Do you have students who struggle to sit at their desks? If so this post is for you!
This year, we started the school year with several students who struggled to sit at their desks, let along do desk work and participate in classroom activities. As my colleagues and I began to brainstorm how we can help these students, we began reading about the Flexible Classroom.
In taking this concept a step further, I began to think about students with Autism. Many students with Autism have overwhelming sensitivities and preferences within their environment. For example, one of my little gals hates hard surfaces, every morning when we start group she resists joining us. For several reasons, number one their are too many people, number two it can be too loud and unpredictable, and number three she hates being confined to a desk with a hard cold chair. By the way I didn't come up with this conclusion just by watching her behavior, I also had a little help from Naoki Higashida after reading his book, The Reason I Jump.
In the book Naoki shares many examples of why children with Autism have certain preferences and unusual behaviors. After reading it, I had an overwhelming sense that our students with Autism do the best they can in each moment but sometimes the environment is just too much!
By offering alternative seating, we can take some of the discomfort and hardship away so they can perform even better in each moment. For example for the little girl I described above, we introduced several different chair options. In doing so we learned that she prefers to sit in soft chairs that have some give and allow her body to sink in. We started allowing her to use a Saucer Chair pulled up to her desk. The chair itself was super comforting for her but when pushed up to the desk, she wanted nothing to do with it so instead we offered her a Big Joe Chair from Wal-Mart.
It worked like a charm but was not conducive to being pushed up to a desk so I bit the bullet and removed her desk completely. I say bit the bullet because this was a big step for me. I am very type A and I want everything to be in perfect harmony. By having one student sitting on the floor in a different seat than her peers what would others think, how would that look. But after getting over my own personal feelings the chair turned out to be the best thing ever!
The student is now able to participate in group comfortably and share what she knows in a whole group setting. Her verbal skills have started to blossom in front of her peers and she is able to manipulate the Smart Board and use her morning lap book more consistently. Prior to adding the chair, she would either hum loudly, chew on her chewy and stim or be so overwhelmed by the whole experience that she would request a break.
Now she is participating at a level equal to her peers, especially since we added this velcro white board to use as a table top for her to write. (To make it my husband purchased a White Panel Board from Home Depot and cut it to size, then I added heavy duty soft velcro on the chair and hard on the back of the board.)
We still work on in seat desk behavior other times throughout the day as we know at some point she will be in a general education classroom and other environments where flexible seating is not available for one reason or another. But we no longer expect in seat desk behavior from her during large and small group activities because at this time these activities are hard enough without adding the element of a desk. Instead we expect in seat desk behavior during preferred activities such as looking at alphabet books and using the iPad. Over time the success of sitting at a desk for preferred activities will hopefully generalize to other activities throughout her day.
My last post on creative Christmas gift ideas was received so well, I thought I would follow up with one more homemade Christmas gift idea. The idea is not new at all but our students' parents loved it as an end of the year gift last year. It would also be a great Christmas gift idea for your students' parents or your own children's gift to grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
A special thank you to Jessica Normandin and Good Beginnings Daycare for inspiring the idea as well as numerous internet and Pinterest finds along the way! So without further ado, I give you the Buddy Bear's version of a Hand Print Calendar.
The Cover
January: A Beautiful Snowflake
February: A Handprint Valentine
March: A Silly Leprechaun
April: A Funny Bunny
May: A Pretty Tulip
June: A Fun Fish
July: A Patriotic Flag
August: Cool Crayons for Back-to-School
September: A Delicious Apple
(Note: This was a prototype my boys made as a sample. The students' middle finger
was not painted all the way to the tip so the stem was shorter on the actual gifts.)
(Note: Again, this was a prototype on the real ones
we painted the tip of the thumb peach to make a flesh colored face.)
There you have it "The Buddy Bear Hand Print Calendar!" You might ask how did we ever get this twelve month calendar accomplished with our little special needs Buddy Bears. Well, it was not without the loving patience and creativity of Miss Karlie, one of our master art table paras. Each day the kids painted one page of the their calendar and then had a turn with the art choices of the day. (For more info on art center, visit this previous post.)
You might also ask how we accomplished this task with sensory sensitive kiddos. There are always a few students in a special education classroom that resist getting their hands dirty and/or hate to paint! We are always honest with the kids and tell them what we are doing. We show them a sample of the page we are going to paint and the plate of paint.
Then if they are up for it, we paint their hand. Here is a video clip of just that. Given it is with my son, who is not sensitive to paint, but you get the idea that we keep it fun, and make it quick with all of our materials ready and a washcloth to clean up ASAP!
