Category Archives: Chidren/Teens

Resources For Teaching Sequencing Skills

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Sequence is defined as a set of related events, movements, or things that follow each other in a particular order. For many children and adults with developmental delays and disabilities, the ability to arrange thoughts, information and language may be a challenge due to issues with their executive function capabilities. The following resources, tips and strategies will help you teach sequencing skills.

How to teach sequencing skills at home

How to teach sequencing skills to children

How to teach sequencing to preschool children

Sequencing activities for students with autism

Sequencing skills teaching strategies 

Story sequence strategies

Strategies for teaching your child sequencing skills

Teaching sequencing skills

The importance of sequencing skills in a child’s development

Tips to teach sequencing skills in children

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Matching Tasks Activities

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Matching task activities provide children with special needs an opportunity to learn in a fun, interactive way. Matching activities provide the opportunity for children and adults to master a skill through repetition and leads to higher learning. Matching and sorting helps to strengthen memory and identify the relationship between two or more items. Below are links to worksheets and matching activities.

All words-to-pictures matching worksheets

Color matching activity

DIY kids emotion matching game

Match the number activity worksheets

Matching activities supporting reading development

Matching animals to pictures

Matching colors when you only have a minute

Matching words to pictures

Rainbow bear color matching spinner game

Teaching preschoolers to mix and match

Understanding The Individualized Family Service (IFSP)

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The individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) is a written plan that is developed for infant and toddlers up to the age of 3. It is Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Act responsible for developing and implementing statewide early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families.

The difference between IFSP and an IEP, is that ISFP is written plan designed for the family while the IEP focus is the student. ISFP should include the following information:

  • Your child’s level of functioning and needs
  • Outcomes expected
  • Family information Natural environment
  • Where your child receives services
  • Number of sessions your child will receive for the service
  • Who will pay for the service

Services provided through early intervention based on your child’s needs include:

  • Audiological services
  • Vision services
  • Occupational and physical therapy
  • Special education service
  • Speech and language therapy
  • Medical and nursing service
  • Nutritional services
  • Psychological and social work services
  • Health services necessary for your child to benefit from other early intervention services
  • Family training, counseling, and home visits
  • Transportation to enable your child and family to receive early intervention services
  • Respite care and other family support services
Team Members

Individualized family service plan team members include:

  • Evaluator
  • Therapist
  • Service Coordinator
  • Parent or caregiver
  • Other family members
  • An advocate if requested by the parents

A service coordinator is provided to assist and enable an infant or a toddler with a disability and the family to receive services. The service coordinator also:

  • Coordinates early intervention services and other services
  • Facilitates and participates in the development, and evaluation of the plan
  • Ensures services are provided in a timely manner
  • Facilitate the development of a transition plan to preschool, or to other services.
Resources

Center for Parent Information and Resources

Family Connect

Pacer Center

Understood

What is Lowe Syndrome?

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Lowe Syndrome also known as Oculocerebrorenal Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that affects the eyes, brain and kidneys. It has a prevalence of 1 in 500,000 and mainly affects males.

Signs and Symptoms
  • Congenital cataracts
  • eye abnormalities and eye disease
  • glaucoma
  • kidney abnormalities (Renal Fanconi Syndrome)
  • dehydration
  • abnormal acidic blood
  • progressive kidney problems
  • feeding problems
  • bone abnormalities
  • scoliosis
  • weak or low muscle tone (hypotonia)
  • joint problems
  • developmental delays including motor skills
  • short stature
  • intellectual disability
  • seizure
  • behavioral issues

Children and adults diagnosed with children and adults may also show the following signs and symptoms due to an intellectual disability:

  • decrease learning ability
  • delays in crawling
  • delays in sitting up
  • difficulty solving problems
  • lack of curiosity
  • language and speech delays
  • poor memory
  • behavior problems
Teaching Strategies

The following strategies will help when teaching a child or an adult diagnosed with Lowe Syndrome:

  • Use short and simple sentences to ensure understanding
  • Repeat directions
  • Teach specific skills when possible
  • Use strategies such as chunking, backwards shaping, forward shaping and role modeling.
  • Use concrete information
  • Provide immediate feedback

