ATA Resources
View previews of our Additional Needs and Neurodiversity resources.
Links to Further Resources
Learning Difficulties
Many teacher aides support students who experience difficulties with learning. Learning Difficulties Australia is a useful site with information that includes links to research papers, resources and programs.
Non-Verbal Learning Difficulties
Have you heard of non-verbal learning disability? This neurological learning disability only becomes evident with age and is characterised by symptoms such as lack of coordination, and poor time management and problem solving skills. Children have difficulty in starting and finishing tasks, leading them to sometimes being wrongly labelled as lazy and uncooperative.
Assistive Technology
Do you use assistive technology to support students with learning disabilities? The Great Schools website shows how assistive technology tools can help children to play on their strengths and work around challenges. There are links to a range of technology tools that can help students with listening, math, organisation and memory, and reading and writing.
Apps and Technology Posters and Downloadables - Supporting Students with Specific Learning Disorders
CallScotland has a range of posters and downloadables that detail relevant apps and programs. These excellent resources take the work out of finding apps for students, and give guides onto how to use key apps and technology.
Adjustments for Dyslexia
SPELD NSW has an info sheet on adjustments for dyslexia, which includes practical information such as classroom and homework adjustments for students, adjustments to in-school assessment tasks, best practice inclusive teaching strategies.
The Understood webpage, Dyslexia, gives a comprehensive and practical guide for understanding, recognising, and supporting students with Dyslexia, as well as articles, tips and strategies, personal stories, podcasts, and downloadables.
Adjustments for Dysgraphia
This SPELD NSW info sheet on adjustments for dysgraphia, provides information including assessments, and programming and intervention for students with literacy and numeracy difficulties.
The Understood webpage, What is Dysgraphia?, gives a comprehensive and practical guide for understanding, recognising, and supporting students with dysgraphia.
Adjustments for Dyscalculia
The Dyscalculia info sheet from SPELD NSW, outlines suggested adjustments and some best practice inclusive teaching practices to support ALL students with reading, writing, spelling and mathematics.
Specific Learning Disorders Chart
The Dyslexia-SPELD foundation, based in Western Australia, have compiled a helpful Specific Learning Disorders Chart that outlines the difficulties children experience with reading, writing and mathematics, and provides a snapshot of processing weaknesses and other areas of difficulty.
The Difference between ADHD and Autism
Although ADHD isn’t on the spectrum, there are many characteristics in common for children with these conditions. This article on the difference between ADHD and Autism, by Understood.org, identifies many of the signs you may observe in students, and offers suggestions on how to support them.
Teaching Inclusion
The Sixth Sense II by Carol Grey, who invented social stories, is a low cost book that provides easy to use lesson plans for students aged 7-12, to share information about autism spectrum disorder. It helps explain behaviours that may be interpreted as rude or frightening, and focus on activities to explain how our six senses affect how people feel and think.
Inclusive Education Toolkit
Inclusive education practices ensures that all students get equitable access to learning opportunities within the school environment. This Inclusive Education Toolkit produced by the Australian Alliance of Inclusive Education has a comprehensive overview of inclusion, and provides guidelines on how teacher aides can support inclusion in the classroom.
What Inclusion Means to Me
This infographic is an engaging visual summary of the various ways by which inclusivity can be promoted within an educational environment. It also provides an insight into how students perceive and value inclusive practices.
Inclusive Teaching Checklist
Inclusion goes beyond considering the needs of students with learning difficulties or disabilities. An inclusive classroom needs to consider the perspective of all students, regardless of their cultural or socio-economic background. This Inclusive Teaching Checklist can be used to identify barriers and biases in course related materials and activities.
Supporting Students with ADHD
The Understood webpage, ADHD, gives a comprehensive and practical guide for understanding, recognising, and supporting students with ADHD, as well as articles, tips and strategies, personal stories, podcasts, and downloadables.
Supporting Students with ASD
Craig Smith, deputy principal at Aspect Hunter School in NSW, has put together a useful collection of iPad Apps for students on the autism spectrum to help with communication, social skills, emotional regulation and academic work. The 2017 iPad App Toolbox for Special Education has practical information about each app that schools can use to engage with students with disability.
The Australian Curriculum provides helpful explanations on what it means to help students with disability participate in learning on the same basis as their peers, and provide reasonable adjustment.
This short article provides 12 strategies to help you teach non-verbal communication to with children on the autism spectrum.
Cued Articulation
Cued articulation is a set of hand cues that are used to teach the individual sounds in words, where one hand movement represents one sound. There are cues for 23 vowel sounds, and 26 consonants sounds, representing every phonemes in the English language. Cued articulation is not a sign language like AUSLAN, but can be used alongside sign language. It is used widely in schools to teach children the phoneme – grapheme relationship.
Jane Passy designed cued articulation as a visual aid to learning, for children with severe speech and language disabilities.
Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has published resources to support cued articulation including an App, a DVD, a book by Jane Passy, and cued cards.
NCCD – Student Observation Templates
The NCCD Student Observation templates can be used by teachers and teacher aides to record adjustments made to enable students to work towards their goal, make progressive notes and plan for changes. There is a single student observation template, and a multiple student observation template, suited for group evidence, such as observations from an intervention program.
The templates are in writeable pdf format, and can be completed electronically.
Supporting Students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
Learning with FASD is a website that houses evidence-based resources to help primary and secondary school teaching and support staff understand and support students with FASD. The website hosts a variety of resources, including factsheets, videos, guides, and podcasts, that cover topics such as classroom strategies, engaging with families, social and emotional development, and managing challenging behaviours.
Supporting Students with Hearing Loss
It is believed that 1 in 6 Australians live with some level of hearing loss. Impaired hearing, whether due to a short term illness or a long-term condition is considered to be a hidden disability, as students develop a myriad of strategies to compensate for their impaired hearing. This short article by ADSET, outlines the impact of hearing loss, the challenges faced by students, and provides a comprehensive, yet practical list of teaching and assessment to support students in the classroom
Screening Tool - Auspeld
This online screening tool by Auspeld is used to identify literacy or numeracy related learning difficulties. This tool provides suggestions on targeted intervention, as well as what next steps should be taken. This is not a diagnosis tool.
Motif – Screening Tool
A range of online and PDF screening tests have been developed for parents and educators to use. These tests are designed to help detect learning difficulties, and narrow down on the skill-gap. These tests are not diagnosis tools, but can be used to gain insight and understanding of the learners needs.
Hearing Screener – Sound Scouts
This online hearing test app gives immediate results, indicating a hearing loss and next steps to take. Visit the Sound Scouts website for more information.
Vision Impairment and Blindness
There is a huge variation in the ways by which vision impairment may present in a student and the functional impact of that vision impairment upon the student’s learning. This short article by ADSET, outlines the impact of vision impairment and blindness, the challenges faced by students, and provides a comprehensive, yet practical list of teaching and assessment to support students in the classroom
Supporting Students with Spina Bifida
Spina bifida is a condition that affects the brain, nerves and spinal cord. Depending upon the severity of the condition, students with spina bifida may require support with fine and/or gross motor movement, executive function skills in addition to social/emotional support. This information sheet provides comprehensive information about spina bifida, and suggestions for supporting students with spina bifida in the mainstream classroom.
