5. Invite same age peers to join activity, and include them in not talking but using an AAC device. This can be for a short period of time, (15 minutes, timed with a timer, no one can talk without a device). 6. THIS IS NOT EASY! Really changing the environment to be more student centered, to have clear traffic patterns to support cognitive mapping, to support more student mobility within the room, and planning how each adult will function within each activity, is not easy. Everyone needs to be involved, and compromises considered. A student- centered learning environment is not static, but it does require real planning, and use and frequent analysis, to work. SEATING FOR TASK ENGAGEMENT, AND ACTIVITY, AND ACCESS Children with complex bodies, (unless they have a spinal cord injury) have sensation, and bodies need to move to become engaged in activity. Not stay still. Seating for safe transport on the bus to get to school is very important. It has to be safe, and the child’s body must be safe within it. Strapping needs to include safe restraints, just as all seating in cars, and trucks for all of us. However, many of the students also have tilt in space chairs, and that tilt helps keep the body relaxed while being transported, just as car seats are tilted.
This type of seating promotes body relaxation. It is symmetrical, and often referred to as 90/90/90 seating. There is a pelvic belt, usually hip guides, often a pommel, a chest harness, trunk laterals, and ankle and foot straps, as well as head rest, and a tray. The seat and back are mounted at a 90 degree angle to each other. The front riggings, are mounted so that the knees and ankles are also at 90 degrees. These supports are all padded, and pulled snugly to ensure stillness of the body, against the surface of the seating system. These structures, supports and restraints are needed for safe, passive transport as many students have increased tone, involuntary movement, seizure disorders, etc. This seating is important. It brings the student to school safely. This same seating, seating to support relaxation of the body, is also important when the child is fed. Being fed, requires the child’s body to be relaxed, and when the child’s body is also tilted slightly (using the same seating described above), the head will flex slightly, which can support increased adequate swallowing. However, being in this same position to be engaged in activity within the school day, is not supportive of the brain/ body focus. The body cannot be resting, for the brain to work. The body must be purposefully active, and its chosen postures support task engagement. The more the body (anybody’s body) is in contact with a surface the more it will “give in” to that surface. Like a LazyBoy, there is a footrest, headrest, armrests, as it is meant to support rest and relaxation. No one sits in a Lazyboy to engage in
While Emily is in her Kidwalk, she is able to look up from her work.
Emily in the Kidwalk, working in her classroom with props, for a story.
24
www.closingthegap.com/membership | August / September, 2024 Closing The Gap © 2024 Closing The Gap, Inc. All rights reserved.
BACK TO CONTENTS
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator