Making a Mouse Manageable

No, I am not talking about the ones eating my son's computer cable at his house in Philly, shared with other City Year volunteers. I'm sure he would appreciate any rodent advice, but I am talking about the mice we use to navigate our computers.

Some of our younger students cannot control the mouse to move around the computer screen. Programs that require a simple click are appropriate to use with these youngsters. This usually requires an adult to physically hold the standard mouse in one spot so the child can respond. Why not encourage independence and adapt the tool instead? Introducing the "Mouse House." A regular mouse is placed inside a small notebook. Pressing on the surface of the notebook activates the mouse button. It works well with cause and effect software or to advance slides in a PowerPoint. This makes the child an active participant rather than a passive observer. How simple can this be to create your own? Check out the directions found on the Simplified Technology website by Linda Burkhart.

Thanks to Linda Einis at the Adaptive Activites Library for passing on this site.

Occupational Therapy - Skills For The Job of Living

Occupational therapy is skilled treatment that helps individuals achieve independence in all facets of their lives. Occupational therapy assists people in developing the "skills for the job of living" necessary for independent and satisfying lives.
In recognition of all the ways occupational therapy contributes to society's well-being, April has been designated as Occupational Therapy Month.

Nearly one third of all occupational therapists work in schools, promoting learning by all students.

Occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants use their unique experience to help children with disabilities be prepared for and perform important learning and school related activities and to fulfill their role as a student.

School-based occupational therapy assessment and intervention focuses on certain areas:

• Activities of daily living (caring for self-needs such as eating, dressing, and toilet habits)
• Education (achieving in the learning environment)
• Play (interacting with age-appropriate toys, games, equipment and activities)
• Social participation (developing appropriate relationships and engaging in behavior that doesn't interfere with learning or social relationships)
• Work (developing interests and skills necessary for transition to community life after graduation)

To find out more about occupational therapy and how it might help you, visit the American Occupational Therapy Association's Web site, www.aota.org.

More Autism Resources

Autism Spectrum Quarterly— the MAGAJOURNAL™ - a magazine for parents, teachers and clinicians that translates research into practice.

Visual Strategies - a website run by speech pathologist, Linda Hodgdon; highlights the importance of visual strategies when working with people with autism spectrum disorders (tips, products and some free resources..click on pictures)

Get Happy in the Next Hour

Gretchen Rubin has a blog, The Happiness Project, which is the title of her upcoming book dealing with the challenges of being happy. In her most recent post, she talks about seven tips for making yourself happier IN THE NEXT HOUR. They are well worth trying. I especially like the first tip, "Boost Your Energy". She states

...when people move faster, their metabolism speeds up, and the activity and sunlight are good for your focus, your mood, and the retention of information.

This is why recess is so important. It gives kids a boost that carries them through the rest of the day, better prepared for learning.

On the Hosmer student blog, Work With Wings, one student describes how he starts his day. I would say he walks to class a bit happier!

Thank you to Joe Shlabotnik for his photo shared on Flickr.

Social Stories

April is Autism Awareness Month. Visit the Gray Center for Social Understanding and Learning to read more. It is dedicated to improving the mutual understanding between individuals with autism and the people with whom they live and work.

One useful tool for improving social understanding and communication is the Social Story.

A Social Story™ describes a situation, skill, or concept in terms of relevant social cues, perspectives, and common responses in a specifically defined style and format. The goal of a Social Story™ is to share accurate social information in a patient and reassuring manner that is easily understood by its audience.

The goal of Social Stories is not to change behavior, but to improve understanding which in turn may lead to better responses. Although Social Stories were initially developed for children with autism, they have been successful with a variety of children.

It is my experience that Social Stories are used in response to a problem behavior. We probably don't write enough Stories reflecting what students are doing well. Carol Gray, the professional who developed Social Stories, says:

"Do keep in mind that at least 50% of all Stories developed for any person should congratulate of applaud current skills/abilities/personality traits/ or concepts that the person does well".

Why not write a social story about a child's accomplishment today! To get help on "how to", look here.

Good Search

Do your searching on GoodSearch, a Yahoo-powered search engine that donates money to your favorite charity or school each time you search the web. Under , type in "Hosmer School." It's that simple to start raising money for Hosmer. You can even click on the "Amount Raised" button to see how well we are doing. Granted, it is a small amount now but if everyone performs 2 - 3 searches a day, the amount will climb quickly.

To make it easier to use, install GoodSearch on your toolbar. The site shows you how here.

