Don Peek: Deafness and Hearing Loss

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.

Disability:  Deafness and Hearing Loss

By IDEA definition, deafness means a hearing impairment so severe that a child is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing, with or without amplification, that it adversely affects a child’s educational performance.

When a child shows any signs of hearing loss, parents should take immediate steps to have that child examined.  Since most communication skills are developed before the age of 3, it is imperative that parents have their children examined at the first sign of hearing loss and begin a program to counteract that loss.  Early recognition of hearing problems is so important, most states require hospitals to test babies for hearing loss before they ever leave the hospital.

If deafness or hearing loss is not detected at birth, parents and teachers need to be aware of the signs of hearing loss or deafness.  Deafness or hearing loss may be present if a child:

1.      Does not respond consistently to sounds, especially his or her own name.

2.      Asks for things to be repeated or often says “huh?”

3.      Is delayed in developing speech or has speech that is unclear.

4.      Turns up the volume on the TV and other electronic devices.

Again, since speech is tied to hearing, it is vitally important that a child be diagnosed with a hearing loss as soon as possible and appropriate measures taken.

At least 50% of all deafness is genetic.  That is why most states require testing within hours of birth.  Other causes of hearing loss at birth may be certain infections during pregnancy and complications during pregnancy.  If a child has no hearing problems at birth, they still may develop a problem as a result of such things as:  a buildup of fluid behind the eardrum, ear infections, childhood diseases, and head trauma.  Hearing loss can also be a characteristic of other disabilities such as Usher, Down, Crouzon, Treacher Collins, or Alport syndromes.

Once again, regardless of the cause, early detention and intervention are imperative since deafness and hearing loss are so closely tied to the development of communications skills.

The latest government statistics showed slightly more than 70,000 students qualified for special education services under the category of hearing impairment.  That is slightly more than 1% of all special education students in the United States.

Fortunately for both parents and teachers an abundance of help is available if a child is suspected of having hearing problems.  The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides for free evaluation of any child suspected of having a hearing problem.  If the child is less than 3 years old, states are mandated to provide services.  Over 3, parents should contact their local public school district for screening and special education services.

Deafness is a disability that can impact the remainder of a child’s life whether it is present at birth or develops later.  Parents and teachers need to be alert for any sign that a hearing disability is present.

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Grant Info:

Grant Name:  Tommy Wilson Memorial Grant

Funded By:  American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation

Description:  The Tommy Wilson Memorial Grant supports recreational programs for individuals with disabilities

Program Areas:  Disabilities, Special Education

Recipients:  Public School, Private school, High Ed, Other

Proposal Deadline:  December 1^st each year

Average Amount:  $500.00 - $1,500.00

Email:  [email protected]/aapar/

Website:  http://www.aahperd.org/aapar/

Availability:  All States

Activity Guide: Joey Jump

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 Joey Jump.

Introduction:

The Joey Jump is an intoxicating tool designed for the development of whole body integration.  The Joey Jump can be used with an individual child to teach body awareness and motor planning, eye-hand coordination skills, visual tracking, and bilateral integration skills. When used in a group, teamwork and social skills can also be integrated into the activity. The Joey Jump includes two spots for beanbag placement providing for natural gradation of the activity from easy to harder. Most importantly, children are drawn instinctively to this product.

Activity Ideas:

·        Count the catches. See how many consecutive catches the child can achieve. If you have more than one child, you can have individual competitions to see who can catch the most, since not much room is required for use. Multiple Joey Jumps can be set up in a small area for competitions.

·        Monitor the height.  In order to teach body awareness, instruct the child to hit the Joey Jump with the same amount of force each time to see if the beanbag can fly at the same height each time.

·        Challenge the child to stomp with his/her right foot and catch with his/her left hand and vice versa to teach skills such as bilateral integration and crossing the midline.

·        Have a therapist or teacher stomp on the Joey Jump to change the height of the beanbag flight and challenge the eye-hand and visual tracking skills of the child.

