After-School Programs for Kids With Special Needs

To stay resilient and to keep striving for betterment, everyone needs encouragement and hope. This is especially true for those who need extra assistance and support, such as children with special needs. After-school programs, such as those offered by A Special Connection Foundation, are especially essential to keeping Arizona children with special needs happy and striving towards their goals. After-school programs have been linked to enriching all forms of development, including moral, emotional, social and cognitive. 

A Special Connection Foundation strives to provide the East Valley of Arizona with all forms of support for children with special needs and their parents. Families with disabled children in Mesa, Gilbert, Tempe and Apache Junction have been receiving help and support from A Special Connection Foundation since 2007.

After-school programs can provide more individual attention than a child regularly can receive in normal school hours. Whether a child has learning, developmental or physical  challenges, this time can be adjusted to best suit interests and needs.  After-school programs can also adjust themselves to fit the child’s likes and dislikes, encouraging them to participate in their passions. Dreams and aspiration can be built, along with a path to develop them. This individualized time with similar children allows better interaction for social skills to develop – an important trait for acceptance in traditional classrooms. For children who have may never experienced being with other similar children, they can now feel a sense of belonging.  Small after-school programs allow for a great opportunity for leadership roles, allowing the children to better understand the importance of responsibility and the pride of success.

Studies have proved that students with special needs benefit greatly from after-school programs in several areas. They have higher academic performance, increased rates of school attendance, positive behavior adjustments, and improved social skills. In turn, this newfound aptitude affects confidence and self-esteem levels. These skills help the students beyond the classroom, and will continue to assist them with success throughout the rest of their lives. Studies also show that after-school programs encourage positive morals, and lowers the risk of engaging in risky behavior. Children participating in after-school programs are more likely to become involved in the community and volunteer. It is many more ways than simply just academic that these programs positively contribute to the lives of children with special needs.

For more information on how you can get your child involved with a program like A Special Connection Foundation, join the conversation on our Facebook page.

How To Diagnose A Learning Disability

Before you can get into the right programs and learn how to live with a learning disability, you have to diagnose it. Here is another great article from KidsHealth.org that can help you with that:

It’s very hard for a kid to know if he or she has a learning disability. But kids don’t have to figure all this out on their own. What a kid needs to do is tell someone. Start with your teacher and your mom or dad.

Even if you feel a little shy about it, tell them what kinds of problems you’re having in school. Maybe you read a chapter for homework and then can’t remember anything you read. Or in class, maybe everyone else seems to follow along easily, but you get stuck and don’t know what page everyone is on. You might open your book to do an assignment and have no idea where to start.

Kids with a learning disability might also answer “yes” to many of these questions:

• Do you struggle in school?
• Do you think you should be doing better than you are in school?
• Is reading harder for you than it should be?
• Does your head think one thing but your hand writes something else?
• Is writing slow and really hard for you?
• Do you make spelling and other errors when you write?
• Are you having difficulty with math?
• Is it hard for you to keep your notebooks and papers organized? Do you end up losing or forgetting them?

But even if you say “yes” to some of these questions, you won’t know for sure until you visit a school psychologist or a learning specialist. They can give you some tests to spot any learning problems you might have. They’ll also be able to identify what your strengths are — in other words, what you’re good at! Once a psychologist or learning specialist figures out what your learning problem is, you both can start working on solutions.

A kid might work with a tutor or specialist or even go to a special class. But often, kids with learning disabilities can continue in their regular classrooms and there’s no reason they can’t do normal stuff, like participate in school activities and sports.

Though some kids might feel shy about having a learning disability, it can be a relief to finally know what the problem is. Then, the kid doesn’t have to feel as worried and upset about school — because he or she is learning how to learn in new ways. The psychologist or learning specialist might even give you a learning plan — then you can see what the strategy is for helping you learn. They can even offer help with organizational skills. If you’re not organized, it’s hard to get any schoolwork done

What Is A Learning Disability?

This question comes up quite a bit around here. What is classified as a learning disability? Well, here are some hints from KidsHealth.org:

Learning disabilities aren’t contagious, but they can be genetic. That means they can be passed down in families through the genes, like many other traits we get from our parents and grandparents. Someone with a learning disability probably has other family members who have had some learning troubles, too.

Kids with learning problems are sometimes surprised to find out that one of their parents had similar troubles when he or she was in school. But kids today have an advantage over their parents. Learning experts now know a lot more about the brain and how learning works — and it’s easier for kids to get the help they need.

Dyslexia (say: dis-lek-see-uh) is a learning disability that means a kid has a lot of trouble reading and writing. Kids who have trouble with math may have dyscalculia (say: dis-kal-kyoo-lee-uh). And people who have trouble forming letters when they write may have dysgraphia (say: dis-graf-ee-uh). Other kids may have language disorders, meaning they have trouble understanding language and understanding what they read.

It can be confusing, though. What qualifies as “trouble” enough to be diagnosed as a learning disability? Reading, doing math, and writing letters may be tough for lots of kids at first. But when those early troubles don’t fade away, and it’s really difficult to make any progress, it’s possible the kid has a learning disability.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is sometimes thought of as a learning disability but it’s not usually considered one. Why? Because most kids with ADHD can learn in school without special assistance, even though they may be easily distracted or have trouble sitting still in class. Although ADHD itself isn’t a learning disability, researchers believe kids with ADHD may be more likely to have learning disabilities.