Teaching children with learning difficulties.

On completing classes this week I was discussing with a colleague the students that we have in our classes and the ones that are making good progress and the ones that we feel need the extra support. When discussing one particular person I was saying that I often find that I am correcting, but i seems as though they are not taking on board what I am saying. I spend quite a lot of time with this student and I think they need it, but I was concerned that perhaps the attention would be putting them of. This was when my colleague said to me that this particular person has autism, it is mild and they attend mainstream school but that is perhaps why they don't respond quickly to correction.

I had three main reactions to this, firstly I was pleased about the fact that a child with additional learning needs has the confidence, the passion and the support to attend a technical ballet class. Just goes to show that learning difficulties are becoming less of a barrier within society and that is is not always necessary to have specific classes or groups for specific learners.
But it did display to me that dance teaching doesn't always know how to deal with this kind of situation, to me because I have some background in learning difficulties I would have made sure that all teaching staff were aware that this child does have some additional needs, not in order to treat the child obviously differently but just so that there is an understanding that the learning process might be slightly different.
It highlighted that there is a potentially a gap in the dance teachers education. The more people with learning disabilities and additional needs are encouraged to engage with the community as a whole and to take part in activities, the more that we as dance teachers will encounter this. The way it was dealt with by my employer displayed to me that there is a lack of understanding. When I attend class next week I wont bombard this student with corrections, I now understand that information takes longer to process and therefore will concentrate on one particular correction each week. If I hadn't worked within learning disability I don't think I would have understood this, I wonder how many dance teachers would feel they would be able to provide an appropriate approach?

The final positive for me was that I went on to discuss with my colleague how this student had come to join the school. The parents believe that attending these classes were developing coordination, spacial awareness, confidence and enjoyment. Even to the point where the mother had been into the class to learn a step in order to help her child as the repetition outside of class was needed to help the learning process. If parents of those with learning difficulties are that passionate about it because of the benefits for their child then I'm hoping that this is a good sign that my enquire topic is a valid one.