2014-03-12-Soft Skills 2 · Web viewSeminars@Hadley Back to School Prep Starts Now Presented by Allison Conway Kim Walker Moderated by Dawn Turco May 13, 2015 Dawn Turco Good afternoon

Back to School Prep Starts Now

Seminars@Hadley


Presented by Allison ConwayKim Walker

Moderated by Dawn Turco

May 13, 2015

Dawn TurcoGood afternoon and welcome to today’s Seminars at Hadley. I’m Dawn Turco and I am moderating today’s seminar that we have titled Back to School Prep Starts Now. Preparing for the beginning of a new school year is a busy time for all parents, but are there any additional considerations for parents of children with visual impairments? Our presenters are ready to answer this question. Joining Seminars at Hadley today is a first timer, Allison Conway, and we welcome you especially today, Allison. Allison is a teacher of the visually impaired and O&M instructor at the Tennessee School for the Blind. She is joined by Kim Walker, and this is not her first seminar. Kim is a Hadley instructor and adjunct professor at Tribeca Nazarene University. Our presenters will be sharing

©2015 The Hadley School for the Blind Page 1 of 34


strategies you can implement before and at the beginning of the new school year, so let’s get going. I am handing the microphone off to you, Kim, you’re the first up.

Kim WalkerHi, Dawn. Thank you so much for that great introduction. I’d like to tell you a little about myself and then give Allison a chance to tell you about herself, but first of all, Allison and I have known each other for about 25 years. We went to graduate school together for visual impairment and we’ve worked together over those 25 years as TVIs. Allison is an O&M instructor and always looking at strategies that we can use to help our students be successful, help the parents and also help the school system, so we hope today we can share some strategies that we have found helpful that will serve parents and students. So Allison, you want to go into a litle bit about your history?

Allison ConwayHi this is Allison, and I have been a vision teacher in the public schools for most of my career, working in public schools and also in outreach with the Tennessee School for the Blind. For the past few years I’ve been strictly doing orientation and mobilty at the residential school.

Kim Walker



Thanks, Allison. Well, as a parent myself, the beginning of the school year can be absolutely hectic, not only of course, buying new clothes and the newest purse and the cutest backpack. But, you know, is everything ready for school? Do we have the books ready, are the immunizations ready for my child, so I know how hectic it is to begin a new school year. But preparing for the beginning of a school year, for the parent of a student who has a visual impariment really does involve quite a bit of planning in advance to ensure that your child’s needs can be met. So the first thing that Allison and I would like to tell you is you have so many things that you need to put in place so that your child has a successful year. I would suggest that you create a timeline at least one month before the beginning of school, have a checklist that includes the areas that we’re going to discuss.

But first of all, one of the most important aspects for the instruction of your child is communucation. I cannot stress enough the importance of communicating with the school. Not only your teacher, but the nurse, the counselor, the administrators. My last ten years in the school system was as an administrator, woking with curriculum, working as a principal, and I always stress to the parents, please come to the school, please call me, please email me. You know? I cannot make things better unless I know what your concerns are. So it’s very important that that communication be in place, no matter if it’s a phone call, a



note that you jot down, or an email, but build that relationship with the school that your child attends.

You know, before the school even ends, generally, most students and parents have their IEP meeting. We’re looking at, you know, we’ve completed our assessment. We’ve completed the year. We have a summary of performance for that year. We have a present level of performance, and that’s based on of course the year’s data that was collected, and also the end of the year assessment that we’ve completed so that we know what the child, what levwl that the child’s working on. So that we can place that in the IEP and that is always recorded in the IEP.

In about February or March, I’m nto sure that parents, and a lot of general educaiton teachers don’t know this, but we begin to order books for our students for the next year, so by this time of the year, as the TVI, I would have ordered the books for my chidlren whether they’re in large print, Braille, or digital format, we’re preparing so that we have that transition be very smooth, and of course, we want our children with visual impairments to have their books and their materials the same as their sighted peers. So we’ve been at work quite a bit at the beginning of about January for preparing for your child to be ready for that next school year.



Also as I mentioned, communication is so important. But also, parents remember that you are a vital part of that IEP team. That is not just a school team. You should be part of that. We really need your information because many times, children will do thigns at home that they will not do at school, especailly if we have a child that is non-verbal that may be having some issues with transitioning to a new school, a new teacher, a new classroom, so always remember that your information is as valuable as any of the tests that are done for your child.

