Differentiation means: ‘the action or process of differentiating or distinguishing between two or more things or people’   It also means: the process of becoming different by process or development; Oxford English Dictionary.
Differentiation in the classroom means: ‘to plan, design, develop and deliver lessons suitable for all individual students’.

This is particularly important in a Special Needs school.  Not only do SEN students have their individual needs that we all have as students such as, varying levels of function, different types of intelligence, a variety of skills, many ways to communicate, culture, and upbringing differences. social interaction, perception and so forth but they also have specific learning needs such as A.D.H.D. (Hyperactive Disorder) – ASD (Autism)  – MLD (Mild Learning Disability) – SLN (Specific Learning Disability) – Dyslexia – Dyspraxia – Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia – Anxiety – Depression – Anger Issues – PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) – the list goes on!

Teachers plan lessons with creativity, to enable the child to firstly understand from their own perspective the contents, the process and the purpose of the lesson, to engage using a step by step approach, to develop with SMART targets, to feel able to access the material and have an appropriate level of challenge while all the time receiving praise and feedback for any small efforts of engagement.   Differentiation also covers the needs of the child from a demographic perspective which includes the child’s age, sex, religion, culture, background, family, and life experiences.  Differentiation includes so much more and some ways of producing this into a lesson are below.  A teacher can produce their own activities but some of these are amazing and useful!

A PowerPoint by Mike Gershon – click here to download >