Why Portals Works for Students with Special Needs

Seann Dikkers, Ph.D. M.Ed. 

President, Portals Education

Education is never really one-size-fits-all. But for students with special needs, that truth becomes especially obvious.

A child may need more time to complete an assignment. Another may need to move while learning. One student may struggle to communicate what he knows on a worksheet but demonstrate remarkable understanding when he can build, create, explain, or show it. Another may need fewer transitions, more repetition, shorter lessons, or the freedom to pursue a concept until it finally clicks.

These are often called accommodations. At Portals, we simply call them normal. Perhaps what makes great learning actually is the adjustability of the lesson to be custom fit to the child. What if an entire curriculum was built that way? 

The Student Doesn't Have to Fit the Curriculum

In a conventional classroom, accommodations are often necessary because the system itself is relatively fixed. Thirty students may be expected to read the same chapter, complete the same worksheet, take the same test, and finish at roughly the same pace. This is designed for efficiency, but not learners. 

When a student cannot thrive within that structure, we begin modifying the structure around the edges.

Portals starts from a different place.

Because Portals is implemented by you, your family has considerably more freedom to adjust the learning experience to the child.

A lesson designed for Tuesday can take two days. An entire week of math could be done in a full day. A writing assignment can become an oral presentation. A project can be simplified or expanded. A child who needs movement can learn while moving. A student fascinated by one part of a lesson can explore it further rather than being hurried along because the class has to move on.

The goal isn't to lower expectations. The goal is to create the conditions in which this particular student can grow.

Learning by Doing

Many students with special needs benefit tremendously from concrete, hands-on, applied learning.

That is one reason project-based learning is central to Portals.

Instead of education consisting primarily of listening, reading, worksheets, and tests, students regularly do something with what they are learning. They build. Cook. Draw. Interview. Experiment. Measure. Perform. Visit. Serve. Create. Map. Play. Discuss.

Consider the difference between answering ten questions about measurement and actually measuring lumber for a project.

Or reading about local government and then interviewing a city official.

Or completing a worksheet about percentages versus using percentages to plan a budget.

The academic content hasn't disappeared. In many cases, it has become more meaningful because the student can finally see what it is for.

For a student who struggles with abstraction, attention, language processing, traditional testing, or extended seatwork, that distinction can be enormous. 

Yet for those planning government, common core, style curriculum, the idea of a lumber yard, an interview, or a business ownership are equally inconceivable. How can those things be ‘graded’?!? Context dictates feasibility. Clearly.   

Success Is Bigger Than Academics

Special-needs education also forces us to confront a question every educator should be asking:

What are we educating this child for?

If the answer is simply higher test scores, better grades, and admission to college, we have adopted a painfully narrow definition of education.

Portals is built on the conviction that education should prepare children for adult life.

That includes academics, but it also includes learning to work, communicate, solve problems, manage responsibilities, build relationships, serve others, make wise decisions, persevere through difficulty, and contribute meaningfully to a family, church, workplace, and community.

For some students with special needs, these goals may be even more important than mastering every item on a conventional academic checklist.

A student may never become an exceptional essay writer but can learn to verbally communicate clearly. Neither is qualitatively better than the other, just more or less effective within the intended purpose and role of the communicator. 

He may struggle with advanced mathematics but can learn to manage money responsibly, ethically, and even effectively. 

She may get very good at looking things up instead of memorizing them. So may never excel at standardized testing but can become dependable, compassionate, diligent, and capable. 

Those aren't consolation prizes.

Those are the premiere qualities of a flourishing and employable adult.

Character Is Part of the Curriculum

This is where the Christian foundation of Portals becomes especially important.

We don't believe a child's worth is determined by IQ, reading level, GPA, athletic ability, or how closely that child resembles an academic ideal; even while we can show amazing academic results.

Every child is made in the image of God.

And education should therefore be concerned not merely with what a student knows, but with the kind of person that student is becoming.