And also, never feel intimidated by asking for the information about your child. That information is your information. It’s not information that is put in a file, that’s hidden, but its information that you need to be aware of, that you should always be updated with. So that you know how you could help your child at home and that you know what are the techniques being used with your child. And also as a TVI teacher, teacher of the visually impaired, part of my job was to train parents. You know, I was not there just to work solely with your child. I was there of course, to teach your child Braille, as Allison will mention, strategies for orientation and mobility. Daily living skills. And I know to train the peer educator working with your child, often the administrators. I even work with the maintenance, the custodians, the lunchroom workers. My job was to be there to train the staff to know the techniques used to help your child be successful,



because, you know, we’re of course wanting them to learn the content. But we are wanting them to be as independent as possible. So that’s part of what we do as TVIs.

And then part of what we do is to train the parents. I would often have parents come in to the school and go over what we’re working on at school, but also during the summer, many times I would go to the child’s home, and you know, in many situations, because I could help the parent learn techniques that would be very specific to their house and to their child So make sure that you communicate on don’t ever feel intimidated, make sure you ask for that information, because you’re spending more time with your child than we are, and you are the child’s first instructor and the first teacher. And another aspect of getting ready for a new school year is ask for the school calendar. As the principal, we generally started working on our calendars about January, and we would have the calendar completed by February of that school year so that you know what’s going to happen in your child’s school the next school year. That way it gives you a chance to plan, so that you can come to school.

And often, I would have a middle school parent and high school parents say, oh, oh, no, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to come to school to see what’s going on at school or come to the sports events. But being that principal, I



was very, I had relationships with the students. I knew the students. And I knew that they were very, very happy when their parents came. And I knew that they were just ecstatic when their parents came to an event at school. So make sure you get that calendar. You know what’s going on so that you can attend those functions. You know, all children want to have their parents involved at school. Now teenagers will tell you that they’re embarrassed, you know, I really, really don’t need to, you really don’t need to come to that, but they really do want you there.

Another aspect of it I’d like to talk to you about is health. As parents we know that there’s so many immunizations that are due that lots of times, I can’t even keep up with them. You know, of course, we all know about those shots that the kids need before they begin school, but there are boosters that are needed throughout the school year and it’s important that you talk to the school nurse and you talk to the school nurse generally at the end of the year if you can, and ask them are there any immunizations that are due for your child specific to their age, are there any boosters that you need to have? That way you’ll have time to plan your appointment. You know, because the school sometimes get really, they’ll talk to you about shot records not being up to date so you would never want to be in that situation.



Also, a lot of times our children with visual impairment have medications that they take, you know, they’ll have eye drops, you know, things like that that they have to take during the school day. So it's very important if you can possibly get an appointment with the school nurse during the summer. That will give you a chance to sit down with the nurse, explain, you know, you know, Tom may have eye fatigue, have headaches due to the eye fatigue, you know, when should they give the child medicine, when should they not give the child medicine? If they have prescriptions or eye drops, you know, anything specific about that, build that relationship with the school nurse so that, you know, she’ll feel free to call you also when she has a question about sometimes those headaches that happen at test time, you know, she’ll know about a trick to make her maybe avoid this behavior of not wanting to take that test.

Also some of our kids have allergies to food, so of course, you’re going to want to meet with them about that. Also, especially if your child is taking a prescription medication, set up a communication system with the nurse, you know. Maybe the nurse would want to email you once a week, maybe they would want to have a communication notebook with you, but you know, go ahead and set up that communication with the school nurse also.



During the summer is an excellent time to work with your child on social skills. A lot of times, educators and families don’t think about the social aspects about children with visual impairment. Sometimes our children are not as involved in camp or church activities or girl scouts or boy scouts. So this is a time as a parent that you can help them become involved with those social situations. And also, our children always want to be like everyone else. All children want to fit in, and you know, as a TVI, and Allison and I have spoken about this quite often, when we’re working with our children when they’re in elementary school and we come to the door to maybe pull them out to work on Braille skills or work on, you know, using their binocular, their telescope. Or just maybe work on their reading skills and building their reading skills and visual efficiency. They love us in elementary school. We’re their best friend and they’re so happy and they’re so proud to go with us.

