I do not have much experience with speech and language disorders. I worked for a long time in preschools, so I do have some experience with emerging language, and some children developed their language faster and more deftly than others, but at a preschool level most speech delays are not diagnosed yet. Many speech delays straighten out before kindergarten.
My own daughter turned 5 and was still not pronouncing her L's, K's, or G's. I had been working with her on flashcards, trying to get her to pronounce these sounds. When she turned 5, I became concerned. She would be starting kindergarten in a few months and she was calling it "tinderdarden". I called the school district and made an appointment for my daughter with the speech pathologist, 3 weeks away. During the next 2 weeks, my daughter started pronouncing all of her letters correctly. I cancelled the appointment, and my daughter never had any speech problems again. Some speech problems are temporary, and some are permanent. In early childhood, language can develop slower than "normal". Some impairments require accommodations. The media portrays people with speech impairments as people with intellectual impairment. The media is reflective of our culture, and our culture is mean and exclusionary. People with speech impairments are different, and people who are different get ridiculed. It's terrible, but it is true. When I thought about a famous person with a speech impediment, Elmer Fudd was the first to come to mind. But then I thought about a real human example and I thought of Mike Tyson. People will make fun of Mike Tyson's lisp, but never to his face. I found this great video of Mike Tyson 30 years ago, on the Joan Rivers Show. Young Mike Tyson was so soft spoken, level-headed, and humble. https://youtu.be/1C9dNG1-uIc
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Teachers, parents, and community members can all find much valuable information on autismspeaks.org. Visitors to the site can find great links to resources. For educators, it provides teaching strategies to help students with autism.
Motivation is important. Keeping yourself motivated as a teacher and motivating your students with positive reinforcement strategies will help make your classroom enthusiastic about learning. Children with autism can be frustrated easily with negative feedback. Using assistive technology in the classroom will help your students with autism communicate their knowledge. They can use headphones with the technology, and that helps the student block out distractions in the environment. A Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) can help students with limited verbal communication skills express themselves. Using a set code of pictures for words and thoughts, the students can help make themselves understood. The autism genome database is revolutionary. By gathering genetic information worldwide, researchers have identified 18 new autism-linked genes, so far. This new database helps to better illustrate that autism affects the entire global community. I took the Light it Up Blue quiz on the website. I got 6 out of 6: I am a "Awesome Autism Advocate". The questions all pointed to the main idea: People with autism should be treated with dignity and respect. The website even has a link for parents to find autism-friendly events in their area. This gives the kids a place to go where the sensory input won't upset them, and it gives parents a way to gather with other parents who can appreciate what they are going through. The first step to successful differentiation in your classroom is acknowledging that all students learn differently. You must understand and respect that each learner is a different person with individual needs. Differentiation means acknowledging and teaching to these differences.
The classroom should be arranged to accommodate both individual and group work. Some learners work better in groups and others do better individually. Form learning groups in your classroom with differentiated learning styles, capabilities and interests. Provide more information to the kids who want more. Provide resources to help individuals and groups work according to their capabilities. Present information several ways. Different learners learn differently. Visual learners benefit from books. Auditory learners fare better with audio books. Kinesthetic learners will learn better from an interactive assignment online. Recognizing each individual's potential and limitations is the key to differentiation. Helping each student perform to the best of their individual abilities is the ultimate goal of education. Students with ADHD perform better in a classroom that is structured with clear rules. The rules should be posted. The expectations of behavior should be established.
Students with ADHD have less distraction if they are seated in the front row. Also, if seated close to the teacher, the teacher can prompt them to stay focused. Tables arranged for group seating can be too distracting. Windows and hallways can be distracting. Certain other children are distracting. You can try different seating locations in the classroom and see what works for this particular child with ADHD. Headphones can be helpful for concentration and blocking out auditory distraction. Designate part of the classroom to be less distracting. A quiet reading area can be arranged without bright colors or artwork hanging from the ceiling. It should be a visually quiet space. All the children in the class will benefit from having a serene reading corner. There are four assessment strategies listed in the text: norm-referenced assessment, criterion-referenced assessment, curriculum-based measurement, and portfolio assessment.
