E16: Recognizing Red Flags for Common Learning

E-16 Recognizing Red Flags for Common
Learning Challenges
KATHY GRIFFIN
Kathy is a National Board Certified early childhood education specialist with 12 years of elementary
teaching experience. She is her district’s Teacher of the Year for 2008 and has twice been nominated
for Disney Teacher of the Year. Kathy is highly skilled at differentiating instruction in the early
childhood classroom.
All resource materials not specifically identified as being reprinted from another source is copyright © 2011 by Kathy Griffin.
You may not distribute, copy, or otherwise reproduce any of this material for sale or for commercial use without written permission from the author.
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Recognizing Red Flags
For Common Learning Challenges
Kathy Griffin, NBCT
kath}'tlJs@aol.com
A challenging behavior by any other name. ..
is still
a challenging behavior.
Kathy Griffin
=
Teacher Stressors Equals Loss of Control
- Curriculum
- Assessments
- Social Skills
-Counselor
- Nurse
- Family Guidance
-Support
stress and the Young Child = Equals Behavior Response
- Poverty
-Change in Socio-Economic Status
-New Job
- New Daycare
- Death in the family
- Family - Divorce
- New Sibling
-Illness
- Disability
-Youngness
- Crowded Classrooms
- Dynamic Makeup
What Does it Feel Like
- http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensorygrocessing-disorders.html
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-V
Hyper- Reactivity
-Sensitivity to light, sounds, textures, smells, tastes, movement
- Operate on high stress level - reactive "fright, flight, fight"
response.
Hypo-Reactivity
- Unaware of sudden, loud sounds, lack of startle reactions
- Lack of attention to environment or delayed responses
Areas of Sensory Dysfunction
-Tactile (touch)**
- Vestibular (movement)**
- Proprioceptive (awareness of movement and body position)**
- Visual (lighting)
- Auditory (sounds)
- Olfactory (smell)
- Gustatory (taste)
Implications in the Classroom Tactile-Touch
- Dislikes holding pencils, markers, writing tools
- Dislikes hugs, pats, touch by students or teachers
- Dislikes wet, sticky activities
- Dislikes one-on-one adult help or hand over hand
demonstration
Implications in the Classroom Vestibular
- Has difficulty with visual tracking
- Poor balance (chairs, floor, hallway)
-Sometimes avoids stairs, playground, and gym
- Avoids play activities that call for movement
- Has excessive need for movement
- Uses self-movement through rocking or shifting positions
Implications in the Classroom Proprioceptive
- Enjoys "play" falling or crashing
-Seems accident-prone
• Uses toys for sensory input
• Has trouble staying in one spot
• Tires easily
• Frequently drops items
• Leans against furniture as to hold themselves up
Implications in th~ Classroom Auditory
• May cover ears with exposed to loud sounds
• May make own sound to cover up sounds that are distracting
• May make repetitive sounds
• Easily distracted by sounds
• Does not always modulate own voice
• Hums or sings
Implications in the Classroom Smell/Taste
• May not like items with strong smell in sensory table
• May be hyposensitive to taste and chew on non-edible items
• May not like perfume/cologne smell on teachers
Sensory Integration Should Be Viewed on a Continuum
• Understand the reason behind the behavior
• Prevention
• Sensory Diet - Consult with School Occupational Therapist
ADHD-ADD
• Attention Deficit Disorder
• Distractibility or inattention
• Impulsivity
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Distractibility or inattention
• Impulsivity
• Hyperactivity
Point to Ponder
• A child with ADHD can be behind in maturity by as much as
two years. How do you deal with young children?
Is It Really ADHD or ADD
- ADHD and ADD can sometimes be misdiagnosed when a
child has been exposed to violence or suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder.
- Bi-Polar Disorder (20% of Children with ADHD are Bi-Polar)
- Anxiety Disorder
-Sensory Integration Disorder
-Young
Autism - Asperger's Syndrome
- Wide Spectrum
-Impairment in social interaction
-Impairment in communication
- Repetitive or stereotypical movements
- Focused areas of interest
-Impulsivity
- Hard time understanding humor
- Behaviors are the symptom
-Identify the need or cause of the behavior
- Must experience safe predictable routines to step out of
comfort zone.
- Learn social skills that are acceptable to be successful in life.
- What works for one child is not a guarantee it will work for
another
- Sometimes you learn the most from what doesn't work
-Teach one thing at a time
- Break it down
- Body Language, Social Space, Communication
- Conversations consist of Echolalia (random, repeated from
television or movies, repeated from context with no meaning,
repeating steps of instruction)
Intellectual Disability
- Cognitive delay
- Speech delays
- Fine motor delay
• Gross motor delay
• Motor Planning
·Social Skills
Learning Disabilities
• Auditory Processing
-Phonemic Awareness
• Visual Processing
-Matching
-Similarities/Differences
• Dysgraphia
-Writing
• Combination
Reading Difficulties Red Flags
• Late talkers
• Articulation errors
• Difficulty remembering letters/sounds.
• Difficulty identifying rhyming words
• Guesses instead of sounding out words
• Hard time blending sounds
911 Help for the Early Childhood Teacher
Everyone needs some strategies
~
~)
strategies to Maintain Attention
·If you have the wiggles ...
• Push your thumbs
• Wiggle your thumbs
·Tap your knees
• Pulsations on wrists
• Finger compressions
• Playing the piano
• Wiggling your toes
• Drop in the bucket (demonstrate quiet)
• Brain-based movement to music
• Play video game
·Spider Push Ups on the Mirror
More Strategies
• Pillows or nap mats made into tents
• Rocking chairs or disc-o-sit
• Encourage movement and physical activity
• Jumping - mini-trampoline
• Running errands to the office
·Stand at tables
DVD for Attention
Drive Thru Menus by Tere Irish Bowen
httQ://drivethrumenus.net/Drive Thru Menu TV.htm
Room Arrangement
• Less is More
·Hanging Decorations or Children's Work
• Color Schemes - Caution with Red
• Visual Order -Staying in Sequence
• Adequate Space -Colored Tape
• Enough Materials
• Procedures in Place
Visual Schedules
• Real Pictures
• Board Maker
• First This ... Then ...
