Out of the Mouth of Babes

Andrew has come out with some doozeys tonight. I just had to get them down on paper.




Playing Apples to Apples he came out with some real winners:

• Wild: "My mom" because sometimes she is just really wild and crazy!
• Stinky: "Getting Mail" because there can be all those bills and stuff.
• Skinny: "Girls" when they have those abs muscles things. You know, those things that go pop pop pop. (As he demonstrates a 6 pack.)
• Loud: "Taking a bath" from the swooshing sound of the water. (Um..he's hearing impaired so he does not hear in the bath although he has heard me draw water. I guess he thinks like a hearing kid.)

Andrew was also insisting tonight that I am not a REAL teacher! This was while I was printing out coupons for reduced teacher membership at Henry Ford. His detail while playing Apples to Apples was very cool though. He could think up reasons for just about any card to fit. Of course we just 'played for fun.' I am happy that he is just now enjoying some of these games- if not for competition- at least it is a good relationship building time now.

Assumption No. 10...The Visual Cliff

Last week I blogged the top 10 assumptions made of those with hearing impairments and autism. I want to elaborate more on each one. I'll start with number 10.

10) Do not assume...that behavioral techniques work well with all children.

Everywhere we go, there is a behavioral model. Be good...and you get a sticker. Do this and you get a reward. That is fine for some kids. However it is not a good model for general learning and it doesn't work at all for many children. First, a behavioral model assumes you can TEACH every skill and this is a false assumption. Children learn primarily by observing others and if a child does not reference others for information then they won't learn all they need to know. Teaching numbers, letters, and even reading is relatively easy to but to learn social skills, one must reference. This is where Guided Participation (GP) comes in for us. The autism therapy that follows this model is RDI (Relationship Development Intervention) however the term GP has been around for a long time in the psychology world. In guided participation you go back to child development. Instead of filling in splinter skills you build from the ground up.

A typical one year old will reference their mom for information. There is a facinating experiment called the Visual Cliff. The floor is set up to look as if there is a drop off when in fact it is clear glass. But a child who references will look back to their mom for information to see if it is OK to continue. This is not something you can teach. It is something that is learned. An 18 month will do this well but older kids on the spectrum and with ADHD don't do this. RDI and guided participation set up situations so that a child has to reference their partner for information. It may start out very one sided and the 'master' (mom) will guide the 'apprentice' (child) very directly but GRADUALLY over time the 'scaffolding' is removed so that the child needs to reference their guide for more information to be successful. (You can read a PDF on the visual cliff here.)

So why are behavioral models employed everywhere? Primarly because they are an easy way to herd the masses. A teacher in school with 20 to 30 students must have a way to make order. These techniques WORK...for the class...and the teacher....but they are not effective for the child to learn. They are static. I have written before about trick-or-treating. It is easy to use a behavioral model, social stories, or play therapy to teach the 'rules' of trick-or-treating. However, in the 'real world, every house is different. Some houses give you candy, some let you take it from the bowl, some leave a bowl on the porch. Some give you one candy and the elderly neighbor next door always gives you a handful. How do you role play that with each scenario? If a child is uncertain, they need to look to an 'expert' for guidance. If a child learns to follow a guide they can then do that in social circles as well. (Hopefully NOT to deviant behavior! Hopefully they will then go to expert parents to guide them. The key is for the parent and God to be the primary reference point!)

The bevhaioral model does have data on it's side. But that data has not been followed through to 'real life.' It has been said that a brilliant child can make his way all the way through Harvard and never hold down a job. Even college is very static. You study, follow the rules, do the tests, read the books, get an A. But most jobs are never that way. Even task oriented jobs require interaction with others, following the lead of co-workers or a boss, and inner-subjectivity.

So the next time you are setting up your VBS, Sunday School, or even classroom, consider that not all kids work well with the behavioral model. Parents MUST be involved to make GP successful. It can not happen when all the onus is put on the school or church classrooms. But most parents who follow this philosophy love to be involved... Talk to the parents, branch our your thinking. And above all..don't assume!

Working in the Zone

I am reading Awakening Children's Minds. It is a fabulous book and is giving me 'permission' to work with Andrew where he is at developmentally. You have to 'get past' the age labels in the book and just look at the progression when you have a child who is 'behind." It is explaining a lot to me. Several years ago, I bought a ton of board games because Andrew was the age on the box. As I am reading the book I am discovering how you need to establish imaginary play well before you can 'rule play.' Many times therapies will try to teach rules and that can indeed be done but the child will not be as actively involved in the game as if you waited until they are ready. They need to 'play with rules' through imaginary play and then are comfortable playing by the rules. So Andrew is clearly moving toward games thought imaginary play.

