Peer tutoring for children with special needs

Peer Tutoring for Children With Special Needs

Special education for children with disabilities is not new in the area of learning and teaching. It is normal these days that children with disabilities, either physical or intellectual, receive education as normal children do. Though of course, the process of teaching applied to them are also special and are tailored for their learning capacities.

There are different teaching strategies used in teaching children with disabilities or special needs. Some of which are the following.

One-on-one teaching and learning process in which a teacher exclusively teaches a child with special needs

Group learning in which children with special needs are formed in groups based on their level of learning abilities.

Self-advocacy in which independency is being taught and promoted to children with special needs to train them how to live a normal life without being considered special as how they are.

Peer-tutoring in which children with special needs are assisted by their non-disabled peers to learn. Other individuals, such as friends and families, that provide assistance to a special child's needs in his learning process is an aspect of peer-tutoring.

Researches and studies find these teaching and learning strategies efficient for children with special needs and disabilities. The effects of which, when measured from quantitative studies, show good results and improvements in the learning abilities of the children. In view of this, this paper will try to explore deeper information on the effect of one of the mentioned teaching and learning strategies for children with special needs. This paper will discuss the follow topics related to peer tutoring for children with special needs.

Overview on peer tutoring for children with special needs.

Advantages and disadvantages of the teaching process.

Effects of peer tutoring to the learning process of children with special needs.

Significance of this research

Future recommendations

Peer Tutoring: An Overview

Peer tutoring is a process of learning in which peers of children with special needs participate in the teaching process. That is, teaching instructions that were selected by teachers are implemented and taught by non-disabled peers. The objective of peer-tutoring is to facilitate the learning process of students with disabilities. One simple theory is that the disabled learners who find good relationship with their peer-tutors can easily communicate with them, and therefore can create the possibility of learning more quickly than when under a teacher-led learning environment.

There are quite a number of techniques that can be used in peer-tutoring. Such includes peer modeling, same-age tutoring, cross-age tutoring, class-wide peer tutoring, peer assessment, peer counseling, and many others. However, in general view, all of these strategies aim to assist a child with disability to learn knowledge and skills that a normal child can learn.

Several researches and studies show that peer-tutoring is among the effective strategies that allow children with disabilities to effectively learn. From their study Peer-mediated Intervention Studies on Academic Achievement for Students with EBD (Emotional and Behavior Disturbance), Joseph Ryan and his colleagues indicates that the effectiveness of peer-mediated interventions has been demonstrated in academic, behavioral, and social arenas.

Issues, however, are still being argued on the effectiveness of peer-tutoring based on the learning outcomes of the learners with disabilities and special needs. And to provide an answer to such issue, several researches and studies have conducted investigations within schools for special children regarding the effects of peer-tutoring. To provide information on this, we shall discuss the results of conducted researches and studies in the proceeding section of this paper.

Effects of Peer Tutoring to the Learning Outcomes of Children with Special Needs

Peer-mediated strategy is found to produce positive results in the learning outcomes of both the normal children and children with disabilities and special needs. The effects were measured by several researches and studies by conducting experiments in learning institutions for special children. Different types of peer-tutoring, such as same-age and cross-age, were also used to evaluate the effects of peer-mediated instructions.

Children with disabilities oftentimes perform low in terms of academic performance level. Researches and studies show that this problem often relates to their emotional and behavioral disturbances. In an attempt to improve the achievements in school of children with disabilities and special needs, several teaching and learning strategies that can facilitate this goal were developed with the help of results gathered from researches and studies. And among the techniques found to be feasible is peer-tutoring.

The different characteristics of peer-tutoring allow a record of success in many schools. For instance, the feature of one-to-one teaching and learning condition allows the possibility of better interaction between the tutor and the tutee. Thus, can result to a better process of learning with open and ease of communication. According to Ryan and his colleagues (2004),

Peer-mediated interventions provide an environment with reduced student-to-teacher ratios, where instructional strategies of individualization, response supervision, error correction, and reinforcement are more likely to take place.

One example of a study where the positive effect of peer-mediated learning was established was in the study Pre-Assisted Learning Strategies for English Language Learners with Learning Disabilities by Laura Saenz and her colleagues (2005). The study reveals that PALS also appears to be a viable method for accommodating academic diversity of English proficient students in general education classrooms. Studies that established the effects of peer tutoring for English proficient students with LD also revealed strong, comparable effects for English proficient students identified as low achieving and average achieving students who participated in PALS alongside their peers with LD in general education classrooms.

