Teaching and Tutoring Neurodivergent Students

By Wei Hui (Wendy) Zhou, Tutor CLE Davie

Mathematics is usually a dreaded word among many students (and sometimes many adults) that brings in fear, sweat, and sometimes tears. When working with neurodivergent students with various learning disabilities, mathematics and other various academic subjects can present a whole new realm of difficulties. As an academic tutor at CLE-Davie, our job is to help guide these amazingly talented students upon their academic journey, and even when the road is variegated with hard-work, struggles, and the occasional midnight phone call, we hope to bring joy to the students and instill an interest in academic that follows them into the future.

Working with neurodivergent students, the teaching styles that we implement are as diverse and numerous as the digits of Pi. Each student has their own independent personality and needs, and in order to create the optimal learning environment, tutors will always have to remain aware of the student’s emotions and needs during each individual session, and listen to each student even when they’re not speaking. Being aware of the student’s needs allows for a window of open communication and understanding between tutors and students, and it also helps to maintain a sense of trust when wandering into a foreign and frightening territory like Calculus.

Tutoring and Learning Styles

For this diverse group of students, we also try to find what works best for each individual. Whether the students are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile learners, or any variations/combinations thereof, we help identify and analyze their specific learning style to create a unique lesson plan specific to each students’ needs. For Kara Medema (tutor at CLE-Davie), she finds that many of her students in mathematics tutoring respond very well to visual learning, where drawing out the images and writing down the equations can help them simplify the convoluted process, and help conceive the meaning behind the complex quantitative data. Anna Cubillos (tutor at CLE-Davie) also recommends the use of Quizlet (an online learning tool listed below) for many of her students as it uses a helpful form of modern technology implemented by many young adults on their phones to help enforce memorization of information and vocabulary. As many of our students also struggle with executive functioning skills, I have found the app Any.do a helpful life manager tool for the students to keep a list of reminders for their daily (and future) to-do list. This app can be programmed to provide reminder pop-ups ahead of an assignment or due-date so the users never miss a deadline or an appointment.

As tutors of neurodivergent students, we also want to see our students succeed outside of their academic surroundings. As Kara Medema has said before, “as tutors, we are helping the students develop independence and strengthening their executive functioning skills. We want to see the students take the skills we teach them, and apply it to their daily lives in the future!”

Apps for Learning and Life

Here are also some of the apps/websites that are recommended by the tutors at CLE-Davie categorized based on learning styles, and also general apps helpful for daily tasks.

Visual Learners

Khan Academy (Free app also available) – An online platform providing fun lecture videos and quizzes for every academic subject available.

MindMeister (Free app available)- This mind mapping tool is great for people who want to be able to visualize what they’re learning. MindMeister allows users to create, share and manage mind maps online and offline.

Prezi – visual storytelling software and alternative to traditional slide-based presentation formats. Prezi presentations feature a map-like, schematic overview.

Auditory Learners

Free Audio Books (Amazon.com or LibriVox app) – Free audio books can help auditory learners enjoy books and get through their assigned reading.

ReadPlease – This award-winning text-to-speech software can read web pages, translate copied and pasted text to speech and perform other helpful tasks.

Speechnotes (Free app also available)- This is a speech-to-text web-tool and free app that converts audio voice into written text. This is great for students who like to brainstorm by voicing out their thoughts!

Spotify (Free app also available)- This social music experiment makes it easy for auditory learners to access free music to play in the background while they learn. The site features an endless number of songs to choose from and savable playlists.

Kinesthetic Learners

Google SketchUp – This free drawing software from Google allows kinesthetic users to create, modify and share 3D models.

StudyBlue & Quizlet
-(Free app also available) – Quizlet and StudyBlue are specifically designed to help students get involved in the learning process. Both websites and their respective apps allow users to create their own flashcards and quizzes or study materials that have been made by other students.

SparkNotes – Kinesthetic learners can get involved in assigned reading projects when they visit SparkNotes online. The site offers free study guides, quizzes and other interactive aids for readers. This is extremely useful as a guideline for readings, but not as an all-inclusive resource for information.

General Apps

Freaky Alarm (Free app)- An alarm app that you can install in your phone that will ask you to finish a specific set of math problems before the alarm can be turned off. By the time you finish working through the times table, you are already wide-awake!

Any.do (Free app)- An app that helps organize everything in your life. You can input a checklist for your daily activities, and it will prompt you with an alarm before each activity to make sure you are following your preset schedule.

Stop, Breathe, & Think (Free app)- An app that allows the users to take a break at any time of the day to check in with their emotions and relax. It also gives you helpful tips to practicing mindfulness in your daily activities.

Mint (Free app)- A budgeting app that can help students tabulate their expenses vs. earnings, and also help them establish budgets and learn daily mathematical calculations.

Zotero (Free software download & Chrome plug-in)- Zotero is a free, open-source research tool that helps you collect, organize, and analyze research and share it in a variety of ways. It is a great tool that helps do works cited for you!

Forest: Stay focused ($ 1.99 app on iOS, and free in Google Play)-It is an app where the users can plant a seed in a digital forest. In time, this seed will gradually grow into a tree. However, if users cannot resist the temptation and leave this app to check Facebook or play a game, the tree will wither away. This is a helpful app to increase productivity while beating phone addiction (which I admittedly have).