Teaching Tools for Special Education

This page curates tools for Australian teachers supporting students with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, intellectual disability, sensory processing differences, and other additional learning needs. It covers mainstream inclusion teachers, learning-support staff, and special school educators across Foundation to Year 12.

The tools here are organised around the adjustments that make the biggest difference day-to-day: visual schedules and first-then boards, choice boards and communication supports (including AAC-friendly outputs), sensory-calm apps and break timers, social stories builders, emotion-regulation check-ins, executive-function scaffolds like visual task strips and chunked assignments, and low-floor/high-ceiling activity generators that differentiate without stigma. Most tools print to PDF so laminated, reusable versions live in the classroom, not just on screens.

We flag tools that respect identity-first and person-first language preferences, that avoid ABA-style compliance framings, and that centre student voice. Tools that have been reviewed by Australian clinicians (speech pathologists, occupational therapists, educational psychologists) are noted on the card. Where a tool supports IEP or NCCD evidence-gathering, we call that out too — because documenting adjustments is as important as delivering them.

Not every tool here suits every student. Use the year-level and category filters to narrow down by need — autism support, communication, fine motor, executive function, literacy differences, or wellbeing. Where a paid tool is listed, we note whether it's NDIS-funded-supports compatible in the review.