·        Work in groups. With two children, one can stomp and one can catch. With more than two children, take turns on who catches, or challenge them by calling out a name while the beanbag is in the air to challenge their listening skills as well as their motor reactions.

·        Do team relay races. Put separate Joey Jumps opposite each other. One child stomps and catches and then has to run the beanbag to his teammate. That child stomps and catches and runs it back to the other side. The child must continue the stomp and catch until he/she catches the beanbag in the air before delivering it to his teammate.

·        Challenge with two beanbags. Place both beanbags on the Joey Jump and see if the child can catch both with one stomp.

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

Don Peek - Disability: Developmental Delay

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.

Disability:  Developmental Delay

Children develop many skills in their early lives.  Parents often worry that their children are not turning their heads quickly enough, crawling at the proper time, or beginning to speak at a certain age.  While many of the time parents’ concerns are overblown, it is good for parents to regularly check their child’s progress and make sure the child is indeed developing properly.

The development of each of these skills is often called a developmental milestone.  Two children born at the same time may develop certain of these skills months apart, but both should develop the skill within a particular range of time.  It’s when these skills are not being developed properly or within this broad range that parents should begin to take action.

A parent’s first step should be to take the child to a pediatrician.  Most of us are so tuned in to using the Internet these days, it is likely that a parent will have already researched developmental delays and the proper timeframes for children to develop certain skills before they ever consider going to the expense of taking the child to a pediatrician.  All of that research is fine, but a competent pediatrician can give a parent certain assurances.  Doctors are very aware that children do not develop at the same pace, and while some children show slow steady growth, others have bursts of development which allow them to catch up with other children.

However, the pediatrician may see true signs of developmental delay and suggest the parent have the child go through developmental screening.  This evaluation should be done by a highly trained professional and should show the strength and weakness of a child in five areas:

1)      Physical development

2)      Cognitive development

3)      Communication development

4)      Social or emotional development

5)      Adaptive development

The results of this evaluation should be used to determine if a child needs early intervention services.  These services are a very important resource to children who experience developmental delays.  These services may include assistive technology, hearing services, language services, counseling and training for the family, medical services, nursing services, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and/or psychological services.

States have an obligation to help children experiencing developmental delays.  The Child Find system operated by each state can assist with screenings and evaluations.  These are usually performed free of charge.  A pediatrician typically makes the referral to the state’s Child Find system.

Once a child reaches the age of three, the local public school system has the responsibility to evaluate a child with signs of developmental delays and to provide services to children who are determined to actually have developmental delays.  This responsibility is defined in IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Again, parents with children under three should contact their pediatrician for a referral to the state’s Child Find system for evaluations and services.  If their children are three or older, those parents should contact the local public education authorities for evaluation and services.

It is not uncommon for parents to worry about their children not crawling, walking, or talking when they feel they should.  If, however, a child is not developing within certain broad guidelines easily found on multiple sites on the Internet, parents should get their children to a pediatrician to begin the evaluation process to truly determine whether a child has developmental delays and needs special services to remedy those delays.

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Grant Info:

Grant Name:  IWP Foundation Educational Grants

Funded by:  Innovating Worthy Projects Foundation

Description:  Giving on a national basis; giving internationally if agency is recognized by the United Nations to provide support primarily for the education, service, and care of disabled and special needs children, and pre-school programs. No grants to individuals.

Program Areas:   Community Involvement/Volunteerism, Early Childhood, General Education, Health/PE, Math, Reading, Science/Environment, Social Studies

Recipients:  Private School, Other

Proposal Deadline:  12/31/12

Average Amount:  $1,000.00 - $8,000.00

Telephone:  305-861-5352

Email:  [email protected]

Website:  http://www.iwpf.org

 Availability:  All States

Activity Guide: Moon Launch

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 Moon Launch.

Introduction:

The Moon Launch is a large cushion filled with foam and covered with a waterproof, easy-to-clean, pliable nylon cover. It is a perfect tool for either individual or group sensory activities. The use of individual foam blocks as a filler means the Moon Launch will surround the child providing an excellent source of proprioceptive feedback while also providing an uneven surface for the provision of vestibular input.

