Happy Holidays

I am taking the week off to spend with my family. I wish everyone a ver happy holiday. Enjoy your time together.

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.

 

 

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:

http://hstalks.com/main/view_talk.php?t=2053&r=444&j=756&c=252

   

Let the Repetitions Begin: Learning Takes Practice

   Patience is a virtue and when dealing with kids with special needs it is a necessity. Of course anyone who is working with special needs children needs patience to deal with the day to day routines and situations that occur, but what is most important is patience in seeing the fruits of your labor.  Change and improvement does not happen overnight or with just a few trials. It takes repetitions and consistency: patience.

   When I started in special education one of the most important things I heard in one of my classes was a comparison one of the instructors made.  I wish I could find the notes, so I could credit it correctly.  It takes a general education student a minimum of 3-7 repetitions to put something learned into memory. For a special student with a learning disability or other special need it can take from 100-1000 repetitions.  Ok now let that sinks in.  That takes patience, both on your part and the child’s. It also takes creativity. For a child with autism, who does not mind repetitiveness it is not very difficult to get the repetitions. For a child with ADHD or other disabilities it can be a challenge to keep them engaged enough to get the necessary repetitions. Luckily, with some of the computer programs available today, it is a bit easier.

   Behavioral changes are no different than academic improvement.  It takes time for the new skills to become habit. The child has to have to process what is being expected of them and when.  It is also necessary for the child to learn how to apply the skills to different situations. Transference takes time. It is important to continue to praise the child along the way as they develop and try to use the skills even if they do not use them correctly. You do not want them to give up trying, just as you wouldn’t if they tried a math problem and did it wrong.  They need to know that you have the patience to see through their learning this new skill.

  Remember all these small steps add up.  You will be able to look back in a year or so and see great changes.  It is amazing what these kids can and will do with a little patience love and support.

For more information you might want to start here:

http://www.yale.edu/eglab/pdf/PaulReprint.pdf

http://www.audiblox2000.com/learning_disabilities/overcoming_learning_disabilities2.htm