But about middle school, and Allison has learned this, about middle school, they like you because you have that rapport with the child most often for several years, they’re like, please don’t come to the door anymore, it’s embarrassing that you come and get me. So they want you to arrange to meet them in the library. But that’s fine and as TVIs we understand that. So we, you know, we want to have the privacy for the student. Now high school rolls around and they’re getting serious and they’re like



you’re okay, again, come back, because I know I need your help. So we know this and we try to abide by these social situations that arise throughout the child’s different age levels. And also, you know, a lot of times the kids are going to need the large print. They’re going to need the Braille books. So they don’t want to be different, and often they don’t want to use those, and as TVIs we try to work around that and we abide by that. As long as the child can get the information. You know, most often, like I said, the elementary students really love the attention that they get from us, TVIs, the teachers, and the other children, but that does change.

Something else that we do for social setting for the schools is that we train the staff, you know, the, there’s stereotypical things that people believe about children or individuals with visual impairment that we often have to let them know that is not true. So a part of that is training the staff and also many times, Allison and I have trained children. We brought simulators in and said you know, Susie, this is how Susie sees things. You know? Or this is why Susie’s eyes move, and we always do it in age-appropriate terms. You know, as children are younger, they don’t need as much information. As they’re older, then you can give them more technical information so that’s things that we do socially for, for the children. Oftentimes, the children, because they worked with us for, for such a long amount of time, they trust us and they will



tell us things that are going on in their lives that they may not tell their general ed teachers, and sometimes they might not even tell their parents. So we’re sort of the good sounding board for the student so that they can tell their frustration, they also can tell us about their joys.

Someone that I really kind of work closely with for social settings is the school counselor. You know? Our counselors are not trained TVIs, and on occasion, there will be some, but generally, this is not part of their training. So we want to work with the counselor, so that they can build the relationship with the child and function as a school counselor for our children with visual impairment, as well as the children. Or, as well as the sighted peers. So we try to meet with the school counselor in the summer. I would also advise with the parents to meet with the school counselor in the summer.

And something else that I have found very helpful, especially with teenagers during those awkward years, is to role-play with the student. You know, because they start to get to that middle grade, early high school, and it’s boyfriend, girlfriend issues. So part of what we do, you know, self-esteem, we start and leisure skills are part of the skills that we do teach, we start role playing with the kids and go, okay, you want to talk to Tommy. The conversation starter is to ask, well, what movies do you like or what music do you like? We also, there’s something



called face the speaker. Which means when you are speaking with someone, you need to make sure that your face is facing the other person, and we often tell them, you know, even though you may have your head down and that you can possibly listen better, sometimes for people who have sight, they might think you’re not interested in what they’re saying. So it’s a social skill that we really work on is facing the speaker.

Another social skill that we work on is how to raise your hand properly in the classroom. You know, we want to let them know, you know, you don’t put your hand up in the air, you wave it, you know, wildly in the air, so those are some simple things that we really work on socially with our children so that role play is very important. And as families, you know, have the role play with the students or maybe in a church setting or a girl scout or boy scout. There might be a child there that could be a practice person that you know well that could role-play with the student. You know, what to do if a student stops to say hello in the hallway and you get disoriented. I know Allison will talk about, you know, keeping your direct path of travel and you want to say hello to your friend but you certainly don’t want to lose track of where you are. So that’s something that we work on.

Also something that’s very serious is bullying. So we want to make sure that our students understand what bullying



is, and often, you know, is it bullying or is it that typical child, you know, bothering me? So, you know, to be on the safe side, if you truly feel like it’s bothering, that it’s bullying the child, the child needs to report it to an administrator or you need to report it to an administrator. That’s very important for your child.

So the last thing I’m going to talk about are some academic and homework and some routines that could be in place. We all know about our IEP or perhaps the child may be on a 504. They got the instruction for the child for what we do as a school. So as I mentioned earlier, you’ve met with your team in the spring, you probably have your IEP ready to implement for the next school year. And if the child is going to go to a new school, we would certainly hope that a teacher and, you know, other staff members from the new school would have been in attendance at that IEP meeting, so we hope that that would happen. And as a parent, I would go and meet the administrators, because oftentimes, during the summer, it’s not as busy. Because if you wait until the beginning of the year, it’s very, very hectic trying to get school started, new students coming in, new teachers, so have a more relaxed conversation with the administrators possibly during the summer. Make sure academically you know that’s on that IEP, what do those goals and objective mean? How will they be measured? How will you know the success that



your child or the mastery that your child is having with that IEP? You have the right to know this information.