The Family Corner - Catch Your Child Reading

March is the Read-a-thon month here at Hosmer School. Catch your child or grandchild reading and send them an e-card created by award winning children's authors and illustrators. You can even include music with your card. What a nice way to motivate a kid!

Free Workshops

Therapro After School Series for Teachers, Therapists and Parents

Therapro's After School Series continues in April with a two-part seminar on April 12th and April 26th, 3:00PM to 5:00PM, entitled Managing Difficult Behaviors in the Classroom and at Home presented by Victoria Munroe, MAEd. This workshop will discuss the progressive new techniques from the Nurtured Heart Approach. The Nurtured Heart Approach consists of a set of strategies designed specifically for children with challenging behaviors to facilitate parenting and classroom success. These methods have helped thousands of families to transform their children from using their intensity in primarily negative ways to using their intensity in creative and constructive ways. This approach has also helped teachers and other school personnel to have a dramatically positive effect on all children. You are invited to attend one or both sessions.

Therapro Seminar Series

These are two hour presentation usually on Saturday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00 AM. Call ahead to reserve (800-257-5376).
April 14 - Karen Conrad, ScD, OTR/L and Victoria Munroe, MAEd. Developing Sensory Diets and Using Sensory Diets in the Classroom from an OT and Teacher Perspective will be offered at 2 times on this date. Please choose either the 9:00-11:00AM or 12:30-2:30PM seminar, when you reserve. Participants will receive 2 contact hours. We look forward to seeing you. Please refer to our News & Events section on the www.theraproducts.com website for future programs.

Thanks to Discovery School for the clipart.

National Handwriting Day 2007

How did we miss it this year? In case you are curious, National Handwriting Day was celebrated on January 23, John Hancock's birthday.

From







To






Handwriting has gone down hill since old John was alive. Go to this site of presidential signatures and scroll down from George Washington to George Bush. What do YOU think?

I think If George Bush was a student at Hosmer School, he would get referred for an occupational therapy screening...same goes for Bill Clinton!

Free Keyboarding Games

Want to learn how to keyboard or brush up on your keyboarding skills? Check out this website . The site contains a list of web sites that have free online keyboarding lessons and games. The games at http://www.freetypinggame.net are especially useful. They can be customized for keys included and speed.

Bingo Cards

The previous site also has bingo cards you can customize.

The Family Corner - Custom Chore Charts

Use your child's interests to engage them in tasks. This site lets you create your own custom chore charts. You choose the theme that will engage your child (Pokeman, Yu Gi Oh, Dora, Veggie Tales). Decide what chores you want to include. Presto! Instant chore chart!

Thinking in Pictures

Are you intrigued by the video you watched on Dr. Temple Grandin? Here is an article she wrote on Thinking in Pictures. It is equally as fascinating!

The Woman Who Thinks Like A Cow

Why would a leaf on a path cause a cow to stop dead in its tracks? Watch this video on Dr. Temple Grandin titled "The Woman Who Thinks Like A Cow." It is a 48 minute documentary produced by the BBC. This remarkable woman with autism describes what it is like to think visually in our world.

Thinking in pictures gives her a better understanding of animals. Realizing she experiences the world much as animals do, she can relate to them in ways other people can't. Although autism is very different for each person who has it, Dr. Grandin feels the common thread is the ability to notice detail. She developed this talent into skills that turned into a satisfying career. Having a PhD in animal science, she has dedicated her life to the betterment of animals.

Education should have a strong emphasis on building strengths, not just on addressing deficits. Who knows where talents can lead our students!

Other key points in the video:

• deep pressure is calming and relaxing (notice the "squeeze machine")
• people with autism have sensory based thinking (think in pictures, in sounds, in touches)
• sensory defensiveness can create havoc with an individual with autism
• fear is the main emotion in autism (needing to escape from stressful situations)

Daylight is Back!

Another hour of light graces us in the evening. The days are getting longer.

Exposure to light is known to enhance both alertness and performance in humans. I know I feel better!

Understanding Sensory Differences...Ask James

Honoring differences is what we strive for as occupational therapists. This starts with understanding. The blog School OT thoughts talks about a young man with high functioning autism who has an advice column called "Ask James". He answers a question about his sensory challenges and strategies that helped him. Read his response and you will better understand why many of the children we work with react as they do.

To read the post, go to "Ask James Williams" about sensory processing.

James Williams is an eighteen year old who has written books/essays and presented on the topic of autism. Go to his website to learn more.

