Ideas

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Ideas
By Michelle

If directions are the problem, picture schedules might be a great idea coupled with a peer to follow. Is the problem following the routine? Make a picture routine card with a space for each step -- use www.dotolearn.com
for the pictures if you don't have access to Boardmaker. Does she get up and wander around? Put her toward the middle of the table and ask peers to prompt her to sit down if she starts to stand. You can also put a "sit down" sign at her place to remind her. Let her help you fix it so that it is important to her and easier to remember. Does she talk too loudly? Teach "soft voices"

and a hand-signal reminder. Ask the other kids to silently give the hand signal if she starts talking loudly. Remember, kids with cognitive disabilities may have extreme difficulty remembering things and may also have difficulty knowing what is important to pay attention to. It takes a long time to train a new behavior. Be patient and remember that she probably isn't trying to be disobedient or to challenge you. She doesn't understand, in the traditional sense, what she is suppose to do and she needs you to teach her. Get the other kids to model good behavior and whisper reminders to her. Consult your principal first, but you may even want to have a fairly open discussion with the other kids. You should probably arrange to have her out of the room. Be careful to preserve her dignity, but enlist their support and then reward them for giving it.

I'm not trying to give you an unrealistic picture. It is difficult and time consuming. There are days that I could just sit down and scream -- or cry -- or both! I worked every day for about 6 weeks to teach my student who is blind how to walk to the cafeteria. He still needs some assistance. I have another student who I wanted to dump his tray and throw away his trash at breakfast and lunch. It took two sessions per day for over a month to get him started and he still isn't independent. Yesterday, someone was in his way and he had to walk around them. He got lost and walked around the same table three times. He just couldn't think to look around rather than continuing to stare at that table. I had to go physically lead him to the trash cans. My one little girl is learning to open her milk carton. Twice a day every day since the second week in January we have practiced this. Guess what? We are still cleaning up spilled milk almost every day! Their learning is extremely slow, so expect that. Learn to celebrate the little accomplishments since that is usually all you get. Pay attention to details because that's where you usually run into problems. (I forgot to teach the difference between throwing away the disposable trays and stacking the plastic ones. I have had to fish several plastic tray out of the garbage!) Good luck!