Katie+Stults

Hi, my name is Katie Stults, and I am a Preschool Intervention Specialist for the Berea City School District. I teach children with various disabilities in my Center-based classroom. My email address is: kstults@berea.k12.oh.us

The 3 things that I would like to learn over the course of this seminar:

1. How to decide for those "tough" kids where and how to place them in the correct LRE. 2. How to make sure we catch those children who are just above average when assessed, and make sure they are followed to make sure they don't regress further if services are not provided by the school system. 3. What preventative services can we seek out in the community to assist children who may be slightly delayed in certain areas, but not delayed enough to warrant services from the school system.

The 2 things that I can contribute to the group:

1. I have experience with working with children from birth to 8 years old. I started in Help Me Grow working with newborns, I taught Preschool and an Multiple Handicapped classroom in Richmond Heights. Now I teach Preschoolers in the Berea City Schools.

2. I have worked in the Community through Help Me Grow, and in 2 school systems with Preschool, Kindergarten, and First Grade students with special needs.

The question to ponder:

1. Where do I start and how do I go about finding the appropriate services for a child in the Community?

The chapter that I read from this book was about children with Sensory Processing Disorders. About 50 years ago an Occupational Therapist, Jean Ayres, talked about when a person's brain is not able to process information that they receive from their senses. When she was describing a child who was unable to analyze and respond appropriately to this information from the senses, she coined the term //sensory integration dysfunction//. The chapter goes on to discuss that many people believe that there are only 5 senses, but there are actually 7 senses. The two that are forgotten, are vestibular, or body movement, and proprioceptive, or awareness of body position. Vestibular is responsible for maintaining our equilibrium and balance, and it also assists us in hand-eye coordination. The proprioceptive system provides the nervous system with information for the muscles and joints in the body. It also regulates the amount of pressure that is acceptable to a person, for example, if your shoes are too tight on your feet.
 * __Session 3:__**
 * Book: "Creating Inclusive Learning Environments for Young Children: What to Do on Monday Morning"**

It goes on to discuss students who my hypersensitive (oversensitive) or hyposensitive (undersensitive). Hypersensitive people are overly sensitive to things such as sound or light. They may cover their ears at loud noises or hide their eyes from bright lights. An hyposensitive person is under sensitive to things and may seem like they are in their "own little world." They are at a higher risk of getting hurt, because they may reach for a hot pan off of the stove or not hear a car and walk in front of it. The book reviews several signs to look for in students who may be hyper or hypo sensitive to things in the classroom. Many children on the Autism spectrum suffer from some type of sensory processing disorder. Whether they are hypersensitive or hyposensitive is outlined in the chapter by looking at the symptoms they exhibit in relation to responding to their senses in a variety of situations.

The last part of this chapter talks about how to make the classroom "sensory friendly" for all students, regardless of their needs. There are many ideas and suggestions that I can use in my classroom, as I have several children that would benefit from them. I really like how this book presents information and then gives many tips to use in "real life" in the classroom with children who would benefit from these being put into practice. There are several charts in the chapter that list hyper and hypo sensitive characteristics of children and suggestions to try with those children. I am planning on copying these and posting them by my desk so that I can reference them easily. It would also be very beneficial for my two associates to read the information in this chapter, as there is sometimes confusion on how to best serve children with sensory integration difficulties. This book is very informative and I will continue to refer to it in the future when I need simple and quick information to best serve those students!

__**Session 4: Cara's Kit**__

The Cara's Kit is a great, easy to use resource. It is small and easy to access and "keep in your back pocket", literally! It really made me think differently about making adaptations in my classroom. The phrase that really got me thinking, was when the guide stated,"Cara's Kit helps you make decisions in situations where there is a difference between what you would like to see happen and what is actually happening." Cara also brings up a great point, about how people's behavior and actions can be changed and shaped by the environment they are surrounded by. I really like the Adaptation Continuum that Cara provides. It is easy to understand and follow. The step-by-step guide for making decisions about adaptations is also a great resource. Cara gives us everything we need, in the book and on the CD, to make successful adaptations to meet the needs of our students. The that are provided are great! I like how they focus on various points of the daily routine in the classroom. I can easily see myself referencing these throughout many points during the school day when something isn't going as I expected it to with my students. I believe these adaptations will help ALL children, not just those with special needs, in the classroom. The adaptation ideas provided set up clear boundaries and routines for children that make learning manageable and predictable for everyone. I also like the resources provided on the CD, and it helps to review and reinforce the principles presented in the flip book. The posters seem like they would be very useful for quick reference when you are in the "thick" of things in the classroom. Overall, Cara's Kit is a great resource, and I plan on using it a lot in the classroom in the future.