WYSIWYG...or is it?

What you see is what you get...not really! Be sensitive to how we present visual information to our students. Sometimes we don't "see" what another person might be noticing. For instance, I was with a youngster in the computer lab. This little girl was making faces at the computer but not attending to what was on the screen. I realized there was a strong reflection from the lights above. Even though I was looking "beyond" the reflection to notice the important information on the screen, the student was using the computer screen as a mirror!

Think about how we laminate materials. Is the glare from the surface going to affect what the child sees? If so, use contact paper if you need to protect the materials.

Have you guessed what the image is above? Is it a glossy gym floor at my niece's volleyball tournament. You can imagine how a particular child might focus on the lights instead of the action, making it difficult to discriminate the relevant information from the background.

Students on the autism spectrum often have trouble making sense of our visual world. They might be focusing in on visual details and patterns rather than the "whole picture". An unfamiliar environment might cause an individual to go into sensory overload. Difficult behaviors could result from trying to shut out the onslaught of meaningless sensations. A wonderful description of this is from the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon. Check it out.

Creating and Sharing

Never before has it been so easy to produce and share content, whether it is music, video or writing. You can even publish and sell your own book online. The new web opens the door for creating and sharing. Why not step in!

Micheal Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology from Kansas State University, created this video called “Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us”. It's worth watching and pondering.

Laptop or Photocopier?

Students do a variety of writing in school, by hand and on the computer. Providing experiences with both is beneficial, but don't use a powerful laptop as a photo copier.

Why is it that students are writing with pencil and paper, rewriting multiple drafts, editing and then copying it by typing on the laptop? Is this final step really necessary? If we are putting laptops in their hands, let's allow them to use all the features to compose, revise, edit and publish.

Word processing gives students automated tools to help them spell, check grammar, and choose the right words. It allows them to electronically cut and paste written material and freely sequence ideas in ways to that make sense. Inserting information is done with a click of the mouse. Word processing is a functional skill that students will be using extensively in college and at the workplace. Joining what’s going on in the outside world with what’s going on in the classroom is key to preparing our students to work in the 21st century using 21st century tools.

See Education Week for a recent article on using computers for writing assessments.

Eighth graders using computers scored higher on writing tests than their peers who wrote with pencil and paper in a study out of New England.

SOURCE: "Examining the Effect of Text Editor and Robust Word Processor on Student Writing Test Performance," Boston College, 2004

Free Fun Folders

Check out the new resource library located in room 213. We've just added some fun activity folders that work on color, letter recognition, counting, and coins. All of our resource files are available to borrow. If you find something you really like, we can give you a copy of your very own.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Create and share your projects online and access them from anywhere.

Have you looked beyond the basic search feature of Google? One useful item is Google Docs and Spreadsheets. It is a way to collaborate online. You decide who you want to invite to work on a document with you. You can create a team assessment, record group consultation notes and more. If you start a project at work, it is to online for you to continue it at home.

Think of all the student applications. If two students read the same book and are writing a book review together, they can be writing at the same time. How many times do we see one student sitting by and watching the other type? Let's make them both active participants!

When students work on group projects, it is not always possible to get together outside of school time. By creating a Google document and inviting peer collaborators, each person can add their section to the project. You got to love Web 2.0!

For more Google tools, go to Google for Educators.

Dive Into Del.icio.us!

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

Pablo Picasso

It is so easy to be a life long learner this day and age. Not only do we have a wealth of information at our fingertips, but we have many opportunities to share, produce, create and collaborate.

Why not start with del.icio.us, an online bookmarking site. Have you found yourself sitting at one of the library computers saving an interesting site, then later wondering where it was (computer # 8 or was it #9) ? And what about that site you saved at your home computer that you were hoping to use with a youngster at school? Worry no more. Your sites are saved online and you can access them from any computer anywhere.

It doesn't stop there, however. Since these sites are online, they can be shared with everyone. The Hosmer special education staff has a del.icio.us account. Go to http://del.icio.us/hosmersped. Take a look to see what they have considered worth saving!

If you are ready to create a delicious account for yourself, please see Karen Janowski's site, Ed Technology Solutions - Teaching Every Student: Online Bookmarking Resource for Educators. She wrote a recent post on the process.

Digital Natives

Fifteen years ago, the web went world wide. That means the students we work with at Hosmer School are all born AWWW (after world wide web). The internet and other digital tools have been part of their lives since they were born. Their generation is often referred to as "digital natives". Marc Prensky used the term in his 2001 article titled, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants - A New Way Of Looking At Ourselves and Our Kids.

