Accommodations vs Modifications Explained, What’s the Difference?
Are you feeling a little lost when it comes to helping your child in school? As parents, the world of special education can be quite confusing. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. One area that can be especially tricky are knowing which accommodations and modifications to ask for your child. As a parent, understanding the difference between accommodations vs modifications is essential to ensuring that your child receives the support they need to be successful in school.
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What are Accommodations vs Modifications in Special Education?
On each Individualized Education Plan (IEP), there is a section to specify the accommodations and modifications that a student needs to be able to participate fully in all aspects of the school day. Accommodations and modifications are specific changes to the school environment, teaching, and assessment.
Types of Accommodations and Modifications
These may include physically altering the school environment. Your child may need to ride a special bus, use a car seat or safety device on the bus, have a classroom on the first floor, sit near the teacher or the front of the classroom, use a specific chair or desk, smaller class size, alternative testing location, etc. Changes to the physical environment of the school or classroom can help your child to be able to arrive at school safety, focus better in the classroom, feel more confident to self advocate for their needs, and safely navigate the classroom.
Another type of accommodation or modification includes the timing and scheduling of your child’s day. These may include your child need extra time for specific assignments, curriculum topics, or assessments. Your child may also need movement breaks or classes scheduled in a specific order. Maybe your child needs an extra reading or math class during the day.
Accommodations and modifications may also involve making changes to the curriculum. Your child may need changes made to how the instruction is present. This really focuses on the different ways that a teacher teaches the content to the child. Your child may also need changes to how they access the information being taught such as using different books, presentations, or notes. Another change your child might need is how the curriculum is assessed or graded. These would include changing assignments, projects, tests, or other graded opportunities for your child.
What’s the Difference Between an Accommodation vs Modification?
Telling the difference between an accommodation and modification is not always easy. This is because one change can often be an accommodation sometimes and a modification sometimes. The difference really depends on the function of the change.
Let’s take reading aloud a test to a student. Many educators would say this is an accommodation because it doesn’t change the curriculum objectives being assessed. This is true for a math test, science test, or other non reading test. Where this gets tricky is when teachers assess a child’s reading. If you were to read a test that is assessing a child’s reading comprehension aloud, this could be a modification.
Take a look at two different examples. You want to test your child’s understanding of the Spanish language by asking them to read a passage and answer questions. If you were to read this test aloud, you would actually be assessing your child’s ability to listen and understand Spanish vs reading Spanish. Thus this would be a modification.
On the other hand, if your child read a novel and you were assessing their understanding of the novel read, reading the test questions aloud would be an accommodation. Why? Because the child read the novel and you are assessing their understanding of the novel. You are not assessing their understanding of the questions. Since only the test questions are being read aloud to the child, it would be an accommodation.
What is an Accommodation?
An accommodation is a change to the child’s school environment, time or scheduling, or the curriculum. Accommodations make changes to your child’s school day without changing the state standards and curriculum objectives that all their grade level peers are expected to master.
To determine if a change is an accommodation, you first need to understand what impact the change will have on your child’s education. Most changes to your child’s physical environment are accommodations because they do not change the state standards or curriculum objectives that you child is learning. Timing and scheduling changes are often accommodations as well because you child is still expected to master the same materials as their peers.
Curriculum accommodations are where this gets a little more tricky. Many curriculum changes can be an accommodation in some cases and a modification in others. Look at the state standard or the curriculum objective that the change would impact to determine if it is an accommodation or modification.
Accommodations can include any change to your child’s school day that requires your child to master all the same curriculum objectives and state standards are their grade level peers.
What is Modification?
A modification also makes a change to the child’s school environment, time or scheduling, or the curriculum. Modifications are changes made to your child’s school day that change what you child is expected to learn. Your child would be working towards a different state standard or curriculum objective than their grade level peers. They also may be working on only some of the state standards or curriculum objectives as their peers, thus asking them to learn less information.
If your child needs modifications to the curriculum, they will be working on learning different skills or fewer skills than their grade level classmates. Some children who struggle with reading or mathematics may not be ready for grade level skills, but instead need to work on skills from previous grades as these subjects tend to build upon each other. Let’s look at a few examples.
