Supporting Independence for Students with C…

ideas and thoughts that a child wants to share with another. The activity can NOT initially be the AAC device. The adult needs to supplement the conversation about the activity and what is happening with the use of an AAC device. But the AAC device is used by the adult, and the activity is the important part for the child. Specific words can be chosen to be focused on within any activity, and then, after the activity, the adult can “write” or “record” what happened. This can happen with video, with photos, with drawings or just with words. A journal of activity can be developed, a journal of experiences, and include the use and development of activity with the adult using the AAC device. If a child was deaf, and needed to learn sign language we would not just give them a device which talked. We would learn sign, too, and use it with them. A child becomes interested in activity when they visualize themselves as competent in it. A child wants to learn to swim when they see others swimming. They want to ride a bike when they see others riding. They have a mental picture of themselves doing these activities. Then, their interests support them in the learning, and they can be very surprised that it takes time to become “good at it.” Children become interested in activity within their environments that they deem important. It is very easy to see any very young child, reaching for a mobile phone, or car keys. AAC devices need to be within our environments. Vocabulary development needs to be key to all students who are non-speaking. Everyone within their environment needs to be critically involved in teaching these words in context. Core words can be chosen by the teacher, or SLP, and all therapists and adults within the environment will use them purposefully for a specific time within their time spent with the student. PT’s and OT’s specifically need to include in their motor activities, experiences with the non-picture producing words. Like, “I am going to be helping your stomach go OVER the ball.” PUT your feet DOWN, when getting off the ball. I will HELP you” In summary: ACTIVITY first, USE of AAC device within the activity by the supporting staff, RECORD activity, so it can be reviewed and shared with the student, and ACCESS will come later. THE PHYSICAL CONFIGURATION OF THE CLASSROOM : The next challenge is looking at the ClassRoom itself. The students’ mobility within the classroom, and the situational seating and activity location all need to be observed. The physical configuration of the classroom. Let’s first look at self-contained classrooms. Frequently students with complex bodies are identified and taught in smaller groups with other students with complex bodies. More and more often, these classrooms are located within the schools their same age peers attend, and many students do participate in inclusionary settings for part of each day. However, the primary part of the day is within a single classroom, which contains a

great deal of equipment, which is not used for all activity. All teachers and therapists in these classrooms, wish for more space and more storage, as these classrooms were never expected to manage all the wheelchairs, standers, walkers, smartboards, computers, changing tables, small kitchens, and many adults. The number of adult bodies in this classroom at any given time and the amount of equipment used, is unexpected in standard traditionally sized classrooms. Also, none of us, therapists or teachers, took any courses in our preparatory years in college on how to manage these numbers of bodies and space. Consequently, in many of these classrooms, specific traffic patterns are unclear and changing. Let’s imagine a kindergarten student entering their school. They know where their classroom is, and knows how to get there, and they go there. Once they enter the room, they know what they are going to do first, and where they will then go next. This knowledge of the room, and where activities are located, and experience of getting there on their own, helps prepare the brain for focused activity. Compare this to a kindergarten aged student with a complex body, who is helped out of the bus, taken down to a classroom, and is “placed” by an adult somewhere within the room. This student does not control where they are going, their experience is just to wait until there might be some cues of what comes next. All human beings utilize early on a specific brain function called “cognitive mapping.” This begins at home as the very young child becomes independently mobile. This young child begins to move through their environment with purpose and intention, intention to discover that world, by getting close to objects, near people, touching items, and exploring. The child learns that as they move out of one room and to another, that certain objects reside in those places, and these things specifically relate to their personal, everyday life. Towels are in the bathroom, and so is the tub, and the sink. Toys may be in the bedroom and in the living room, but the refrigerator is in the kitchen. This movement through these areas and the knowledge of what resides there is called “cognitive mapping.”. It’s not simply a “map” like a geographical map, although those attributes are there, but there are relational attributes the brain begins to remember, and assimilate. Certain objects live in a space, and have a relationship to each other in that space. The knowledge of these items and the recognition of their place is one of the first of cognitive structures forming. This cognitive structure not only “records” this knowledge but is housed in “memory” as that develops too. In AT, cause and effect are spoken about as an initial“cognitive” construct, when, actually this is not a real cognitive construct. Causality itself moves through various stages in a child’s cognitive development, it is not a simple turn on/off paradigm. Babies already know that their crying is communicative, and that communication demand brings someone to them. Babies know

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