• Rebus with Words
• Repeat and Echo
• Different Day
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httQ://www.sQecialed.us/autism/index2.htm
Social Stories
• Transitions
• Hands & Feet (Body - Spatial Awareness)
• Voice Modulation
• Benefit ALL Children
Procedures
• Anchor charts
• Step by step directions
·What to do if ...
• Be consistent
• Black & white - not gray
Children's Literature
It's Hard to be a Verb
Personal Space Camp
My Mouth is a Volcano
http://www.juliacookonline.com/
Procedures
• Define expectations.
• What does it look like?
• What does it sound like?
Check 1 - Legs criss-cross.
Check 2 - Hands in your lap.
Check 3 - Eyes on the speaker.
Check 4 -Voices ·off.
Transitions
- Allow processing time between activities
- Give verbal cue
- Give visual cue
- Repeat and Echo
- Different day
Transition to Circle Time
-Sing a song, repeat a nursery rhyme, or do an echo chant
- Count Down to Sit Down
-10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,0 - Heads up
Group Time
- Basket
- Circle time games
- Follow,ing directions
- Provide a hook
- Whole group reading
- Know your students
- Choose books of interest
- Provide choices
- Sensory integration activities
- Defined area of space
Games for Social Skills
-Purpose
- Turn taking
-Sharing.
- Following Directions
- 1 step
- 2 step
- 3 step
- Working together to complete a task.
Pass the ... Use as a Reward for Completing a Required Task
- Follow a series of directions or sequence of activities as the
object passes around the circle.
- Balls, stuffed animal, flashlight, light-up balls, sensory balls, rain
stick, kaleidoscope, tambourine, bell, maraca, other sensory
objects
Song to Help with Attention Transition
-If You're Listening to Mrs. Griffin - Sung to If You're Happy and
You Know It
-Teacher performs an action and has the children do the
same.
- Call on other children in the room and have them choose.
-If you're listening to Mrs. Griffin, touch your nose.
-If you're listening to Hudson touch your eyebrow.
-If you're listening to Miguel put your hands on your sQine.
-If you're listening to Haley touch your cheeks.
- Give child who struggles with option a choice to choose from.
- (Example: touch your nose or touch your knee)
Guess What's in My Box Teaching Literacy Skills
- Collect objects/small toys to correlate with the letters in the
alphabet. Choose a letter tub to play the following games.
- Purpose - Increase Receptive & Expressive Language Skills
- Listening, speaking, vocabulary, sentence structure,
descriptions
Writer's Workshop/Journals/Writing Center
- Provide consistent procedures
- Know your student's attention span
- What are your goals for the class?
- What are the individual goals for the child?
Language Experience Approach
- Writing about classroom or personal experiences
- Helpful to a child who is egocentric
- Promotes successful reading for all students
-Incorporate social stories
Differentiated Writing Activities
Differentiated Instructional
Strategies
• Change the focus.
• Use sight word bank.
Differentiated Instructional
Strategies
• Change the end product.
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Differentiated Instructional
Strategies
• Change the
support.
• Word Banks
• Favorite Books
• Pre~assembled
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• How to Draw
Picture Books
• Work with a
friend.
Managing Centers
• Know your students
• Gradual release
• Concrete schedule
• Number monitoring
• Buddy system
• Appropriate activities
• Visual strategies
• Social Stories
• Anchor Charts
,.
Differentiated Instructional
Strategies
• Change the materials.
• Drawing verses clipart.
• Use cut out high frequency words.
Consult With Special Ed Teacher or
Counselor
Behavior Plans
Walking in Line Anchor Chart - Check List
• Procedures for hands
• Procedures for feet
• Procedures for voice
• strategies that work
• Assign a job
• Provide something for hands
• Provide acceptable choices
• Would you like to hold my hand or would you like to walk by
yourself?
Playground
- Lining Up Strategies
- Break it Down
-Social Story
-Peer Buddy
-Sticker - Stamp Line Up
-Phase-Out
Assemblies
- Noise reduction - earplugs, headphones
Guest Speakers
- Give Expectations
- Social Story
-Time Keeper
- Model Acceptance
Assistive Technology
- Motivation - Reward
- Communication
- Accommodation
- Modification
It Takes Two to Collaborate and a Village to Make a Team
-Colleague - Time Away
-Counselor
-Special Education Teacher
- Physical Therapist
- Occupational Therapist
- Speech Language Pathologist
- Play - Art Therapist
LIST OF RELATED CITATIONS
"RECOGNIZING RED FLAGS FOR COMMON LEARNING CHALLENGES"
PRESENTED BY STAFF DEVELOPMENT FOR EDUCATORS (SDE)
KATHY GRIFFIN
Kaiser, B. & J. Rasminsky. (2003). Challenging Behavior in Young
Children:'Understanding, Preventing, and Responding Effectively. New York: Pearson.
Kranowitz, C. (1998) The Out-of-Sync Child: Recognizing and Coing With Sensory
Integration Dysfunction. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group.
Kranowitz, C. (2002). The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun. New York: The Berkley
Publishing Group.
Yack, E., Auilla, P. & S. Sutton. (2002). Building Bridges Through Sensory Integration:
Thereapy for children with Autism and Other Pervasive Developmental Disorders.
Arlington, TS: Future Horizons.