Universal Design for Learning: Creating Classrooms for ALL Children

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a method of teaching that embeds accommodations for all students into general education settings.  Students who are visual, or auditory, or tactile/sensory learners are taught, and the student can show mastery, in the way that uses their strengths.  
 
 UDL has been successfully implemented in thousands of classrooms around the country and its efficacy has been proven in these real settings.  
 
 Learn how students with special needs, indeed all learners, can benefit from a UDL classroom.  

 Here are links to resources mentioned in the episode
 
CAST: https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl

Reading pen website: https://smarterlearningguide.com/reader-pens-for-dyslexia-are-they-right-for-your-child/

Speech to text website:   https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/assistive-technology/articles/dictation-speech-text-technology-what-it-and-how-it-works

Thanks to soundimage.org for the free access to the AI generated music used in this podcast (https://soundimage.org/) 

Transcript

Today I'd like to talk about Universal Design for Learning or UDL, which many parents of kids with special needs have never heard about. 

There are two parts to the UDL philosophy. 

First are accommodations for all students who need them regardless of their disability status. And the second is use of the most modern and efficient technology to allow neurodivergent students to access the general education curriculum, regardless of their basic academic skills. 

The UDL model is the best and most efficient way to include students with disabilities in a general education setting. 

Think about the accommodations that are on your child's IEP. One of the most contentious and difficult parts of the IEP process is accommodations. They are sometimes vague nature, along with the very bad habit IEP teams have of including too many accommodations. Making it hard for parents to monitor if and how effectively accommodations are being used. 

Let's define the term accommodations to make sure we have a clear understanding of what they are. 

Accommodations are those provisions that allow a student to access the general education curriculum in its entirety with no fundamental changes to what is taught. The way the curriculum is taught and assessed may be different, but the student is responsible for learning the same amount of information and displaying mastery of the same curriculum as their typical peers. 

One of the reasons why the practice of the UDL is needed is that most teachers use language to learn. They generally learn by hearing and processing language. This goes counter to the needs of about 30% of the population who are visual spatial learners and may have problems learning to read and comprehend in a typical classroom environment. 

Visual spatial learners are at much higher risk of reading problems, such as dyslexia. As the use of language-based instruction is so prevalent in classrooms, the combination of a higher chance of being dyslexic and a higher chance of having other neurodivergent traits, such as ADHD and sensory processing difficulties, further complicates the issue. 

The profile of this type of learner leads almost inevitably to school problems beyond accessing the curriculum. 

Behavior issues are typical for these students due to a number of predictable antecedent stressors, sensory overload from too much going on in a typical classroom, frustration at not being able to read and calculate like their peers, feelings of failure, anxiety, school avoidance. The list goes on as the issue of a mismatch between teaching and learning continues. 

Most people in the general population are visual learners. Estimates are that about 65% of people learn best when they can see something. However, about half that number are able to successfully learn to read fluently. Disability in school is really a matter of degree. 

For visual spatial learners, their needs extend beyond simply seeing words and includes visual representations of ideas. The point is that there need to be non-language components in classroom instruction. 

The same applies for learners who get knowledge from physically interacting with concrete examples of a concept. These are kinesthetic learners. 

You should keep in mind, although all of us have a preferred way of learning, we aren't tied to that way for everything and in all circumstances. Almost everyone uses all modalities to learn in one way or another. But we have one that works best. 

Let's discuss the origins of UDL for a moment. First, it's based on scientific research that examines what factors and areas of the brain are responsible for different aspects of learning. 

Dr. David Rose, a neuropsychologist and longtime lecturer at Harvard University, developed the idea of UDL in the 1990s. He went on to create the primary organization for research and promotion of the concept of UDL, which is CAST, C-A-S-T. That stands for the Center for Applied Special Technology. Dr. Rose's first idea for the use of UDL was for students with disabilities. Now it's meant to be used in a general education setting. 

CAST describes the components of UDL as the Why, What, and How of learning. 

The Why or engagement part has to do with optimizing choice and relevance. This includes play and nurturing. The concept here is that students, all of them, but particularly neurodivergent kids, need to be able to both relate a lesson to prior learning and to have an impact on them personally. 

The What or presentation of material is how a student takes in the information in the most efficient way. For visual spatial learners, this will include a large dose of pairing information between visual input to enforce traditional language-based teaching that occurs in a classroom. 

The How of learning is related to the way students express what they have learned. All students have a favored and strength-based way of showing what they know. 