Also, ask questions at the IEP meeting. If you do not understand what is being said because there’s so much jargon going on at the IEP meeting, that most of the time the instructional staff is very familiar with that jargon, but you may not. You do have the right to say, please let me know, you know, what you mean by this, you know, what are you talking about. So any time you have questions, please feel free to ask and the administrators and the teachers will want you to do that. It’s not that they don’t want you to know that. They just forget sometimes. So make sure you do that.

Also, when you’re looking at the curriculum requirements, make sure that your child is completing the curriculum requirements as their peers, you know. Don’t let anyone convince you, you know, that your child needs something different if they’re able to do that curriculum. You know, just because they have a visual impairment doesn’t mean that they do something different. So, you know, make sure they’re doing that. One way to know what the children in the general curriculum are doing is that you can look at your state department of education, you can look at the standards, those are for everyone. You can look at those, and you’ll be able to tell what is expected of a child at each grade level, in each content area. Also the school



counselor or the psychologist can sit down with you and help you filter through these standards so that you understand them.

And remember that that IEP should give your child access to that general curriculum through accommodation or modification. Accommodations are, you know, are they going to use Braille, are they going to use large print? What type of technology are they going to use? Modification generally means you’re going to do something to that curriculum. So make sure you understand what is going to be modified. And you can put accommodations in place but make sure tht the child can continue to get that general curriculum without having so much work. For example, you know, if the child’s doing math problems, instead of doing 30 math problems, maybe do 15. Maybe do the even or the odd. The teacher’s still going to be able to tell, is that child getting that content without possibly having eye fatigue or physical fatigue for the child? So, you know, make sure that that you understand what accommodations are in place for your child. And like I said, communication is the key. Working as a team is a key. Understanding what’s going on.

A small amount of homework. There’s some teachers that love to give homework and there’s some teachers that do not believe in homework, so you have this gamut of lots of



homework and this gamut of no homework. So talk to the teachers. If your child has eye fatigue, discuss that with the teacher. Your TVI will also discuss that. You know, hours of homework may not be necessary, like I said, if those key concepts can be covered with fewer problems or, or questions. You know? A way to, like I said, to cut down on that is make it be odds or the evens. So you know, make sure that you understand that--something else that I’d like to say that you know, we can get many digital books, you know, from different places. Digital books from Bookshare, you know, NLS, Learning Ally, which was formerly RSBFD, there are many sources for audio textbooks. But if your child has the capability of being a Braille reader and a Braille writer, your child should be reading and writing Braille during the day and at home also. Don’t let anyone tell you, oh, they can get all the information, they can just listen. No. If your child is capable of being a Braille reader and Braille writer, you want to make sure that your child is doing that. It really ahs to be a balance. You know, we’re dealing with eye fatigue sometimes, so you know, a balance of Braille reading or large print reading, you know, balance of using a computer, a balance of using those digital books, those audio format books. So you know, it’s truly about the balance with the child.

The last thing I want to talk about is routine. Routines are so important for all children, but especially our children



with visual impairment. We want them to understand routine. We want them to understand how important organization is, you know? How we plan our day, how we keep our materials, how we do our homework, where we put our homework, how to get the homework back in the backpack to get it back to school, so it’s very important that you establish those routines. But something that I have found as very helpful is that if you sit down with your child and help, let them determine some of these routines so that they can take ownership. But of course you do have the final call on that, as I do.

So things to start discussions, these are some issues that as TVIs and O&M that we know that happen and it’s so much preplanning that goes on so that our children with visual impairment can truly have a successful year working as a team and being great communicators. So at this time I’m going to turn it over to Allison. She’s going to talk more specifically about orientation and mobility.

Allison ConwayHi, this is Allison. So as the orientation and mobility specialist, we need the support from parents, the teachers of visually impaired, and staff members for everyone to have safe travel skills. And as parents and you can work on activities without an orientation and mobility. Especially starting very early in life. The body concepts, not just moving body parts but what they do and how they moved.