Shayla Smith: Katie I agree. This book is filled with a lot of great information. And it is small enough to have with you at all times. A lot of the activities I hadn't thought of and would work great in the classroom. I'm ready to jot some ideas down and try them out this week! Having the kids sit on bean bags for circle is number 1 on the list!!!

__**Session 7: Using Cara's Kit**__

I plan on using a lot of the adaptations referenced in Cara's Kit in my classroom. For small groups centers and free play time, I like the idea of limiting the number of children in a specific area or center. I plan on having only 3-4 students in one area, at one time. They will move their name tags or picture on a board as they rotate through clearly labeled centers, so that we can control who is where and for how long. The adaptation about giving children defined spaces to do certain things, such as reading a book or playing with a specific idea, is also something that I think will be very useful. Also, labeling shelves for toys with pictures and keeping them separated in various bins makes it easy for children to maintain organization and makes the classroom run a lot smoother. I have used one strategy that is mentioned in Cara's Kit, and it worked very well. The students were all fighting over a tent in the classroom. I had a "teachable moment" with them when we discussed how it wasn't safe to have any more than 2 children in the tent at one time. I explained to them that we would use a 3-minute sand timer to take turns in the tent. I set it the first time, and when I looked back over in the tent area several minutes later, I noticed the children were following my direction and independently rotating in and out of the tent! Success!

For the Large Group and Circle Time adaptations, I use several of these in the classroom, a lot of times not even realizing that I am doing so. When a child is having a really hard time sitting and attending at Circle, we will give that child a fidget toy to help them maintain attention and participation. I have another student who has a very hard time sitting, and does not like when the routine of Circle changes. For him, I plan on using a "mini-schedule" for each part of Circle. As we go through Circle, he will remove that icon from his schedule, so that it is predictable and he knows what is coming up next.

During transitions from one activity to another, I use a timer to signal a transition. The children respond very well to hearing the timer go off and they know to check their schedule or to go to the next activity. I really like the idea from the Kit of putting the child's name or picture on a place mat, chair, or area of the classroom, so that it is easy for that student to find where they need to be at a particular point in the daily routine. In the classroom, I use a lot of visuals, including a picture schedule for the daily routine. Although I already use a lot of visuals and pictures in the classroom, Cara's Kit gave me a LOT new ideas for using icons and visuals that are great!

__**Session 8: Book Chapter Summary**__ I read the first chapter of "Inclusion Strategies for Young Children" by Lorraine O. Moore. This chapter was a general overview of working with young children. Although this chapter was very informative, it was somewhat overwhelming with the amount of information that is presented. As I was reading, I felt like the information was "all over the place" as far as discussing child development principles, the author's viewpoint, and proven scientific theories. The chapter starts off by showing the findings of brain research as it relates to child development. The Nature vs. Nuture debate was reviewed, and the author gave her opinions on what she believed to be true. She believes that behavior and emotions is directly related to relationship of the child and their environment. As she states, "What happens to children (and adults) emotionally either enhances or compromises thinking ability and body functions" (page 4). The author continues to tell how the human heart and brain are in constant communication with each other, and together, relate to a person's behavior. The chapter goes on to discuss the "whole child" and various developmentally appropriate practices. The "whole child" looks at physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual development and how they interact with each other in the overall development and growth of a child. The zone of proximal development is reviewed, stating that a child's progress and learning is based on a continuum of mastery. The continuum looks at whether a child can do something independently or cannot do it at all. This is especially poignant when working with children with special needs, as they may score very high in certain areas of development, and very low in other areas.
 * Book:** "**Inclusion Strategies for Young Children" by Lorraine O. Moore**

The "Cycles of Learning" for a child to learn, follows a predictable cycle in which they learn things in a sequential order. These are: awareness, exploration, inquiry, and utilization or application. In the awareness stage, children take in information about their surrounding environments and the people, objects, etc. that are a part of it. During the exploration stage, children use their senses to make personal meaning of all the information presented to them about their environment. Inquiry involves the child's interpretations and conclusions about the information within their environment. Sometimes an adult must clarify or expand on these conclusions to facilitate more learning. During the final stage, utilization or application, children make use or apply information that they have taken in about the environment and experiences.

The author goes on to discuss certain environmental considerations to be aware of when working with small children. These include events in a child's life, such as feelings of love and acceptance or that of conflict and continual transition, and also physical space, such as the light, sounds, or color, in the environment surrounding a child. The chapter concludes with some general guidelines for testing and labeling children, working with parents, and most importantly, teaching from the heart!