Remedial vs. Compensatory Strategies

Often, in psychoeducational assessment meetings we talk about the change from remedial to compensatory strategies as
a central focus for a child’s learning in a particular area, or across a wide domain. It is important, when considering making
this change in focus to be very clear, first of all, on what these two terms mean.

As educators we are very familiar with these strategies because these are what we use most often. These are, simply
put, teaching new concepts to learners through multi-modal strategies, with the expected outcome being mastery of the
skills being taught. We utilize visual, auditory and tactile methods and the child is expected to learn at the pace we teach
the prescribed curriculum. Should a child not quite be able to keep up in a given area/ subject, adjustments can be made
such as interventions in the resource room or literacy interventions to give the student a “nudge” to catch back up. Using
remedial strategies the child gains input through their eyes (seeing, reading), through their ears (listening) or
kinesthetically/ tactilely (by doing/ using motor skills). The child then relates what they have learned verbally (speaking) or
tactilely (writing/ showing/ demonstrating).

Compensatory Strategies

This is can be explained best by looking at its root word; compensate. With certain students they may have a learning
disability or gap in their learning which is so severe that remedial strategies are not able to be effective enough. In these
cases strategies must be employed which “compensate” for the difficulty in order to ensure that the child is not penalized
with learning delays due to a problem in one area. A good example of this type of situation is in the area of reading
disabilities. A child with a reading disability can often struggle in all subjects because all subjects require reading to gain
information. Thus, the student is penalized in all subjects because of a single diminished skill; reading. Compensatory
strategies attempt to “compensate” for this problem area by providing a tool or assistive device which makes up for the
problem area and allows the student to learn again in all areas. Good examples of compensatory tools are readers or
word processors with spell-check features. Another would be a calculator in math. There are several new computer
programs such as Read-Aloud or Naturally Speaking which have made great strides in helping students.

When determining when a child will benefit more from compensation as opposed to remediation it is important to consider
the following:

What grade is the child in? Compensatory strategies are appropriate only in Division II to start (except in very
unique cases).
What is the child’s achievement levels? Is the child over two grade levels behind in a certain area such as reading
or computation?
How is the child responding to remedial strategies? If the child is starting to gain momentum through the use of
remedial strategies then these should be continued. Compensation is seen as a final solution only after all others
have been exhausted.
Are there other factors involved? Please refer to the factors to be considered list under the category of “Retention”
elsewhere on this website.

In the end, talk to the child’s parent, the Student Services Consultant and the administrator. If there has been a
psychoeducational assessment completed, review it and look through the recommendations. This decision can be made
easier through gathering information to help decide. All compensatory strategies must be documented in the child’s IPP
and an appropriate Alberta Education code should be applied (as per your school’s Student Services Consultant).