School is starting back up after a very exciting couple weeks. Most of us spent the time off of our normal schedules and activities. Getting back on to our normal activities and schedule can be stressful to special needs kids. Just the change in sleep patterns alone can be disturbing let alone the eating and pressure of having demands placed on them again. Be prepared for a few days to a week of transitioning back to routines. It is important to be consistent with expectations and support at this time.
Be sure to review home procedures for getting ready for school and what is expected when children return. Review daily school procedures as well. Talk with your child about what your expectations are for behavior as well as academics the first day at school. Remember a bit of regression is to be expected and reassure your child that as long as they are trying their best you are happy. No one is perfect especially when coming back after a long break. Help your child set realistic high goals of achievement, so that they can see success from the start of their return.
By working with your child and talking through expectations, you can help make the transition back to school smooth and easy.
Special Kids, Special Teacher, Special Hearts
I have been a special education teacher for 11 years. I have had the opportunity to work and learn from wonderful people. I want to share some of the things I have learned with others to help improve the lives of the children they work with just as others have done with me. You can also follow me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SpecialKidsSpecialTeachersSpecialHearts
Monday, January 6, 2014
Monday, December 23, 2013
Happy Holidays
I am taking the week off to spend with my family. I wish everyone a ver happy holiday. Enjoy your time together.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Following Directions, Teacing it Directly is a Must.
Following
directions, or rather the lack or difficulty with being able to follow
directions, is one of the difficulties I have run across most frequently in my
time as a special educator. I often hear
both parent s and educators frustrated with a child’s difficulty with beginning
tasks or following through with tasks independently. When I sit down and talk with both parents
and teachers, what I find most confusing is their lack of tools to give the
students to assist with learning to follow the directions. A student with disabilities is not going to
magically pick up a skill they are lacking unless tools and direct instruction
are given to assist them.
How can
you help a student lacking in the skill to follow directions? One way I have
found helpful is is to teach the student to write the direction for the
assignment on a stickie note and place it next to the assignment. If the student can only follow two steps at a
time, break the work down into the first two steps and once that is complete
come back and give the next two steps.
Be sure to give praise along the way for the independent work. This can be done at any level. It can be modified to picture cues made by
the teacher if need be. As the student masters two steps, increase to three and
so on. It is amazing how the student
feels after learning to master this independence.
There are many
fun group activities you can do to teach following directions in class where
the students do not even realize they are learning. White board cues are always a class
favorite. I pass out white boards, pens
and erasers to everyone and then give simple directions for them to follow:
draw a square in the center, write your name in the upper left corner. As the students get more advanced you can add
multiple directions. Dance parties are
another way to teach following directions as well as social skills. You Tube the Electric Slide, The Chicken dance or others and
everyone has to learn and follow together.
Simon Says is also fun and this is an easy way to add multi step
directions. Be creative but directly
teach the skills.
In life everyone has
to follow directions. This is a skill
that is usually taught in Kindergarten and first grade. Many of our students
did not pick the skill up at that point thus it is up to us to take the time to
directly teach the skill, not just
become frustrated that our students do not have it.
Monday, December 9, 2013
Making Informed Decisions
Being a responsible
learner is very important in today’s flood of information. We live in a wonderful time where we have
access to more information than ever before. With this access comes great
danger. There is as much, if not more,
bad information as good information available. Being able to sift through and
find what the truth is and what is smoke and mirrors is imperative.
While at the UNT
Autism Conference, one of the Keynote speakers was Dr. Brian Reinchow. His presentation was about evidence based practices.
He spoke about how there are studies out
there that have not been replicated, and if they cannot be replicated then they are not
valid. This is easily researched if you want to validate a practice on your
own. One piece of information I want to pass on to you, that is very easy to
implement when you do searches on the internet for information, is how to know
how trust worthy a site is. According to
Dr. Reinchow, the most trustworthy sites end in .edu, .gov, and .org. He also talked about advertising on
sites. His information was that the best
sites had little to no advertising. This
makes sense. A site that is trying to
sell their treatment will have biased information. This research is not
difficult and it can be amazing what just a little digging can find.
Let me give you an
example. My daughter went for a job
interview to be a caregiver for a young man with Autism. During the interview
the mother asked if she would be willing to come for a trial to work with one
of the team she has working with him.
They have a strict protocol they are working with and would expect her
to assist with it and follow it. When
she left she was given a DVD to watch before she returned. We went to the
website of the center they were working with when my daughter got home. Our
first sign it might not be reputable was it was very negative to ABA
therapy. That in itself was not enough
to disregard it. We continued to explore
the site. We saw a link to
research. Their research was one study
done by their own staff. They had no independent research to back up their
claims. We decided to do some digging
and could not find any independent research on this program. We watched the DVD and saw it was a made for
TV movie made in the 1970’s about a Hollywood Producer with a child on the
Spectrum who created this therapy with his wife. Neither of them had any training. My daughter called the family and said she
did not feel she could follow this protocol.
The woman seemed astonished that an 18 year old would say such a thing.
Even an 18 year old can research a protocol on the internet. Anyone working
with special needs children should do so before beginning any sort of treatment
with their own child.
With parents
looking for anything that will help their child there are always going to be
people out there who are willing to prey on the uninformed and desperate. There are some wonderful programs out there
for children with special needs that have studies and data to back them up.
Take time to do your research before you put your money and hope into smoke and
mirrors.
I am not claiming the Therapy mentioned above is fake or you
should not use it if you want to. I am
only saying do your research and make an informed decision.
For more information you can start here:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)