What to buy?

I get asked a lot by parents what they should buy their children. Whether it be during the holidays or birthdays, or more recently during quarantine to keep kids busy. I have done videos in the past on how to use items you have in your own home, but decided to also do a video on my favorite toys if parents really want to buy toys and don't know what to buy. These are just a few things to have. And if you don't feel these are appropriate to the age range of your child. please feel free to contact me and we can discuss ways to use toys or objects you have, or age/stage appropriate toys to buy!

What does inclusion look like in a classroom?

Schools and classrooms talk about being inclusive, or having inclusive classrooms, but what does that really mean? Does that mean that they have kids with learning disabilities in the classroom? Does it mean that they just sit kids with learning differences alongside their peers and clan this inclusion, because they are included in the class? Not exactly. 

Being an inclusive classroom means that it is all inclusive of everyone's abilities. Not just by proximity, but by learning abilities, physical abilities and any emotional consideration as well. This is different from integration. Integration attempts to absorb the child with special needs in to a mainstream classroom. Making the child accommodate to the classroom, rather than the other way around.  In an inclusive classroom of 20 kids, you might have 6 of them have IEP or 504 plans. And you would have your classroom planned out in ways that are accepting of and accommodate these abilities, as well as plan and differentiate for the whole classroom. An inclusive classroom is one where the education of the students benefits all of the students in the classroom. 

So for a child that has to use a wheelchair, to make them feel included, you would have bigger spaces between all of your shelves and areas in order for them to have complete access to get around the classroom. You also might have things that are needed more in the classroom on a top shelf so that it is more easily accessible without them having to ask for help in getting it, since reaching down in a wheelchair would prove difficult. For a child with sensorial or emotional needs, you might have a calming space, or an aide that can sense when this child needs a break and takes them for a walk, or to the gym to run around. They would not be punished for things that are out of their control such as needing to stand during circle, it would be explained to the classroom, "this is how Johnny learns best, just like you learn best sitting down, and Suzy learns best on her wobble chair, and Bobby learns best on his yoga ball, we all learn differently." And all of these things would be accessible to not only the child that has the disability, but to the whole class. That's the difference between integration an inclusion. With integration, you are making the child fit to the classroom. With inclusion, you are making your classroom fit the needs of not only the children with learning differences, but all of the children in your classroom. 

An inclusive classroom is accessible to all leaners. So, this could mean differentiated learning, accessible seating, seating near a teacher, giving a child fidgets if needed. Most of all, a child should be pulled out of the classroom as little as possible for extra learning time. Instead the teacher should "push in". What does this mean? If a child has speech services for instance, whenever possible, the speech therapist should come to the classroom to help the child with speech and language. This obviously might not always be possible as they may need to work on specific skills in a quieter environment. But, whenever possible, the speech therapist should work on speech skills in the classroom where the child is working on speech with his class. Just like a physical therapist would try to work on gross motor skills while the child is at recess or in gym class with his classmates. Again, there may be some instances where the child needs time to perfect some skills in a more individualized situation where the therapist will pull him out, but to all degrees possible, the classroom is more inclusive, when the therapists push in. 

It also makes it more inclusive when the general education teacher and special education teacher and related professionals co-plan lessons together. This way, the general education teacher is better able to teach to the whole class, while being able to take into consideration the individualized needs of the children on her or his caseloads with IEP plans or 504 plans and how to meet their needs and the whole classrooms needs auth the same time. The general education teacher will be able to differentiate her plans to meet the needs of all the students in her classroom. In this way, all of the students may work on the same subject, but in different ways, and possibly at different paces. 

In inclusive classrooms, children should not be grouped together by disability. There may be some cases where children are put in a certain seat for a certain reason, such as when a teacher places a child closer to her due to the child having ADHD and needing less distractions and closer monitoring.  There may also be cases where children are places together by abilities during parts of the day, such as during reading groups. But, for most of the day, children should be mixed together throughout the class so that they feel that they are all included as one classroom. In this way, students needs are accommodated and all children are still all to access the general education curriculum. Some children may do so at a different pace, or may do so with assistance, but they are able to be in the classroom accessing the same curriculum as their peers as much as possible. 

Most of all, an inclusive classroom is one where every student feels loved, accepted, connected and part of the whole classroom! 

Wednesday Wisdom

Working on matching and receptive language skills

In this video, my son, who is 8, was helping me by showing how to work on matching, color identification, gross motor skills, and receptive language skills. He had to really think about which body part to put on which color (working on receptive language skills, identifications skills, and gross motor skills-it was a little hard for him to balance for some of them!). He also worked on throwing different color bean bags in to different colored circles which not only works on identification skills, but gross motor skills throwing the bean bag at a target).