For kids who aren't quite ready for this quick fun painting, we take baby steps. For some, we desensitize them by tracing their hand and just helping them color the hand print. (Note: In our experience coloring with crayons is less invasive to students that are resistive to painting as marker has the potential to get on their hands. However, we will use whatever the child is interested in.)
For others, we trace their hand and help them paint the inside of the hand with a paint brush. . . getting them a little closer to painting their hand.
For others, we paint a cut out of a hand print on a sponge and simply have them push the sponge down on the paper...getting them even closer to painting their own hand. (TIP: if you do this method remember it is a mirrored image so plan accordingly unlike me who has a backward image.)
Although painting is not a necessity for kids, it is something that they encounter on occasion so we try our best to desensitize them to the experience in a non-threatening way. By experiencing 12 hand print paintings in a row, some of our students did make a little progress with painting. One would go to the table without protest to watch her peers paint another painted most of the pages with her actual hand!! Remember it's baby steps! :)
You might ask what is the point? If they hate it, why make them do it? Well, my thought is that it is something kids will experience in preschool and early elementary years so exposure in a friendly structured environment can be helpful and these little paintings mean the world to parents who know that their little one's hands will not be little forever.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet Vanessa Levin of Pre-K Pages and Deborah Stewart of Teach Preschool. They "wowed" me with their experiences, love, and excitement for preschool during their presentation entitled, “Wow Your Crowd with a Read Aloud” at NAEYC. As a reflection of their presentation and Vanessa’s blog post dated 11-19-2014, I began to think about the strategies they shared and how they relate to children with developmental disabilities, limited language, social deficits and/or Autism.
The first strategy they discussed was stamina (which I totally bought into to!)They described stamina as the length of time children can listen to a story or look at a book independently. This concept is huge when thinking about children with disabilities. Often attention spans are shorter than typically developing children.
When choosing a read aloud book for my special needs preschool classroom, I always kept the attention span of my lowest level students in mind.In the beginning, our books were very short and using high interests.For those that needed it, I would also incorporate a task strip to help them know how long the book was and how long they would be sitting.
In the book, a frog eats different bugs with his sticky tongue and then gets eaten by a fish at the end of the story.To help students who have a hard time sitting, I would offer them little images of each bug and animal that gets eaten in the story and they would attach it to a task strip.
Although we want our students to be actively engaged during a read aloud with the book itself and the reader, some students are not able to sit and attend without knowing how much work they have to do.The icons and task strip help reduce anxiety and support success as they know exactly how long the story will be.
This strategy is based off of the TEACCH program.The TEACCH program is designed to support children with Autism.The idea is that the activity, in this case a book, is visually structured so the students know how much work they have, and when the work will be finished.
Now moving on to the second strategy shared by Vanessa and Deborah...vocabulary.They shared, "when children understand the vocabulary used in a read aloud they will be more engaged and you will be better able to capture their attention." Makes total sense! However, with some of our special needs students, vocabulary is very limited.
In some situations in order to support a student's understanding of the vocabulary in a read aloud, we play games in small groups or at direct instruction to prepare them for a read aloud later in the day.
For example with The Icky Sticky Frog book, I may have students match photos of the bugs and animals that are in the story to icons of bugs and animals that are in the story.
This helps students generalize that a fish can look like this or like this but it is still a fish.
This activity often helps with IEP goals related to increasing the number of words a students knows, says and/or understands.It also supports the student in making sense of picture icons and photographs so they know that pictures and icons have meaning in order to use them for individual schedules and choice boards.
Leading me to another version of the same thing, for students whom do not yet understand icons we use three-dimensional objects to help with making sense of vocabulary. Here is a sample of a three-dimensional vocabulary task. Instead of matching icons and pictures, the student matches objects to pictures that are magnetically attached to spaces in a muffin tin.
Next up...Repetition.“While reading the same book over and over may not appeal to the adult doing the reading, it is important for increasing comprehension and vocabulary.” –Vanessa Levin
When working with students with special needs, I often introduce new books at direct instruction or in the small group literacy center and then repeat the story as part of read aloud at large group.The idea is that I am setting students up for success.Many students with special needs struggle in large group settings. By introducing a book at small group or during one-on-one direct instruction, I can expose them to a book to support comprehension and prepare them for success in a whole group setting.
Another option is to work on adding imitation and repetitive phrases in small group and in one-on-one settings.Many students with special needs have limited verbal and gross motor imitation skills. By reading a story in a small group setting, I can teach them the words and actions.For example with the Icky Sticky Frog, we could work on sticking our tongues out when the frog does it in the story and/or working on saying “Shhh" or "Shhh, frog didn’t make a sound” when that part comes up in the story.
