First Semester Activities for Severe Profound Students

I have enjoyed making my rounds to all the classes. however, most of you know I have more schools and over twice the number of students to see as I did last year, so if I did not get to make these items personally for your classes, please understand that there is not enough time in the day, nor can I purchase everything from my own pocket as I would like. These activities are/were especially for our children with multiple disabilities.

CALENDAR POSTERS
We were able to make a few and give directions for making them for the rest. If you did not receive one the directions are simple. You will need:

• 2 poster boards
• paste or white glue used very sparingly
• Markers
• Post-it notes
• Calendar numbers from Dollar Tree
• Velcro circles or squares with adhesive backing (you can get strips and cut them into squares)
• Braille labeller or stickers if appropriate
• Ziplock bag

Directions:

• Stick post-its to the bottom of the posters seven across in five rows. Pull up every other post-it once they are straight. That will make a checkerboard-looking section for putting on dates. Now use glue or paste to secure the Post-its you didn't take up.
• At the top of the poster you may want to make a nice picture, use class photos or write "Mr./Mrs. __'s Class" or "Class Calendar." I can draw some for you while I'm visiting your class if you let me know.
• Write a day of the week at the top of each column of Post-its.
• Laminate the poster
• On the calendar markers, write the numbers 1-31 in large print.
• With the second poster, cut 12 strips for the months. Make them colorful. You may want to draw of glue seasonal symbols. You can also find these pre-made at Dollar Tree.
• Laminate the months and symbols. Stick Braille on if appropriate. (Your  V.I. specialist can label them for you) If braille is not appropriate for any of your students you can use dry-erase makers to write the numbers on your calendar each day--or allow student who are able to take turns writng the new number each day as in the calendar show in the photo.
• If using braille or if you prefer removeable numbers: Stick the velcro circles or squares in the center of the squares made by the Post-its on the laminated poster.
  Stick your number on top. Pull them off and store them in the ziplock bag.

PLEASE contact me in the comment section if these directions are not clear because it's the end of a work day and the mind is a terribel thing! LOL!

OLFACTORY KITS
These kits are what we saved the medicine containers for. I thank all the "regular ed" staff who helped me save these. My husband and I have been saving all of our med containers--and boy, do we take enough meds! LOL!  So if anyone who has not started one and needs containers, just contact me because we should have plenty to go around. Ask staf at your individual schools, too. Those of you who no longer have children on my caseload can still get some. Your V.I. teacher will know how to get them from me.

You Will Need:

• Address labels
• scents or objects with scents that will fit into
• empty, washed medicine containers
• cottonballs

Directions:

• Wash the containers and make sure the original labels are removed. You may need to soak them in warm soapy water for about 20 minutes.
• Collect scents from potpourri, hard candy, body sprays, cough drops, soap, shampoo, scented oils, spices, etc.
• Label each container with the scent it contains.
• For liquids, dampen cottonballs with them. This is for safety, incase one of the children can grab the container the liquid will not spill.
• Make sure that you change some liquids and food items when not using them for a while or they may spoil or grow mold in the containers. Ew!
• Make sure, if you use food items, that they don't have even the slightest essence of peanuts in them because even a whiff of peanuts can be hazzardous to our kids with severe allergies. You know your kids, though.

Calendar Boxes
For most of you that needed them, I purchased the giveaway Glad storage containers and glued them together with hot glue in strips of three to six. On the bottom I glued non-skid shelf-liner so the children cannot slide them around very easily as they work with them.

You were to find things that represented the time of day according to your schedule. I had a few things for you to use but I can't supply everyone and you know what objects will be the best symbols to use for your students.

One thing to note is that if you cannot find actual appropriate objects it is okay to use an abstract shape if you use the same one for the same activity each time. For instance, you may have an actual spoon to represent lunch and breakfast and a spoon will fit into one of the squares perfectly. But, try as you may, you will not fit a swing into one tiny square to represent recess or playground time.  In one class, we found a few links of chain to represent a swing. In my preschool V.I. class I used a tiny action figure--a baseball player-- and that worked for that child as a symbol for "playground."  Although she functioned as a deaf-blind child, I knew she understood when I saw her replace the symbol for "library" with the baseball figure as she laughed to herself, went to the door with her cane and announced, "Playground time, class!"

