Psychological Disabilities:
- You may notice students having difficulty with:
- Keeping emotions at appropriate levels for the classroom
- Focusing and concentrating
- Completing work on time
- Staying awake in class
- Staying calm during tests or presentations or other stress-induced situations
- Attending class or arriving to class on time
- Keeping dramatic reactions out of the classroom
- Considerations for Instruction
- If student’s performance is being impacted by symptoms, please consult with DSS
- Talk to a student outside of the class period about a stressful topic
- Invite student to visit you regularly in office hours to build rapport decreasing anxiety
- Talk to student about a secret cue that will be given if they need to take a short break to calm down
- Make sure that the student knows that you notice when they aren’t there
- Make a point of making sure students feel welcome even after they have missed class periods
- If attendance is being impacted, make sure that the Attendance Flexibility Accommodation is also discussed and a written plan for absences is established early on
- Consider ways that you can provide notes or recordings online in the event of absences
- Engage students in class to the point that they are comfortable and give students a way out of participation if it is not possible in a particular moment.
- Accommodations May Include:
- Copies of classmate’s or instructor’s notes and/or Power Point Presentations
- Audio-recording lectures
- Use of lap top for note taking
- Attendance Flexibility Accommodation
- Ability to take quiet breaks as needed
- Reduced distraction testing environment
- Allowed to break test into sections or parts
- Reduced course load
- Extended time for class assignments (usually for hospitalizations, etc.)