Abstract:

The diffusion of Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs), in an evolving theoretical and clinical scenario, afflicts the ability of experts to diagnose, differentiate and provide early support on students suffering from SLD. It is necessary to correctly assess the presence of this type of neurodiversity in the learning style since the pupil attends Primary School, limiting the important damage caused by not considering the emotional and relational framework beyond the cognitive one. Considering the SLDs as a category including various ways of processing information, the purpose for those who work in the education field is to find new strategies of teaching in classroom.

Currently, there are several technology-compensating tools which have a different effect on the main ways an SLD child organizes, processes, accesses and uses information. Among these, Coding has become world-class for the ability to develop a "paradigm shift” in the way a SLD person thinks, which is the main issue of the disorder.

Coding is a powerful instrument to include and integrate the different learning styles and the cognitive peculiarities of every student: coding
1) reinforces some critical skills (problem solving, sense of orientation, logical-computational thought and synthesis skills);
2) generates positive emotionality in the child by involving him in a fun and motivating activity;
3) offers strategies for dealing with dysgraphia.

However, Coding is an instrument and it should be integrated as a part of a training path in order to be effective. The learning courses have to be both designed according to a rigorous method and tailored-made for the specific context (classroom, children, training need analysis).
The paper describes in detail the design of a standard-lesson to teach Coding in schools. First of all, we put together the existing platform of coding with a compensating software as Super Quaderno, a special text editor which can overcome the problems of coordination and short-term memory typical of dysgraphia thanks to its features: phonetic spelling, multimedia objects, automatic association of images, reading word-by-word.

The lesson is structured into:
a) a series of stimulating questions to introduce the topic, dealing with the main resistances and correcting wrong believes;
b) a role play that introduce the learners to machine language, stimulating the ability to communicate in a simple and clear way, which is essential for programming;
c) a creative exercise that consists in creating an ex-novo story using visual blocks of programming: in the first phase the pupil writes a short story, which will be associated with images and sounds; in the second phase, the images are arranged in order to create a labyrinth, while the text disappears; in the last phase, the pupil has to follow the path, made of images and synthesized sounds, in order to recreate the original story.

The purpose is to:
a) stimulate the mind to identify the logical and chronological sense of a text,
b) train writing in a ludic manner and
c) enhance the typical learning style of children with SLDs, giving way to their creative and creative talents.

This collaboration can also be extended to other software, to create an interconnected network between programming and compensatory tools, potentially useful in different school environments.

Keywords:

SLDs, Coding, technology, software, compensatory tools, training path, multimedia.