Are they, you bend your elbow, is it straight, when do you move forward and backward to get objects? Directional concepts. They will [inaudible 0:28:39] determines right and left, specifically front, back, and sides, using those specific directional terms. Trying to definitely stay away from terms like here or there, because they’re not positions in space. And then a human guide appropriate technique modified for their size and age.

Trailing with their fingers down and arm extended in front. This can be used in schools or other areas where there’s a long hallway. This provides the child with extra information about the area, how many doors, are the doors open, are they closed, is the surface rough or smooth? You could talk about all the different textures they are made of. And then protective techniques. Are they using upper and lower protection to keep their head space and protecting themselves and how their hands hit an object before it hits their body, so they’re finding the object first. These are all pretraining activities that they can do at the beginning of life.

The team also works along with O&M specialists to really enforce the more advanced skills. As a child does, if they use a cane for travel or if they’re just moving about and learning to use their telescopes and other low vision devices, the IEP team is involved with all of those things, and it’s important to know that the O&M services do need



to be in the IEP and the goal has decided the IEP, but the services by the orientation abilities may be limited just because they are not that many orientation ability specialists in each state. So we have to look at our caseloads and the needs of every student they have. So we would like to serve them more sometimes, but the number of O&M specialists is limited.

The important thing to note is that when working on O&M, we are pushing our students into stressful situations sometimes because we’re asking them to do something independently, moving about instead of using a human guide. We’re asking them to move about more independently, and in different environments. So it’s important for the ONM specialist to know the health needs of the child and medications, as Kim has suggested, or protocols which may be needed as they’re moving about in those environments. They may need their inhaler to take with them on lessons or Epipen and if they’re diabetic or have seizures, what are the protocols that they have for each, very individualized protocols to keep your child out in the community and something that has happened.

So at the end of the school year, and there are things the team can do now to prepare for the beginning of the next year. Especially in helping to reduce the anxiety when a new school’s involved. When I go out and about and going into new situations, the parents are typically as anxious as



the child about a new situation and so in order to reduce it, we have some things in place that help familiarize with the school and the school staff. So this time in May, transition to a new school, the parent and the O&M should meet with the student at the new school to be introduced to the area. The staff and the system of the class will be changing dramatically. The O&M will also take the student to the new school for independent lessons to increase mobilization and help reduce their anxiety.

In addition, a student should go with his or her peers when there’s a school group to visit the new school. If the student’s going to be in the same school but in a different area, many times they change different parts of the building, treat that the same as entering a new school, because they may not have traveled into that new area very often. There will be some familiar locations such as the gym or cafeteria. But how stuff is run and some travel routes may be different. And may remember sometimes, as they begin upper fourth and fifth grade elementary school, that they may be changing classes, and that will be a new situation for them. But you don’t want everything to just be in school. During the summer months, O&M can be relaxed and a time for exploration. Your child may be involved with some camps, swim lessons or other social groups and learn if they have a camp that isn’t used to dealing with the visually impaired, the camp counselor and



everyone else, they’re welcome to call the O&M specialist to ask how to work with a student with a visual impairment.

There’s also a time when they could working off an independence and social skills. The student needs to be able to tell how they prefer to travel. Do they prefer a human guide? Do they prefer a cane? And also when they need help and when they don’t need help. Many of our students are glad when they really can’t work and can get there independently, but others well meaning come up and just grab them, so that they will see it’s very confusing and doesn’t know what to do, but it’s a hard call because we do want a balance between too much support, but also want the child to always feel confident and safe in their surroundings. Also, the O&M may, every first day, but the O&M and the particular visual impairment going into the home, the orientation mobility specialist may also be doing some summer services in the community locations with the parent to help you see how we work with your student in the community.

Good places to go and visit are trips to the grocery store. You can learn about different fruits and vegetables or help them find their favorite snack that they can learn to find on their own. It’s a great sense of confidence in them and their ability to do something independent. There’s also in the summer, you’re really not rushing around as much and you can take more time in the store and do lessons,



specifically for exploration rather than having to rush in and out as most of us do at the grocery store. Trips to parks for practicing climbing skills and slide and swinging activities. Walking on different surfaces on the ground, including taking your shoes off, which many students are very hesitant to do, are very useful experiences. For older students, hiking, biking, and rock climbing are very familiar. Our students actually love to do these things but don’t have a lot of experiences with them sometimes. And so we usually find some clubs around or some other places that, although biking clubs, but a lot of the biking clubs are now doing some tandem biking activities.

