Wednesday, January 16, 2013

We've Moved!

The Team at Achievement Products® is excited to tell you that Teaching Children with Special Needs is now hosted on Wordpress. Just click here! Please change your bookmarks so you can keep up with our latest news.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Activity Guide - Music Blocks


The team at Achievement Products asked our consultant, Occupational Therapist Scott Russo, to provide some activity suggestions for incorporating some of our favorite items into daily classroom activities or curriculum.

Scott has provided some really great and creative ways to use items (that may have been originally designed for typically developing children), in special needs environments.

Today we will look at the Music Blocks.

 
Introduction:

These blocks provide immediate motivation for engaging children across a wide age range. Each block is colored and contains a short melody from 3 different song selections. Each of the colored blocks plays a different part of the melody from a classical, world beat or jazz piece. And the shapes on each block are coded to play a different style of music from vocals to instrumental to orchestral.  So the blocks can be mixed and matched to create over a million combinations! Even at its highest volume, the music is played at a level that will be non-threatening to the sensory challenged child. The blocks are perfect for developing fine motor, sequencing, and other pre-academic skills. They can also be used as a calming source for sensory challenges.

 

 

Activity ideas:

  • Develop grasp and release skills. For the babies or toddlers, simply have them pick the block up and try to place it in a square. The musical response of a successful trial lends the motivation for continued trials.

 

  • Work on the in-hand manipulation skill of rotation. Once the child has the grasp and release mastered, increase the challenge by requiring them to rotate the block with one hand to find a specific shape for a different musical arrangement.

 

  • Develop matching skills. Have the child rotate each block until the shapes are matching.  Again, the musical arrangement will naturally indicate the correct answer.

 

  • Develop pre-academic skills. Identify a target color and have the child find the correct block for placement or identify a target shape and have him/her  rotate each individual block for shape identification.

 

  • Develop sequencing skills.  Place the blocks in order so that the melodies will play in the correct sequence.  Have the child listen to the sequence and then rearrange the blocks.  Then have the child try to re-create the correct sequence.  Modify the activity by playing the correct sequence and then remove all the blocks from the base before having the child re-create the sequence. For the advanced  stage, have the child cover his/her eyes while you arrange any sequence and then try to re-create the sequence based on only auditory input.

 

  • Develop memory skills.  Place the blocks in any order and allow the child to see and hear the sequence.  Then remove the blocks and have the child try to re-create the original sequence.

 

  • These blocks are perfect for use with children  who get easily overstimulated.  Free play with the blocks in a quiet portion of any room is an excellent method for calming the sensory challenged child.

 

For more information about the Music Blocks and other great items please visit http://www.achievement-products.com.

Monday, January 7, 2013

New Year’s Resolutions – Teachable Moments

Special Needs Topics with Don Peek


This post is authored by Don Peek, a former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs The School Funding Center, a company that provides grant information and grant-writing services to schools. To learn more, or to subscribe to the School Funding Center Grant Database, go to schoolfundingcenter.com
 
