Technology has changed the way children learn in the classroom. Technology has altered how students engage in learning activities, the format of learning materials they use, how tasks are completed, and how they demonstrate what they know.
Technology is not a barrier to literacy and numeracy, but in fact can be an assistive tool to develop these important skills and support students to compensate for their learning disabilities and difficulties.
Technology can support students with learning disabilities and difficulties by providing them with the tools to communicate and learn. This includes reading, writing, organisational, study and research and numeracy tools.
A wonderful New Zealand website that contains a vast amount of information for teaching students with special needs. The Curriculum Room contains teaching resources created by professionals in the field for all areas of the curriculum which you can download. The Professional Development Room has articles and The Links Room links to a wide range of relevant websites. You can also follow ClickSpecialEdNZ on Facebook and Pinterest, and watch videos on YouTube.
A free website that contains teaching resources created by teachers for all areas of the curriculum. The resources made by Nick Wonham are excellent for teaching PDHPE (PSHE) to secondary students with special needs.
Full of resources made by professionals, has a large section of resources for special needs. You have to log in, but membership is free. Launched in association with BOSTES.
Full of resources made by professionals, has a large section of resources for special needs. You have to log in, but membership is free. The UK version of TES Australia but with many more resources.
Free access to thousands of teaching resources from 10 curriculum areas including literacy and Math. You have to log in, but membership is free. It has online activities, worksheets and videos to enhance student learning. It allows for student logins and keeps a record of their progress.
An excellent UK site, which has a large Australian section as well as a special needs section. There are many free resources on this website; it has editable display resources, a stack of topic related resources and some very good resources to support story telling.
Interactive Sites for Education
This site is well organised within different curriculum areas. It links the user to a wide range of websites which have online, interactive, educational games and simulations. The activities work on interactive whiteboards.
Copacabana Public School – Class Resources
An amazing site with hundreds of links to educational activities, this site is well organised within different curriculum areas. It has a great section on ICT tutorials.
A fantastic website for all students with or without special needs. It is full of resources, most of which are free. It includes printable and editable resources as well as interactive teaching resources. Its author Bev Evans sadly passed away in 2014 and so the site is maintained but not updated.
This site has thousands educational worksheets, coloring pages, and teacher resources for you to print.
This site has free access to online interactive teaching resources from 10 curriculum areas.
A wonderful New Zealand website that contains a vast amount of information for teaching students with special needs. The Curriculum Room contains teaching resources created by professionals in the field for all areas of the curriculum which you can download. The Professional Development Room has articles and The Links Room links to a wide range of relevant websites. You can also follow ClickSpecialEdNZ on Facebook and Pinterest, and watch videos on YouTube.
A unique site by Les Staves that provides useful resources for teaching mathematics to students with severe intellectual disabilities. It is a UK site and discusses using the P scales (P-scales provide a ladder into the UK National Curriculum level descriptions for children who have not yet reached level 1 in their learning).
A free website that contains teaching resources created by teachers for all areas of the curriculum. The resources made by Nick Wonham are excellent for teaching PDHPE (PSHE) to secondary students with special needs.
SEN Teacher is full of free printables for literacy, math and communication. You are able to individualise them for your class and will save you an enormous amount of time. There is also free software downloads for literacy and math. The links page takes you to a vast range of special educational websites.
Every Student – The Numeracy Framework
The Numeracy Framework was developed by 2 SSPs based in Sydney. It is designed to assist in planning, teaching, assessing and reporting on numeracy outcomes for students with special education needs.
Starfall is a free website to teach reading with phonics. It has developed a math section, where the majority of the content needs to be used via a subscription.
Copacabana Public School – Class Resources
An amazing site with hundreds of links to educational activities, this site is well organised within different curriculum areas. It has a great section on ICT tutorials.
Special Ed Mathematics Livebinder
This is a ‘livebinder’ which is a set of URL links to a wide range of websites which have useful mathematics resources for special educational needs, there are websites designed especially for special needs and ones that have not but are special needs friendly. It is regularly updated to ensure that all the links are current.
Every Student – The English Framework
The English Framework was developed by two special schools based in Sydney. It is designed to assist students with special education needs to access and participate in the English curriculum. It includes an English learning continuum, learning experiences, opportunities, strategies and assessment tools.
Portland College – Sensory Stories
Pete Wells has created some brilliant, free sensory stories. The stories are designed for secondary aged students and are often ‘disgusting and gruesome’. Each story has a powerpoint and a resources list.
Four Blocks is multi-level approach to literacy instruction and Jane Farrall outlines it in this link.
This site has free access to online interactive teaching resources from 10 curriculum areas.
Copacabana Public School – Class Resources
An amazing site with hundreds of links to educational activities, this site is well organised within different curriculum areas. It has a great section on ICT tutorials.
Special Ed Literacy Livebinder
This is a ‘livebinder’ which is a set of URL links to a wide range of websites which have useful literacy resources for special educational needs. There are websites designed especially for special needs and ones that have not but are special needs friendly. It is regularly updated to ensure that all the links are current.