Can Virtual Reality Save Special Need Education During COVID-19?
Virtual Reality and Special Needs Education — Leaving nobody behind in 2020
The first thing every teacher does at the start of the new school year is to sit and read all the background information they have access to on their new students. The paperwork can often be extensive and digesting it all takes time. However, it is necessary to learn the needs of the children whose education they are responsible for.
A big focus during this time is children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The acronyms and layout of this paperwork vary from country to country, but the goal is the same:
Maximise inclusion and progress of each child in the classroom regardless of whether the need of the child is physical, mental or behavioural.
How has COVID-19 affected provision?
When schools were shut due to the global lockdown in early 2020 and children were sent home, many teachers and parents became anxious about how these provisions for SEND children would be met.
Regular phone calls and additional digital resources are a great start, but the best place for any child is in school, and not being able to provide support for SEND children for months at a time ran the risk of a negative impact on progress.
As a result, we are now playing global catch-up with the world’s education.
Researchers believe that students are a year behind in their education because of COVID-19.
The level of support provided at home varied massively from family to family. With many parents working from home — combined with variability in the amount of time, resources and knowledge of the subject matter — consistency in provision was an unachievable and lofty goal. Add on top of this additional SEND needs, and no parent can do as good of a job as a well-funded and resourced school.
School is the stability and rock that so many children depend on but when their doors shut, access to help from SEND was denied.
Specialists were not able to see the children in their care. Appointments were missed and treatments were delayed. Now there is a backlog to catch up on, and with many restrictions still in place and rules changing all the time, this is not an easy task.
How can Virtual Reality help?
There is a large percentage of children who are still at home, including those with SEND needs. Those who are in school need to catch up on the care that they have missed. However, there are ways to access the classroom from home using technology, specifically with Virtual Reality (VR).
Some of the ways VR can facilitate learning at home and close the gap in student’s learning include:
- Allowing SEND students to sit virtually in their classroom with their peers and teachers from the comfort and safety of their own homes.
- Allowing SEND students to meet virtually with the experts and professionals that would normally support them at school. This allows continuity in the provision and care of these children.
- Providing a range of immersive experiences that can complement and go beyond the curriculum. For example, virtual field trips or experiences that could aid in the development of children with specific SEND needs that traditional schooling just can’t provide.
- Providing alternative means to complete a task, therefore minimising the effects of a physical disability. For example, in a virtual world, large objects can be moved with minimal movement or even with voice.
- Providing the opportunity for multi-level learning. Social skills or life skills can be easily integrated into traditional learning tasks. This means that those with social or emotional needs can continue to develop the skills they need to succeed in the real world.
So VR is the answer — what now?
Virtual Reality is not a cheap technology (yet), but it is immersive and effective when used correctly. Investing in headsets for students and training for teachers and specialist staff will allow students to get the maximum benefit from this amazing technology.
The first step is to identify who would benefit most from the technology initially. The next step would be to train a small group of staff to successfully deploy the technology with these SEND students.
Once this has been achieved, resources can be invested in and provision can grow over time. Schools should consider applying for grants in the first instance to access the money needed to cover the initial investment into the VR hardware.
Improving the quality of education for just a few SEND children in each school will make a massive difference over time.
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