Every Move Counts

Monday
Today, after the morning meeting, I was responsible for setting up the literacy center groups. I'm finding that it's much more challenging than I thought: one student was out today, two were at therapies, one student came in late, a para was out, and another student was supposed to be observed by a behavior therapist. So, even though I spent some very serious time determining those groups Sunday night, I ended up changing the entire thing this morning anyway. It just reminds me about the importance of being flexible.

I also got to work on two IEP goals with one particular student. My cooperating teacher wanted me to introduce a new goal to him today. I showed him a visual task script depicting three tasks that he needed to complete. This student has been practicing packing his goldfish snacks everyday, but today was the first time that we introduced the visual task script along with the process. The student did pretty well, actually. He got distracted in the cabinet, as usual (those ziplock boxes must look pretty enticing), but he was able to do the rest of the task with a little bit of help. I'm excited to continue working with this student on this goal.

This week's schedule (or part of it). This would be a pretty
typical week -- except for the two days off, of course!

Finally, one student was having a really off-day today. She was unusually noisy -- we could hear her from our classroom all the way down the hallway -- and didn't seem to calm down for a long time. She also started crying during several of the transitions between activities today. My cooperating teacher tried to give her some pressure on her shoulders (a lot of the students enjoy that and actually ask for it), but we couldn't really tell from her reaction if she liked it or not. My teacher said she's never seen this student act this upset before in her three years of knowing her. I'm hoping she was just having a bad day and that the behavior will be different tomorrow. It's difficult to try to help a child who cannot easily communicate her feelings to you.

Tuesday
Today was quite the day. I began by teaching the morning meeting, which I'm actually getting pretty solid at, if I do say so myself. We've had one student out for a few days now due to illness, so it's just been the six of them there. I started a little bit late on the meeting today because one student asked to get out of his wheelchair to sit on a beanbag (not uncommon in the room), so we gave him some time to do that and then we need to transfer him back into his chair -- quite the process. So, I only had about a half an hour for the meeting today, which I think is plenty of time. Although, I did forget to go over the schedule, I realized later. Oh well.

We watched a bit of Scooby Doo -- it brought
back memories :) The kids enjoyed it too!

Immediately after that, I led a lesson on popular t.v. shows from the 1960's. It was nice because I was able to work on transitions a bit and it gave me even more experience in front of the class. The lesson went okay -- there were only three students there for that one and they all seemed to enjoy the shows. I still need to work on expanding what I say to fill more time. I didn't really end early today, but it still just seemed like I was missing some stuff. Also, one of my students does not have a one-on-one so I usually end up helping him when the paras are helping the other kids. Today, though, this child had decided to be difficult. He wasn't thinking about his responses but would rather just pick the last answer that I showed him on the worksheet without connecting that to the meaning of it at all. It was really frustrating. I tried to work through it with the student, but I also didn't want to change his answer if he was answering it truthfully. I'm finding that it's very hard sometimes to interpret students' thoughts and opinions when they can't clearly communicate them with you.

We also had an early dismissal for students today. They left at 1:50 instead of 2:40 so the day was a little different than normal. After the students left, all staff met in the Cross Cat. gym for a little meeting. It was to honor those who had been working at Elim for five, ten, fifteen, and twenty years, etc. It was really cool to see those who had been working at Elim for so long and to be able to appreciate their commitment and time.

Wednesday
My first day of full teaching! I'll admit, I wasn't nervous until I got to school and my teacher told me that she would be out of the classroom for the duration of the morning -- so, essentially, three quarters of the day. That's when the nerves hit. Luckily, there wasn't much time to be anxious at that point. Once the students came in, it was game time.

My classroom at Elim!

Everything was pretty much the same as it was when I wasn't teaching. I knew exactly what I had to do all day, it was just a matter of remembering everything, in the right order, and dealing with the other, random, stuff that came up. Like when the phone rang. And for a second, it didn't register that I was supposed to answer it. It was the weirdest thing. That phone rang three times all day and each time I felt clueless. The speech pathologist was asking about art materials I was supposed to have, the secretary was telling me Mary was at the front office for me (who's Mary?!), and the behavior intern was running late with another student and couldn't take my student until a later, undetermined, time. I asked a few questions each time and figured my paras would have a better idea than I would. Only panned out once. The other times, we just worked through it.

