Day 9: Social Story Presentations and Single Switch Access

SOCIAL STORY VIDEOS

Today we viewed the 5 social stories from our 5 groups created by Movie Maker or iMovie. I have to say my classmates are creative and ingenious! These videos were informative and definitely sent clear and directive messages to students who night need repetition and visual supports to achieve a specific goal or outcome.

INCLUSIVE CLASSROOMS

The student, teacher, administration, family, school nurse, therapist (i.e. occupational therapist, vision therapist), EPA, resource teacher, learning center teacher, speech language pathologist, etc. are all part of an integral setting in which everyone involved works together to help integrate disabled students into the inclusive classroom. Both the disabled student and the regular students benefit from being together in the same class and learn from each other. By being creative and ingenious (just like my classmates' social stories!) it is possible to include disabled students and adapt and/or modify the curriculum to include all students. When the curriculum cannot be redesigned it is possible to come up with parallel activities that mirror the intended outcome. I remember in my own class this year that during Art my two developmentally delayed students painted flower pots using large paint brushes under the guidance and support from an EPA while the rest of my class used smaller brushes to paint designs on flower pots for Father's Day. My class who had been with these two students from grade primary offered very warm and genuine compliments for Brianna and Lily's flower pots without the "phoniness" that might have occurred had my students not been familiar with the behaviors and mannerisms that Brianna and Lily display.

SINGLE SWITCH ACCESS


We looked at switch access ideas in class today that offers severely physically disabled students control over the environment in areas such as activities, curriculum, etc. that that student might not otherwise have any control over.

Goals for choosing a switch: to operate or perform a specific task such as dial a telephone , operate a wheelchair. turn on a light or surf the interne

Selection criteria for choosing a successful switch:

1.position: sitting, lying on a table, etc.

2.movement pattern: how user will operate switch such as by leg, foot, arm, head, mouth, etc.

3. control site: where to mount the switch (i.e. close to the hand, next to the head, by the foot, etc.)

4. types of switches: Simple switches use touch

and specialty switches use other forces to operate the switch such as infra ray, breath, eye blink or some other motion. When choosing a switch it is important to consider factors such as force, feedback, travel, play, size/weight and switch types.