Aside from the results that show the positive effects of peer-tutoring in the education process of children with disability, one important effect to note is the ability of peer-mediated instruction to improve the social and personal interaction skills of a child with special needs. Samuel Odom and his colleagues (1999) found that,

Analyses revealed that the peer-mediated condition had the greatest and most sustained effect on children's participation in social interaction and on the quality of interaction, with the child-specific condition also having a strong effect.

From this improvement, the risk that the child with disability will perform less in class due to social interaction problems can be reduced. Thus, providing the possibility that the child will perform better in class after improving from peer-mediated instruction process. This effect of peer-tutoring is important as Odom and his colleagues (1999) indicate that many education professionals have proposed the significance of social competence as it is a foundation in the level of performance of a child in class.

Michelle Burks (2004) conducted a study on the effect of peer tutoring in a spelling class. Similar to other researches and studies, Burks found that peer tutoring provides a positive result in the goal of improving the spelling ability of children with special needs. The procedure was done by pairing children and performing spelling tests with one as the tutor and the other as a tutee. For every correct words spelled, 2 point were given.

After the test, the pair then switches role as tutor and tutee and the test is conducted to the tutee. In this process of peer-tutoring, the effect is that the two children in the pair, who both have the turn of being a tutee and receiving similar spelling test, may take the activity as a practice and as also as a challenge to perform better than the other. Hence, the effect is that one or both of the children will show better outcome in spelling performance during the peer-tutoring as compared to an ordinary spelling activity. As suggested by Burks (2004),

The results of this study suggest that CWPT (Class-Wide Peer Tutoring) may be an effective strategy for teaching spelling words to students with LD (learning disability). The students were encouraged to do well, and the positive reinforcement of the points created positive social interaction among peers.

Moreover, aside from the academic improvements shown by students with special needs after undergoing a peer-mediated learning, studies show that their disruptive behaviors and unstable attitudes were reduced.

There has been a wide support on the claim of positive effects of peer tutoring for children with disabilities. Most of which identifies the academic achievement and behavioral improvement of children with special needs as the top positive effects of peer tutoring. However, despite of the assistance that peer tutoring provides, it was noted by several researches and studies that teacher-led learning environment should not be eliminated. The best educational environment for children with special needs is still under the guidance of teachers. In fact, though peer tutoring has been developed to promote assistance to children with disabilities, it is vital and principally suggested that the learning materials and instructions used by peer tutors are selected by the teachers themselves.

In general, the positive results that children with special needs and disabilities can gain from peer-mediated learning environment were proven from the following type of studies related to peer tutoring, as indicated by Susan Mortweet (1999) and her colleagues, and as extracted from different related studies that they used in their own study Classwide Peer Tutoring: Teaching Students with Mild Mental Retardation in Inclusive Classrooms.

A to increase academic engagement and achievement in math, reading, and spelling for general education and at-risk students;

to increase spelling achievement for general education elementary students and for students with mild disabilities in self-contained classrooms;

to increase social studies comprehension for junior high students with mild disabilities in a resource room setting;

and to increase reading achievement for high-functioning students with autism and their typical peers in an inclusive, general education classroom

Advantages and Disadvantages of Peer Tutoring

Based from the effects of peer tutoring that have been mentioned in the previous section, and from the number of studies conducted on peer tutoring, it is apparent that this teaching method for students with disabilities and special needs are beneficial and can support the improvement of their learning process and acquisition of knowledge and skills. Following is a summary of the advantages from peer tutoring.

Allows the student to participate. With the usual one-to-one peer-mediated teaching and learning, the tutee is guaranteed to have the attention of the tutor. Thus, the tutee is somehow obliged to listen and learn from the tutor.

Reduces the time for misbehaviors. Because the tutee is obliged to focus in his learning process, due to the one-to-one method of tutor/tutee partnering, spending time alone is decreased thus reduces and eliminates time for doing unnecessary activities that lead to misbehaviors.

Increases social interactions that are positive in nature. From the tutee's interaction with his peer tutor, he can develop a sense of belongingness and responsibility to another person.

Improves the overall academic ability, and behavioral and psychological capacity of the child with special needs. With a focused learning from the tutor, there is a possibility of an improved learning achievement of the child. Moreover, his behavioral attitudes and psychological views can be improved due to the good experience and learning relationship that he may have established with his tutor.

Peer tutoring does not only provide positive effects to the students but to the tutors as well. As indicated by Joseph Ryan (2004) and his colleagues,

In general, the authors found peer-mediated interventions produced positive effects on academic functioning for tutees, as well as for tutors under certain circumstances.