It was basically a whirlwind of answering questions, running errands, filing out forms and notebooks, making pink play-doh, and a little bit of teaching thrown in there. The kids all had a pretty good day -- one had a twelve minute refusal period, but other than that they were great.

I've noticed that my transitions are still a little shaky. It's tough when our activities are really only twenty minutes a piece. Transitions become excessive. That's something that I definitely need to keep working on.

The form students fill out after a sensory activity

In other news, the play-doh went surprisingly well. There were only two students in the room for this activity and neither are really keen on the idea of touching unidentifiable materials. But, nonetheless, we stirred up a bowl of edible play-doh. Ingredients for this sensory spectacular include:

1. One cup of flour
2. One cup of water (I'd suggest a little bit less than a cup, unless you want the consistency to be somewhere around soup...)
3. Two tbsp. of oil
4. One packet of (pink lemonade) koolaid

Heading into this experiment, the paras and I were a little hesitant due to the fact that one student gags when touching certain textures and the other attempts to put everything into her mouth. Sure enough, as we're mixing the concoction with a large plastic spoon, the child quickly brings it up to her mouth for a taste. Luckily my paras were there to help and we stopped her before any damage was done. After that, though, she played with it, with us watching her like hawks. The other student did pretty well too; she tried it for a minute or two and then began signing that she was finished with the activity. We quickly took it away before she threw it.

Overall, it was a pretty good day. I learned a ton and was pretty much exhausted by the end.

What a day.

Thursday
We had an in-service today -- my first one!

It was weird sitting among the Elim staff as we listened to Jane Edgar Korsten, co-author of Every Move Counts: Clicks and Chats. This is essentially a sensory-based approach regarding communication and assistive technology.


Jane was extremely entertaining -- not quite the right word -- to listen to because she was a phenomenal speaker! In her talk, she included video clips, hands-on activities, and plenty of stories. It was fairly obvious that she's had tons of experience in the special education field. Jane confessed that we were attempting to hear three days worth of information in two. At a few points, it definitely felt like information overload. I was really just trying to keep up by applying everything I've learned at Trinity and Elim to what she was saying -- not an easy task! Some of it went right over my head, but I think I took a lot away from the lecture today. And, hey, I still have all day tomorrow too!

In case you're wondering, as was I, what the title of the book means, here's a quick synopsis. Every move counts implies that every single movement that a child makes can inform teachers (paras, etc.) something about that child: whether or not they like that particular activity, a need or desire, or any other message of any kind. People with different (special) needs communicate differently than other people. Jane helps show teachers how to help their students learn to communicate through a sensory based approach in a way that can better be interpreted by other people. This can be done through movement, through clicks (switches), or through chats (voice output devices or communication devices).

Here are some of the many topics that were covered today:

Seven weaknesses of standardized assessments:
1. Language based
2. Scores don't reflect abilities
3. Identify disabilities rather than abilities
4. Focus on 'typical' development
5. Result in teaching to the test
6. Don't detect small increments of growth
7. Are static (occur about once per year)

Symbol hierarchy:
a.  object -- exact duplicate
b.  object -- tangible activity remnant
c.  object miniature
d.  photograph
e.  line drawing
f.  gestures
g.  signs
h.  printed words
i. spoken words

Here's some of the other fascinating stuff I got to listen to:

-- Our students are limited by our imaginations and how we see them
-- Communication is the message; language is the symbol system used to communicate the message
-- It takes about 100,000 co-occurances (cause/effect situations) for people to understand that they have control over their environment and world
-- The only prerequisite for communication is life itself
-- If we have to teach a student a new device, we've chosen the wrong one for them
-- Challenge: Can you imagine a day without having a single choice?
-- In regards to symbols, one is not better than another. The one that works is the best.
-- The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place
-- A word about prompting: DON'T
-- A lot of the things we don't see from our kids, they don't do because they don't have reason or opportunity
--Anything is a right answer
-- The more control a student gets, the more cooperative they become

I can't wait to hear more about these topics tomorrow!

Friday
The in-service today centered more on assessment; we spent quite a bit of the morning discussing how to administer a sensory assessment to students in order to better find out a means of communication for them.
Since there were no paras there today, the group was much smaller. And, since our backs were aching from six hours of folding chairs yesterday, my cooperating teacher and I (along with ten other teachers) rolled the comfortable chairs from our rooms down to the gym. It definitely made for a more enjoyable lecture.

