Teaching Physical Learners - Engaging Disability

Physical learners will learn best if you help them DO IT! Here are some of our favorite tips and strategies.

Allow for movement throughout the class schedule
Engage students by asking them to point or use body language
Move around while teaching so students will track your movement
Hide elements of the story and have a scavenger hunt
Use visuals and manipulatives that students can touch and interact with
Reinforce a lesson with drama
Explain how the lesson can be applied to an action in daily living
Dance, wave ribbons, play instruments
Ask students to respond with a specific action when they hear a key word in your lesson
Build models individually or as a group
Use clay, playdough or crafts
Put together puzzles to reveal part of the lesson
Perform experiments
Locate places on a globe
Leave your classroom and teach the lesson from different locations in your church
Add hand motions or sign language
Turn a written activity into a game: for example, if you’re tracking Paul’s missionary journey, write locations on strips of paper and place them on the floor around the room and walk the kids through the journey
Use a sandbox with manipulatives for students to reenact the lesson
Build models using LEGOs
Offer alternate seating
Write in the air
Use catch-ball drills to review facts
Take a “walk and talk” about concepts in the lesson
If a student has worked outside of the classroom for a portion of the time, encourage the student to share with the class what they have learned