In keeping with my end of the school year blog posts, I wanted to cover an important issue that a lot of special education classes sometimes struggle with and that is keeping the end of the school year as normal as possible for students with special needs.
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Now, that isn’t to say that the end of the school year is exciting which it is. But the end of the school year is a time of great activity and excitement amongst the student population. No matter what grade you are going to or when you are getting your diploma out of school, the transition is always never easy for sensory friendly students.
Even if they may seem like they are excited for the end of the year, some students may struggle with getting their emotions out when it comes to expressing themselves that the end of the year is stressful for them. In fact, so much is going through a student’s mind such as hearing that their favorite teacher is retiring after the school year or anticipating what their class is going to be like the following school year.
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The truth of the matter is, however, that all of this is just a fact of life. We all have to face changes in our lives because that is how we learn and grow as human beings. Still, that doesn’t mean in any way that a transition is easy.
For a lot of students, if they had a choice, they wouldn’t want to go through with the end of the school year, especially on the high school level if the student is graduating. This is why I stressed highly in my previous blog that students should start preparing for post high school life before they get the diploma, such as getting a part time paying job or learning skills of living on your own.
Not only is this a matter of keeping things normal for the student, but also reduces the anxiety of the end of the school year and thus, keeping it as normal as possible. However, if the student wants to celebrate the end of the year or transition but wants to do it in their own way, then it’s a good idea to do just that. Maybe while the school is having it’s own celebration with the student body, the student can celebrate only with the teachers and his or her closest friends present.
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Now to those of you who may object to a blog like this, its important to remember that all kinds of traditions that you have don’t always have to be “by the book.” Schools of all levels should be accommodating when it comes to sensory friendly students no matter whether its the beginning of the school year or the end of the school year.
The truth of the matter is that when it comes to real life, there is no schedule or structure. If schools should prepare for alternative sensory friendly end of the year activities for students, then they should do that.
For example, instead of a big and massive field trip to a theme park, maybe do something small like going to a movie theater. To the sensory friendly student, this to them is what a normal end of the year looks like whereas non-sensory friendly students may not see it the same way.
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But at the time of writing this blog, we are still in the month of April. However, it’s always a good idea to start planning ahead for what is to come in May and June when the end of the year activities really starts to ramp up. Perhaps this blog can get those wheels turning in your minds.
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Catch you all later!!
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