Our final task was to research a video on hearing impairment/deafness and post it to our blog with a little summary. THis did not end up being as easy a feat as I thought. There were lots of videos but most explained about hearing impairments but not many stories about people with hearing impairment. I did find a few videos that I thought had a good message. The video that I chose is actually a hair advertisement but I really liked the message that it gave. I realize it is not "real" but like I said the message is important! This young girl wants to learn how to play the violin but is not given the chance becuase of her impairment. Of course another girl told her she was wasting everyones time! IT turns out this girl is jealous as and doesn't want her to succeed.

the girl wants to know why she is different but the man asks her why does everyone have to be the same? This is another important message. It is OK to be different and everyone should be given the opportunity to accomplish anything that they set their monds to.

Here is another video that I found about a football player who is deaf and how he overcomes his disability and is an mportant part of the team. This video shows how his teammates accept him and make accomodations for him but also treat him like everyone else. They are not looking for special treatment but just to be accepted and given the chance. It is great how they are learning from him just as much as he is learning from them.

I can't believe that I am writing my last blog for this course. The two weeks certainly has flown by quickly. Looking back we took in a lot of information in a very short time frame. At times I think I was a little overwhelmed but it always seems to fall into place in the end. What was really nice is that we dod a lot of things that were new to me and some things that I have used but not in many years so it was a refresher to some degree. I certainly will return to school with some new ideas that I will hopefully be able to use with my students. I will be making my visual schedules before boardmaker expires so I will be all ready for September!

Having been able to spend the last 2 weeks with a great group of people has been an extra bonus. Everyone was so helpful and it was a pleasure to work with everyone. Barb, thank you for all your help and support I truly enjoyed my 2 weeks and this course.

adapting toys

After watching everyone's interesting inventions today I got to thinking how easy it would be to adpat just about anything so that a student would be able to use it independently. everyone had very cool ideas and most were very simple ideas. What I also thought was neat was that there were no duplications of ideas. I am sure ther was some duplication in our blogs but everything that was shown today was unique. It goes to show what a little imagination can do and how creative we can be. This made me start to think how else we can adapt toys for students without paying big bucks. It is amazing what a little velceo or a shower curtain ring can do to assist a student. A shower curtain ring can be attached to a toy so that a student might be able to hold on to it in a firmer grip. We all know that velcro is a wonderful tool. Attaching a little velcro to a toy and to a table can help keep it stabilized and within arms reach. Another simple idea is using a hoola hoop. IF a child has a remote control car it can be placed inside the hoop and that way it can't get away from the child and it is kept in contained space. The link below will give you an article that gives wonderful suggestions for adapting lots of different toys for any child. PLease take a second a read it, there are lots of fabulous ideas.




Click here to download article.

our invention!!

Today we present our inventions that we came up with from shopping at the dollar store. Jill and I had lots of great ideas while we were shopping but it was difficult to come up with something that we had to make ourselves. We decided to make something that could be used as a sensory activity and also like a magic writer. We also tried it 2 different ways to see which one would be best.

TO make this we needed a small can of shaving cream, (preferribly scent free), a large ziplock bag and food coloring. We put the shaving cream in the ziplock bag with the food coloring and mixed it all up. Make sure to take the air out of the bag carefully so the shaving cream doesn't come out also. It is best to also tape the bag shut with the packing tape so the students can't open it.

When it is finished students are able to feel the bag as a sensory activity. Many students need that extra sensory feedback and this is an easy way for them to get that. Students can also use their finger to make letters, shapes and numbers on the bag. This is good for students who have difficult with pen and pencil tasks. Teachers would have to monitor the use so that the student does not put it in thier mouths, or bite the bag. Using gel has the same effect although when I did both I thought the gel worked better and it made a thicker substance.

Boardmaker Plus

I was very excited to try out the new boardmaker plus. I have used the old boardmaker before but just to make pictures for a visual schedule. It has been many years since I made a communication board. I was surprised how many of the steps came back to me fairly fast. I was anxious to try it out to make some boards. I think the most difficult part was getting the registration to work! Once that was done it really was pretty straight forward as long as I followed the tutorial. It is pretty cool how I could connect the boards together. It really was pretty straight forward. Another difficult part was planning what to do for our communication board and our story book. When looking at our plan for the communication board we looked at a lot of the same things that we learned with proloquo2go. We decided to look at the whole communication for the student not just for a particular subject. I have worked on it some today and it seems to be going well. We decided to go with language arts and do a poetry unit. This is what we concentrated on the book. For our dynamic boards we started with the basic board and had it very basic with an I want, greetings, subjects and friends. we thought the first board should be one that gives lots of options for the student to communicate in many ways. I am going to continue with the boards and see where it takes us.

While making the boards I decided on 7 boards. All boards were linked together and would come back to the beginning. I decided that 7 boards was plenty so since the book was a language arts activity I linked the LA page to a new one and the math page as an extra. The social studies and science was not linked to anything for now. I didn't think the student would be able to handle too many layers on this communication board. Getting everything connected together was also another challenge that we had to overcome. Thankfully the tutorial was pretty straight forward and was a lot of help.

Switch Use

Today in class we got to look at the use of switches and how we can use them in our classroom and for everyday use. Remembering back to when I worked at the Developmental Centre we used single switched for many reasons with the children. We often used them to activate an electronic toys, and if we were reading a story with a repetitive phrase we would often use the "big mac" switch and record the repetitive phrase so that the child could participate in the story. We were very lucky to have a part-time OT on staff as well as a part time SLP to help with the decision of what switch would be best and in what position.