Zipper Pulls

These are simply the smaller key rings from the crafts department at WalMart. We use them for helping children with dexterity issues, to grasp zippers on their little pants, coats or bookbags. Put the hook part in the hole that is on the metal part of the zipper and hook the ring, if needed, to the hook.

JingleBell Bracelets
These were not just Christmas toys and I tried to get one to each of you so that you can see how they are made and make them as needed. The purpose for our multi-disabled children is to teach cause and effect. if they have a jinglebell attached to a piece if elastic around their arm and they're capable of moving their arm they may soon associate that when they move, the bell rings. I used rather quite bells on the ones I brought around but you can use velcro straps and larger bells or even clusters of bells--depending on the strength and mobility the child has in an arm or leg and how much jingling your ears can stand. LOL!

I pray these ideas were a help for our multi-disabled visually impaired children this semester and I will have more items that we can work on together for the second semester.

Children Commonly Misdiagnosed with Eye-disease Rather Than Batten's-http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/259403/children_commonly_misdiagnoised_with.html?cat=70

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/259403/children_commonly_misdiagnoised_with.html?cat=70

A Legacy For and Beyond Batten Disease - Bio-IT World

Batten's disease is a horrible thing to watch your children go through. I have had at least five students with this conditon that I know of. It may have been fortunate that a couple of them had the infantile type and that they were severely cognitvely impaired from birth and not aware of their condition. However, three of them had the later onset juvenile type of Batten's and were aware of the differences in their abilities and health as the disease progressed. I did not want to know until years later when they had passed. Those same three were included among the "Faces of Batten's" on the national foundation web site.

Click the link to read this article

Zipper Pull

I found this pull at Wally World. Although it is the right size, on never knows who may find the design inappropriate. I actually found this before I found the bag of 80 rings 'n' things. It's functional though! This is light weight and easy to pull on the pants zipper of a child with cerebral palsey.

The clip next to it (left) came in the bag of rings 'n' I spoke of in an earlier post (March 4).

Joyful Stress

Many years ago I read an article about stress. The article said there were different types of stress and that "joyful" stress was of the type experienced with something we enjoy. That was me today. I am exhausted yet I feel so much was accomplished and that getting that way was such a joy.

First, I went to a center school this morning. I had to leave from the burbs to get to the opposite side of town to get to a young man's IEP meeting. Can you say seven-thirty in the A.M. boys and girls?

Yesterday I'd warned the secretary of my HQ school that I'd have no time to stop in first thing. The young man, J, is quadriplegic, visually impaired and basically nonverbal. One can tell that there's a lot going on upstairs when he thinks you've said something funny. He has the greatest big ol' grin!

I told his teacher and his caregiver that he would benefit from the age-appropriate lessons on Intellitools Classroom Suites and from registering for talking books at the State Library's Blind and physically Handicapped Section. So I'm going to email the form or the link to it. I need to scan a signed copy--signed by me that is. It will be easier than trying to remember to get a copy for the kids who are not yet registered. I could just email a signed copy to their teachers for the parents to fill out and mail straight from their homes.

By the way, every state has a blind and physically handicapped section. If your child cannot read standard print or turn a page in a standard book then he/she can register to receive talking books from the state library.

While I was at that school, I stopped in to see two of my other consult students. "Miss L" is quite the independent old lady. She types and reads large print. She was reading when I came into her classroom. She has a child specific because she uses a motorized chair and needs a little help around the school. She told me that she and a former student of mine--another old lady--were going to meet up over the weekend. When they were younger and both my students, I got them in touch with each other since they were both visually impaired, wheelchair users and teenagers.

"Mr. K" is on the other side of the room in another teacher's class. He's quite the opposite. He's cortically visually impaired, nonverbal and very dependent. Many times he does not acknowledge the presence of others. Yet there is something pleasant about him.

On another side of town, in a regular elementary campus I went to meet some of the assistive tech team for my Hebrews 1:13 angel. He was in reading block and I didn't want to disturb him until they were ready to see him. Sam, who is one of the assistive tech specialists emailed me yesterday and asked me to call him about the young Mr. H. Today was the best day before the Mardi Gras break because I'll be leaving early tomorrow and out all day Friday for Kairos (No, I don't do Mardi Gras).