So the beginning of the new year, just before school begins, spend the time with the child’s teachers. It’s imperative that you have that communication and that it starts early. This gives your child a chance to explore the classroom at his or her pace and set up any accommodations. It also gives your child a chance to ask questions or respond to questions from the adults in a more casual situation. It’s more, it’s and easier way to get to know each other, because they’re realizing that the adults need to feel comfortable asking the child information because the child and the parent have all the information that they need to help them feel comfortable. Your child should also meet the other school staff: the principals, the assistant principals, the secretaries are very important. The nurses and other support staff in the



educational assistants or [0:36:15] that they might be working with, or encountering throughout the day.

If possible, schedule a time to be with orientation an mobility specialist, and there will be some lessons before school starts to have some more independent practice, and more, and when the school is not as crowded as it is on the first days of school. Because we don’t want your students to miss those first days in the classroom when the teachers who are going over all the routines and they’re learning their new peers, we don’t want to be missed, pulling them to miss any of the day’s activities.

In elementary school, when you go into the classroom look at where your child is seated. Sometimes teachers ask them where they want to sit. And look at the underfoot obstacles as well as those at head height. In elementary schools, a lot of shelves are coming right at the level at their head, so you want to be sure that they’re not walking along the wall. It seems like a good idea but then all of a sudden, there’s a shelf at the end of it. The student does not need to be in front, but they do need a consistent, clear path. The student should be sitting in the same area with his peers. A lot of our students have materials they take with them, but they need to be in the same space as their peers. Almost all students need an extra desk for work surface area and material storage. For additional storage, I use milk crates, boxes that l’m not sure that



Braille books or all the books that can fit in them. And then they can place under an extra desk. This allows a student to become organized independently and access their books as well as give them the extra space that’s needed for their storage.

The cubbies and hooks that are frequently seen in elementary school, they should be marked with high contrast or textured materials, along with their name, whether it’s in large print or Braille when the student’s younger for the student to confirm it’s their area. It doesn’t have to be on the end, but on the other hand, we do need an area that’s more open space because it’s easier for them to locate and it’s more efficient as they get, have to take things out of their backpack. They just seem to take up more room sometimes, and easier access for when they’re young.

If they have a cane, the cane can be placed by the door on one of the stick-up hooks for easy access when leaving or entering the room. This is also a good reminder to make sure that they take the cane when they are leaving the room. And at the beginning of the year, children can always grow four inches in a summer, somehow, and the O&M will measure for a new cane at the beginning of the year to accommodate for that growth. That’s why we don’t do it in August or rather in May, because the growth is just amazing over the summer.



For school route in elementary school, the teacher of the visually impaired and O&M will work together on teaching the school routes independently with the student. As the parent, taking a casual walk through the school as an overview can help relieve some anxiety with both the student and the parent as you learn the way about the school and how they’ll be traveling. Although the student may be on the same hall as the year before, they may be on the opposite side of the hallway, so the orientation to the bathroom, the cafeteria, and the gym can change, which can really be confusing to some students.

Lunch line. We know lunchrooms are very crowded and every situation. And depending how the student is going to maneuver about the cafeterias, and the level of assistance needed and who is going to be able to help will need to be determined before school starts. Your child should be able to open all the containers the same as peers their age.

At the elementary, they typically will have a peer who will help in the lunch line and assist in finding a seat. Younger students, it’s typically, they have many workers in elementary schools in the lunchrooms and so it’s usually somebody that’s assigned to their table or another educational assistant is going to help them get form the lunch line to their seat. And we want them sitting with their peers at the same time and doing the same things as their



peers as much as possible because it’s a very social situation, but it’s a difficult social situation for them, so we try to help them as much as possible.