I do recall an occasion where we had a student with cerebral palsy who had little control over his arm and leg movements. At the time we were attempting toiletting and he was fairly successful but we needed a device that could be on him at all times and accessible at all times that he could use to notify an adult when he needed to go to the washroom (he was in a wheelchair). This was a hard task as he had little control and we wanted it to be something that was on him at all times. I am really not sure of the final outcome of this as it was a long time ago but we did try him with a little watch that could have a recording and he just had to touch the face. This was one area where he could cross his arms to touch. I think the one problem with this was at the time he was seen by the AT people at the IWK. They only looked at this at the hospital and not in the setting of the centre or home. I think as we have seen several times that assessment should really take place in the environment that the child is most in. I wish I could remember what type of switch or communication device was used for this child.



When deciding on what type a switch will best suit a certain student there are many things to consider before hand. we have to look at the mobility of the student and where best to place the switch (control site). This depends on where exactly they have the most control. It could be the head, knee, hand, elbow, foot etc. Another thing to take in to consideration is how much force they can put on the switch to activate it. Some switches require more pressure than others to activate. A student may only be able to use a light finger touch so the switch has to be appropriate for this. The size and weight are also important. It has to be easily transported so the child can access it anytime.

All this has gotten me thinking about a friend. He is 43 and living in a nursing home. He has MS and it is very sad to see how fast this disease has progressed in such a short time. At this point he only has limited use of his left arm. Occasionally even this arm locks and he can not move either arm. When this happens he is not able to do anything for himself. Because he is not able to get out his computer is his life line, when either arm works he is not able to use his computer and this is very difficult on him. Looking at these switch items I feel that there is hope for him to find an accessible way for him to use his computer. the first obstacle would be to find out who can help him and set up an appointment to look at switch access for when it is needed.

Importance of Social Stories

We have had the opportunity to look at some social stories and how they would benefit some students that we may have in our class. I have had some experience with social stories but not a lot so it was a good refresher on how to write them and what to make sure we include such as the story should be written in the first person. I have only had a opportunity to do social stories in a book format so when the chance to make a video story came up I was quite excited. This would be a new adventure for me. Once we formed our group (Shelley, Jill, sacha and myself) we proceeded to do up our story and decide how we were going to film it. Lucky for me I got to be the actor. It was surprising how quick it was to video. When you don't have to worry about voices doing the actions was a piece of cake. What we didn't realize was how difficult and time consuming the editing part would take. I am sure if we did these often the editing would get easier and quicker but for these first few times it did seem quite confusing. We really had a great time doing the video.

Now it was our turn to come up with a scenerio and make our own video social story. We came up with many ideas but decided to do own for takeing the bus home from school. Again it didn't take long to come up with the differnt clips and what we were going to say. Once we broke the task up in little steps it was quite simple. We arrived this morning with all our props and we mapped out what we would do in each block. the filming took under a half hour and was a lot of fun. You got to wonder what people think as they walk by. The editing didn't get much easier the second time around. Thanks to Shelley's perserverence we got through the little snags and finished just before the end of class.

I do believe that these stories help students work through a situation that may be stressful for them or where they may exhibit some unwanted behaviors. It focuses on the positive behavior that we want to see instead of the negative behavior. The nice thing about the video stories is that the student is able to upload their videos to their iPod touched and watch them frequently (just before the event).

A Shopping We Will Go!

Yesterday Jill and I set out to the dollar store to see what we could find that could be used as low tech assistive devices. I wasn't sure how easy a task this would be but to my surprise it was a fairly simple task. As we roamed the aisles it did not take us long to find many items that would be suitable to use with some of our students to help make their learning more purposeful. The item that we chose to talk about that we found at the store is a clipboard. The clipboard can be used with any students that may need to move away from the table to have a quiet work space. One of my students with ADHD would often take a clipboard and find a quiet corner to work in. Also a clipboard is good to use when the students are required to roam the room or maybe working outside so that they have a solid surface to work on.

For the students who have a difficult time holding on to their pencil or pen a string can be added to the clipboard and the pencil attached so that the student will not loose their pencil.

A cookie sheet is another great tool to use in the classroom. It has a magnetic surface so students can use magnetic letters/numbers or shapes to help in doing spelling and reading activities and it also gives a defined work space for the students.

Flower foam is another item that we found yesterday. We thought it could make a great pencil holder for a child's desk. It could be velcroed down to the table and the pencil, pens, markers etc could be placed in it and they would stand up and be very easily accessible to any students. this would be a great organizational tool for a student with autism or ADHD. Having it right on their desk would be a great visual for them to remember where to place the pencils when they are done.

A mirror is another good tool to use in a classroom. If there is a child who has a hard time with emotions and expressing themselves, having a mirror available for them to see what their face looks like when they are angry and to help control those emotions. Also, mirrors are good tom have when teaching students sounds and what their mouths should look like when making that sound.

These are a few items that we found while on our little shopping excursion. The opportunities are endless and almost anything can be adapted to meet the needs of many of our students. A few other things that we found are

- velcro (used to adapt toys or items)

- bucket and clothespins (using their pincer grasp students have to put the clothespins around the top of the bucket and than take them off and put inside the bucket.

- balloons with flour in them (stress ball)

- velcro baseball mitt (for students who have a hard time closing their hands, the ball will stick to their mitt)

- Fly swatter - great for having children point to things around the room

- large roll of tape (attach to corner of a desk for a student who used a cane. The cane is than off the floor and hanging on the side of the desk)

- velcro bowl (this item is great for a student with cerebral palsy, if they only have use of one arm. they don't have to worry about having to hold on to the bowl)

- magnifying glass ( for student with a visual impairment to help magnify words

- ball cap (for students who are bothered or sensitive to light the cap would block some of that light out.

These are just a few of our items that we found while out shopping. We are looking forward to creating our own technology that would help some students.