When Andrew was about two years old we received two batches of Brio and Thomas train tracks that probably are worth several hundred dollars. All boys love trains..right? Well, not exactly. There they sat in the box year after year. We'd get them out to play with them a time or two and back they would go. They are in plain site so we have easy access to them. Andrew is well into pretend play. He builds cities out of blocks, lines up figurines to be in a parade (vs. just lining them up,) and then acts out elaborate scenes. I decided to try to incorporate the trains tonight and build a track together.

How did it go?

I started it as a guided participation / regulatory exercise where I would hand him a piece and he would put it in and then ideally we would switch roles. I should have thought through things a bit better; this is the first time we were doing this exercise and to end on MY terms I should have stuck to maybe 3 pieces of track. He took over and as I write this is designing his own track. I walked away at one point and pouted (loudly) at which point he said, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I just want to do it my way." He did just call me in to play on his "Andrew Express" LOL! We still struggle w/ the m/a relationship. I think all folks do at some level. If they don't then perhaps you just have a robot. He is however clearly in imaginary play. We do that together at other times- but it is nice also that he is developing the ability to play by himself nicely as well.

In any event, it is thrilling to see the progress the imagination and simply to see God at work.

Retelling an article on retelling....part one...

This post is my narration / retelling of the article Improving Reading Comprehension Through Retelling as written in the Summer '08 Charlotte Mason Educational Review. This is part one...focusing on the background and current brain research.


There are five paths to long term memory

• Semantic - understanding words


• Episodic - associated with location


• Procedural - repetition of movement


• Automatic - conditioned response triggered by a stimulus


• Emotional - feelings

Teachers rely on semantic but emotional is the most effective. The article gives potential reasons for this but I prefer less specific banter..It is what it is...I've seen it. In addition to reasons, the article also lists ways to enhance learning. Here are some we have done and will continue to enhance learning to make emotional connections.

• Act out the book with "characters"


• Do real world math. Just yesterday at a birthday part a kiddo was adding up his loot for a future trip to target. 15+10= $25 bucks man! I have to caution myself on this. Sometimes just play should be play....it is not ALWAYS a lesson
  
• Field Trips (more on that below.)
  
• Draw during narration
• Build Models- we did this as part of a homeschool lego class
• Experience Books
  

Here are some things I WANT to do:

• Graphic Organizers
• Use various techniques such as videotaping to encourage narration
• Ask less, listen more
• Build a peer group, of just a couple of kid, to see if this encourages narrating. (More on that in a later blog as peer narration is talked about extensively in the article.)
  
• Build more models
  

Making Connections

Another interesting point made is that those who are experts in a certain area tend to put info in much larger chunks. I know Andrew is a 'global' thinker. I recently blogged on my arts blog about how Andrew made a connection between waves in a puddle and the vibrations on musical instruments. I don't think this way- but i'd like to. I have a short long term memory. Aut-2-B-home recently directed me back to the Childlight Reviews and an article on scaffolding learning. I had read it, printed it, and even narrated on it via my blog...and still I forgot quite a bit. But I do have the general sense in my brain. I wonder how you make those global connections better as an adult??? I guess just doing it more helps you get better;)

The next section in the article tells us more on this- the HOW to make connections.

The best way to relate information read or presented is to correlate it to personal information. This could include graphic organizers or even pictures from a field trip. We have done oodles of Experience Books so perhaps I will pull these out even as we re-visit the same places over and over again. . Other ideas to cement things to personal experience includes field trips. I ponder how the public schools do field trips all the time- but what do they DO at the field trips??? I have seen them at Cranbrook, the Detroit Zoo, and the Detroit Institute of Arts with clipboards, worksheets and pen answering specific questions as related by the teacher or instructor. I think providing direction is important and it often frustrates me that Andrew wants to go off in his own direction; but when he does that he often finds his own connections. I need to continue working on the GUIDED participation as I don't feel that is cemented yet but it is sometimes nice just to go for a walk and see where it takes us. It is difficult to toggle back and forth between the two. (Any suggestions are welcome.) But these connections / discoveries are much greater for the child when made by the child. We need to provide the scaffolding but let the child remove the tarp to discover what is underneath.

----------

References

Spencer, Jennifer. (2008) Improved Reading Comprehension Through Retelling. Charlotte Mason Educational Review. pg 13

Wolfe, P. (2001). Brain matters: translating research into classroom practice. Alexandria, VA. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.