Effective Crisis Intervention Strategies in Special Education

The goal of effective crisis intervention strategies in special education is to facilitate individual student success. This means implementing specific strategies that will increase a special education student's chance of success. There are behavioral, emotional and academic interventions to assist special education students on the road to success. Crisis interventions level the playing field by minimizing the impact of the student's disability on the educational environment.

Small Group Interventions

Crisis intervention for special education students may take the form of small group instruction. This might be due to a reading or other learning disability that makes keeping up with the group difficult. Small group instruction is an effective intervention strategy used to keep struggling students on track by providing instruction through a small teacher-student ratio. In this less-threatening environment, a teacher may provide instruction and work on areas needing remediation.

Design of Materials

Providing an alternate design of instructional or assessment material is an effective special education crisis intervention strategy for students with academic disabilities. A teacher may provide an alternate test or test format commensurate with the student's ability, read instructional materials or tests to a student, or provide written notes to assist the student. Also, a student may be allowed to verbally convey answers instead of writing test answers.

Assistive Technology

Some special education crisis interventions are assistive in nature. These assistive technological interventions may be necessary due to a physical, visual or hearing difficulty and may include hardware, software or peripherals. For instance, software that translates the written word into spoken word or uses pictures to represent words could assist the visual or auditory challenged student. Assistive peripheral devices may facilitate computer use for a student with limited arm or hand movement.

Related Services

Some crisis interventions used with special education students focus on occupational. Special education students may need extra assistance in preparation for the working world. Occupational therapy might provide instruction in appropriate social interactions, resume writing and following directions, as well as other skills necessary for success in the workplace. Other crisis interventions in this category include physical and emotional counseling. Also, speech or language therapy may be necessary to facilitate communication and learning.

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