After almost a decade in the classroom, this past school year, I had quite a different change of pace. I took the year off to be home with my new baby girl. Now that she is ten months old, I’m gearing up to return to work for the new school year, which starts in early August here in Colorado.
As I prepare to make this transition, I’ve anticipated some degree of adjustment and relearning from the months of focusing on diaper changes and nap schedules. What I didn’t quite anticipate is the massive impact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made on education in the year I missed.
Practically every digital application and social media platform seems to suddenly have AI incorporated into their search bar. We hear increasing talks in the news and on podcasts about how AI is rapidly making an exponential impact on our day-to-day lives.
As educators, this pivotal change certainly ignites some trepidation. How will we ensure students are the ones doing their work? Can I really keep my students safe in this ever-changing digital world? Will AI try to take over my job?
Or- can we learn to use it to our advantage? To try and get ahead of my incoming learning curve, I took an educator crash course in AI at the start of the summer. In my learning and continued research, I’ve personally come out excited about the ways that AI can help me be a better special education teacher for my diverse learners.
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Assistive Technology for Accessibility
AI-driven assistive technologies can significantly enhance accessibility for students with learning disabilities. Speech-to-text and text-to-speech applications, for instance, can help students with dyslexia or other reading difficulties by allowing them to hear written content or dictate their responses. AI can also improve the functionality of these tools by providing more accurate and contextually relevant translations, making learning materials more accessible and comprehensible.
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Behavioral and Emotional Support
AI can assist in monitoring and supporting students’ behavioral and emotional needs. Instead of the hours we spend creating charts and graphs, AI can help us with this by analyzing patterns in student behavior and providing insights to educators and parents.
AI-powered applications can also offer mindfulness exercises, stress-relief techniques, and other resources to support students’ mental well-being and contribute to a more positive and conducive learning environment. For example, one of the many tools through MagicSchool.ai allows you to type in observed behaviors and generates a list of 3-5 behavior intervention suggestions.
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Automated Reminders and Alerts
For students with ADHD, Executive Function deficits in organization and planning can make keeping track of assignments and deadlines challenging. AI can help by making it easy to send automated reminders and alerts for upcoming tasks, helping students stay organized and on track. These reminders can be customized to the student’s schedule and needs, providing timely nudges to keep them focused.
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Adaptable Texts
I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent digging the internet for the perfect texts that will be engaging, relevant, and still accessible- targeted to a student’s reading abilities. Take, for example, you have a 5th-grade student who is interested in volcanos. Maybe they’re doing a research project all about volcanic activity and history in Hawaii. The challenge is they are reading around a 3rd-grade level, and the texts you’re finding are overwhelming and out of reach. With the help of AI, you can quickly adapt text to meet this child’s needs. Not just a huge time saver, but it opens up a wealth of possibilities to make learning more engaging for our diverse learners.
These are just a few of the ways that AI can assist teachers in improving the educational experience and best meet the needs of neurodiverse learners. I look forward to diving into more of what I can learn from AI advancements as I transition from full-time mom back into the classroom. I won’t even begin to think about what AI will look like once my daughter starts school!
Written by Carly Wolf
ADHD Teacher Trainer Academy© Facilitator
Elementary, Special Education Teacher
Great article!
How can I learn more about the topic? For use in school and other settings for neurodivergent learners and differently abled learners? (and frankly, helpful for a lot of people! ) . I am an Occupational Therapist and Integrative Nutrition and Health Coach.
Thank you!
Thank you so much for your kind words and thoughtful question! AI is such an evolving and important topic—especially when it comes to creating more accessible and personalized learning environments for neurodivergent and differently abled students.
Some great places to start learning more include:
CAST (cast.org) – Their work on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) often intersects with assistive technology and AI.
The Center for Integrative Research in Computing and Learning Sciences – Focuses on equity-centered AI in education.
Common Sense Education – Offers up-to-date reviews and guidance on classroom-friendly AI tools.
In terms of practical tools being used in schools, here are a few that are gaining traction:
GrammarlyGO and Quillbot – for writing support and idea generation
Speechify and NaturalReader – for text-to-speech accessibility
MagicSchool.ai and Diffit – for educators customizing content for different learning levels
Khanmigo (from Khan Academy) – one of the more structured AI tutoring platforms now piloted in schools
We’re keeping a close eye on how these tools impact executive functioning, engagement, and emotional regulation—especially for learners with ADHD or sensory processing differences.
We’ll be continuing to share updates and curated insights on this topic at ptscoaching.com, and we’d love to stay connected. Your OT and nutrition lens brings such a valuable perspective to this conversation!