Separate lesson plan for every student

In this special school, every classroom is a story, every child a circumstance, and every lesson a new challenge.

In the moderately sized room on the first floor, the two teachers in charge of the class are diligently sowing every letter, every life skill, and every spark of hope for each student. The class has 10 children, divided into small groups based on their capacity and ability to receive information. One group learns to trace letters, another persistently practices knitting. Another group is being personally guided by the teacher on how to pick bunches of vegetables.

Đào Thị Thanh Phương, one of the two teachers in charge of the class, is patiently sitting next to a deaf student. Using visual aids combined with sign language is how Phương teaches vocabulary to the children.

“Because the children cannot hear or speak, I have to teach them vocabulary through the visual channel. Every lesson is an image, a sign, a movement of the hand so that they can remember. It helps them communicate through writing or sign language,” Phương shared.

In the same classroom, some children are over 10 years old, but their perception is only at the level of a 3-year-old. Others have good cognitive skills but cannot hear or speak. Therefore, a common lesson plan is impossible. Instead, each child has a separate plan, and every activity is meticulously designed to best suit their ability and needs. Children with delayed speech receive language development intervention, while those with greater difficulties are taught basic self-care and life skills to serve themselves.

In another classroom, there is a group of young students who are non-verbal and show signs of disorder. For children in this class, the first objective of the teaching method is not to teach them to speak, but to help them learn to listen, pay attention, and respond.

Accordingly, each session begins with sensory stimulation activities: shaking dice, touching different materials... to attract concentration. When the children start paying attention, the teacher uses the “modeling” method, demonstrating simple behaviors such as pointing, looking in the direction the teacher points, or reaching out to receive objects. These eye and hand signals are considered the first steps to establishing communication.

The provincial Inclusive Education Support Center is currently caring for and educating 96 disabled children. Among them, 66 children attend the specialized education program, and 30 children receive hourly intervention. In addition, the Center supports 22 more children, 9 of whom are attending regular schools, and 13 are integrated within their families.

Mai Thị Hồng Nhung, the Director of the Center, shared that most of the children face difficulties in language, cognition, and behavior, such as speech delay, learning difficulties, developmental disorders (autism), intellectual developmental delay, and physical disabilities. Therefore, some classes only have 1-2 students, and teachers have to split their time to dedicate separate learning methods to them. At the Center, the teachers not only teach letters and life skills but are also the ones who awaken the potential capacity in each child, through love, perseverance, and silent dedication.

Where hope is nurtured every day

Having been associated with the Center since its early days, for teacher Phan Thị Vân Trang, coming to special education has been a journey with many challenges. However, stemming from love, she and the teachers at the Center all share a common desire to help the children progress every day, even if only a little.

Trang recounted: “Some children on their first day at school only knew how to withdraw, not speak, and not look at anyone. After many months, sometimes even a whole year of persistent intervention, the children have gradually opened up and become more integrated.”

At the Center, some children who are 3 or 4 years old still cannot speak, and on their first day of school, they only made baby noises. For the children to utter a sound, the teachers have to be patient little by little, applying speech therapy techniques to activate the spoken language area.

“We are persistent and meticulous like that, but sometimes just hearing a sound of ‘teacher,’ seeing a hug or a tight hand-hold... for us, that is enough to stay committed for a long time,” said Tưởng Thị Huyền, a specialist in therapy and counseling at the Center.

Teaching a typical child is difficult, teaching a child with disabilities or a developmental disorder is many times harder. At the Center, every classroom, from the motor skills class, individual intervention class to the communication and skills class, is filled with the teachers’ non-stop efforts. Each lesson becomes a modeled movement, every sound, smile, and behavior... is simulated by the teacher for the children to practice.

Witnessing those who are both teachers and “caretakers,” patiently and dedicatedly looking after, training every eating habit, way of pronunciation, speaking, and communicating..., we further appreciate the hardships of the teaching staff in these special classrooms.

Here, every laugh, every sparkling eye, every first confident step of the children... are proof of the miracles that special education brings. Because more than anyone else, the teachers here understand that with enough love and patience, every child can shine in their own way.