Parents of Children with disabilities, Insight SBS: Breaking Point

As some of you may know from my previous posts, I work in special education and have done so for the past 4+ years of my teaching career. I absolutely love working in special education and working with many truly amazing and inspiring children and colleagues.  I have taught students with a range of disabilities but particularly have a soft spot for children with high support needs. Children in this category are completely dependant for the basic things in life including eating, personal hygiene, getting dressed, washing/bathing, and many other day to day routines that we easily take for granted. That being said, never underestimate what some of these children can achieve despite their disablity.

I was so happy tonight when I decided to take a look on my Twitter account to see what was happening and discovered that the Insight program on SBS had done a story about parents who are at breaking point with the lack of support for parents of children with disabilities. My heart went out to these parents because while I am not a parent of a child with a disability, I am a teacher and hence an advocate for these kids and I understood their message.   If you can do but one thing for me and click on the link and watch the video of tonight's story and see what life can be like for these parents.

 I work with kids who scratch, bite, kick, punch,spit, swear, push, charge at you and that is on a good day!! But for me and many other teachers, we go home at the end of the day lick our wounds and rest for the day ahead. Unfortunately the same can't be said for the parents, its a round the clock job and I know of many families like the mother who is taking care of her 30 year old son and can't sleep because he can choke on his own saliva and Boyd's family who live and function around him. I also know of many families who struggle with limited respite hours and in some cases, parents didn't even know respite was available to them. Its a system that really needs a large public spotlight shined on it and thanks to Insight SBS, you have just scraped the surface. Respite is a big issue but there are also issues of children who wait for long periods of time sometimes 12 months plus to get therapy equipment like wheelchairs, which are essential to their mobility, but anyway I won't get started on that!!  I do want to take a moment to praise the wonderful teachers in special education. I have worked with some truly inspiring teachers who put a lot of time and effort into helping children with disabilities reach their full potential. Its an amazing experience to see a child achieve a learning goal, that most people on the street wouldn't think would be possible.

Please take the time to watch the Insight SBS you will be glad that you did.


http://www.sbs.com.au/insight/episode/watchonline/495/Breaking-Point

Ipad App Reviews for Home, Special and Mainstream Education: Play School Art Maker and Injini

Most of my regular readers know that as well as being a mum to 4 kiddies and a lover of good food, I am also a Primary School teacher of 10 years. I am currently working in Special Education but I am a mainstream trained teacher. Working in Special Education has been one of the most rewarding experiences of not just my professional career, but also my life. Its an amazing experience to be part of the development of a child who has either mental or phsycial challenges, and in many cases both.

There are many forms of technology which hels us as educators and the students learn more effectively and one in particular I can't praise enough is the IPad. I love the IPad. I have seen many students who have not cared for class involvment come alive when the Ipad has been introduced to them. I have seen students understand concepts and learn word meanings and pictures more readily because of the use of the Ipad. I have also seen students become engaged, move their limbs and move their eyes because they enjoyed and learned something on the Ipad. Its amazing and I highly recommend any parent, caregiver, or educator to consider the use of the Ipad in their child's educational and social development.   For children in mainstream education, I can't say if the Ipad makes an appearance as much as it might in Special Education, but I truly hope it does. Computers have their place and I don't think can be replaced, but I think every classroom should be using an Ipad or tablet to reinforce learning concepts that may normally baffle some students.  I can tell you from experience that when you make learning fun, the children will respond!

So if you have an Ipad or tablet, what apps should you be considering? Well, there are truly thousands out there to consider. One of my best resouces that I always go to is TheImums, they are always reviewing and recommending something new. I also have some other resources that are on another post which you might find interesting and helpful, especially if you have a child with special needs.

Today one of the apps I will be reviewing is actually free and I came across by accident. I was searching for apps for the Ipad I use at work and discovered, ABC's Play School Art Maker. This is for Ipad only and so much fun. Its a little like digital scrapbooking, but with all the characters of Play School, like Big and Little Ted, Gemima, Diddle, Humpty etc. You start be choosing a background scene:

Then you can go about adding pictures from the selection at the top of the screen. Some of the actors from Play School make encouraging comments as you choose pictures and place them on the scene.  The other reason why I love this app is because other than the familar toys, the items you can choose are pictures that are made up of recycled materials and look handmade, just like in the show. So your little one, will feel like they are part of it all. The best part of the app is saved to last. You then get to either take a picture of your scene, or you can make a 30 second video and move the pictures around and speak or sing a song, which then can be played back.  All my kids, including the older ones love this part best of all. My 11 year old daughter can easily spend an hour making different scenes with different dramatic voices and mini songs! Its lots of fun! Scenes can also be saved in an album for later use

This is great fun for home, but it can also be incorporated at school. This could be used in a drama lesson for early stage 1 - 2 depending on how you make it work for your class. This is also good for turn taking in special education and also speech development.  There is a whole range of options with this app.

