Perkins Activity and Resource Guide - Chapter 4: Functional Academics

Mary Jane Clark

Description

This chapter is designed to address the needs of individuals with visual and multiple disabilities who may not be able to follow all parts of a traditional academic curriculum. As educators, our primary goal should be to provide students with skills that will be of use throughout their lives. Skill acquisition often takes longer for students with multiple disabilities, and they are not always able to generalize them into other settings. For this reason it is important to identify skills that will help prepare students to lead the most independent lives possible and to provide many opportunities to practice them.

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 14 septembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780988171343
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Perkins Activity
and
Resource Guide
Chapter 4
Functional Academics
 
by
Mary Jane Clark, M.Ed., COMS

©2013, reissued as an e-book. ©2004 Perkins School for the Blind, 2nd edition. All rights reserved.
 
Published in eBook format by Perkins School for the Blind
Converted by http://www.eBookIt.com
 
Every effort has been made to acknowledge commercial products mentioned in this publication whose names are trademarks or registered trademarks.
 
ISBN-13: 978-0-9881-7134-3
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
 
Produced in USA
 
Funding for this publication was provided by The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation of Reno, Nevada, in cooperation with the Hilton/Perkins National and International Program.
 
Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, Massachusetts
Contents
CHAPTER 1
Teaching Children with Multiple Disabilities: An Overview
CHAPTER 2
Foundations of Learning: Language, Cognition, and Social Relationships
CHAPTER 3
Motor Development: Gross and Fine Motor Skills
CHAPTER 4
Functional Academics
CHAPTER 5
Vocational Skills for All Ages
CHAPTER 6
Daily Living Skills
CHAPTER 7
Independent Living Skills
CHAPTER 8
Sensory Integration
CHAPTER 9
Developmental Music
CHAPTER 10
Orientation and Mobility
CHAPTER 11
Enhancing the Use of Functional Vision
CHAPTER 12
Adaptive Technology: Handmade Solutions for Unique Problems
CHAPTER 13
Techniques for Lifting Students Safely: Body Mechanics and Transfers
CHAPTER 14
Assistive Devices and Equipment
GLOSSARY
INDEX
CHAPTER 4
Functional Academics
 
by Mary Jane Clark, M.Ed., COMS
 

Acknowledgments
Special thanks to the following individuals who read this chapter and offered ideas, information and helpful criticism: Lisa Jacobs, Marianne Riggio, Nancy Haley, Alex Truesdell, Priscilla Chapin, Kimberly Carey, Chrys Peralta, Kim Charlson, Cynthia O'Connell, and Dianne Curry, and Mary McCarthy.
Chapter Outline
Introduction
Educational Guidelines
Integrated Skills
Laundry
Cooking
Grocery Shopping
Phone Calls
Eating Out
Daily Journal
Budgeting
Mathematics
Basic Number Concepts
One-to-One Correspondence
Counting Cups
Rote Counting
"Give Me" Game
How Many in Cups
Counting by Fives
More or Less
Money Skills
Money Bags
Coin Identification
The Price Is Right
Time Concepts and Calendar Skills
Daily Calendar
Personal Calendar
Time
Braille and Reading
Find the Objects/Beginning Sound Identification
Texture Matching
Familiar Name Match-up
Finger Isolation
Beginning or End
How Many Cells?
Which Letter Is Different?
Sorting Braille Letters
Copy Cat
Alphabet Books
Letter Confusion
Supplemental Activities
Spill the Beans
Race Through the Month
Calendar Bingo
Memory
Braille Lotto
Read Across
Go Fish
Initial Consonant Activity
Little Fish Card Game
Alphabet Line
Build a Word
Stump the Class
Resources
Suggested Materials
Sources for Braille and Large Print Children's Books
Distributors
Developmental Screening Checklists
Annotated Resources
Tools For Assessment
Bibliography