Do you have a student who is non-verbal?No problem. Program a voice recording button or use the voice memo on your phone or iPad to say the phrase so every time the phrase comes up in the story your non-verbal student can contribute at the same time as their verbal peers.
I prefer to use a voice recording button for this activity, but I figured I would show you with the voice memo on my phone since mobile device and iPads maybe more readily available. Note: You can also tape little visuals in your book where the repetitive phrases come in so students can see when it is their turn visually. A great self control activity to wait for the button visual!
This page also has a velcro bug. We do that in our mini-version as another way for students to interact with the vocabulary, attend to task, and know how long they need to attend to the story. All the characters are on a velcro strip and get pulled off and put into the story as it appears.
Now moving on to other books and a new strategy, Narration.Vanessa Levin shared that “Narrating or retelling helps children understand what a story is about and how story structure works. Children enjoy retelling stories independently in centers using tools and props such as flannel boards and puppets.”
The final strategy is Wordless Picture Books! Vanessa shared in her blog that “Nothing is more interactive, motivating, and engaging than inviting a child to tell you the story they see in the pictures using their own words.”
I totally agree. But what if a student does not have verbal communication? How can it be done then? Through aided language boards!! They are systems I have come to know through the work of Gayle Porter and Linda Burkhardt in their work creating Pragmatic Organizational Dynamic Display. You can see more regarding aided language boards by clicking to this past posts on communication supports. The video below demonstrates my son working through a story using pictures to retell it. Note: To stay with the Icky Sticky Frog theme, I chose to use the book and just place sticky notes over the words.
(Even though my son is not nonverbal, I asked him to play the part so you can get an idea of how it might work.)
Some teachers are reluctant to use visuals such as this because they want their students to talk, rather than point however research shows that visual support facilitate communication. I use aided language boards and other visuals with many students regardless if they have language deficits or not as the support helps the students come up with the words to retell the story and builds literacy. Remember visual supports are easier to fade than verbal ones so if you have to help a student retell the story by doing so with visuals instead of words, they will become independent more quickly!
It has been a little over a week since my last post...and wow, have I gotten smarter!! Last week, I was in Dallas at NAEYC.Despite the lost luggage, the conference was amazing. I learned more
than I could have ever imagined. First off, I had the opportunity to present with Jenny Spencer.
What a wonderful experience! You definitely need to check out her
blog, Ignite Learning.The confidence she had in me and
her positive energy re'ignited', my love for Conscious Discipline. Which leads me to the second opportunity NAEYC provided me, getting to reunite with Dr. Becky Bailey, the creator of Conscious Discipline.
Her presence alone reminded me of why I went
into education in the first place...to make a difference in the lives of
children, families and staff.
In speaking with her, I created a revamp to a post I did in
February 2013 and one I shared during our presentation at NAEYC, the ready-not
ready visual.I added conscious language
to support staff in consistently helping students with transitions using the
visual.
Transitions can be very hard for children. At which time, they tend to be in the brainstem with limited verbal communication. By teaching
a student to communicate “I am not ready” the student is more likely to communicate his/her need for more time without hitting, kicking, biting, etc.
So here is how it works:
One minute before it is time for a student who has a difficulty transitioning, set a
one-minute timer, take a deep breath and prepare your student by saying “One more
minute then it is time for . .” as you set up this table tent.
Then when the timer goes off, take three deep breaths, open
the table tent and say “all done it is time for. . . are you ready or not
ready.”
If the student pulls the not
ready icon and/or says not ready, celebrate this appropriate communication by
saying “Good for you, you said you are ready." or "good for you, you said you are not ready, you may have one more
minute.”Then reset the timer and set
the table tent up without putting the not ready icon back in.
When the timer goes off the second time, take three deep breaths and say
”all done time for...” This time the
not ready icon is not an option as it is time to set the limits. Your student may still be reluctant to
transitioning but the idea is that you are supporting them in making a
transition and self-regulating as you give them the words to say they are not
ready the first time and then helping them through the transition process the second
time as you set the limits and tell the student it is time to
transition, using empathy and positive intent.
“It is time for... This is hard for you. You feel sad. How can I help you?”
Then turn the visual support to the back so the student can
communicate his/her needs and/or you can help them communicate his/her needs.
For example, with this visual a student could request help
or a break or you could communicate “This is hard, do you need a break? Hug?
Deep Breath?” as you model the visuals use.
I love the addition of the conscious language but please do not feel obligated to use this specific language. It is just words to get you started. A big thank you to Dr. Becky Bailey for suggesting this tweak! Looking forward to hearing how this conscious language helps your students and staff.