On the playground, they should be able to deal with the teacher, how the teacher handles, how they get off of recess, how many classes go out for recess at one time, are all things that you would want to know because it’s a different obviously, it’s an open space with few clues about how to get around and the TVI and the orientation and mobility will be able to help with more specifics. But knowing that your student may need some extra help just on the playground is possibility and so looking at that situation, at how many students are out there, is always a good idea. The teacher needs to know that a student, especially one with low vision, they function very differently indoors and outdoors, because there will be different lighting conditions, gray days, high bright lighting days, sunny days, these can all affect their vision tremendously. And it’s a more visually complex environment. The student may need hats or sunglasses or sunscreen depending on what their eye condition is. Wind and snow conditions can also cause them to be disoriented. Even with the best of students, with their orientation, the environment can change how they see things. The vision of many students for many round, blind objects, Mary poles and the movement of swings as a cause all the confusion in the environment. All the things



that are going on when we have a student who’s very capable and independent indoors, they may need some assistance outdoors.

For transportation, are they going to ride a bus or are they going to be in the car pickup line? And these lines may be different from the morning to the afternoon, so deciding on the drop-off and pickup area is important. A specific arrangement needs to be made about how the student is going to get into the building and find his or her ride when they got home, whether on the bus or by care. Typically in elementary schools it will be an adult who is assigned to your student. At this age, their peers are too young to assist safely. On occasion, there has been a student in kindergarten who and their older sibling’s in fifth grade, and that has worked, but I would really, students are not travel safely in that kind of busy environment with cars and people trying to just get in and out. It’s best to have an adult around to help with those situations.

When going into the middle school and high school, they’re working in the same categories, but in a different way. Again, in the classroom, where a student’s seated is important and remember, they’re going to have multiple, multiple classrooms. But looking at those head high obstacles and ease of movement. The student will again need extra workspace, a small table, possibly, and typically instead of a box or a milk crate, the students will



be more academically independent and they’ll need their own bookshelf to keep a book or materials so that they can retrieve them independently. They should have lockers. You do want to pick a locker at the end here, and I do get specific with schools about where I want them. And they usually just need one and we recommend a top locker because if they get a bottom locker and somebody’s always opening up the top locker, then they come up and they hit their heads and it’s just more of a safety matter for them. Sometimes they may need two lockers. They still need space to maneuver and that’s important. Top locker makes it easier for them. In fact, the lockers have an attached combination lock. You can check, the lock can be drilled and changed to make the locker accessible. I’ve done that in many schools. That’s when you the maintenance guys really well.

And then just note that many students use the same locker for the time they’re in the school. If modifications to a locker needs to be made, if they change the location of where you choose the locker to be using it over multiple years and there’s different areas of the school that they’re in, during different years in our school. And then just know that now most students do not need a locker. They might put their coat in at the beginning of the day and go get it at the end of the day, we always hope. But please encourage your child to use the storage space in the classroom for materials they do not need for homework. This keeps their



backpacks from being to heavy as well as better organization and being able to find your materials in an efficient manner, it seems like every school we go to, every student, I’m not sure if you picked up a backpack lately, but they come in around a good 30 pounds sometimes. And it’s incredible, so we really strongly encourage them and all the physical therapists encourage them to lighten up their loads.

And their routes, their school routes will be more complex. And the teacher of the visually impaired and O&M will teach the specific routes of he schools for independence by going through the schedule on [inaudible 0:45:31] the cafeteria from the class they’ll be in before and after lunch. A casual walkthrough with a parent can help the anxiety of being in a new building. And because travel areas can change greatly every year, this should be done at the beginning of every year when they’re in middle school and high school, treating it as a brand new school because they might be in a brand new part of the building every year. And it’s a common accommodations for a student to leave a class early to get to their next class so they’re no in the middle of the big crazy class changes during the day.

The lunch line. This is how we determine how the student, again, how they’re going to get around, typically at this age, or always at this age, we use a peer. That’s typically



a peer that they just left class with and they leave a little bit early to get through the lunch line. Especially if the bell rings to release all the students at one time, we do not want our students in with that big mass of students. They’ll run everybody over, adults included. Many middle schools and high schools have multiple lunch lines, including a hot line and a pizza, sandwich, or salad line. Discuss always the options with your child so they know what is available and that some things do cost extra money, so you don’t want to be surprised at the end of the month when you owe a lot of money for something that they kept adding to their tray. The student should also be able to open up their own containers, and again, the transportation is similar. Drop off and pickup areas, specific arrangements need to be made about where this will be done. The student and the independent travel can be released early. But if they’re going to a bus line, they do need, they will need help from a peer to find the correct bus or the correct car in the line. And again, this should be discussed with the school staff before school starts.

