What to change for the child in front of you
14 things, in the order you meet them across a day. Each says what to do and why it works, so you can judge which apply to your class rather than following a script.
Almost everything here helps every child in the room. That is the honest argument for doing any of it — and it is why none of it singles a child out. A strategy that only works if the class knows who it is for costs that child something.
What this is, exactly. A free written guide. It is not a course, there is nothing to assess, and it does not carry a certificate or a qualification. If your school wants someone to come and talk to your staff about the children you actually have, ask us and we will.
Before you meet them
Ask the family what works, not what is wrong
One question to the family: what makes a day go well for your child, and what makes it go badly? Write the answer down and give it to everyone who teaches them.
Why it works. The family has run this experiment for years. You do not need a diagnosis to use what they already know, and asking what works is a different conversation from asking what is wrong.
Decide who the one adult is
Name one adult the child can go to, and tell the child who it is. Not whoever is free.
Why it works. A child who has to explain themselves to a new adult each time will stop asking. One person who already knows removes that cost entirely.
Starting the lesson
Put the shape of the lesson where it can be seen
Write what is happening, in order, somewhere visible. If it changes, change the board rather than only announcing it.
Why it works. A child who cannot hold a sequence in their head can read one. It also turns a change into something they can see coming instead of something that happens to them.
Open the same way every time
Whatever else differs, start the lesson with the same routine.
Why it works. Arriving is the hardest part of a lesson. Making it predictable spends the child's effort on the work rather than on working out what is going on.
Giving an instruction
One instruction at a time, and have it said back
Give one step, then ask the child to tell you what they are about to do. Do not ask whether they understood.
Why it works. “Do you understand?” reliably gets yes, from everybody, whether or not they did. Saying it back is the only cheap way to find out, and it is not a test if you do it with the whole class.
Say it and show it
Put the key words up as you speak them — the task, the number of things, the time they have.
Why it works. Spoken instructions are gone the moment they are finished. A child who processes language more slowly is still working on your first sentence while you deliver the third.
The work itself
Make starting easier than finishing
Do the first line together. A started page is a different object from a blank one.
Why it works. For a lot of children the whole difficulty is in beginning, not in the work. Removing the blank page removes the difficulty, and it costs you thirty seconds.
Separate what they know from how they write it
Let them answer out loud, or in a list, or by pointing, when you are checking whether they understand rather than how they write.
Why it works. A child whose spoken answers are far ahead of their written ones is not being lazy. Judging understanding through writing measures the writing, and tells you nothing about the understanding.
Cut the quantity before you cut the difficulty
Fewer of the same questions, rather than easier ones.
Why it works. It keeps the child in the same lesson as everybody else, and it is the thing that stops a slow writer looking as though they cannot do the work.
The bits in between
Warn a transition, and give it a job
Two minutes' notice before the end of something, and something specific to do during the change — hand out the books, carry the box.
Why it works. The gaps between lessons are often harder than any lesson. A job turns an unstructured moment into a task, which is far easier to be in.
Break time is not a break for everyone
Offer somewhere else to be at break — the library, a club, helping with something — without making it a reward or a punishment.
Why it works. For a child who finds the playground the hardest part of the day, being sent out to recover in the one place that exhausts them is the opposite of a rest.
When it goes wrong
Leaving the room is allowed, and is not a sanction
Agree in advance that the child may step out and come back, and say where they go. Tell the class it is allowed.
Why it works. A child who can leave before they are overwhelmed usually comes back and carries on. A child made to stay rarely does, and what happens next gets recorded as behaviour.
Say the unwritten rules out loud
The things nobody is taught — when it is your turn to speak, what to do when you have finished, how close to stand, what a raised voice in this room means.
Why it works. Most of what a school expects is never stated anywhere. A child who has not absorbed it is not being rude; they were never told, and telling them costs nothing.
Telling someone
Write down what you saw, not what you concluded
When it happened, what was going on just before, what helped, and how long it lasted. Three or four of those over a few weeks is worth more than any summary.
Why it works. This is the part only you can do. A clinician sees the child for an hour in a quiet room; you see them on a wet Tuesday in a room with thirty others. What you write down is the evidence nobody else has.
When a child needs more than a classroom can give
A school is not the right place to work out what is going on with a child, and should not be put in that position. If a family wants an assessment, we see children across India and the UK and online — and if a clinician has already given your school a code, that is where what you have written down goes.