If our students are digital natives, we are digital immigrants. Some of us struggle to learn the new language. Those of us who have attempted to educate ourselves still retain our old accents. There is no getting around it. As adults, we bring with us a certain trepidation when approaching new technology.

Now we have begun vacation week, take a minute to watch this entertaining video called "Introducing the book". It is guaranteed to bring you some laughs.

Do you recognize yourself? I do! Each day, I try to be more "kid like" in my approach, however. Kids tackle a new digital task without the fear of making a mistake. They are not afraid to push a button, click on an object or explore a program. They try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, try and then succeed. We can learn from this process. Don't hold back...begin your discovery! Become a life long learner.

This video was posted on Karen Janowski's blog, Teaching Every Student. Visit her site for a wealth of tips, information and ideas as you continue your journey as a digital immigrant.

The Creative Organizer

Here is a video my nephew created trying to clean his room. Although it took four days, you can watch the process in 26 seconds. If only it was that easy. Enjoy!

Get It Out Of The Desk!

Material Spatial Disorganization is a term coined by Dr. Mel Levine from All Kinds Of Minds. It refers to a challenge in organizing our physical world. Young or old, some of us have an uncanny ability to know where things are at a moment's notice. Others of us struggle with locating an object which leaves us frustrated and stressed. If this lost object is a homework assignment or a signed permission slip, then the consequences can be great.

We all know that a student's desk can be a black hole, accepting many objects but with no assurance that they will come out again. Our principal offered this solution. Use a folder bin to keep folders "at the ready". It makes filing loose papers more efficient...no digging through your desk to find the desired folder.


When in doubt, keep it out!

Make It Visable

Continuing on with the theme of accessibility, this is a nice strategy for those students who need to "see" the contents of their desks. Do you remember the old lift top desks? To retrieve materials, you raised the desk top to have a clear view of the desk contents. With today's standard "front loading" desks, you need to bend and peer into darkness. Try to construct a pull out drawer that fits standard folders and notebooks. We make ours from the covers of copy paper boxes. They are the correct width and just need to be cut down in length. Now the student is able to pull out the drawer to see what materials they need.

Who Can Refuse?

Please Pop!

We tape a sheet of bubble wrap on the wall next to the door of the OT/PT room. This gives students a chance to pop a few bubbles when they enter. The benefits? Finger isolation, tripod grasp, deep pressure to index finger joints and increased alertness.

All the kids know is that it is fun.

Why Power Stations?

As occupational therapists working in schools, we have a unique job. Our primary focus is to improve the occupational performance of children as learners. Participation in all areas of the school day is our goal. "Best practice" guides our interventions, which are based on clinical reasoning and evidence.

Why power stations? We know that providing theoretically sound interventions during daily life routines improves participation (Dunst etal.,200,2001,2002,2004). Sensory processing interventions need to be part of the natural context to support generalization (Hanft & Pilkington, 2000).

Stay tuned for more ways we integrate our interventions within the school environment.

Power Stations

One teacher wondered where in her classroom she would fit suitable sensory activities. They don't necessarily need a lot of space. Have you noticed the "power stations" popping up around the hallways? Look outside the OT/PT room for one example.

Tape a set of paper hands on a vertical surface for wall push ups. A student does 10 push ups against the wall to boost his/her attention and alertness level.






Here is a set of numbers for quick, explosive "power jumps." A student tries to jump and touch the highest number on the wall. This provides input to the muscles and joints, which in turn helps to organize a youngster before entering class.








No space required!

Remember, if you have an idea to share with the rest of us, please click on the comment below and let us know your pearls of wisdom!

Drowning in Piles or Keeping Afloat?

Now that we are striving for order, let's be realistic. Piles happen. After all, if a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what is an empty desk a sign of?

Piles have their purpose and most people have a general system to seemingly unorganized mountains of paper on their desk. These are the "active" projects, not yet ready to "sleep" in file drawers. Visit the design your life blog to read the post on Piles: Everyone Gets Them.

I especially like Mike Essl's idea in the comment section. He uses clear pockets (called Job Ticket Holders available at Kinkos). If you are not ready to condemn paper or projects to the file drawer, place all related paper in a clear pocket. They are accessible on your desk as a distinct pile, ready to receive your attention. It may be the difference between drowning or keeping afloat!