So in conclusion, in addition to safe travel skills, because an O&M specialist works with your child one on one, there is generally a comfortable rapport with your child and there’s a lot of trust. Many times discussions about issues in the class or with peers come up in the lessons. If certain students may be bothering them or a student’s trying to help them too much are common conversations, and the



only one who can help monitor this social and emotional wellbeing of your child and can bring that information to the team to really prepare and let them know what we need to be concerned with and what we’re monitoring an helping them independently.

So the key to a successful school year is preparation and good communication among all team members.

Kim WalkerThanks, Allison, well, that’s the conclusion of our strategies for today. I’m going to turn the microphone back over to Dawn.

Dawn TurcoThank you, ladies. This has been great, and while you were talking, we had just a few text messages come in. A couple about the IEP. No surprise there, right? And the final statement was about the team. So we had a question, you know, Paul’s saying that the IEP had already been developed and can I suggest additional goals as a parent? So let’s see if we can answer Paul’s question for him.

Kim WalkerHi, this is Kim. Remember that when you sit down for that IEP meeting, that should not be set in stone. That IEP goals and objectives at that meeting is a draft. And most definitely, the parent should have input and most definitely



should be able to add goals and objectives to that. So remember, Paul, that that’s just a draft. That is not set in stone. And also to mention that, that a parent can call for an IEP meeting at any time. So it’s not just one of those annual meetings. It can happen at any time if there are concerns.

Dawn TurcoPaul also asked earlier, and we’ve had a little chatting going on and answered some of these questions, but it was early on, Kim, when you were talking about digital books and he wanted to know where do you get these, and Jane offered up the idea that Bookshare, for example, is a great place, so anyway, if you can remember back to when you were talking about digital books and that’s so new, isn’t it? We’re not just talking about the hard copy textbooks in schools anymore.

Allison ConwayHi, this is Allison, we’re at the computer again. So for audio, as I was saying before, many schools are not using textbooks anymore, they’re going straight to digital, so it is an important component. Digital books come from NLS and Bookshare and Loaning Ally. And not only are you going to have textbooks, it’s important to remember to have leisure books and most students, they need to practice their Braille, but they also need to practice listening to leisure books to help, to continue gaining in



their auditory skills, we need those auditory skills well above grade level for them to be successful in the school.

Dawn TurcoAny other questions out there? Well, hearing none, I will thank you all for participating in the seminar today, remind you that this was recorded and will be in the past seminars area of the Hadley website if you want to refresh or refer others to it. We’ve started a Twitter hashtag, #seminarsathadley, with the “at” spelled out, since you can’t use the sign in Twitter. Let’s see, what else can I tell you? Oh, feedback. If you have feedback or questions for the presenters today, or you hear it in a recorded format and you want to ask a question, send it to [email protected] and I’ll ship it off to the presenters at whatever point you might want today, which I’ll launch in just a moment and if you have the time to hang in there, we appreciate it. While I do that, I’m going to throw the microphone back to Allison and Kim for some final thoughts and a farewell.

Kim WalkerThank you, Dawn. Hi, this is Kim. You know, I want to reiterate, Allison and I have been doing this for about 25 years now and we absolutely love working with our students. We’re very passionate about them being successful. We’re passionate about helping the parents and helping the school, and what we find is most all TVIs



and O&M instructors feel the same way we do, so the key is truly communication and teamwork, so I’m going to pass the mic off to Allison.

Allison ConwayThank you for participating today, and yes, it is definitely teamwork and when it comes to orientation and mobility specifically, parents become more nervous because it is, you’re thinking about your student going out there and traveling by themselves and so working closely with orientation and mobility expressing those anxieties, but also expressing ways that you want your child to work in the community is very helpful to us. Thank you.

Dawn TurcoThank you all for participating in today’s seminars at Hadley. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day.

[End of Audio – 0:53:01]


Documents

2014-03-12-Soft Skills 2 · Web viewSeminars@Hadley Back to School Prep Starts Now Presented by Allison Conway Kim Walker Moderated by Dawn Turco May 13, 2015 Dawn Turco Good afternoon