Products | Lap Tray Bag

Products | Lap Tray Bag

I found this product on a search for more activities and procedures for our children.  It looks like the perfect substitute for the typical laptray for either stroller or wheelchair and much more useful.  See what you think.

Why read to severely disabled children? And which books will you read?

Speaking of Christmas gifts,  books are always a good idea.   You can get books with audio tapes, you can get books with textures.   I try to read simple books to my 3-6 year olds, but I also read books that are age appropriate.  In other words,  for all my children I would select a simple cardboard preschool book that contains simple clear drawings with very little clutter.  The books located in this blog are good examples of simple books with few words and very little visual clutter.  The visual simplicity is extremely important for children with low vision or children with corticol visual impairment.  Authors  and books not pictured here are Bill Martin Jr, BABY BEN GETS DRESSED (Baby Ben Book),BABY BEN'S BUSY BOOK (Baby Ben Book),Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book)Pat the Puppy (Pat the Bunny) (Touch-and-Feel)

These are just a few suggestions among many that are available to you as a person involved in the child's life.  The simplicity of the books adds to the child's vocabulary, cognitive functioning.  There words in the books are rhythmic and repetitive.

Even if you are not sure that a child understands/hears/sees what you are doing with the book, you are still stimulating the child with your closeness, the warmth of your body, the rhythm of your breathing and the cadence of your voice.   At best you are stimulating language, visual centers and having fun all at one time.

Christmas is coming: Gift Ideas for children with severe multiple disability

Wow!   Christmas is almost here.  I am sure you are looking for things to buy or make for your special needs child.   Here are some ideas.   


1.  A Fleece Wheelchair cape    Directions  http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_5220_sew-fleece-ponchos.html   You can adapt this by making sure you have enought material for the back and front of the chair, making sure not to allow it to get caught up in the wheels.   This is a no-sew project and if you are clever you can add a hood with leftover material.   Many students in our school have one and they are snug and cozy inside and out.


2.  Make a mobile that your child can activate while sitting in a wheelchair, feeding chair or laying on the floor.   The best one I've made so far involves taking a small child's mobile frame (like the fischer-price one for children up to 3-4 months), removing the toys and then hanging chimes from the frame.   You can buy the frames at a thrift shop or garage sale for as little as $1.00.  The amount you pay for the chimes is up to you:  make sure there are no sharp edges, that the chimes are attached securely (try fishing line) and there are no small parts to swallow.   Do not positiion the chimes so that will scrape a child's face, get in his/her eyes or can choke them.  Off to the side to encourage swiping is great.   Putting the frame above the head of a supine child encourages reaching overhead.  Make sure you play a game with your child before leaving them alone with the chimes.  Don't move their hands or arms.   Move the chimes so that get the sound and talk about what you are doing.   Play.  Let the child try.   Don't comment on success or not success, just play and see the movements that happen as your child makes his or her own discoveries.
      

You are trying for independence.  While you are buying be selective, play and think.  Fischer-Price, Baby Einstein,  Playskool, Little Tykes, etc. all have good and interesting products to look at.  Not all are appropriate for your child despite the developmental levels stated on the package.   Remember, sometimes the first activations of the toys will be accidental....that is the beginning of cause and effect play.  Use of VELCRO on a wheelchair tray or feeding tray and then on the toy will make sure the toy doesn't move so your child can find it again. 
Many of these toys can be bought second hand at garage sales or thrift stores.                            
  

Toys for children with severe disabilities: Adults and children as Toys

That's what I meant: Adults as toys.  If a child with severe impairments is used to having adults and children interacting with them, it is natural that we become part of their playscape.

Think of an infant..their first play experiences are their caretakers.   Eyes meet eyes, hands gently encourage movement and touch of tiny hands,  mouths smile at other mouths, sounds are echoed.  All of this in play and love.

Children with severe mulitple impairments need encouragement and direct teaching  to learn skills that children without impairments (or with limited impairments)  pick up from their environment.  Think of all the skills and knowledge that children pick up visually.  Take away that vision, put a child in a soft environment like a crib with soft blankets, soft clothing, etc. and the child is put into a sensory deprivation chamber.   There is little to explore, exploration = learning, so the child becomes more impaired than he or she should be with the one disability alone.  When you add other disabilities to either loss of sight or loss of hearing or movement, you are not just adding disabilities, you are compounding them.   According the Lili Nielsen, researcher and founder of the Active Learning technique for children with visual impairments (and multiple impairments) a child is not deaf+blind+quadriplegic; the learning disability has been increased by a multiplier:  deafXblindXquadriplegic.