The other app I want to review is Injini. I came across this app via Theimums. There was a special education app giveaway happening and Injini was highlighted. So I gave it a go and I have to admitt, this is truly one of my favourites. I downloaded the lite version, which is very generous with what you recieve. The full version I think is around $30 and I will be upgrading sometime in the near future. I downloaded it mainly for school, but my son who is 3 loves this app.

As you can see from the picture, you have a range of activities to choose from( this I think is from the full verson, not all pictured is in the lite version). Each activity starts in its easiest form and then increases in difficulty. One of the main things that I liked about this app is that before each activity begins, you are prompted to wait and then a count down begins, 3, 2,1. Then you can proceed. I liked this because I found it helped students with autism to learn how to wait and when they saw the counting down paddle it let them know, " I have to wait". You can also use this counting down as a learning experience for the child as well. It really is a great app that I highly recommend for students with special needs, and children ages 2+. My son loves the matching game which is bottom left on the picture above. Each activity focuses on different learning experiences and developments for children.

I have many more apps on my Ipad which I would love to share with you all. I will post reviews as I can, but please do leave a comment if you would like to pass on an app that you like and think others would like to. I also have a Meandering Monday Blop Hop and if you also post about the apps you like, please link up on the blog hop too, this would be invaluable information for parents and educators alike. The Blog Hop stays open for almost 14 days, so there is plenty of time to add a post.

Mother's Day Craft Inspirations for School, Home, and Church

Its almost one of the most special days of the year! Or should I say the most?  Of course, being a mum, I love this day. I love that my kids and my husband go to great lengths to show me how much I mean to them. The best part about Mother's day for me is to see the Mother's Day crafts that the kids have been putting so much love and effort into at daycare and school. Whenever my husband asks me what I want for my present, I let him know that all I care about is the kid's crafts. Every year I look forward to seeing what they have created, and being a creative person, when they tell me how much effort they put into it and what kinds of things inspired them, it's truly priceless:)

I also like to check out Mother's Day crafts for my church and school classes. I usually scour the web, but since Pinterest has been around, its been so easy to find new creative and amazing little crafts. I would like to share some of them with you. Please see my 'follow me' Pinterest button to the right and follow me:) You can also see all my craft inspiraitons at my Craftsie board. If you want to follow my foodie inspirations, see my Yummo Food board.

I hope you like these ideas and please be sure to check out my Craftsie board so you can get the full links on how to do these awesome crafts:) Happy Mother's Day!

Melting Crayons Holiday Art & Special Needs Art Class

Ever since I discovered that you can can melt crayons and make it into an art piece or a new medium to reuse, I had to do my own!! The wonderful world of Pinterest introduced me to this artform and while some of you may think it simple and not really art, to me its quite expressive and the most amazing part is that the you are only limited to your own imagination with what you can come up with!

About 4 years ago I started working in special education and one of the activities I did with one of my classes was to break up crayons, which the kids loved to do and put them into silicon shaped cupcake trays and then pop them in the oven. The crayons we created were well recieved by the students and the art works that followed with the students using them were fun and creative! Melting down crayons are fun and make great presents for kids.

Well back to what I has inspired me lately. Here is a picture that got me thinking.

Then I came across this blog about working this idea into a special needs classroom which inspired me further to try and make this particular artform work in my class this year. Aside from that I really wanted to experiement with this idea at home and make something with the kids to put up on our walls. So I purchased some canvases from the Hot Dollar shop and two packets of 25 crayons, not crayola brand, but any wax crayons work well, it just depends on what colours you want to use. I wanted to do something with my kids's hand prints and then have the melted crayons around the hands. I decided to use clear contact. I traced around my son's hands on the paper side of the contact then cut them out. I stuck each hand on the canvas in the position I wanted them. Then I went about melting the crayons. I didn't do it the exact way as above. I really had no specific plan other than to give it a go and see what came of it. I think it worked out well. When you have finished melting the crayons and got the desired look, carefully peel away the contact.

You have to be really gentle with your hairdryer as I had some issues with the contact rolling up and off the canvas. Its a little bit fiddly, but I enjoyed it. My boys( 3, 6, 9) on the other hand got a bit bored, but at least I had fun right?!! I will also note that this can be done with your regular hair dryer and it will take a little while to do the crayons melting. Otherwise you can use a heat gun which can be purchased at Bunnings. The last time I was there I saw them for $20, I didn't get one because I wanted to see how my hair dryer went first.

