Students+with+special+needs

**//Students with Special Needs //** Interactive whiteboards may be beneficial to students with special educational needs. The large fonts and bright colors might be helpful for both visually impaired students and those who have trouble staying on task, while students who respond well to kinesthetic learning will benefit from touching the board.  **Visual learners **** benefit from an IWB since it enables students of all ages to see their own writing and objects of their own creation. ** **Deaf and hearing-impaired learners **rely primarily on visual learning, and the interactive whiteboard facilitates the presentation of visual material with the use of sign language simultaneously in front of students. **Other special needs students **with learning challenges, such as physical ability needs and behavioral issues, e.g., Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), also find the large interactive surface helpful. Its large size and touch sensitivity facilitates ICT learning beyond the standard keyboard-and-mouse type of computer interaction, and its appeal can be used to promote good behaviour.   Observations from researchers and educators in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia indicate interactive whiteboards help with the multisensory learning needs of a wide array of students. A third-grade student with short-term memory issues found color-coding words and emphasizing phonetic values useful when recalling and repeating material (Salintri, Smith andClovis, 2002). An interactive whiteboard transformed formerly “lifeless” students into eager, active learners. Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are better able to control impulsive and disruptive outbursts when an interactive whiteboard is introduced as a behavioural control mechanism (Jamerson, 2002). Visually-impaired students benefit from the size of the interactive whiteboard and, according to Cooper and Clark (2003), when a teacher plays videos on an interactive whiteboard, students who would not normally be able to see the images “are finally able to see and interact with a computer image, which is very valuable.”  Further, In research funded by a Becta ICT Research Bursary, Miller et al. (2005b) find that interactive whiteboards provide a clear focus in the classroom and “seemed to support pupils’ understanding, reducing the behavioural problems that spring from frustration and the ‘switching off’ that can result from not being able to keep up with the lesson.” Previously, in a questionnaire developed and analyzed by Miller and Glover (2002), teachers responded that “distracted children pay attention for longer periods … [and now] have a zest for learning that stems from the element of surprise we (and the software) can maintain.” 
 * Many of these learning styles can be addressed when lesson delivery and learning activities incorporate the use of an Interactive Whiteboard(IWB): **<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msoansilanguage: EN-US; msobidifontweight: bold; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman';">
 * <span style="font-family: 'New times roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: FrutigerLTStd-Bold;">Kinesthetic or tactile learners **<span style="font-family: 'New times roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: FrutigerLTStd-Light;">are typically difficult to engage in traditional classroom activities <span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: FrutigerLTStd-Light; msobidifontfamily: FrutigerLTStd-Light;">that are usually more visual or auditory in nature. They are able to reinforce learning through exercises involving touch, movement and space on an interactive whiteboard.
 * <span style="font-family: 'New times roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: FrutigerLTStd-Bold;">Visually impaired students **<span style="font-family: 'New times roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: FrutigerLTStd-Light;">with some vision ability can manipulate objects and use large text <span style="font-family: 'New times roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: FrutigerLTStd-Light;"> on an interactive whiteboard’s big surface and participate in computer-based learning in ways that would not be possible on a smaller computer screen.