Children with emotional disorders often exhibit a range of habits that do not help them improve on learning. They have irregular emotional patterns, often unhappy and harsh towards other people. These students will always need special care and teaching in order to participate in the class work as other students. Parents and teachers have a responsibility to support these children with special facilities to support their learning. This paper will discuss on the different ways through which these students adapt as to cope with modern ways of learning.
A student with the disability to learn often cannot concentrate. Such a student does not do the work they were given to completion (Brunvand and Byrd 2011). A teacher with such a learner has to make sure he or she motivates that student. There are several means through which teachers and parents can use to increase concentration for these students. They can introduce the child to imagery. It has been studied in the past that these students can easily identify pictures. By use of imagery, the teacher can capture the attention of this student (Brunvand and Byrd 2011). The emotionally challenged student finds the pictures attractive.
Voice thread is a means through which emotionally challenged students have used to learn. The teacher or parent can use the internet to make a tool for learning. He or she will pick a file and edit it with images, audio, and videos on slide show for students to use. According to Brunvand and Byrd, voice thread could be used by the emotionally and behavioral challenged students to learn the language. The teacher can put the students to task. He or she first begins a story for students with images, and then lets the student complete the story. This way the student can involve his or her thinking capability. The student later adds comments or put down his or her thoughts by typing.
Mathematics can also be taught to these students using imagery. Students can use object of different colors, shapes and sizes to learn mathematical concepts. By the use of voice thread, students can learn science. The teacher can make arrangement of images that relate to a certain lifecycle and use it teach the children e.g. the life cycle of an animal. Social studies and culture can be taught through voice thread. The student is shown images of people in different dressing to indicate the difference in culture, religion, or custom. From these images, the students can ask questions and express their interest or dislike on what they have seen.
Teachers can involve the students in outdoor activities to enhance their relation with other people. When a child has been exposed to other people, they tend to mingle with each other. In this way, the child can be able to improve on his or her social skills (Brunvand and Byrd 2011). The child will copy what the other student will be doing. Combining such students with others of the same kind is also helpful. Most of these students fall into low-self esteem once they realize that they are different from others. Hence, it is of benefit, for parents to enroll such children in schools where they have one of their kinds. In addition, they mingle with one of their kind.
Another strategy is the use of relaxation method (Gottlieb & Williams 1989). The use of exercises on such students can be extremely beneficial in their learning. The pupil is involved in games or outdoor activities. The teacher has to ensure that they use creativity while doing these activities. He or she has to relate the activity the student is carrying with class work. This way the students can learn the concept easily. Most of the students that have used voice thread and creative modes of learning have been reported to improve. They grow from being passive students to active learners (Brunvand and Byrd 2011).