Ideas for severe/profound students

[MomOfABunch]

Looking for ideas for activities for severe/profound kids who are cannot reliably point to or grasp objects, also non-vocal. Can at times shake head for no and make a sound for yes, but not reliably.

Any ideas appreciated!

[cherylswope]

Have you seen the older book by Pro-Ed, A Curriculum for Profoundly Handicapped Students? You can still obtain used copies.

 

The manual includes detailed checklists to help you assess current abilities in areas such as cognition, mobility, receptive and expressive communication. Skills include the most basic (shows startle response to loud, sudden noises) to more interactive (gives object on verbal or gestural command) and advanced (points to two objects given three choices). Each of these has 15-20 step-by-step, approximating objectives in between, so even the student who cannot reliably point to an object can work on slightly new activities and behaviors.

 

From the assessments, you can then find activities throughout the 378-page (but very easy-to-read) curriculum guide to match and gently stretch his abilities. (Example, an attractive mobile to promote gazing at objects placed at midline.) This is an easy place to start.

 

Despite its older publication date, you can find many ideas for activities in this book. If interested, read the 2011 Amazon review & see what you think.

 

 

As an aside - like many resources for this population, little attention is given to beauty or loveliness. This is on my mind, because my daughter works alongside severely and profoundly challenged adults in our town. Staff members intend to promote being "age appropriate" by offering contemporary entertainment, but this inadvertently results in attendees' pointing over and over to movies with covers that appeal to them. My daughter notes that such movies often fill the clients' days with "bathroom humor" which only promotes imitative bodily noises, or else the young men choose violent movies from which she slips to a private corner. I wonder what else could be imprinted into their hearts, if only we thought a little differently about the possibilities. Surely we can improve the input, even as we seek to work on output.

 

Perhaps, in addition to good activities provided in books like the above resource, we can immerse our severely and profoundly challenged chlidren with beautiful art, Pachelbel & Mozart, poetry, and good stories, even as we help them with daily living skills, mobility, and communication. I wonder how this might even lessen behavioral issues and aggressive outbursts.

 

Just "thinking out loud," because no one had yet responded.

 

 

Cheryl

 

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

[msjones]

Have you seen the older book by Pro-Ed, A Curriculum for Profoundly Handicapped Students? You can still obtain used copies.

 

The manual includes detailed checklists to help you assess current abilities in areas such as cognition, mobility, receptive and expressive communication. Skills include the most basic (shows startle response to loud, sudden noises) to more interactive (gives object on verbal or gestural command) and advanced (points to two objects given three choices). Each of these has 15-20 step-by-step, approximating objectives in between, so even the student who cannot reliably point to an object can work on slightly new activities and behaviors.

 

From the assessments, you can then find activities throughout the 378-page (but very easy-to-read) curriculum guide to match and gently stretch his abilities. (Example, an attractive mobile to promote gazing at objects placed at midline.) This is an easy place to start.

 

Despite its older publication date, you can find many ideas for activities in this book. If interested, read the 2011 Amazon review & see what you think.

 

 

As an aside - like many resources for this population, little attention is given to beauty or loveliness. This is on my mind, because my daughter works alongside severely and profoundly challenged adults in our town. Staff members intend to promote being "age appropriate" by offering contemporary entertainment, but this inadvertently results in attendees' pointing over and over to movies with covers that appeal to them. My daughter notes that such movies often fill the clients' days with "bathroom humor" which only promotes imitative bodily noises, or else the young men choose violent movies from which she slips to a private corner. I wonder what else could be imprinted into their hearts, if only we thought a little differently about the possibilities. Surely we can improve the input, even as we seek to work on output.

 

Perhaps, in addition to good activities provided in books like the above resource, we can immerse our severely and profoundly challenged chlidren with beautiful art, Pachelbel & Mozart, poetry, and good stories, even as we help them with daily living skills, mobility, and communication. I wonder how this might even lessen behavioral issues and aggressive outbursts.

 

Just "thinking out loud," because no one had yet responded.

 

 

Cheryl

 

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

 

I love this post!  I work (as an instructional assistant) with preschoolers who have multiple severe disabilities.  I'll be looking for this book as we have several students who are not yet reaching or grasping.  We have a great lead teacher in the classroom, but I'm always looking for more information as I'm new to this.  Thanks!

 

[beaners]

I missed this before but I'll be following if you don't mind! We sound to be at a similar place with one of my sons. He is starting to grasp things placed in his hand, but won't pick things up on his own. He doesn't do any yes/no but does express enjoyment and displeasure during activities. He also has cause and effect, so he can bump a toy to make music. We adopted him over the summer so we are still figuring out where he is in different areas and what our possible goals are.

 

Right now he is with us for a lot of our group activities. He listens to classical music and audiobooks with us (in terms of beauty :) ). He is there when we do a lot of the group preschool level work with my other kids and we include him in that, even though it is hard to tell what his receptive level is when he has so little output to base it on. Basically we are doing exposure, because it isn't hurting anything. He has cerebral palsy so a lot of our work is focused on PT and OT goals like sitting upright and stretching, or vision goals like having him look at high contrast objects with his glasses on. We also work on speech and feeding goals, since eating from something other than a bottle is our big life skills goal right now.

[MomOfABunch]

Have you seen the older book by Pro-Ed, A Curriculum for Profoundly Handicapped Students? You can still obtain used copies.