Image thanks to Robert Thomson on Flickr.com (creative commons)

Resources

National Organization for Rare Disorders

Genetics Home Reference

Dove Med

Wikipedia

Teaching Strategies For Students With A Nonverbal Learning Disorder

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Nonverbal Learning Disorder is a disorder you may or nay not heard of. It shares similar characteristics to autism such as the challenge in reading body language but is also quite different. By learning the signs and symptoms of nonverbal learning disorder, the better chance you have in using effective teaching strategies.

Nonverbal learning disorder is defines as a person who has difficulty in interpreting and understanding non verbal cues in the environment If 93% of how we communicate is nonverbal, a person with nonverbal learning disorder is only getting 7% of daily communication.

Dr. Byron P. Rouke of the University of Windsor developed the following criteria to assess nonverbal learning disorder:

  1. Perceptual deficits usually on the left side of the body. The child has difficulty understanding or perceiving information through the skin of both hands but the left hand has more difficulty than the right.
  2. Tends to be clumsy
  3. Difficulty with visual-spatial organizational skills. Finds it difficult to organize notes.
  4. Difficulty when encountering new information.
  5. Difficulty in knowing what is expected of you and hard to see the bigger picture
  6. Distort sense of time. Time is abstract and non-linear
  7. Well-developed, rote and verbal capacity
  8. Repetitive way of speaking
Signs and Symptoms
  • Excellent vocabulary and verbal expression
  • Excellent memory skills
  • unable to see the bigger picture
  • Poor motor and coordination skills
  • Difficulty with reading
  • Difficulty with math reading problems
  • Fear of new situations
  • May have symptoms of anxiety, depression
  • Misreads body language
  • Well-developed vocabulary
  • Better auditory processing skills than visual processing skills
  • Focus on details

Teaching Strategies For Parents and Teachers
  • Give assignments in chunks
  • Give constructive feedback
  • Create a daily class routine and stick to them
  • Write the class schedule on the board
  • Provide several verbal cues before transition
  • Give the student time to preview and prepare for new activities such as group projects
  • Minimize transitions
  • Offer added verbal explanations when the student or child seems confused
  • Teach in sequential steps
References

Rondalyn Varney Whitney/OTR, Nonverbal learning disorder: Understanding and coping with NLD and Aspergers: What parents and teachers need to know (2008)

Woliver, Robbie (2008) Alphabet Kids: From ADD to Zellwer Syndrome.

Learning Disabilities of America

Understood

Common Signs In Tactile Difficulties

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Tactile difficulties occur when the nervous system dysfunctions and the brain is unable to process information through the senses. Some children and adults with this form of sensory processing disorder will be over sensitive to touch. Between 5 to 13 percent of the population is diagnosed with sensory processing disorder.

Common Signs of Tactile Difficulties
  • Difficulty with having nails cut or teeth brushed
  • Becomes upset when hair is washed
  • Dislikes any clothing with tags including clothes, hats, shoes, and complains about the type of fabric and the style
  • Dislikes getting their hands dirty or messy
  • Overreacts when they are touched by other people
  • Oversensitive to temperature change
  • Over or under reacts to pain
  • Prefers deep pressure touch rather than light touch
  • Avoids messy textures
  • Prefers pants and long sleeves in hot weather
  • Picky eater
  • Eyes may be sensitive to cold wind
  • Avoids walking barefoot
  • Avoids standing close to other people
  • May be anxious when physically close to other people
Strategies for Handling Tactile Defensiveness
  • Use deep pressure
  • use weighted items including blankets, vest and backpacks
  • Seek out an OT
  • Utilize a sensory diet
  • Minimize time expected to stand and wait in line by having the child go first or last in line
  • Allow the child to wear a jacket indoors
  • Encourage the child to brush his or her body with a natural brush during bath time
  • Create activities using play doh or silly putty
References

Autism Parenting Magazine

Kids Companion

Sensory Processing Disorder.com

Chu, Sidney (1999), Tactile Defensiveness: Information for parents and professionals

Children and Ring Chromosome 20 Syndrome

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What is Ring Chromosome 20 Syndrome?