Jane walked through each of the senses and explained them in depth as she described how to assess a student's response to each one.

The following are ways to implement sensory activities into a classroom based specifically on which sensory each child prefers:

--Vestibular: walk, ride, swing, glider, rocking chair, dance, bounce, rolling, movement videos (vestibular through the ocular channel)
--Proprioceptive: hands or feet in rice or beans, bear hug, joint compression, playdoh, massage, wrapped snuggly in a blanket or sleeping bag
--Tactile: vibration, water, massage, finger paint, petting the dog, hands in spaghetti, pudding, rice, temperature
--Visual: creative lights, videos, slides, home movies, books, magazines, photo albums, toys, computer generated graphics (avoid strobe lights to prevent seizures)
--Auditory: (present the sound at midline, behind and slightly above the head): music box, noise maker, peer read books and magazines, family tapes, talking books, musical instruments, 'sound effects', music tapes
--Olfactory (smell): scratch n' sniff stickers, scented markers, perfume, aftershaves, extracts, herbs, flowers, incense
--Gustatory (taste): 
a. sweet: milk, banana, honey, candy, marshmallow, raisin, watermelon, maple syrup
b. sour: yogurt, cheese, green grapes
c. pungent: onion, radish, chili, garlic, ginger
d. astringent: unripe banana, pomegranate, walnuts, alum

Throughout her lecture, Jane urged that once teachers find the correct form of motivation for a child  based on their preferred senses (the sensory assessment is used for this) as well as the extent to which a child can move, teachers will have the perfect combination of prerequisites for a child to learn to communicate. The whole concept was incredibly intriguing.

Jane says probes should:

Chinese puzzle box; I would love to try one!

• Be used to gather more information
• Answer questions
• Settle disagreements
• Be on-going; they're never intended to be finished

On the topic of data, I learned that it should include the least amount of information necessary to answer the question in discussion. She mentioned that collecting data is, in a sense, similar to solving a puzzle. She compared understanding our students to the process of opening a Chinese puzzle box. I liked this analogy a lot. I can see what she means by it because it's imperative that teachers learn about students in order to figure out why the act the way they do and how they communicate. In the special education world, asking a question won't usually, or ever, get you an answer. You have to find other means of determining the reason for a behavior.

Various kinds of switches

Other important questions to ask concerning data: 

1. What is the goal?

2. What will it take to convince you that the individual has the skill?

3. How much is enough?

4. What are the minimum performance criteria?

Jane also talked a lot about symbols and printed words. I found this section of her lecture so powerful and convicting: 

"When we do not include [printed words on symbols], what are we saying about our students? Are we assuming they'll never read?" 

She urged that we include printed words on every symbol we use for our students. When we don't, we are subconsciously implying to ourselves and others that those students will not learn to read. I sat in my seat feeling embarrassed. I've done it. My cooperating teacher's done it. It's an easy trap to fall into. But our students deserve the chance because, as Jane reminded us through her countless stories of inspiration, you never know what's going to happen.

Finally, Jane showed us some of the switches and devices that she's used in the past. I couldn't believe how many there are available. More interestingly, to me, though was when she showed us the voice output devices that she had made. She urged us about how expensive the devices can get when finding the right one for a student. Instead of buying a new one and it not fitting our child's needs, she suggested that we find other methods of obtaining the devices in order to test them with our kids. And example of this would be a voice record-able gift card from target. 

Sensory Assessment

Here are some of my last thoughts on Jane's lecture the past two days:

--  Escalating behavior or sleeping/tuning out may signal sensory overload

--  You measure cognition through language

--  Everyone communicates in some way

--  If the cognitive demand is high, the motor demand should be low; vice versa

-- Think about why you're putting a voice output system in place

--  Everyone needs to be involved in teaching a student a new skill/symbol (paras, therapists, parents, teachers, etc.)

I learned so much from Jane these past two days. Not only did I learn new information, but I was able to apply what I knew and what I learned to my new-found knowledge though my experiences at Elim. It's been quite the opportunity to listen to Jane speak and I've appreciated it a lot. I'm so grateful to have been given the chance to learn about how to best help students communicate in ways that meet their needs individually.

These concepts really helped me better understand Illinois Professional Teaching Standard 7: Communication which states that competent teachers understand communication theory, language development, and the role of language in learning.