AN online diagnostic programme which identifies as many as 20 different learning challenges, with tailored solutions, is the latest tool that London-based learning solutions outfit Hodder Education wants to put into the hands of Jamaica’s classroom teachers.

The Special Needs Assessment Programme (SNAP), according to Rivalay Patterson, senior education consultant at Hodder, through three components could be a game changer in the Jamaican education sector, given the shortage of teachers trained in delivering to students with special needs and those with behavioural challenges.

Addressing principals and other education sector players at the recent annual general meeting of Jamaica Independent Schools’ Association (JISA), Patterson said SNAP will enable educators to put challenged students on a path to maximising their potential.

“You know how everybody needs first aid training? It’s the same thing with special needs students. The earlier you are able to find out something and start your intervention it’s the better able that you will be to succeed. It is a programme that allows any classroom teacher to take it up, do the assessment, read through the report, have an understanding of what the child may be suffering, and then apply the strategies that are suggested,” she said.

The programme involves a SNAP-Behaviour component which speaks specifically to identifying behavioural challenges that students may have that can limit their ability to learn or to progress how they need to in the classroom.

“This is very important. This programme is going to enable teachers to sit down with parents and teachers and be able to assess what they have seen in the classroom and make a preliminary assessment that will say: ‘You know, I probably need to start dealing with this particular student this way to see how I can get the best out of them,’ ” Patterson told the audience.

In addition, she said SNAP-SPLD, which is Specific Learning Difficulties, speaks to those learning challenges like dyslexia, reading anxiety that students may have that would also inhibit their ability to perform at the desired level.

It is rounded out with the SNAP – MATHS component.

“I know it’s a common discussion now, how our students are performing in maths. I know you are familiar with the term maths anxiety; I know as a child I had it, I had a fear — and probably many students have the same fear. What this programme does is allow the teacher to get a preliminary analysis, and [it] provides them with some practical strategies that we can use at the onset,” Patterson said.

The programme, laden with promises, she said, works best with all partners on board.

“SNAP works using a triangulated approach, because you know anything special needs can never be just the school alone — it has to be the school, home and the effort of the student. We acknowledge that many of us don’t have [a] designated special needs department so this will allow you to equip every teacher in your school with a tool that will help them to assess students initially. And if there is a need for deeper assessment, then they can speak with the principal and parent,” she added.

According to the senior education consultant, the SNAP programme by Hodder is the only solution on the market that “has a list of all the possible things and all the possible solutions to get students where they need to go”.

“SNAP, unlike any other programme out there, is able to identify 20 different learning challenges and also provide strategies specifically for them,” she said.

The subscription-based product is being made available to schools for a fee of just under $50,000 per year.