This can be modified for different skill sets. For younger children you can just have the circles set out in front of you and have them match beanbags to circles. If they are ready to identify colors you can choose colors for them to throw in to the circles or put in the circles. You can also say "give me x color" when you are cleaning up the beanbags to check for accuracy in identification. If they are walkers you can have them walk over to a certain circle that you put out. Or use it for positional words by putting the circles or beanbags in different parts of the house and tell them "go put the beanbag in a circle that is under the chair/on the couch, next to the tv, etc." Or even play a game of I Spy with older children telling them "I spy a beanbag that is red and it is in a room that we eat in." And you don't have to use this specific toy. You can use colored construction paper and have your child jump on it. Or cut the pieces in half and have them match pieces together. as well as work on the same positional words as above. There are so many fin ways to use this to get your child moving and working though play!

Covid and ACES

What are ACES and how do they relate to Covid right now? ACES are Adverse Childhood Experiences. Almost everyone has gone through some Adverse childhood experience at some point in their life, whether it was their parents divorcing, a parent losing a job and that creating financial instability, perhaps a parent being incarcerated, there are many of them that are in this link. ACES

How does this relate to Covid right now? Well, one of the things that can cause an Adverse Childhood Experience is parents losing their jobs, homelessness, not knowing whether you will have enough food to eat. As well as being scared you or your family members will get sick or being scared of your family members dying. And we are all dealing with that in some manner or another right now. Whether you have lost your job, or are underemployed, whether you are worrying about your or your child's health, whether you have a family member that is sick with Covid and your child knows this and is afraid that they may die. These can all contribute to adverse experiences. The other thing that can happen, and is happening right now, is parents may be having a hard time with their children home all the time. They were used to the 6-7 hour break they would get while their child was at daycare/school. And we have seen a spike in child abuse cases. It's more difficult to ask for help form elderly relatives, due to not wanting to get them sick. Perhaps home visiting programs have been converted to teletherapy, and many people are not used to reaching out to ask for help when they need it. So, we have seen an increase in parents abusing their kids and mandated reporters having calls to DCFS and the children are placed in foster care.

Right now is a stressful time for a lot of people. Many people are finding that they are having to try to do their work from home, as well as help their kids with remote learning, and if you have a child with a 504 plan or an IEP, you are trying to individualize their learning so that you can best help meet their needs. And if you don't have an education degree, that probably seems next to impossible. Never mind all of the regular stuff like cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. No one would blame you if you just said "oh forget it," and let them watch tv while you finished your work.

Here's the good news. Adverse childhood experiences do not have to be forever. I love this quote in this article Adverse childhood experiences "If the brain can be hurt, it can be healed" How? Be using positive childhood experiences. If you are having too hard of a time with your child's trigonometry homework, and you feel you both getting frustrated and you want to blow, set it down. Stop what you are doing and take some time. If you are not working at the moment, maybe go for a walk around the neighborhood just the two of you, go get some ice cream together, watch a tv show together. Do something that makes the two of you feel good. If your infant is crying and crying and crying and you are at your wits end, put your baby down and walk away for a bit. I promise you, your baby will be ok. Also, right now, you can utilize The Fussy Baby Network for free during Shelter in place. Utilize them! They are a great resource of infant specialist and are there to help with no judgment!

Here is another great article about ways to avoid aces during covid. Doing positive things together such as baking, coloring with your children, playing games, doing puzzles, will help heal the brain., Look, no one is perfect. If you lose your job, or have food insecurity, or you become underemployed, or worry about your child getting sick, you are going to have feelings about that and your children are going to know. This is not saying do not feel your feelings because it will traumatize your children. This is just giving you advice on where to go and how to also create positive experiences for your children so that we don't continue seeing spikes in child abuse cases, so that we don't see spikes in domestic violence cases. There are resources out there for you. If your child is in Early Intervention, utilize your therapists, ask them for resources for your child for while you are sheltering in place. If your child is in school, utilize the teachers. Ask for activities for your child to do indoors to keep them active while you are working. If your child's teachers or therapists are creating more stress because they are scheduling all of your child's meetings during your work time, and you have to help facilitate this, talk to them and explain that this will not work for you. If you can come up with a plan, great. But if not, let them know that you will work on what you can, when you can, but first and foremost, what matters is your child's mental and physical health. And yours as well!