Introduction
This chapter is designed to address the needs of individuals with visual and multiple disabilities who may not be able to follow all parts of a traditional academic curriculum. As educators, our primary goal should be to provide students with skills that will be of use throughout their lives. Skill acquisition often takes longer for students with multiple disabilities, and they are not always able to generalize them into other settings. For this reason it is important to identify skills that will help prepare students to lead the most independent lives possible and to provide many opportunities to practice them.
Finding a wide range of activities in which to teach and practice new skills may at times be challenging. It is most effective to teach skills in a natural setting (e.g., money concepts while shopping), however, it is often not possible to provide students with a day filled with real-life learning situations. The most practical approach is one that integrates teaching skills in natural settings and incorporates lessons and activities from the standard curriculum.
As educators we often struggle to find ways to make lessons accessible to students with visual and multiple disabilities. If a student is unable to follow the scope, sequence, and pace of a standard academic curriculum, it does not mean that academics must be totally eliminated from the educational plan. One should not view it as an all-or-nothing situation. In actuality, a student's ability to access the standard curriculum is only limited by the creativity of the teacher and the educational team.
Traditional textbook lessons are not effective for many students, yet we must find a way to allow them to access as much of the curriculum as possible. For example, although a student may not be able to follow or retain the sequential information presented in a history textbook, he should not be excluded from exposure to the information, ideas, or concepts included in these lessons. In most cases it requires a shift in the way we view what we are currently doing with our students. For example, cooking activities are a great way of integrating math, reading, and science concepts. Daily calendar activities teach math skills and are a natural way to incorporate social studies into the curriculum through identifying and exploring holidays and customs. For other students, social studies, science, and geography may be addressed through a weekly news magazine for children such as Weekly Reader or Time for Kids . These weekly magazines are available on different academic levels and provide a way for students to be exposed to concepts from the standard curriculum.
This chapter combines activities for teaching traditional subjects (reading, braille, math) with the functional application of integrated skills. Some activities may not be functional in and of themselves, however, they help to develop preliminary skills needed to perform more functional activities. Braille reading and writing activities, for example, may be used to reinforce other skill areas. For a student who is not yet reading braille letters, full braille cells (the "for" contraction) may be used to work on teaching skills such as basic counting or left-to-right concepts. For others, braille writing may be a way to work on time on task, finger strength, and finger isolation rather than on the actual production of braille letters. The hope is that the following activities will provide a springboard for developing alternate teaching techniques for students with visual and multiple disabilities.


Educational Guidelines
• Expose students to a variety of concrete, hands-on experiences, such as field trips. Here is a list of suggestions for field trips.
• pet store
• fire station
• flower garden
• mall
• vegetable garden
• police station
• library
• factory
• post office
• farm
• river or creek
• orchard
• lake or ocean
• bakery
• amusement park
• airport
• hardware store
• aquarium
• grocery store
• Use real objects when teaching.
• Real fruit instead of plastic
• Real animals instead of toys (a taxidermist may be helpful)
• Real vehicles instead of toys
• Real clothing, furniture, tools, and telephones
• Label the student's environment.
• Put his name on his desk and his room at home.
• Place braille and print labels on items he comes in contact with daily (desk, coat hook, chair in dining room).
• Allow the student to be as independent as possible with all activities.
• Isolate a drawer or shelf in the refrigerator, and designate this as the drawer for independent snack preparation. For example, place bread, cheese slices, lettuce, etc., in the drawer so the student can select the items needed and independently make a sandwich.
• Label all household and cooking items wherever possible. For items in the freezer, use braille index cards with item names such as "green beans," and attach the card to the item with a rubber band. When the item has been used, the card can be placed in a file box of "Things to Buy." When the student is making a shopping list, use the file box to help generate a new list.
• In addition to braille labels, glue sandpaper to items that are poisonous; this will help the student immediately identify harmful items.
• Incorporate as many skills as possible into each activity. For example, you can reinforce vocational skills by setting up a math or reading activity so that the student works from left to right. By having the student place manipulatives in containers with screw-on or snap-on lids, you will be reinforcing fine motor skills. Be creative and make the activity as much fun as possible!
• Always place items in the same location; for example, the clean towels are always on the second shelf in the bathroom. This will enable the student to be as independent as possible when removing or replacing items on shelves or in drawers.
• Choose books with high-contrast, simple figures that will not distract attention.
• When choosing books for print readers, be aware that pages with high gloss may create a glare.
• Evaluate the lighting that is best for each student (for related information see the Functional Vision chapter).
• When teaching word recognition skills, focus on functional words and environmental signs such as exit, entrance, stop, men, women, danger, poison, down, up, on, off, first aid, police. If appropriate, signs may be brailled. See the Independent Living Skills chapter for further ideas.
• Provide the student with a stable work surface. For example, do activities at a table that is on a level surface.
• Present materials in