5 Reasons Why You Need Independent Work in Special Education Classrooms

Why do you need independent work? Have you ever had a student, working on independent work, who asked whether he got the right answer after every single math problem he did? Yes, I have. He would finish the problem, and look to a staff member for confirmation that he had done it right. We do not want students to continuously depend on an adult to tell them what to do or if they’ve done it correctly.

Also, I’ve had students who need someone behind them for every task telling them the next step to do.  Fading that support in the classroom makes the difference for the students gaining independent skills! These are the characteristics of students with autism and other complex disabilities that require the use of independent work systems.

If you’re looking for independent work ideas for your classroom, check out this resource!

Why is Independent Work Important?

1. Evidence-based practices

Both the National Professional Development Center and the National Autism Center indicate that structured work systems are an emerging evidence-based practice.  Therefore, evidence-based practices only work if we implement them with fidelity.  You can click the links above to read more about the evidence in independent work stations.

2. Independence is a life skill

We can teach academics and we can teach life skills. But, if the students still need support or supervision because we haven’t taught them to work independently, we have failed.  Independence is a door opener…prompt dependency is a door closer.  Furthermore, more opportunities are open for those who can work independently than for those who can’t.

We want our students to become independent thinkers, doers and accomplishers. Independence gives people the confidence they need to participate in activities they never thought they would do!

3. Independence needs to generalize across environments

We need to build independence that generalizes to larger, more complex environments.  Work systems can be seen in a wide variety of environments and situations. Independent work can be so meaningful to our students. They can transfer to new settings and structure the tasks.  To conclude, they can help students be successful in new environments inside and outside of a school setting.

4. Independence needs to generalize to new materials

Our students also need to generalize their skills to different materials.  For example, if I teach a student how to identify pictures using flash cards, I also need him to be able to identify them in other instructional materials. Independent work creates opportunities for practicing skills with different materials.

This is why I love using materials created by many different TPT sellers, this helps promote the generalization to different clipart and modes of instruction! From adapted books, to file folders or task cards. I need students to be able to answer the questions correctly in new materials.

5. Helps maintain skills

Most of our students don’t have “set it and forget it” learning.  They don’t learn something and retain it or use it in other settings.  Mostly, they need to practice the skills.  Practicing with different materials and in different situations is critical for maintenance. This is also important for generalization.  If our skills don’t maintain or generalize, they won’t be useful.  Structured work systems help to program that maintenance into the daily routine.

If you’re looking for independent work station for your classroom, check out this low prep resource!

Looking for reasons why you need Independent work, read this post!

Instagram | TeachersPayTeachers | Facebook | Boom Learning Library