 

The manual includes detailed checklists to help you assess current abilities in areas such as cognition, mobility, receptive and expressive communication. Skills include the most basic (shows startle response to loud, sudden noises) to more interactive (gives object on verbal or gestural command) and advanced (points to two objects given three choices). Each of these has 15-20 step-by-step, approximating objectives in between, so even the student who cannot reliably point to an object can work on slightly new activities and behaviors.

 

From the assessments, you can then find activities throughout the 378-page (but very easy-to-read) curriculum guide to match and gently stretch his abilities. (Example, an attractive mobile to promote gazing at objects placed at midline.) This is an easy place to start.

 

Despite its older publication date, you can find many ideas for activities in this book. If interested, read the 2011 Amazon review & see what you think.

 

 

As an aside - like many resources for this population, little attention is given to beauty or loveliness. This is on my mind, because my daughter works alongside severely and profoundly challenged adults in our town. Staff members intend to promote being "age appropriate" by offering contemporary entertainment, but this inadvertently results in attendees' pointing over and over to movies with covers that appeal to them. My daughter notes that such movies often fill the clients' days with "bathroom humor" which only promotes imitative bodily noises, or else the young men choose violent movies from which she slips to a private corner. I wonder what else could be imprinted into their hearts, if only we thought a little differently about the possibilities. Surely we can improve the input, even as we seek to work on output.

 

Perhaps, in addition to good activities provided in books like the above resource, we can immerse our severely and profoundly challenged chlidren with beautiful art, Pachelbel & Mozart, poetry, and good stories, even as we help them with daily living skills, mobility, and communication. I wonder how this might even lessen behavioral issues and aggressive outbursts.

 

Just "thinking out loud," because no one had yet responded.

 

 

Cheryl

 

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

Thank you for the response! I will take a look at the book you suggested.

[MomOfABunch]

I missed this before but I'll be following if you don't mind! We sound to be at a similar place with one of my sons. He is starting to grasp things placed in his hand, but won't pick things up on his own. He doesn't do any yes/no but does express enjoyment and displeasure during activities. He also has cause and effect, so he can bump a toy to make music. We adopted him over the summer so we are still figuring out where he is in different areas and what our possible goals are.

 

Right now he is with us for a lot of our group activities. He listens to classical music and audiobooks with us (in terms of beauty :) ). He is there when we do a lot of the group preschool level work with my other kids and we include him in that, even though it is hard to tell what his receptive level is when he has so little output to base it on. Basically we are doing exposure, because it isn't hurting anything. He has cerebral palsy so a lot of our work is focused on PT and OT goals like sitting upright and stretching, or vision goals like having him look at high contrast objects with his glasses on. We also work on speech and feeding goals, since eating from something other than a bottle is our big life skills goal right now.

Yes, this is almost exactly the child I'm working with! It's only been a couple weeks now, but I think she understands much more than she is able to show. I wish I could figure out a way to help her show it.

[Daria]

Are any of you considering options for augmentative communication, such as an iPad app or other device?

[beaners]

Are any of you considering options for augmentative communication, such as an iPad app or other device?

For us, we are working a little bit on the basics of something like a switch, but my son is coming from a background of extremely profound neglect so he doesn't have previous exposure to language and communication. Long-term I don't know what communication options we will have. It's going to depend on how much fine motor control we develop, how much we can work around his limited vision, how well we can teach any particular systems, etc.

[MomOfABunch]

Are any of you considering options for augmentative communication, such as an iPad app or other device?

A good idea, but she cannot move her hands enough to use an iPad

[Daria]

A good idea, but she cannot move her hands enough to use an iPad

 

There are AAC solutions for kids without a lot of hand movement, or really any at all.  Solutions that work with head switches or eye gaze or scanning.  

 

I'm working with an 8 year old right now with very very little intentional movement, and communication is a huge goal.  PM me if you want more details about strategies we use, and some thoughts on where to begin.  

[MomOfABunch]

There are AAC solutions for kids without a lot of hand movement, or really any at all. Solutions that work with head switches or eye gaze or scanning.

 

I'm working with an 8 year old right now with very very little intentional movement, and communication is a huge goal. PM me if you want more details about strategies we use, and some thoughts on where to begin.

I missed this response when you posted it! Pm'd you.

[beaners]

Have you seen the older book by Pro-Ed, A Curriculum for Profoundly Handicapped Students? You can still obtain used copies.

 

The manual includes detailed checklists to help you assess current abilities in areas such as cognition, mobility, receptive and expressive communication. Skills include the most basic (shows startle response to loud, sudden noises) to more interactive (gives object on verbal or gestural command) and advanced (points to two objects given three choices). Each of these has 15-20 step-by-step, approximating objectives in between, so even the student who cannot reliably point to an object can work on slightly new activities and behaviors.

 

From the assessments, you can then find activities throughout the 378-page (but very easy-to-read) curriculum guide to match and gently stretch his abilities. (Example, an attractive mobile to promote gazing at objects placed at midline.) This is an easy place to start.

 

Despite its older publication date, you can find many ideas for activities in this book. If interested, read the 2011 Amazon review & see what you think.

 

 

 

Cheryl

 

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

Thank you so much for suggesting this! I was able to check it out through ILL and I will likely be buying a copy for our family. It has been so helpful for what we are doing, and it has been great to see on paper how many skills we have already mastered.