5/22/2023
Topic:
Students With Disabilities
edith sorensen
|
I had a kindergartener who was not only deaf, but his parents were teaching him a sign language that they "made up" and it was only for daily tasks. Eating, sleeping, toileting. I modeled everything for him, we made a picture board for every noun in the classroom, sat him in such a way that he could see me "behind" his para who was signing everything that I said. Worked through a lot of "yes / no" choices. Eventually he did make some friends, and the whole class did learn a lot of correct sign language. |
5/23/2023
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
edith sorensen
|
Describe at least one way you have used technology to meet the needs of a student with a disability in your classroom. Be sure to describe the specific technology and how it assisted the student with a disability.
I had a student with cerebral palsy - and it was pretty severe. When he started with me he was paralyzed with the exception of his eye movement and his right thumb and forefinger, he could not talk but he did have a laugh "of sorts"- this did improve over many years of hard work on his part. Around 2nd grade he received an iPad that had eye tracking ability. This used infra-red light to track his eyes movements. By putting a selection of choices onto the iPad - say 8 different colors, we could ask him "which color do you want to start with" and he would direct his gaze to the color he wanted, and then the computer generated voice would say "blue" (or whatever), and if it was what he wanted- (sometimes he looked at the wrong color too long while trying to make up his mind) he would "laugh". This was a fantastic thing to have as we were able to build a
"library of choices" for all the different things, not only in the art room, but also for the rest of his day. Which was so much better than holding up two choices at a time until we finally got to the one he wanted. |
5/23/2023
Topic:
Students With Disabilities
edith sorensen
|
Think of a student with a disability you have now, or have had in the past. Identify their disability. Describe the way in which their disability affected their learning. Describe at least one or more ways you successfully accommodated or modified instruction for this student. Share your response in the threaded discussion.
I have had many students with various disabilities - which makes this question difficult. If a modification helps one kid, I throw it out to the whole class to see who else it helps. Over the years these different modifications have just become a part of my teaching. So I can't tell you the exact kid that some of this is for, only that these things work. 1. If the people around you are not bothered and it is safe, sit how you want. Sit on the floor, stand, kneel, whatever works- yes now differentiated seating is a buzz word- I've been doing it for almost 2 decades. 2. vocabulary is difficult for some kids- so (when possible) just draw me a picture- yes horizontal means left to right - but so does -------. |