UDL

Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching strategy that includes three principles of teaching to be used proactively to address any barriers that impact students learning. The three principles are multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression.

(Carrington, et al., 2020; Flannery & Wisner-Carlson, 2020)

Build on student interests

This principle is based on teaching towards students interests and strengths to foster motivation and engagement with academic material.

This can be broken into 3 subcategories:

Appeal to the interests and strengths of the student

Meet sensory needs

*sensory breaks, noise cancelling headphones

Allow for self-regulation

*additional time to adjust after transitioning activities

(Carrington, et al., 2020)

How content is presented

This principle is based on how the learning objective is presented. The content is not changed, but the presentation is in order to facilitate shared communication, understanding, and comprehension of the content for all students. For students with ASD, addressing expected behaviors and demonstrating how to complete skills and assignments will benefit their ability to learn the content.

Strategies to use during instruction are:
Planned supports

Explicit instruction

Role modeling

Visual systems

*schedules, anchor charts

(Carrington, et al., 2020)

Showing what they learned

This principle provides students with choices on how they show what they have learned.

Students with ASD often have difficulties with organization, executive function, and verbal language expression skills. By providing multiple ways to demonstrate what they have learned creates a more inclusive classroom environment.

Teachers may give students choices on how they complete their work, such as:

Write a paper

Create a presentation

(Carrington, et al., 2020)

When UDL is implemented with instructional strategies, it resulted in successful outcomes for students on the spectrum. Such as:

Visual schedules

Video modeling

Interest-based lessons

Visual supports

Explicit instruction

Modeling

Guided practice

(Flannery & Wisner-Carlson, 2020)

UDL is a framework that teachers can utilize to address the diverse learning needs of the students in their classroom. For students with disabilities, UDL has the potential to:

Increase engagement

Provide access to general education

Improves academic and social outcomes

(Carrington, et al., 2020)

Page updated

Report abuse