Type of assessment: Capability is measured by: Work is sampled: Norm-referenced assessment performance of peers one time/test score only Criterion-based assessment particular level of mastery one time/test score only Curriculum-based measurement their previous performance frequently and on curriculum systematically Portfolio assessment their previous achievements across subject areas and over time All four strategies have benefits and using all four together seems like the most comprehensive strategy. Norm-based assessment is useful because it is an easy way to identify the children who are not learning at the same rate as the others. After identifying the students who need more help, further assessments can be helpful. Criterion-based assessment is helpful because it does not depend on comparison to other children. These teacher-made tests test for proficiency in specific areas. These tests are another tool that help identify children who need extra help. Curriculum-based measurement is effective to track a student's progress within the curriculum. Student performance is compared to their previous progress. So the student is on his own educational journey, not compared to performance of peers or arbitrary generic scoring criteria. Portfolio assessment is an authentic assessment. It is the most accurate assessment of what a student has accomplished in all subject areas. Recognizing multidisciplinary progress gives a stronger assessment of how much the student is capable of achieving. Technology is amazing. I clearly remember my grandparents marveling at their new VCR. The new technology was simultaneously amazing and scary to them. They never learned to program the clock because they were afraid to push any of the buttons. I was a kid, so I thought it was hilarious that I always had to program the VCR for them. Compared to my grandparents, I was proudly tech savvy. I had the first remote control television of all my friends, and we were the first on our block to get cable. I remember when digital watches and cordless phones were new and exciting. Technology has advanced so much in my lifetime and it moves further every day, I can hardly keep up. I now feel like my grandmother, flummoxed by the clock on the VCR. Meanwhile, my ten year old is writing code.
When I was a kid, all the math teachers had the same mantra, "You won't have a calculator with you all the time." It was the standard excuse for not allowing calculators in class. Well, they should feel pretty silly now because almost everyone has a calculator on them all the time. They never saw it coming. Assistive technology changes lives for the better. The technology helps people to achieve more and to better communicate with others. They can now express themselves like never before. These technologies have literally given some people a voice. The argument against it (simply because it is new) is not a valid argument. All great ideas were new once. Any new technology that improves the quality of life for people with disabilities is a great idea. This is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/lsbFs8cbzF4
Find a video of an IEP meeting online
The meeting in the video did match how the text described an IEP meeting. The team was all there, with a general education teacher and the special education teacher, home economics teacher, principal, counselor, mom, and student. Everyone had place cards to identify who they were. The principal opened the meeting by reintroducing the student Jane to the group. The principal spoke briefly of Jane and her home situation and her plans for the future. It was very positive and reminded the group of their goals. The teachers spoke individually of how Jane's assignments could be accommodated and she could graduate on time if she followed the course of study. All of the teachers added a note of encouragement. The counselor spoke of Jane's plan for transitioning out of high school, and her plans to work in child care after graduation. The counselor suggested Jane volunteer 5 hours a week at the local Boys and Girls Club to gain experience in child care. The mother agreed that was possible. Then all the education requirements were addressed, and the principal asked if there was any other thoughts. The counselor said she thought it should be discussed that Jane seemed to adore the idea of getting pregnant before finishing high school. The mother seemed defensive about that, saying that was something that should be discussed at home. The meeting was adjourned. I believe the mother missed an opportunity to emphasize the idea that having a baby in high school was not a good idea. The mother's reaction of this not being the school's business probably reinforced the daughter's idea that having a baby in high school is okay. The counselor wanted to talk about the challenges Jane would face if she got pregnant in high school, and the mother did not want it discussed. I personally wish I could find out if Jane had a baby before graduation. I, as an educator, would make everyone comfortable during the IEP process by modeling the attitudes I saw in this video. All of the educators spoke warmly to and about Jane. They presented themselves as a support system, there to help Jane accomplish her goals in life. When assessing culturally and linguistically diverse students, four principles provide a basis for best practices. Having a full multidisciplinary assessment team means including someone familiar with the language and cultural background of the student. The translator should be familiar with the assessment process so they can better assist the team and the parents. The parents should be included in assessment so they can provide input and act as advocate for their child.
Pre-referral strategies are important because they determine if the student needs to go to referral process. By comparing the student to other children with similar backgrounds, it can be determined if the student may have special needs or if the child was not given prior instruction and an opportunity to learn. Understanding their history can provide information about where the student's previous instruction may have failed. Language assessment is significant because students will not score well on tests if that student does not speak the test's language well. Tests should be administered in the student's native language and English to determine if the student needs special education rather than simply measuring English language skills. Appropriate assessment tailored to the child utilizes both formal and informal testing in a variety of environments. Formal standardized testing needs to be scrutinized for possible cultural bias. Informal testing, including interviews, will be most effective when done in both languages. I am very excited about my field experience hours this semester. Last semester, I did my observation hours through the C.A.R.E. mentoring program in Bensenville. I am lucky: I was able to retain that placement for this semester. I go on Fridays to Ms. Pyne's fifth grade classroom. I get there at 11am for Language Arts. Then at 11:45 they switch around, some go and others come in for math. During Language Arts I help individual students with their writing assignments. During math, I run a math game with small groups of kids. I really enjoy working with this class.
I am not nervous about this at all, because I know the teacher and the class. It was great to see everybody again. The kids were glad so see me, too. I have been going all school year so I know what the teacher and students expect from me, so I have no reason to be nervous. I plan to continue working closely with the children to help them master their assignments. In Language Arts I get to work individually with the students on their writing projects, and they are happy to have the extra help. I am going to strengthen my experience this semester by learning all the students' names. I will admit that I did not commit their names to memory last semester. As I work with them this semester, I have vowed to myself that I will learn all their names to establish a stronger connection with them. |
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April 2017
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