You as teacher (whether parent, aunt, friend, teacher, therapist, etc.) are the child's first playscape.  Feeling your voicebox and having them feel yours, echoing their sounds, creating new sounds together allows the child to engage in vocal play.  Putting your hands under a child's and allow them to play with your hands, your fingers.  Encourage them to feel your face, lips, nose, hair.  Label what they are doing and label when you touch hands, fingers, legs, feet, face, tummy etc.   All of this is directly teaching the child, sensory input, labelling, breath control, how to use their bodies.  The games need to be repeated often and the child encouraged to mimic you after you have mimicked the child.   It should be fun, songs can be made up and included.  If you don't sing, make it a chant.

Amazon.com:

Great music:   We Sing Series:   Silly Songs, Nursery Rhymes, Travel Songs

W(6)
11.
Toddler Favorites by Music for Little People (Audio CD - 1998)
Buy new: $6.98 $6.97
11 new from $3.97 10 used from $5.40
Get it by Tuesday, Dec 14 if you order in the next 20 hours and choose one-day shipping.
Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping.

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12.
Wee Sing: Under the Sea [VHS] by Wee Sing (VHS Tape - 1995) - Closed-captioned
Buy new: $12.98 $8.02
7 new from $8.02 20 used from $2.60
In Stock

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Silly Songs by Wee Sing (Audio Cassette - 1998)
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Getting this started.

I am new to blogging, but would love to share/get ideas with/from all those professionals who are working with children with  low vision, hearing impairment, blindness and/or multiple disabilities.  We are small in number, but we are mighty.  Our shared knowledge may just change the world for these wonderful children.

What I Learned

From my little friend I learned:
Never give up
To respect each child's intellect and teach to them at the highest level possible
Not to waste each precious school day moment that I have with each child
To question the need or validity of activities that may cause a child discomfort
(There is validity for some of them)
To encourage all staff in patience, empathy and understanding
To teach each child and meet their needs as a unique individual
To have each staff member say goodbye to each child individually each day
How much more precious each child is than I realized before (and I have always considered them precious)

Tribute to a special person

After three years of teaching in this kind of classroom, I lost a friend.   He was 5, unable to speak, walk or use his hands very much.  He was in pain every day of his life, but he lived his life, he loved and he had joy.  When I would walk into my classroom he would give me a smile that would create rainbows in my heart.

We worked very hard together, he and I.  First, we worked on his acclimating to a school day.  It was difficult for him to leave his mom and difficult for his mom to let him spend time with us.   At the beginning  he was just 3 years old.   When his mom and I realized that we could handle his pain symptoms at school and give him the comfort or encouragement that he needed, she relaxed and allowed him to stay in school when I called to give her a report that he was having a rough day.  

He began to trust me, trust the staff.   We worked on his independence, on his communicaton skills, on his cooperation skills.   He understood everything that was said to him.   Like a typical child, there were times he was mad at us, times that he was uncooperative, but he had a willing and giving spirit.

Communication with this child was easy.   We developed eye gaze communication, looking at the person speaking for yes, looking away for no.  He developed the eye roll that denoted "you've got to be kidding me."

He loved the other children in the class.  When he was 4, we had a new child in the room,  much smaller and more physically impaired than he.  I explained to him that he would be a big brother to her,  much like his high school brother was to him.  Very quickly he began to take responsiblity for her, and when she was fussing or crying, he would reach up his arms so that we would lay her by him.  He would scoot as close as he could,  many times, putting an arm over her, or putting his lips to her forehead.  She misses him.

When he was healthy, he never napped, keeping up an intensity of work with his body that amazed me, trying to interact with his environment, eating huge meals (almost inhaling them), operating toys with switches, knocking over blocks, listening to stories, using the computer with a switch.  As he became sick, naps became more frequent and then longer.  Soon most of his school day was napping.  The last day I spent with him in school, I had him on my lap and was reading him a book on snakes that he liked.  When he was on my lap we usually worked on sitting and breathing skills and sometimes we would read a book.  This day he was content to rest and fall asleep in my lap  his head against my chest.  It took me awhile to realize he was asleep, he was so comfortable.

He had a long struggle in the hospital and in between I was priviledged to visit him.   It was brief because he was medicated and falling asleep.   A few weeks later he was gone.

I like to think he visits or at least looks at us sometimes from his new life.   I think sometimes he paints the sky in the east just for me when I am going to work.   He is in my heart and I will miss him always.