Case
Student assistance

Many ESE students need help throughout the lesson and independent activities. The problem is that they become too reliant on the assistance and ask for help at times I know they don't necessarily need it. How do I address this dependence?

Solution #1
Asking a question with a question is a method I have used with my children and students. To let them hear what they are asking will something trigger an "oh yeah" response, which means they knew the answer but just needed to hear the question come out of someone else's mouth.
Solution #2
Create more group work so the student is more comfortable having peer assistance where they know what level their peers are at. This also will cause them to reflect on their own answers without turning to a teacher immediately.
Solution #3
You can tell them to try it themselves one more time before you help them. You can also ask them what part of the question/problem they are not understanding and go from there.
Solution #4
You could try to pull back on helping them as much and incentivize them for independent work. But, it is important to make sure that you do not assume a student does not need the help. Our job as teachers is to be there for the students and help them.
Solution #5
scaffolding is your best friend here. It is important teachers are assisting when needing, guiding the students and then gradual release them to work independently.
Solution #6
The teacher should start by verbal prompting and assistance to help the student. As time goes on, the teacher should slowly use less and less prompting. Eventually the teacher will be able to use gestures to help the students rather than talking them through the entire activity.
Solution #7
I suggest the teacher create more opportunities for the students to collaborate and work together. This will help the student build dependence by relying less on the teacher and more on his/her classmates.
Solution #8
I would have the students begin to work in small groups or with a partner so they can ask their friends for class first before asking the teacher. You can also have small group instruction where students know that they can come receive help from the teacher for the content. The teacher may also have to not have independent instructional time based on the student's understanding of the content.
Solution #9
I would use least intrusive prompts to prompts certain situations. If you know they know how to do it, maybe help them start and them allow them to do up until a certain point in the lesson and say okay once you do that I will come back and check in. This is something that happens a lot more than people realize.
Solution #10
I think I would talk to the assistants and let them know of your concern so that way you all are on the same page of what you would like to see happen in your class.
Solution #11
Have the students do independent work and make sure they know that it is independent. Talk with them about trying their best and at the end, you will go over it together and they hopefully will not rely on extra assistance.

I feel that this solution will not exactly help the problem and the student will still ask for help with independent work.

This solution doesn't take into account students who may actually need more assistance.