In reading, most children can read fluently and accurately as they move into the upper elementary school grades. So if a middle school student needs practice on sounding out words and phonemic awareness skills, they may need modifications to the curriculum because they need to work on skills outside of the middle school curriculum. If a student is reading below grade level, they may need to read different articles, novels, and stories than their grade level peers. In a reading class, this would be a modification. In a science class, this could be a modification depending on if the texts address the same curriculum objectives and state standards.
In math class, many children know the basic algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division by sixth grade. If a student is still working on adding large numbers in middle school, they may need modifications to the curriculum because they are working on skills not usually included in middle school curriculum. Another example is the use of a calculator. When learning how to divide large numbers, using a calculator would be a modification because the calculator would do the problem for the student. When solving algebraic equations, using a calculation could be a modification if you are assessing their ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide.
Accommodations and Modifications Examples
The easiest way to see the difference between an accommodation and a modification is by looking at specific changes to the school day. While this list will include some of the more common accommodations and modifications for curriculum, it is not an exhaustive list. There is no one size fits all when it comes to accommodations and modifications.
The table below shows some common changes that educators make to the curriculum of their students. Many times these changes are an accommodation, but there are specific times that these same changes would be a modification because it alters the state standard or curriculum objective.
Accommodations-vs-ModificationsHow Do You Decide Which Accommodations and Modifications To Write?
Accommodations and modifications need to be individualized for students, based upon their needs and their personal learning styles. This means that you should start by discussing your child’s strengths and areas of need. Try to find an accommodation or modification to support each of your child’s areas of need that utilizes their strengths or previous skills taught.
Depending on the area of need, you may need to write multiple accommodations each area of need. If a child struggles with reading, they may need access to audio books, tests read aloud, and graphic organizers. For a child who struggles with attention, they may need movement breaks, multi-step assignments broken down into smaller steps, small group instruction, and tests in an alternative location and smaller group.
While two children may have the same disability, they may need very different accommodations and modifications. There is no one size fits all or many. Each child’s accommodations and modifications must be considered individually based on the state standards and curriculum objectives the child will need to meet for the next year.
What about Testing Accommodations and Modifications?
You have much more flexibility for writing accommodations and modifications for classrooms tests. These are tests written by the district, grade level team, or individual teacher to assess learning. These tests are usually not standardized but are instead written by teachers for use at the end of a unit.
Some common testing accommodations include alternative testing location, smaller group for tests, and reading aloud tests. You may also request extended time for tests, shorter tests given, different format for test questions, multiple opportunities to correct the test, rewording negative test questions, and dividing tests into smaller sections. There are many other test accommodations and modifications you can include depending on the needs of your child.
District tests are a little more tricky to write accommodations and modifications. If the district test was written by educators in the district, it most likely is not standardized. So you would have more flexibility when writing accommodations and modifications.
However, if the test is purchased and standardized, the test publisher usually includes specific accommodations that can or cannot be used to keep the integrity of test. Most publishers lists of accommodations still leave a lot of wiggle room and ability to be creative to meet your child’s needs. You would need to be more careful when writing accommodations to the test for the standardized scores to be relevant for your child. Any modifications would most likely null and void the standardized scores for your child.
State tests are similar to purchased standardized district tests. They often include a section specifying accommodations that are acceptable and those that are not. These lists are not all inclusive, so you do have some ability to add additional accommodations to best meet your child’s needs.
Think Differently About Your Child’s Education
As parents, you are a partner in your child’s education. You are their greatest advocate as you navigate their school years and the special education process. No one knows your child better than you do as you are their continuity from year to year and school to school.
The school is your partner in education for your child because they are the content and curriculum area experts. They bring knowledge of the curriculum objectives, state standards, methods of instruction, assignments and activities, the school day, and the physical environment of the school.
It’s time to think differently about your child’s education. You are your child’s first and last teacher. Always remember, you are an important member of your child’s educational team. Ask questions, seek answers, share your knowledge of your child, and support your child.
We’d Love to Connect With You
We know that accommodations and modifications can be tricky and a little difficult to understand. We have guides coming soon with specific accommodations to consider when writing your child’s IEP. How do you feel about brainstorming some accommodations or modifications for your child? Do you have specific questions about accommodations or modifications? Please leave us a comment below and let us know what you found most helpful or reassuring and what you wish we included.
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Hi, I’m Nicole.
Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.
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