I tried the hands again with my daughter who is 10, almost 11, and the contact didn't stay on well for hers so this is what we ended up with.

Its still bright and I will definately be putting both up on one of our walls in our house. My daughter really enjoyed this activity. She loved seeing the crayons melt into each other. The above picture isn't the best and doesn't really do the canvas justice unfortunately, but its the best I can do with no digital camera!
I am yet to get my other boys interested. They cared more for Wizard 101 today, which is a shame. I might just go ahead and do something for them anyway.

If you wanted to consider this for an art activity for a special needs class and you have students with high support needs. You can easily use a switch adapter for the hairdryer.

Fun on Youtube for children and children with Special Needs

In my last post, I shared some websites and apps that I like to use as a teacher. I also thought I should share some videos that I use for a range of purposes in the classroom. Another amazing form of technology that was introduced into our classroom late last year was the Interactive White Board (IWB) or a SMART Board. I think most classrooms have one of these now, or at least a couple in the one school. The IWB is an amazing tool for both mainstream and special needs schools. We love ours because it opens the classroom learning to all our students. In the past, we had to share a small computer, and this meant that usually only 1, sometimes 2, but usually 1 student could sit at the computer to do an activity with the teacher. Now, we can have all the students be part of an activity. They can either see it or hear it, and then be part of the experience. It also gives some students the opportunity to be part of an activity by just touching the board. Before, we would have to rely solely on adaptive technology (eg, a switch, or adapted mouse) to achieve similar outcomes. One particular thing I like to do with my students is help them write/spell(hand over hand) their names on the IWB. Then I let them use the pointer we use to decorate the page that their name is on. They love it! They love seeing that their touch on the board can make a squiggly line, or change the background colour. There are many other amazing things you can do with a IWB which I can touch on in future posts.

I also wanted to mention some fun things we do to fill in time. I use YouTube for songs that make our students smile. They like all types of music, from Shakira Waka Waka, to Black Eyed Peas Pump It. I personally love music so, I like to have it going as often as I can throughout the day. It keeps my feeling happy, and my students respond well to the different types of music that are played. On a side note, there are many studies that have proven that music and music therapy have positive affects on students with special needs. Some students that I have taught who are quite shy and quiet, become different kids when exposed to music, musical instruments, and singing. Its really an emotional experience as a teacher to see the students brighten up and participate.

Back  to what I like to put on Youtube. One particular group that I always play and my students absolutely love is GiggleBellies.  The clips are super bright and on an IWB the characters are quite large, so students with vision impairments are more likely to see the characters, or at least follow movements. The bright colours also help students with vision impairments and they are more likely to watch the screen in amazement or curiosity. As for the songs, well, there are all types like Incy Wincy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, and Five Little Monkeys. There are other that are new to me, but I can;t be sure if they are their own songs, or borrowed songs. I tend to have these songs going to, first thing in the morning when the kids are being bought to the classroom. It tends to set the mood for the morning program. Here is an example of one that one student in particular loves so much. It's called, "Mr Sun Sun,Mr Golden Sun".

As you can see, the colours are bright, and the song is cute. As for the characters, its up to you. Some might find them a little weird and quirky, but you can't deny how colourful they are and how happy they look. They are winners in my class and my son also loves the GiggleBellies and he is turning 3 in a couple of weeks.

Another I want to share with you is the timeless classic, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". There are many versions available, even GiggleBellies do a version, but the one I love best and my son loves, and my students, is done by SuperSimpleSongs. There is also an App available for Ipad, which, if I had an Ipad would be one of the first things I would purchase. This has been viewed on YouTube over 66million times! Take a look at the other Super Simple Songs, the animations are so cute!

Before I go, I want to mention another App site that I was recommended to check out. Apps for children with Special Needs is a site, by Dr Gary who is dedicated to reviewing great Iphone, Ipad apps that are suitable for children with special needs. There are some really good apps here and some that I have not seen before. I particularly like how Dr Gary does a video review of the apps as well. This gives you a sense of what it looks like, how it works, and what features you get, basically kinda like a try before you buy, but without you using it yourself. It also helps you know whether or not a particular app is suitable for your child or student, and this is so helpful! They are not brief videos, they are comprehensive and detailed, and I love this feature.

Anyway, take a look, he is currently reviewing his top25 apps for 2011. Already, I want to purchase Fun Words Deluxe and Bob's Books! I just wish I had an Ipad, it's much nicer to use a bigger screen than the Iphone.

I will be adding more over the Summer Holidays, so please follow me, or use the E-mail subscription link.

Educational Apps and websites for young Children and Students with Special Needs

As a teacher, I get asked a lot what kinds of sites are good for kids at home. On the spot, I always choke and can't think of them. So I decided to compile a few of them I can refer people here and I know where to come when I forget!!!