One thing to emphasize is that UDL is embedded in the classroom for all students, not just students with special needs. This has the advantage of everyone getting what they need, no matter who they are, no matter what their disability or neuro-typicality is. No one stands out as getting something that no one else can get. It makes it easier for kids with special needs to fit into their environment. 

The problem in a traditional classroom is that the accommodations for individual children may be unique to them. How does a general education teacher, say with 30 students in their classroom, make sure that the three or four kids with special needs are getting the individual accommodations that are on their IEPs? 

And what about students not identified with the disability, but having trouble accessing the education in a typical classroom environment? Or those kids who are on 504 plans who have a disability but are eligible only for accommodations? 

I would argue they usually don't. I have attended over 2500 IEP meetings in my special education career. I have observed hundreds of classroom teachers as part of my job, and I've worked with thousands of parents. 

In my opinion, the most accommodations other than the ones that teacher embeds in their classroom on their own are routinely read and then forgotten. Teachers naturally act on what is in front of them. Trying to remember what accommodation goes with each student is very difficult. 

Most of the time, a teacher will use those accommodations that work with their classrooms and not necessarily the ones on the IEP. UDL solves this problem. 

At this point, let's look at some specific accommodations that a classroom could implement for everyone in the class to include all types of learning. I'm going to mention just a few due to time, but if you think of all the accommodations your child may have on their IEP, almost all of those can be adapted to an entire classroom. 

The first one to talk about is positive reinforcement. This is a critical component of any classroom and for all students. 

Children need to learn what is expected of them in the classroom, and by extension, in society in general. If they are receiving negative feedback about things they do wrong, how are they to learn how to do it right? 

All the adults at school need to model this in their interactions with their students and set up the expectations that students will treat each other with respect. This happens when all students are reinforced for what they do correctly, so the expectation becomes the norm. 

This is not pie in the sky stuff. Decades of research overwhelmingly point to basing school relationships on positive interactions works. It works in the short term, and it works to help create successful adults. 

Many neurodivergent students, along with many typical kids, have organization issues. They may see backpacks, not being able to find work already completed but not turned in, not getting materials back and forth to home, losing things. The list goes on. 

A teacher who can create a classroom structure where the organizational issues are minimized can help tremendously to the efficient running of that classroom and leave more time for constructive instruction. 

Systems for communication between school and home, making sure students have everything they need before starting a lesson, that's important. Even issues like the traffic flow in a classroom is important to creating efficiency. 

The main idea of all this is to take away those impediments to learning that are tangential to it. Yes, learning organizational skills is important, but you don't teach them by pointing out what a student is not organized. You do it by setting the structure and expectation that students will learn over time. 

Now let's talk about the technology part of UDL. I'll describe two current technologies that are available and can be very helpful for dyslexic readers to be able to read anything their classmates read and be able to respond with grade level writing. 

As with accommodations, technology is used to remove the barriers to learning that many students have. The last couple of years have been incredible for the promise of AI for kids with disabilities finally becoming a reality. 

In the past, and I have to admit continues in some cases, students have been shut out from accessing the academic and general education information that is available to their typical peers. 

Not being able to read fluently makes accessing grade level material tough. However, I have started recommending reading pens for students who struggle to read. They have become good enough for most students to be able to use. 

The website, Smart Learning Guide, provides this description of how reading pens work, “A reading pen is essentially a type of scanning pen that can read text back to you. 

‘The idea is that it can lessen the difficulties that accompany everyday reading, especially those with severe dyslexia and reading difficulties, encouraging users to read more independently.” 

This is me again. Reading pens can cost from a very simple model for around $100 to around $500 for more advanced models. They are available with Bluetooth so a student can use wireless earbuds or headphones. 

The other technology we will talk about is speech to text. AI has had a profound effect on the development just in the last year or so. 

In the past, students had a difficult time accessing speech to text due to not being trained properly, but also because of technical problems. Mumbling, different voice modulations, and other issues made it a problem for students who may also have attention issues along with learning problems. 

While not all of the wrinkles have been worked out yet, the progress has been very encouraging, and I am definitely recommending an AI-assisted speech to text program be provided to students who need them. 

How does a parent go about requesting a technology assessment for their children? IDEA addresses it like this. 

“An assistive technology service is defined by IDEA 2004 as, any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device. 

'This term includes the evaluation of the needs of such child, purchasing, leasing devices, selecting, designing, and fitting devices, coordinating and using other therapies, training or technical assistance for the child, or, where appropriate, the family of such child, and training or technical assistance for professionals.” 

This information is important for families to know because they can access a professional level assessment along with all of the extras that are included to make the use of technology a success. 

This wraps up our brief look at UDL. I have put links in the program notes to more information and accommodations and technology.