I've already picked my at-work colleagues' brains, and my own, so now I'm wondering if my on-line colleagues have any thoughts! I tutor an 8-year old boy who is VERY physically involved. He uses eye gaze to make choices, and I'm trying hard to teach him to use a head switch. That's it as far as ways to express significant amounts of information (he does respond with some facial expressions, but that only gives so much information). Considering his physical needs, he's able to understand a lot. (Definitely cognitively delayed, but not as much as many children at his level of physical involvement). He's getting beyond my basic ideas, and I'm not sure where to go next. Things we do: sorting--I give him an item, photograph, or picture, show him the 2 piles/baskets it could go, and have him look at the right one. (He's good at this). Patterning--simple patterns, what color comes next. Basic listening comprehension questions about a story, using objects and picture symbols. I've been working with him to develop a picture symbol vocabulary. But right now he does not have a good way to access the pictures for himself. I'd love to get him able to use a computerized system someday, but he's not ready yet. He doesn't have the head control for a head operated one, and he's not quite gotten the hang of some of the other more fine-tuned switches. I want to keep him learning in the meantime. I'm trying to develop number recognition, and number/quantity correspondence. We work on sequencing--I have puzzle cards for common activities; also I'll make up simple summaries in mayer-johnson pictures from stories I read to him. I've been focusing on adding more content to what we read together. I would love to see him read or comprehend a little more math, but I'm feeling stuck on how to get there. If anyone has any thoughts, please share. B/c even if your exact idea won't work, it could lead to more ideas, and that's what brainstorming is all about!! Thanks.
BCBlue, Are you familiar with the Early Literacy Skill Builder program? We were trained to use this with our Severe/Profound students this year and it has also worked well with our Moderate/Severe students. It focuses on "recognizing" sight words (to the best of the child's ability) and also works on comprehension (making a choice out of 2, did we just read about apples or pencils?) It's a great program for kiddos like the one you are describing. http://www.attainmentcompany.com/featured/elsb/ Is he able to move his hands at all? I'm guessing not since you mentioned a head switch... but if you have access to computers and software programs, you could check into some literacy software programs... I know some of our students have switch activated (which there are many ways to access this, even if you have a peer "turn" the page by hitting the switch, that's a great social activity). Don Johnston makes "Start-to-Finish" books that allow the child to have access to grade level activities, as well as simple comprehension activities to go along with them. http://www.donjohnston.com/products/start_to_finish/library/index.html There are also math games for the computer that are similar to the start-to-finish books but display and demonstrate math skills for the child.
I've never used ELSB. I was looking over the website and it looks great--I'm going to ask around at work tomorrow, see if anyone has it. Or how open people would be to getting it. . . . I'd like to get him on switch-activated computer programs. Problem is he's also home-bound and not likely to be coming to school anytime soon--I can't drag our school's computers there (as they're all desktops), and the family doesn't have a computer at all. . . Great links--thanks--I'm going to look into these!
