please do – especially at a time like this.
  • For those sites that have a related app for your phone or tablet, I have added [App] so that you can search for it by name in your device store. Please note that the apps, while often more convenient, usually have more limitations of free access.
  • Some activities are live streamed at certain times on certain days. I have indicated those in italics. For most of these, the videos are available at least 24 hours afterwards also.
  • Hands-on learning creates stronger memories and understanding. So have your children try the activities that can be done “In Real Life” [IRL]. Keep in mind that this may mean going to a website to read about a hands-on lesson, order materials, or print a worksheet.
  • Pro Tip: Put printouts in plastic sheet protectors and have your children use dry erase markers so that you can do the sheets over and over.

Note: I usually create my own content in pdf form because linking to other websites often results in unforeseeable changes like altered content, modified pricing, broken links, etc. If something I posted below has changed or is not correct, please email me so I can correct it.

Visit the following links for resources for:

ALL students (Reading, Art/Creativity, Virtual Field Trips, Animals, Physical Activity, STEM, Cooking, Typing, Foreign Language)

Toddlers and PreK students

Elementary students

Middle School students

High School students

You will notice that my content for Students with LDs and High School students is sparse. I will keep adding to these categories when I find generalized resources. However, I truly believe these students benefit most from individualized assistance with a live/online tutor who can personalize the learning methodology to help the students become more confident, independent learners. Please contact me if you would like to discuss our tutoring options in more detail.

Teaching Resources for students with LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:

NOTE: Many of the resources listed in the age/grade specific links above (especially ALL students , Toddlers and PreK students, and Elementary students are so user friendly that they can be adjusted for use with most students of various abilities.

WorldWise Tutoring’s Student Handbook resources for Learning Difficulties [IRL]

otsimo has gamified and personalized curriculum to provide speech therapy.

Do2Learn has elementary-level worksheets for literacy, math, visual discrimination, behavior management, and more. [IRL] [TL]

ST Math’s “unique, patented approach provides students with equitable access to learning through challenging puzzles, non-routine problem solving, and informative feedback.”

AAA Math offers easy-to-understand K-8 math lessons using interactive pages to “help remove frustration from tough concepts like division, ratios, exponents, and graphing.”

Adapted Mind was established by Stanford graduates for exercises that adapt to exceptional children’s needs. Covers lessons in grades 1-8 math and reading.

AccessByte is designed for students who are deaf, blind, dyslexic, or who have reading disabilities, or who rely on assistive technology. Free for 45 days. [App]

Autism Speaks “understands that many people with autism and their families are being directly impacted, seeing disruptions in services and coping with the uncertainty of what comes next.” So they “want to share some resources and information that may help you at this time.” [IRL]

Sequences for Autism is an app that “teaches your children everyday kids activities through a fun drag & drop sequence game designed for children with Autism and developed by specialized therapists.” [App]

Sequence it! is an app intended for students with Autism and other Special Needs to “strengthen the understanding of processes based on a sequence of events.” [App]

See, Touch, Learn is an app for “visual instruction for Autism and Special Needs.” Students “replace all of the flash cards with the 4,400 pictures and 2,200 exercises developed by professionals.” [App]

“Dr. Gary Brown’s Autism/DTT Shapes app and Autism/DDT Letters app uses Discrete Trial Training (DTT) to help your child learn the basic shapes and letters. Designed for children with autism and/or ADD/ADHD.” [App]

Verbal Me is “easy-to-use AAC and choice board app was suggested and edited by special needs teachers to help nonverbal kids participate.” [App]

Words on Wheels “is an AAC app that helps children with speech problems to communicate more efficiently by combining images to create sentences. It is especially good at helping kids with Autism and other Autistic Spectrum Disorders to communicate their thoughts and needs when they aren’t able to do so verbally.” [App]

Autism iHelp is a “vocabulary teaching aid developed by parents of a child with Autism and a speech-language pathologist. Autism iHelp was inspired by the need for specific language intervention tools for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder focusing on their unique strengths and difficulty with expressive vocabulary.” [App]

Speech with Milo is an app “‘created by a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist as a versatile and entertaining speech therapy tool for children with special needs, such as: Autism / Asperger Syndrome, Down Syndrome, developmental delays, cognitive delays, speech and language delays.” [App]

ASD Reading is “an online program that teaches students with autism and other learning disabilities to read and write with comprehension at a 3rd grade level (Lexile 750). 30 day free trial.

Reading Rockets “provides research-based activities that help struggling readers with fluency, oral language, phenomic awareness, reading comprehension, and other literacy skills.”

Into the Book “provides engaging reading comprehension activities in English and Spanish” to teach important reading strategies like visualization and summarizing which are particularly useful to elementary students with learning difficulties.

Teach This contains over 1,400 editable PDF worksheets, ESL games and activities to help you teach all the core skills associated with language learning: speaking, listening, reading, writing, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar as well as specialized subjects such as Business English. [IRL]

Learning Ally is devoted to helping people with print disabilities, especially dyslexia, by providing access to over 80,000 audiobooks with VOICEtext. [TL] [App]

Speech Blubs is a Speech Therapy app to “boost your child’s speech and pronunciation, improve imitation and interaction skills. [App]

Sound Literacy is an app for $24.99 that “emphasizes phonemic awareness, phonological processing, or morphemic word building.” It is designed for students with Dyslexia and students K-4. [App]

Phonics with Phonograms is an app with a “fun, effective phonics recognition game to introduce and master the 74 phonograms needed to read and spell 98% of English words.” It costs $2.99. [App]

Dyseggxia is a game app with word exercises in English and Spanish for children with dyslexia. There are 5 levels of play in Dyseggxia, “First”, “Easy”, “Medium”, “Hard,” and “Expert” although you must pay an additional $.99 fee to access anything other than the Medium level. [App]

Dyslexia Quest from Nessy is an app with 6 games that each “test a different learning ability often experienced by those with dyslexia.” They are offering a free trial. [App]

And remember… if you’d like one of WorldWise Tutoring‘s expert tutors to help devise, teach, monitor, and assess lessons for your child with Learning Difficulties, we are here to help! CONTACT US.