Description of graphical content is included between Description Start and Description End. Transcript Start Chapter 1. Not Interested in the Object [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: When Things Go Wrong in the Dynamic Learning Circle Content: The Child is Not Interested in the Object Description End: [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Content: Presented by Patty Obrzut, M.S., O.T.R. Assistant Director, Penrickton Center for Blind Children Description End: [ Slide end: ] Patty Obrzut: Again, when you're talking about the Dynamic Learning Circle, the most important thing of understanding the Dynamic Learning Circle is identifying where problems occur and where things go wrong. So, in stage one, again, is a child aware or interested in something? Well, maybe the whisk is not interesting to a child. So, maybe you need to change objects. So, instead of using a whisk, which takes a little bit more movement to make it-- an action happen. Maybe you want to change to something like this. This is called a see- a seedpod rattle. [ Video start: ] Description Start Male toddler seated on resonance board with teacher directly behind. The teacher holds a seedpod rattle just in front of the student. Description End And if you notice, it makes a lot of... of sound, even if you move your hand, just a little bit. So, if I take this seedpod rattle and put it by a child's hand, [rattling sounds] [ Video end: ] the teeniest little movement is going to make a sound. So, now, that child [rattling sounds] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: The Dynamic Learning Circle Content: Stage 2: Child Becomes Curious & Active Description End: moves their hand and they get a different type of auditory feedback. Maybe that leads to activity. So, you never know what a child's going to be interested in. [ Slide end: ] So, you have to open up your world to new types of sounds, to new types of textures; you need to use things that are bumpy, smooth, rough, hard, things that vibrate, things that play music, things that are quite. You never know, because every child is a little bit different. Chapter 2. Child Throws Everything [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: When Things Go Wrong in the Dynamic Learning Circle Content: The Child Who Throws Everything Description End: Obrzut: So, let's say you have a child that every time- every time you give them something-- let's say this ball-- they take it, they hold it for a second, and then they go-- like that-- and they throw it. So, you give them another toy, and they throw it. And you give them another toy, and they throw that one, as well. I'd like to give you a real life example. At Penrickton Center we used to have a child that was in our program, and his name was Chris; and every time we gave him a toy, he would always throw it. So, the difficult thing with a child that throws, is if you give them something lightweight and they throw it, not a big deal. But give them something like a golf ball, which is heavy, and you have a child who really can throw pretty well, and they throw it across the room; that golf ball can hit somebody in the head and obviously hurt someone. And that's exactly- exactly what was happening with the child that we had, Chris, at Penrickton Center. And so, just common sense, what everybody did was, say, "Don't give Chris objects that can hurt someone." So, we actually eliminated those activities from his environment. Which was the wrong thing to do! We also realized that, if we left anything out on the floor, he would take those objects and throw them. So, everyone was great and they picked up all the objects on the floor, but that left Chris with a challenge; which is, we're not giving him anything to play with, so he has to look for things to throw. So, he would scoot himself, over, across the floor-- he was child with Cerebral Palsy, he was legally blind, and he could sit up independently, but he couldn't walk-- but he would scoot across the floor and find something to throw. And, unfortunately what he would find would be a chair. And so, then- when he threw the chair, it, of course, could fall over and hurt somebody. So, what ended up happening-- if you're paying attention to the story-- is we were doing the wrong things. We were actually eliminating things from him to interact with. Therefore, we were causing more behavior problems and actually preventing him from being an active learner. So, at the time that I went to my first Active Learning conference, Dr. Nielsen was talking about the Dynamic Learning Circle, and she was talking about children that throw, and she suggested that children who are throwing... might need to do it more. And you're si- you're probably sitting there going, "That sounds kind of silly." But if you think about it, if you have a child in a wheel chair, and give them a typical toy from Toys R Us-- let's say it's a toy that... sings a song. You push a button and it sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. That child will push those buttons for a few minutes and then, typically, push it and it goes on the floor. About how many times will a child push it on the floor, that an adult will pick it up and give it back to them? I would say the average is most people do it about three times. The first time it goes on the floor, someone comes by, gives it back to the child, thinking, "Oh, they accidentally dropped that toy." The second time they push it on the floor, the person goes, "Okay, maybe you dropped it, I'll give it back to you." The third time, the person starts going, "Huh, maybe they don't want it anymore, I'm just going to take it from you." Or, "Maybe you're doing it on purpose, and I don't want you to get that kind of atte- attention, so I'm not going to give you the toy." The problem is, what if they are in Stage Two, and they would like to practice throwing. And we're taking away the toy from them, before they have explored and experimented, and figured everything they can about throwing, so that they get bored with throwing and want to move on to something else. It's the equivalent of somebody working a puzzle, and