I didn't expect so many people to show! There was Sam, Edna who is tech specialist with a concentration on speech therapy; Janice, whom I used to work with at another center about ten years ago. Then there was an OT (Occupational Therapist) and another speech therapist I'd met before who handled the Intellitools keyboard for Mr. H. They asked questions about the CP (cerebral palsey) and the speech. Mr. H has speech that takes getting used to. It's very slurred due to the CP but he will manage to say some very "old" things.

I told them I wasn't sure how much braille he was actually learning because he has such a good memory. he has learned the "Lot's of Dots" book for memory and his favorite double vision book, "That's Not My Bear." The para went to get him and the speech therapist who handled to Intelli-keys showed him the keyboard and how it talked when one put a finger inside one of the shallow holes where the braille letters and symbols were. Immediately Mr. H started to explore the keyboard to see what the other letters and symbols would say.

While we were talking about whether he was memorizing or whether or not this was a good tool for him, he found the letters "O" and "P" and typed "pop" and then "poppop." He laughed and said "P-O-P, pop! Pop pop!"

I said, "Hey he's purposefully spelling that word! He's spelling 'pop'?" Then Mr. H told me and the OT that he could also spell Momma, M-O-M-M-A.

"Well, he's let us know that he is interested in this!" Sam said.
"Now we know where to start! said Edna.

Before they arrived they thought that puffy braille would be appropriate for his CP. The OT had put some on another overlay for his keyboard in the classroom. I told them that regular braille was best for getting used to and that he'd already been exposed to it in his classroom with the cards and books I'd brought. Real braille--at normal size is more realistic.

Meanwhile Mr. H. was exploring the keyboard and making it say all sorts of numbers, letters and symbols. he's also enjoying the heck out of all the attention.

Sam and Edna asked me to stop by after the Mardi Gras break to help them make braille overlays for some other activities they can make available for Mr. H.

I'm excited about that and so is the para, Ms. Williams. Most of all Mr. H. is the most excited of all!

That is how to have a joyfully stressful day!

Mysterious Valentine’s Day Greeting Placed on School Lawn

[Such a nice story. ~K]

Someone created this Valentine on the Perkins School lawn.

Perkins Deafblind Program Has Snowy “Secret Admirer”
Mysterious Valentine’s Day Greeting Placed on School Lawn
Watertown, MA - Teachers, staff and students in Perkins School for the Blind Deafblind program arrived for school this morning to find an anonymous Valentine heart fashioned from sticks and twigs on the sloping lawn in front of the Hilton Building where classes are held on the Watertown campus.

“We have no idea who did this, but how sweet is that!” exclaimed psychologist Pamela Ryan, who has been at the school since 1971. “Nothing like this has happened before that I recall.”

Barbara Mason, Perkins Deafblind Program Supervisor, speculates about the origin of the image, “Someone had reported seeing a guy out there making it on Wednesday. Maybe a Perkins employee or a parent? We couldn’t even see any footprints, so it’s a bit of a mystery.”

Many of the students in Perkins Deafblind Program have partial vision and were able to enjoy the message lovingly placed atop the fast-melting snow. What did the students think? Mason says, “They liked it. It’s fun, sort of like a gift. I think it’s fabulous.”

The greeting brightened an otherwise damp, muddy school day. A light-hearted investigation continues in hopes of solving the mystery before the snow melts away and the twig-and-stick heart sinks into the soil. At least one student speculated it was “a gift from Helen Keller” who, like the current students, was deafblind and one of Perkins most illustrious pupils.

One of the leading institutions in educating children who are deafblind, Perkins’ experienced staff is geared toward maximizing individual potential, whether the student focuses on basic communication and daily living skills, or preparation for college.

Perkins School for the Blind, the nation’s first school for the visually impaired, provides education and services to help build productive, meaningful lives for more than 94,000 children and adults who are blind, deafblind or visually impaired with or without other disabilities in the U.S. and 63 countries worldwide. Founded in 1829, Perkins pursues this mission on campus, in the community and around the world. Learn more online at

www.perkins.org

Source Link: http://blogs.townonline.com/watertown/?p=29592

Reaching for the Sky!

Yesterday in Tremaine's class, his teacher and I hung a long piece of yarn across the room. From it we hung colorful objects for which he may feel compelled to reach. They are high in contrast and some of them twirl under the airconditioning. Was he interested? I believe so! Especially in the candy his teacher hung just out of his reach!
He's a child with multiple disabilities who looks down and to the right to use his residual vision. Now he has a reason to look up and reach for the sky!