New Year’s Resolutions – Teachable Moments
I have to admit this up-front.  I like New Year’s resolutions.  I don’t keep as many of them as I should, but I hope to do better.  I like New Year’s resolutions because they are the beginnings of a plan, and I think we all should be good planners.  As someone with an interest in disabled children, you should make some New Year’s resolutions, and better yet, you should teach the disabled students in your life to make them.
Of course, just teaching young people to make New Year’s resolutions is not enough.  You need to teach them how to follow through and achieve the goals they set.  That takes planning.  Many students just skate through school simply doing what they’re told (or not).  Most of their actions really don’t involve planning.  You can teach students to set goals and write plans to reach those goals just as you can teach them to write good paragraphs by teaching them to narrow their topics, write strong topic sentences, and outline the bodies of their paragraphs.
Believe me, students don’t learn to set goals on their own.  They don’t learn to plan on their own.  Most have heard of New Year’s resolutions and that makes for a very teachable moment for you to introduce the topics of goal setting and planning.
Let’s look at setting good New Year’s resolutions.  A popular one at this time of year is to lose weight.  If you set that as a New Year’s resolution and that’s all you do, I can almost guarantee that it’s not going to happen.  The goal is too broad and has no time parameter.  Are you going to lose one pound or a hundred pounds?  Are you going to lose some each week, each month, or are you just going to drop that weight all at once before next December 31st?
A much better New Year’s resolution would go like this:   I’m going to lose 20 pounds.  I’ll weigh once each week to make sure I’m on target, and my goal is to lose five pounds per month during the first four months of the year.
Really want to make sure you lose the weight?  Write in your plan to eat no more than 1,500 calories per day and work out on the treadmill at least 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week.  Now that a plan.  It’s clear, it’s concise, it’s detailed, and it’s achievable.  It’s hard to beat a plan like that.  You can teach that kind of plan to almost every special education student you know.
Two other things you will want to teach students to do with their New Year’s resolutions:  a) write them down, and b) tell all their friends and relatives about their resolutions.  This will increase their chances of staying with their resolutions by about 1000%.
All too often we believe disabled students are incapable of setting goals and incapable of extensive planning.  Well, they couldn’t read or do any math before you taught them either.  Goal setting is a skill.  Planning is a skill.  You must teach disabled students the rudimentary elements of goal setting and planning, and then you must have them practice, and practice, and practice until it becomes a part of them.
Remember, riding a bike is a skill.  Keyboarding is a skill.  They must be learned.  They must be practiced.  Goal setting is a skill.  Planning is a skill.  They must be learned.  They must be practiced. 
Make your New Year’s resolutions.  Keep them this year.  But more importantly, teach every special education student in your life to make New Year’s resolutions.  And while you’re at it, teach them how to set goals and how to plan.  You might very well change their lives in ways you can’t imagine.
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Grant Info:
Grant Name:  MAXIMUS Charitable Foundation Grants
Funded By:  MAXIMUS Charitable Foundation
Description:  The MAXIMUS Charitable Foundation is committed to creating opportunities for young people through youth-oriented programs. We collaborate with organizations and charities in the United States that share our commitment in helping the disadvantaged achieve self-sufficiency and personal growth.
Program Areas:  After-School, Arts, At-Risk/Character, Disabilities, General Education, Math, Reading, Safe/Drug Free Schools, Science/Environment, Social Studies, Special Education, Technology, Vocational
Recipients:  Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other
Proposal Deadline:  1/31/13
Average Amount:  $1,000.00 - $5,000.00
Telephone:  1-800-MAXIMUS
Availability:  All States

Monday, December 31, 2012

Don Peek - Caring Makes the Difference

 

This post is authored by Don Peek, a former educator and past president of the training division of Renaissance Learning. He now runs The School Funding Center, a company that provides grant information and grant-writing services to schools. To learn more, or to subscribe to the School Funding Center Grant Database, go to schoolfundingcenter.com