Scripture places enormous value on qualities that are difficult to represent on a report card: wisdom, faithfulness, diligence, kindness, courage, patience, self-control, honesty, service, and love. I particularly enjoy the uniquely recorded “report card” in the Bible:

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”— Luke 2:52, NKJV

That is a much richer picture of human development than academic achievement alone.

For a student with special needs, this can fundamentally change the educational conversation. Instead of continually asking, How far behind is this student? we can also ask:

Where is this student growing? What gifts has God given him? What responsibilities can she learn to carry? How can this child serve others? What skills will make adult life more independent and meaningful? What kind of man or woman are we helping this child become?

Those questions matter. Flexible lessons that can support life skills matter too. 

Flexibility Without Isolation

There is another advantage to the Portals model: flexibility does not have to mean isolation.

Because Portals is designed around families and community, students can learn at an appropriate pace while still participating with others.

A student might complete mathematics at one level, read at another, participate in history with siblings or peers, and contribute to a group project according to his or her abilities.

That is much closer to real life than sorting children exclusively by age and expecting everyone in the room to perform at approximately the same academic level.

Community and learning with others at different levels actually gives students opportunities to practice patience, communication, teamwork, service, friendship, leadership, and responsibility. From what we all see, these are all skills that matter enormously in adulthood.

However, when I have the honor of speaking with parents they often what these core ideas in the context of their own child. What does it look like in my home? In an effort to do that just a bit, let’s look at some examples. 

What Could This Look Like for Different Learners?

“Special needs” describes an enormous range of students. Two children with the same diagnosis may have very different strengths, challenges, and educational needs. Portals isn't a therapeutic program, and it doesn't replace professional services when those are needed. What it does provide is an educational structure with room to adapt.

Here are a few examples:

ADHD

A student with ADHD may understand the material perfectly well but struggle with long periods of sitting, sustained attention, repetitive worksheets, or completing a large assignment in one sitting. Active learning itself is a God-send!  

A Portals family might divide a lesson into shorter segments, alternate reading with physical activity, complete mathematics in the morning and return to writing later, or replace some written practice with an active project.

A history lesson might include reading for fifteen minutes, locating events on a map, going outside to construct a model, and then discussing what was learned over lunch.

The objective hasn't changed. The pathway to the objective has.

Projects can also give attention a purpose. Instead of repeatedly telling a student, “Pay attention because this will be on the test,” we can say, “Let’s start building and come back to this when we need it.”

Dyslexia and Other Reading Differences

When reading itself requires tremendous effort, a curriculum that makes reading the doorway to every other subject can unintentionally prevent a student from demonstrating what he or she actually knows.

Portals' literature-based approach does not mean every student must independently read every book.

A student might listen to an audiobook while following along, participate in family read-alouds, discuss literature orally, dictate an answer to a parent, or demonstrate comprehension through a drawing, model, timeline, presentation, or project. A variety of media forms does not reduce academic achievement, it just opens up more paths. 

Reading instruction can continue at the student's appropriate level without unnecessarily limiting the student's access to history, science, theology, literature, and big ideas.

A child can therefore be behind in reading without being treated as behind in thinking. Easy. 

Autism

Some autistic students thrive with clear routines and predictable expectations but struggle with sudden transitions, sensory overload, ambiguous instructions, or highly social classroom environments.

A Portals schedule can provide structure within your household rhythm. 

A family might establish a consistent morning routine, provide visual schedules, reduce unnecessary transitions, create a quiet workspace, allow additional processing time, or prepare the student ahead of time for field trips and community activities.

Projects also provide opportunities to build around areas of strong interest. A student fascinated by trains, weather, maps, animals, computers, or mechanical systems can often use that interest as an entry point into writing, mathematics, history, science, and research.

Rather than continually pulling a student away from what interests him, good education can intentionally build outward from that interest.

Dysgraphia and Written-Expression Challenges

Imagine a student who can give a thoughtful five-minute explanation of the causes of the American Revolution but produces three painful sentences when handed a pencil.