then someone takes that puzzle away, before you finish putting all the pieces in the puzzle. It's a job left half-undone! So, Dr. Nielsen would suggest that you need to allow a child to throw more, and have tons of experiences throwing, so that they can be-- basically become bored of throwing. So, how do you do that in an environment that's safe for the child and safe for the people... around that child? So, she invented something called the Position Board, which I have sitting to the side of me. And all it is, is a piece of peg-board. It can be any kind of peg-board. At Penrickton Center we like to use polypropylene board, which is a plastic, and it has holes already drilled in it. And you can get it from any local hardware store. And you can get it any size you want, and you can cut it with a regular saw. Why we like the peg-board, is it already has these nice holes drilled in it, so that you can tie items to the board. Why tie items to the board? If you'll notice, when I take an object and I pull it toward me, it actually comes to me, and if I let go, it snaps back. Why does it do it? Because I'm tying it on with elastic. So, it allows a child to pull the item to them, explore it, and if they want to they can throw it. When they throw it, it only goes a certain distance and it comes right back. So, I can repeat throwing over and over and over again. Until, at some point, I don't care about throwing it anymore, and I start to say, "Well, what happens to this toy if I don't throw it?" Instead, maybe, I go to throw it and instead I take two minutes to maybe feel it, and then I throw it. Now you have a child who's varying their activity and learning something new. Most people might say, "Well, if I give that child-- like I mentioned Chris-- this board, and he finds it, he's going to throw the entire board. And that's absolutely what Chris would do with it. And that's what I was thinking when I first heard Dr. Nielsen talking about this Position Board. I went, "I think the woman's crazy! Chris is just going to throw this board, and I'm still going to be in the same dilemma. So I asked her that question and she said, "You don't make a board this size. You're going to make a board that's so big, that Chris can't throw it." And it's the first thing we did when I went back from the conference, back to Penrickton Center. We got a piece of peg-board that was four feet by four feet, we tied all kinds of objects to the board, and sure enough, Chri-- we put Chris in the board, and the first thing he did-- he looked so happy! And he started throwing throwing those toys-- and I will say the fist thing that happened is the object threw, or he threw the object and it snapped back and it kind of hit him. And he was a little startled by it hitting him; and without anybody having to do anything, he figured out, "Don't throw so hard, because that hurts." And he adapted himself, how hard he threw things; so that he was gently throwing things, and he could find them again. And he played with the position board for about three months before he stopped throwing them, and he started to grasp the toy and bang it, and then throw it. And now we had a child that was... learning all he can learn from throwing, and moving on to something else, which was banging. But a child can only learn something else, if the objects on the board prevent-- provide an opportunity to learn something new. Chapter 3. Self-Stimulatory or Inappropriate Behaviors [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: When Things Go Wrong in the Dynamic Learning Circle Content: The Child with Self-Stimulatory or Inappropriate Behaviors Description End: [ Slide end: ] Obrzut: So, I'd like to talk about one other problem in the Dynamic Learning Circle... that, sometimes, people experience. So, let's say you have a child who has any kind of... aggressive behavior, or a behavior that you don't really want to see; for example, you have a child mouthing toys. Or, you have a child who's grinding their teeth. What I'm going to recommend to you is that you think about the Dynamic Learning Circle. And is there a reason for some of those... activities happening? For example, with a child grinding their teeth. You can't take their teeth away from them. That have that-- they have- they have access to their teeth 24 hours a day, and just telling them to stop is not going to help things. So, what you're trying to do is look in the environment and try to find something that mimics the activity of a child, but that they can do so in an appropriate way, as opposed to a way that you don't want them to mimic that activity. So, what can yo find that would allow a child to do something, like grinding their teeth, but is not grinding their teeth? So, this is a simple little nylon bag, that we sowed together and then filled with corn starch. And if I just take my hand and rub it-- [grinding sounds] If you listen, that sound is exactly the same sound as someone grinding their teeth. And the nice thing about a nylon bag, is the child can actually stick it in their mouth and chew on it a little bit, and get that same sensation of grinding their teeth. But instead, if they use their hand or their teeth, they're now learning to kneed something with their hand, and us the a different object to get that sensation, that for some reason, they're enjoying. We may not understand why children participate in certain activities, why are they grinding their teeth-- What we can do... is accept that for some reason that child is getting something out of activity. So, let's find something that will move that child away from grinding their teeth to a more appropriate activity. If I can get a child to, maybe, mouth this kind of nylon bag, maybe I could substitute it, later, for a sipper straw, or a whistle straw, or a harmonica; and maybe that child would learn to blow through it, and start to play music, and then maybe they find some other way to use their mouth in a constructive, instead of just grinding their teeth. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Active Learning Space Content: www.activelearningspace.org September 2016 Description End: [ Slide end: ]