Currently, I work in special education and it has been an absolutely inspiring and delightful high in my career. I never thought I would end up in Special Education. I always felt it took a special person to take on Special Education, and 10 years ago, thought it could never be me. Maybe becoming a mother changed me, or at least bought something out it me I had, but didn't see. Either way, I am happy and love learning from my students as much as we teach them.

One particular site that we use quite often is Help Kidz Learn. This is a great site for students particularly in primary school,  but is catered for children with special needs. If your student or child uses a switch and it can be connected to the computer, this is an awesome site. If your students or child is in mainstream, you can use this site on the IWB (interactive whiteboard) and computer. Its heaps of fun and activities range in games, stories, art and a few others. Some games are for free, and others you will need to pay for. You will need to create a login to be able access the website, in the past this was not the case, but its an easy process. My students currently love the Christmas present game and Mystery Egg. Both of these games are cause and effect based. A present is on the screen and the student must touch the screen, or press the switch within a certain time frame to see/hear what happens next. An angel, reindeer, santa, or elf  pops out and christmas music plays. This is similar with the mystery Egg game but a monter or dinosaur pops out of the egg. There are heaps more games to enjoy. This is a great site for early learners too.

Just a little side note. A switch is a communication device. They come in all shapes and sizes and are used in many different ways. An adaptive switch can be connected to a specialised computer mouse, so that the switch works like a mouse would. Its so amazing and opens up so many more opportunities for students. I have added a photo so you can see what a basic adaptive switch looks like.

We use other switches like VOCA, which is stands for Voice Output Communication Apparatus. This is is like the above, but doesn't have a cord. We can record our voice to help a student communicate their wishes or a choice. For example, I could record my voice saying "More Please". On the switch I would have a picture symbol attached that represents this request. When feeding the student, I would stop momentarily and ask them, "What would you like" and they would learn to press the switch "More Please". If they don't want anymore, they don't press the switch. It takes time to teach this, but when it works, it awesome!
Another that comes to mind that is perfect for Early learners is STARFALL. This is an american site, not that it matters, but the voices have an american accents and there are American themed holidays and the sign language part is in ASL (American Sign Language) not Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and this does matter because there are big differences between the two.

I was actually referred to this site by one of my children's teachers a couple of years ago and I mentioned it to a teacher at school and they found it a wonderful tool for students at our school who are more independant and higher functioning in their learning ability. It basically starts with the alphabet and phonics. You learn about a letter (again its an american accent) and say words that start with that letter. There are activities for the letter too. Stage 2 helps you with reading with read-a-long books. Your child can read independantly and if they are unsure of a word, they use the mouse to have it said to them. Its also a good way to learn reading, by having the book read (modelled) first, then the child can read the book themselves, and use the mouse to help with words they get stuck on. These are great on the IWB, and I can assist my students to turn the page using a switch.  My students can't read, but we use the read-a-long feature, or I read to them.  You can also find STARFALL on the iPhone, Ipod, Ipad. Its a great all-rounder.

I will leave you this time with one more, that I use with one particular class. The students are older, and are quite good with their knowledge of maths and money. We go out into the community once a week to practise purchasing items. We have been practising money skills and we found, MATHS IS FUN. This site covers a range of topics. On the front page if you look to the left of the screen, you will see the Money topic. This is an awesome feature. We choose Money Master, which helps our students learn how many coins and which coins make up the amount requested. Its a lot of fun, very visual for the visual learners. You can choose your currency from quite a number of choices, which can come in handy if you are heading overseas and want to practice what the coins look like and how to use them!!
I had a lot of fun using it myself!!

I also want to share with you a site I found this evening. I came across THE IMUM. A mum who is in love with her MAC and became a little crazy over it decided to share her tips and reviews for apps found in the App Store for Iphone, Ipod, and Ipad. As there are so many apps, its great to come to a site with great recommendations, and especially the FREE ones!! I like how she details which Apps are suitabel for which devices, and what model. A lot of my apps, I find for my youngest and then realise they can be used in the classroom and vice versa. My students love watching and listening to books on the Ipad, so I was excited to see more FREE books that they can enjoy!  So thanks Imum for creating such a wonderful site for us to utilise:)

Before I leave you, if you have even been fascinated with AUSLAN, Australian sign language like I have then there is a really cool app available that can help you with the basic signs for AUSLAN. It is owned by the Royal Institute for the Deaf and Blind Centre. Its very interesting and easy to follow and the basic or key signs version is free. You can purchase other apps that are more detailed. The App is called, Auslan Tutor.

That's it for now, I will write more soon:)