Ring Chromosome 20 Syndrome is a chromosomal disorder that is the result of a ring that develops when a chromosome breaks in two places and the short arm of a chromosome has merged with the tip of the long arm.

This anomaly causes recurrent seizures during childhood. It is reported that the seizure can occur at anytime from during the day time to sleeping at night, it is very rare. In fact only 50 cases have been reported in research journals. However, this form of epilepsy can occur from birth to 17 years old.

What makes this rare form of seizures unique is that it does not respond to anti-epileptic medication. Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) tends to be successful as well as the Ketogenic diet in reducing the number of seizures.

Children diagnosed with Ring Chromosome 20 Syndrome typically experience several types of seizures including:

  • Focal seizure
  • Non-convulsive status epilepticus
  • Frontal lobe seizures
  • Tonic seizures
  • Generalized tonic-clonic seizures
Signs and Symptoms

Children with Ring Chromosome 20 Syndrome generally face challenges in the area of behavioral, learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities. In some instances, children may display physical characteristics including slow growth, short stature and a small size head.

Signs and Symptoms of Intellectual Disability
  • Decrease learning ability
  • Delays in crawling
  • Difficulty solving problems
  • Lack of curiosity
  • Language and speech delays
  • Poor motor skills
  • Short attention span
Teaching Strategies
  • Use short and simple sentences
  • Repeat directions
  • use strategies for remembering such as clustering information together
  • Provide immediate feedback
Signs and Symptoms of learning disabilities
  • Difficulty recognizing non-verbal cues such as facial expression
  • Fine motor skills difficulty
  • Weak visual discrimination abilities.
Teaching Strategies
  • Use a multi-sensory approach
  • Break into small steps
  • use probing techniques
  • use diagrams and pictures.
References

Genetics Home Reference

Rare Chromosome Organization

Wikipedia

Teaching Strategies for Dyslexic Students

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Dyslexia is the most common learning disability. It is defined as language-based learning disability. Research shows that 1 in 5 people are dyslexic. It is a myth that people with dyslexia see words backwards, rather, letters such as b-d are reversed due tp deficits interpreting left and right. The best way for children to learn to read is through a multi-sensory approach. The following links include tips, strategies and ways to accommodate a student with dyslexia.

12 tips to help kids with dyslexia learn sight words

A dyslexic child in the classroom

Accommodating students with dyslexia in a classroom setting

Dyslexia in the classroom: What every teacher needs to know

Helping your student with dyslexia learn to read

How teachers can accommodate the dyslexic student

Strategies for teachers

Teaching students with dyslexia: 4 effective lesson plans

15 Halloween Fine Motor Skill Activities

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Candy is not the only great thing about Halloween. It is a chance to work on fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination while having fun at the same time. From ghosts to witches, there are a number of activities you child or student can do that will help increase fine motor skills. For some children and adults with disabilities, struggle with fine motor skills. These activities are a chance to improve the coordination between the brain and the muscles including dexterity and motor control. Click on the links below.

Easy Halloween fine motor activity

Eyeball sensory bag

Feed the spider

Frankenstein monster pumpkin

Halloween fine motor: Giant lacing spiderweb

Halloween fine motor activities for preschool

Halloween fine motor activities that promote cutting practice

Halloween mask to print and color

Halloween Necklaces

Halloween Play Dough

Halloween themed cutting tray

Scissor skill pumpkins

Spider web yarn

Witchy fingers

Yarn wrapped spider craft for halloween

How to Find a Special Education Advocate

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Source: Understood

The special education and IEP process can be stressful and confusing. Many parents turn to a special needs advocate to guide them as they seek services for their child. But how can you find the right advocate?

Unlike attorneys, anyone can call themselves a special education advocate. And while there are training programs for advocates, there’s no formal licensing or certification. That’s why it’s important to do your research before hiring someone. Click here to read the rest of the story