Caring Makes the Difference
I have a lot of experience dealing with parents in a school setting.  I spent 20 years as an educator in public schools.  Seven of those years I served as an assistant high school principal in two different school districts.  I think many parents are somewhat suspicious of assistant principals because their children are often in trouble when an assistant principal calls.   They also tend to be a little bit suspicious of the special education programs in which their children are enrolled.  They often don’t have a clear understanding of how a special education program even works.
Because I was very involved in the special education programs at the two high schools where I served, I learned a lot about working with parents in general and parents of special education students in particular.  Here’s basically what I learned.
If parents trust you, I mean really trust you to make the very best decisions you can concerning their children, you can do almost anything and those parents will support you 100%. On the other hand, if you don’t have that trust, if they are constantly suspicious that you don’t like their children, or that you’re simply not concerned with their well-being, you couldn’t give their children a hard look without getting into a conflict with them.
When I told my dad I had decided to teach school, he gave me some advice.  “Just remember,” he said, “teachers deal with the single most prized possession of any parent, their children.  Always remember that when you’re making decisions.”  That advice is even more important when you are dealing with students who have disabilities.  Parents are going to be that much more protective, and that’s totally understandable.
There is no course in college that teaches you to care about each of your students.  That has to come from the heart, and it’s very, very difficult to fake.  When you genuinely care about each student, you have to make decisions that are best for the child in the long run.  That’s not even easy for parents to do with their own children, and yet as educators we have to remember constantly to make those long-term decisions with special education students every day.
For instance, it is easy to give learning disabled students practice sheets that occupy them for hours at a time but do very little to challenge them.  Bring out the sheets that are harder, the ones the student really needs to work through, and you have a battle on your hands --- often day after day after day.  It’s not always easy to do the right thing when an easier solution is so readily available.  You can have some quiet time and the student isn’t complaining.  The student is also not learning, certainly not progressing. 
The same is true in dealing with bad behavior.  Some students tend to disrupt the class on a daily basis, even on an hourly basis.  Do you do the right thing for the child and consistently use those disruptions as teachable moments, or do you take the easy way out and let the child get away with behavior that will both teach that child the wrong lesson and give inconsistent signals to the other students in the class?
If you genuinely care about your students, not just while they are in your classroom, but care about their futures as a whole, you will consistently teach them what is right.  You will teach them the next skill in the sequence rather than repeating things they can already do well.  You will teach them how to behave in a classroom and how to get along with the other students in ways that will literally shape their future behavior and their future lives as a whole.
It was very hard to care for every student I faced as an assistant principal.  Many had entrenched behavior patterns before I ever had the opportunity to work with them.  I did the best I could.  I cared as much as I could and tried to help shape their futures in a positive way.
I just hope that as you work with disabled students, either as a parent or a teacher, you will genuinely care about their well-being.  You will take every opportunity to teach your students and your children, not the easy way, but the right way.  I can guarantee you that it’s well worth the time and effort.
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Grant Info:
Grant Name:  Dreyfus Foundation Educational Grants
Funded By:  The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc.
Description:  Giving on a national basis for museums, cultural, performing, and visual arts programs, schools, hospitals, educational and skills training projects, and programs for youth, seniors, and people who are handicapped.
Program Areas:  After-School, Arts, At-Risk/Character, Disabilities, General Education, Math, Reading, Science/Environment, Social Studies, Special Education
Recipients:  Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other
Proposal Deadline:  3/10/13
Average Amount:  $1,500.00 - $20,000.00
Telephone:  202-337-3300
Availability:  All States

Monday, December 24, 2012


The team at Achievement Products asked our consultant, Occupational Therapist Scott Russo, to provide some activity suggestions for incorporating some of our favorite items into daily classroom activities or curriculum.

Scott has provided some really great and creative ways to use items (that may have been originally designed for typically developing children), in special needs environments.

Today we will look at the Squeeze and Feed Frogs.


Introduction:

Squeeze and Feed Frogs are rounded, pliable frog faces that open their mouths when squeezed to “gobble” foam bugs. The resistance provided when squeezed is excellent for the development of hand and grip strength, and manipulation of the small bugs assists with finger dexterity and in-hand manipulation skills. The set comes with both a number die and a color die for ease of grading the activity to children of various ages. The dice also provide the opportunity for social play as Squeeze and Feed Frogs can be used as a game.  The bugs and the frogs are both visually appealing which increases the motivational component of the game. 

 

Activity ideas:

 

·        The simplest activity is to have the child squeeze the frog and place the bugs inside the mouth with their other hand. Have the child place his/her thumb on one side of the frog’s mouth with the other four fingers on the opposite side forming a cupping of the palm when squeezing. To increase the challenge, have the child try to pick up the bugs using only the frog and not their other hand.

 

·        Play a game using the die. For younger children, use the color die and have them race to get as many of the colors as they can into the frog’s mouth. For school-aged children, have them use the number die for number recognition.  To increase the challenge, have the child use both dice and see if they can pick up the correct of number of the correct color.

 

·        Develop social skills. Have the child use the frogs for conversations. Have the child make the frog talk by squeezing and releasing the mouth.  In a small group with two children, or a simple 1:1 adult/child situation, the frogs can have a conversation with each other.

 

·        To develop bilateral integration skills, use one frog to pick up a bug and have it feed the bug to other frog.

 

For more information about the Squeeze and Feed Frogs and other great items please visit http://www.achievement-products.com.