Which represents what the student actually understands?

Sometimes the physical or organizational demands of writing conceal a student's knowledge. In fact this may be true of all students where verbal out paces written communication. 

Portals families can separate the skill being verbally assessed from the method used to demonstrate it. A student might dictate an answer, type it, record a presentation, create a diagram, build a timeline, participate in a discussion, or complete a project.

That doesn't mean abandoning writing instruction. Handwriting, spelling, grammar, and composition can still be taught intentionally.

But we don't have to make a weakness in writing become a weakness in every subject.

Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities

For some students, the most important educational priorities may eventually differ significantly from a conventional college-preparatory sequence.

Mathematics might increasingly include money, shopping, measurement, schedules, cooking, and telling time. Reading might emphasize signs, instructions, communication, Scripture, workplace materials, and everyday information. Projects might include preparing a meal, growing a garden, planning a trip, completing a household repair, volunteering at church, or practicing a vocational skill.

Character development becomes especially significant as well: reliability, honesty, perseverance, kindness, self-control, responsibility, and learning to serve others.

For this student, learning to faithfully carry responsibility in adulthood may be far more consequential than whether every conventional academic benchmark was completed on schedule. That is taking education seriously enough to align it with the life the student is actually preparing to live.

Anxiety, Sensory Needs, and Other Learning Challenges

Some students can become overwhelmed by noise, crowds, time pressure, frequent transitions, public performance, or the fear of getting an answer wrong. Actually, maybe we all stand on the brink in these areas! All of which are the constructs of massive building settings. Simply a smaller setting offsets many needs emerging in large government schools. 

A flexible home- and community-based model gives families the ability to identify which parts of an educational environment are helping a student grow and which are simply creating unnecessary barriers. Parent led education has the ability to simple remove pressure, transitions, or other triggering settings. 

A student might take a test without a timer, work in a quieter room, participate in a smaller group, take breaks when overloaded, practice a presentation privately before giving it publicly as a video recording, or complete a field experience during a less crowded time.

But flexibility shouldn't mean eliminating every difficulty.

Education should still stretch students.

The goal is to distinguish between productive challenge and unnecessary obstruction. We want students to develop courage, perseverance, adaptability, and increasing independence, so we look for a balance between the pitfalls of sloth on one side and overworking on the other. Balance for life starts early in education. 

Same Destination? Not Necessarily.

Perhaps this is the most important difference.

We often talk about accommodations as though every student is traveling toward exactly the same destination and simply needs a different route to get there.

Sometimes that's true.

Sometimes it isn't.

For one student, flexibility may make it possible to complete advanced academics and attend college. For another, success may mean mastering practical mathematics, communicating effectively, holding meaningful employment, serving faithfully in a church, developing friendships, and living with as much independence as possible.

Both students need an education worthy of them.

Portals allows parents to ask not merely, “What is a child this age supposed to complete?” but “What does this particular child need in order to grow in wisdom, skill, character, independence, and faithfulness?”

That is an important question for students with special needs.

It may be an even better question for every student.

Different Doesn't Mean Less

Perhaps the greatest opportunity is simply the freedom to stop measuring every student against the same narrow definition of success.

Some students will go to college. Some will pursue trades. Some will become entrepreneurs. Some may require significant support throughout adulthood. Most will surprise us in ways we cannot predict when they are ten years old.

Our responsibility is not to manufacture identical outcomes.

It is to faithfully cultivate the child God has placed before us. 

That means challenging students where they need challenge, supporting them where they need support, developing their strengths, addressing their weaknesses, and giving them meaningful opportunities to practice what they are learning.

For students with special needs, that often requires flexibility, applied learning, patience, community, and a definition of education that values character as much as academic performance.

Those aren't additions to the Portals model.

They're already at its heart.

We can ask:

“How can we build an education that helps this child become everything God has called him or her to be?”