Accommodation and outcomes for the special children - Essay Example

Accommodations Designing an activity for preschoolers aged three to four years old is a good way to make use of their motor skills, while at the same time, a means for them to be able to create patterns that they are starting to see in their surroundings, whether observed on their own or intentionally taught by teachers and caregivers. An activity that combines finger painting and hand sculpting using a variety of materials that will allow them to choose on their own their choice of materials in creating shapes, figures or even imitate letters of the alphabet -- combines play, creativity and learning. Preschoolers as such are more concerned with the novelty of the activity itself, rather than what they produce. For the teachers and caregivers, it will serve as an activity that will allow them to see the individual interests and capabilities of the children. The setting for such an activity where typically developing children and children with special needs both participate in may be in that part of the classroom that serves as an art corner surrounded by illustrated materials and special toys of varied shapes and sizes that lend them to handheld explorations. Since a classroom set-up with children with special needs are present, the size of the classroom participants have to be small enough that will enable the teacher to attend to every child, typically developing and those with special needs alike. A finger painting and hand sculpting exercise requires materials such as washable paint, broad canvas-like paper whether spread on the floor, tables or on the walls, sandboxes where they can draw figures (for finger painting) as moldable clay-like materials for hand sculpting. The important thing is for children to have access to the materials they need and prefer and for the materials to be placed which they are comfortable. The teacher could pin illustrated materials on a board or she could draw herself the things that the children could imitate - from shapes and sizes, to actual fruits, a house, letters of the alphabet and numbers. She could do these in stages and set a time frame for each, say each type of drawing, the children are allowed an hour. This could be done over a period of many days, for example one 30 minutes to an hour per day. The expected outcome for the above activity for those who are typically developing would be that at the end of the activity they would gain confidence in their ability to recreate the shapes and forms that they see in their environment and those that are taught them. Another outcome would be that they would progress from just drawing with no shapes or patterns to a stage where there can portray discernible patters, even relationships among the things that they see and observe. If the activities preceding this activity allowed for the familiarization of the alphabet and the numbers from one to ten through visualization and phonetics, typically developing children may start to write some letters of the alphabet and a few numbers. Another expected outcome since the activity joins typically developing children and those with special needs is that typically developing children would be more open-minded to the fact that other children who are not like them have their own typical or unique ways of doing things. Accommodation and outcomes for the special children: While special children or those with disability have their own pace and their own unique ways of doing things and learning, they could benefit from being with their typically developing peers by making them aware of their own capabilities which are may be different but the similar in terms of aspirations. Accommodations need to be made to enable those who have learning disabilities to be not unduly disadvantaged. At the same time, accommodations are focused to using the IEP whereby each child's individual strength and relative capability are put to use. Jonathan Carter, 3 years old and with Down's Syndrome may benefit from finger painting and hand sculpting activity by allowing his social skills to develop through use of expressive language that are in the level of an 18-month old. The teacher could accommodate Jonathan by showing by way of example how the child how each material could be used to create shapes on paper on the table, on the paper on the wall on the sandbox, etc. Children who are 18 months typically could follow by way example and do so by imitation. Furthermore, since his IEP focuses on his expressive language skills, Jonathan may be paired with another child or two in finger painting, providing for a large sheet of paper that would make sure that the children will not quarrel over the materials. Doing so will build upon Jonathan's potential for sociability while gradually repressing his potential for anti-socialization. This objective could be measured on how much he welcome working in tandem with another child or other children Andrew Clemons, 4 years old and diagnosed as an autistic could be accommodated in the finger painting and hand sculpting activity by closer coordination with the teacher as autistic children rely only on few trusted people like their families. Andrew must feel that his teacher and his classmates can be trusted like his family. The teacher could not only help by closely communicating with Andrew but also encouraging other children to talk to him personally or educating them that Andrew prefers to talk via picture cards. Preferred communication tools such as picture cards could be utilized to enable him to feel at ease in this activity and the teacher could use illustrations by which to show Andrew how to use the materials on his own, or if he responds to the social cues from other children for activity. However, if he prefers to work on his own, then his willingness to cooperate with other children should be indicator that he is ready to a joint or group activity. A modification could be done by allowing Andrew to work closely with others without forcing him to participate and the outcome of this could be recorded by the teacher as whether he is ready to be more sociable or not. If he finger paints in a shared sheet of paper with other children without throwing a tantrum then that is a good outcome. Carlissa Johnson, 3 years old with development level of a 2 year-old and problems with walking and balancing could be accommodated by letting her work sitting down, rather standing up finger painting on the wall because balancing and coordination is better controlled when sitting down. To develop the use of her left hand, the teacher for example could show how finger painting or hand sculpting could be done with both hands. Carlissa could be shown this merely by example, without calling attention of her left hand. The short-term objective for Carlissa at the end of the activity is for her to realize that her left hand could be used even at a helper level to the right hand. The teacher could record how many times Carlissa uses her left hand during the activity. Jason Trench, 4 years old and diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome has to be accommodated in cognizance of his ADHD-like behavioral patterns. Children who are highly distractible and impulsive need tasks which are focused and with clear instructions from the teacher. The activity could be done in such a way that will not only benefit Jason but the other children if instructions are task-oriented and clear. For example, the teacher could segregate finger-drawing activities according to the shapes and patterns to be imitated or with colors for each period - that is, one shape at a time, one color at a time. If any, a free-wheeling finger-painting and hand sculpting activity could be the culmination after all the other teacher-directed shapes and colors. The objective for Jason is for to stay on task for each instruction, and the teacher to record how often he complied and finished his task without individual prompts focused on him. Debbie Davis, 4 years old with spina bifida and who uses a special chair could be accommodated by partly allowing her caregiver/nurse inside the classroom. In this activity, finger painting and hand sculpting, the caregiver or the teacher herself could assist Debbie on getting her preferred materials if she asks, but allowing her to use them as she pleases. As her communication are relatively strong for her age level, the teacher could ask her directly and personally if she needs help with any motor activity - by making her aware that the teacher is ready to help without annoying her. Further, an objective for her is to be able to finger paint without assistance from the adults and assessing her performance by on how often she is able to accomplish each specific task. Tabatha Garcia, 3 years old and with moderate hearing loss could be accommodated by the teacher by relaying to her the instructions personally after discussing the instructions to the group, enunciating it with her lips and mouth as Tabatha could read lips. Moreover, if the teacher does not understand American Sign Language of which Tabatha is fluent, an interpreter who may be the teacher assistant could standby to bridge communication between Tabatha and the teacher. An objective of the teacher would be to enable Tabatha to better interact with her peers by showing the other children that Tabatha could communicate via reading lips when giving to her the instructions. Hopefully the other children will imitate the teacher's example. Thereby, Tabatha will initiate interactions with her classmates. Another objective is for the teacher to learn American Sign Language so that Tabatha could feel at ease and learn more easily. Teacher could record these interactions between Tabatha and the children during the activity. Zachary Williams, 4 years of age, has learning impairments associated with fragile X. Since his cognitive functioning is that of an 18-month old, the teacher could accommodate him by repeating the instructions for the activity for him alone and talk to him face to face so that he would learn to have more eye contact. The finger painting activity could be done with him sharing the large sheet canvas paper with other children so that his sociability would increase. An objective for Zachary for this activity would for him to reduce his aggressive behavior by allowing him to express himself in finger painting and hand sculpting. If he does turn aggressive, the teacher needs to ask him and talk to him calmly why he is acting angry or defensive. Read More