Activity ideas:

·        Use it as a crash pillow. For the child with an excess amount of energy, set the Moon Launch up in a safe place and have the child jump and land on it or put it as the final destination for a scooter board path where the child crashes into the Moon Launch.

·        Use for balance and vestibular input. Have the child walk on, lie down and barrel roll, bear-crawl, crab walk, or summersault on the Moon Launch. It provides a safe landing for classroom, home or clinic "gymnastics."

 

·        Use as part of an obstacle course. Using any of the motor challenges above makes the Moon Launch a perfect piece of an obstacle course. Other motor challenges can include crawling or "snaking" under the Moon Launch. This will provide proprioceptive input combined with vestibular input for a more powerful sensory experience.

·        Use as a safe sensory place for breaks. The Moon Launch can be used for a child to sit on or lie on quietly to escape a challenging sensory environment. Used in this way, the Moon Launch will provide a good amount of proprioceptive input for a calming effect. It can also be used as part of quiet room with other sensory products such as bubble tubes, mood lights, music, etc.

 

·        Use as a "nap time" tool for the child with sensory challenges. The foam cushion in the Moon Launch will wrap the child in comfort and pressure to help encourage sleeping.

 

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

Don Peek - Disability: Emotional Disturbance

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.

Disability:  Emotional Disturbance

Over the next several weeks I’m going to discuss a number of disabilities.  The first I want to discuss is emotional disturbance.  Remember, any handicap must adversely affect a student’s educational performance before it is considered a disability under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).  Children could have a mild emotional disturbance but still function well in the standard classroom.  Those children would not have a recognized disability.

Children who do have emotional disabilities that affect their educational performance fall into five categories.  They have:

1)      An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.

2)      An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.

3)      Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.

4)      A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression

5)      A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

This term includes schizophrenia, but does not include students who are simply socially maladjusted unless they have additional characteristics of emotional disturbance.

Many more male students are identified as having an emotional disturbance than girls.  This is probably due to teachers making most of the referrals.  Boys tend to exhibit outward, disruptive behavior when they have an emotional disturbance while girls tend to internalize and exhibit more anxiety and depression.

It is recommended that teachers and parents follow some guidelines when dealing with emotionally disturbed children.

1)      Choose your battles.  Ignore the small stuff that does not truly disrupt the environment.

2)      You may think children are misbehaving deliberately when in reality the behavior is beyond their control.  Try to figure out what triggers bad behavior and change the circumstances if possible.

3)      Teachers and parents need behavior charts.  This will help detect trends and triggers and can also help you positively reinforce proper behavior.

4)      All students have some strengths.  Use them to motivate students and to help them have experiences with success.

5)      Keep lines of communication open between home and school.  It is imperative that the two be consistent in dealing with an emotionally disturbed child.

While it is almost always difficult for teachers and parents to deal with students who are emotionally disturbed, can you imagine what it’s like for each of these children?  What if people looked at you funny?  What if you didn’t have friends?  What if you said inappropriate things at inappropriate times?  What if you were depressed and simply didn’t care what was going on around you or so anxious that you felt paralyzed much of the time?

Being emotionally disturbed is certainly no fun.  Just remember that as hard as it may be, these children need the uncompromising love and support of their teachers and their families.  Do your part.

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Grant Info:

Grant Name:  Citi Foundation Grants

Funded by:  Citi Foundation

Description:  Giving on a national and international basis, with emphasis on areas of company operations to support organizations involved with education, health, employment, housing, disaster relief, financial counseling, human services, community development, and economically disadvantaged people. The foundation utilizes an invitation only process; unsolicited proposals are not accepted.

Program Areas:  Arts, At-Risk/Character, Community Involvement/Volunteerism, Disabilities, Early Childhood, General Education, Health/PE, Math, Reading, Science/Environment, Social Studies

Recipients:  Public School, Private School, Higher Education, Other

Proposal Deadline:  None

Average Amount:  $10,000.00 - $250,000.00

Telephone:  212-559-9163

Email:  [email protected]

 Website:  http://www.citifoundation.com

 Availability:  All States