The HOW Matters, An Accommodation Done Differently

How We Implement Supports Matters:

A Typical Accommodation, Done Differently.

I work regularly with a student’s family and their school. Recently, this students’ teacher implemented a very common accommodation in a way that completely changed the student’s experience.

If you don’t know me well, I’m an educational psychologist with 15 years of experience. I’ve worked in US schools and private practice, and have supported international school teams, counselors, and parents in 53 countries. I have lived in Berlin for the last 5 years, in Los Angeles, and New York.

My work sits at the intersection of two spaces: school-based systems and family support.

In working with international schools to develop the strong cultural foundations on which inclusion and MTSS thrive, there are often gems worth sharing with the larger international school community as we collectively build our practices.

Here is one that is small, but mighty, and often overlooked.

The accommodation of extra time is one of the most common accommodations we see, which is why this example of what took place is worth sharing.

Many students receive extra time for informal and for formal assessment because of learning disabilities, processing speed differences, anxiety, ADHD, or other needs. Often, the student begins the test or essay with everyone else and then continues after the rest of the class has finished. Sometimes they move to another space with a proctor for monitoring. Sometimes they remain in the same room.

While this accommodation is important for many, emotionally, it can still be difficult. For many students, this experience can reinforce the feeling of being behind. They watch peers finish and leave. They feel their differences are highlighted even when the support itself is appropriate and necessary. Additionally, they show up late to their next class, now behind by 30 minutes in another area they now need to catch up on. For IB exams, it is required that the extended time is standardized, at the end of the time period allotted; however, for internal assessment, unit tests, in class essays, etc., this is not a requirement.

In this case, the teacher knew to do something different, and it was possible.

The essay based exam happened to be a morning exam, so instead of having the student stay after for additional time, the teacher invited the student to come in before the rest of the class and begin early. She received the same amount of monitored extra time, but at the start rather than at the end.

That small shift changed everything for this student with a learning disability. Let me tell you why.

When the other students arrived, she had written two paragraphs of her essay. She knew she would not have to race. She knew she would not be the last one sitting in the room again. This gave her the space to think, regulate, and write without panic.

To say this built confidence would be an understatement.

For the first time, this student knew that she could finish, and she could do so without shame about her abilities or needs. She did not spend the test time watching others leave and feeling increasingly anxious. She did not experience the accommodation as a reminder that she was behind. She experienced it as a support that helped her access what she was capable of doing.

This shift considered the student’s confidence, mental health, and learning profile. Accommodations are only as effective as the educators implementing them and the systems that allow the flexibility to implement in different ways. The real work is in helping the culture of the school to understand the nuance: how support lands emotionally, how it interacts with anxiety, how it shapes a student’s sense of competence, and how mental health and academic outcomes are deeply connected.

This is where counselors, learning support teams, and school leaders can have such a meaningful impact.

We can help educators look at how the student will experience their learning, and their support. We can help teams see that MTSS is not just about tiers, data, and interventions. It is about creating culture and systems where students are understood from the beginning, embraced, supported thoughtfully, and included meaningfully so they aren’t feeling their capabilities and needs as separate to the system they are apart of.

So here’s to a great teacher who knew what to do to empower a student when it was possible to do so, and to all my colleagues who are also doing this great work on inclusion, MTSS, and school culture.

After the stress of exam season, it is good to have a win story and it is a reminder that how we do what we do matters.

-Tara Eddy, Founder of Feelings in Motion, Tara Eddy Global Consulting, & What Now Neurodiversity Courses