Download Educating Students with Significant Disabilites

Educating Students with
Significant Disabilites
Through Active Learning
SPE 520
3/5/2013
Education Service Center, Region 2
Mari Garza
2
Educating Students with Significant Disabilites Through Active
Learning
Active Learning
As the name implies, Active Learning revolves around the learner being active.
Research based for all students with and without disabilities
Research based for students with Visual Impairments by Dr. Lilli Nielsen
Biobehavioral States
 State 1 - Deep Sleep
 State 2 - Intermediate Sleep
 State 3 - Active Sleep
 State 4 - Drowsiness
 State 5 - Quiet Awake
 State 6 - Active Awake
 State 7 - Fussy Awake
 State 8 - Mild Agitation
 State 9 - Uncontrollable Agitation
Dr. Lilli Nielsen
 Second child of seven
 Had 4 younger siblings with blindnenss
 At7 years old, she was responsible taking care of her blind younger brother
 National Institute to Blind and Partially Sighted Children and Youth in
Denmark since 1967
 Trained as a preschool teacher and psychologist
 Performed research in the area of spatial relations with infants who are
congenitally blind and has written several books and articles about
educating children with visual impairments and multiple disabilities
Goals
 Promote active interaction among caregivers, students, and service
providers.
 Develop a clear understanding of the child’s existing likes and dislikes and
current means of communication
 Increase the number of the child’s communicative behaviors
Mari Garza
Active Learning
LIDS Conference 2012
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 Strengthening the interactive relationship between the caregiver and the
child
Beliefs
 All young children learn through play
 They need to be encouraged to explore their environment and objects in
their environment
 That all very young children learn by being active, rather than passive
recipients of stimulation
 Do not interrupt a child by talking when she is actively engaged in play
 Slow down, when interacting with a child
 Let the child have control of her/his own hands
Principles of Active Learning
 This is the essential active learning principal - to create the
environments that provide feedback and support the learner so that the
learner can take action on their own initiative to learn.
 May take a lot of trust to allow a child or challenged learner to be on
their own and apparently not be accomplishing anything. It also takes a
very well tuned environment so that this time is productive and not
simply frustrating.
 There is productive frustration and futile frustration.
 This is probably the most difficult aspect as a parent, teacher and/or
caregiver to decide when frustration is a learning mode vs. a fiasco.
 In order to justify any appreciable level of frustration, one must make
due diligence that the environment is optimally suited to learning for
the challenged learner.
 This is where Dr. Nielsen's research has paid off. She has through the
years seen so many children and older learners with severe disabilities
and tried so many variations that she has identified some that work
much better than others.
Recommendations
 Observe the child.
 Provide the child with more activities and objects that are similar to those
he enjoys
 Give the child opportunities to practice and/or to compare
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Active Learning
LIDS Conference 2012
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 Provide a few materials and activities that are at a slightly higher
developmental level to provide a challenge for the child, so he doesn't
become bored
FIELA Curriculum
 Assessment Based on multiple observations of students
 Addresses and focuses student interests
 Activities are fine motor, gross motor and interactive with a caregiver
 Provides forms for documentation of progress or regression
Equipment
 Little Room
 Positioning Board
 Resonance Board
 Tipping Board
 Scratch Board
 Vest with Objects
 FIELA Curriculum
Design Principles of Active Learning Equipment
The basic principles involved in designing the Active Learning environments are:
 Feedback - The environment must supply strong responses in multiple
modes (auditorily, tactually, visually)
 Support - The child must be supported so as not to be in pain, typically not
bearing weight on their legs fully or even partially
 Richness- Related to feedback, the environment must be thick with objects
so that minor actions are rewarded with feedback
 Variety - However rich and responsive the environment is, it must be
changed periodically- probably more often than we are inclined to think
Sensory Learning Kit
 American Printing House Product
 Revamped by Millie Smith and APH staff with collaboration with Lilli Nielsen
 Address Biobehavioral States
 Encourages use of all senses not just visual
Mari Garza
Active Learning
LIDS Conference 2012
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Millie Smith
 Former TVI
 Employed at TSBVI
 Now Employed by APH
 Updated Kit with some collaboration with Lilli Nielsen
 Updated Kit based on her immense experience working with children with
multiple impairments as well as that experience of those working with her
from APH
 Written numerous articles on assessment, documentation, and teaching of
students with multiple impairments.
Advantages
 Suggestions for other activities that may be developed
 Routine Based
 Multiple opportunities for learning through repetition of activities or
routines
 Routines could be used during development of IEPs and STARR-Alt
Questions – Comments
"If the child is not learning the way you are teaching, then you must teach in the
way the child learns" - Rita Dunn
References
 Nielsen, Lilli. Space and Self, SIKON, 1992.
 Nielsen, Lilli. Are You Blind?, SIKON, 1990.
 Active Learning and the Exploration of Real Objects Stacy Shafer TSBVI
See and Hear Newsletter Winter 2004
 An Introduction to Dr. Lilli Nielsen’s Active Learning Stacy Shafer TSBVI
See and Hear Newsletter Fall 2003
 Nielsen, Lilli. "Environmental intervention for visually impaired
preschool children with additional disabilities," VIP Newsletter, Vol. 8,
No. 3.
 Nielsen, Lilli. "The blind child's ability to listen," VIP Newsletter, Vol. 10,
No. 3.
 Nielsen, Lilli. "Active learning," VIP Newsletter, Vol. 10, No. 1.
 TSBVI
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Active Learning
LIDS Conference 2012
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Contact Information
Mari Garza
Educational Consultant
[email protected]
361-561-8539
Mari Garza
Active Learning
LIDS Conference 2012