Learning Media Assessment & Assistive Technology Assessments for Students with MIVI This video is posted online with the following chapter markers: Chapter 1. Learning Media & Assistive Technology Chapter 2. Basic Skills Assessment Chapter 3. Child-Guided Strategies Chapter 4. Functional Scheme Description of graphical content is included between Description Start and Description End. Transcript Start [Music] Fade up from black. Animation: Text for TSBVI transform into braille cells for TSBVI. [Music face out] Fade to black. Chapter 1. Learning Media & Assistive Technology [ Music ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired Content: Learning Media and Assistive Technology Assessments for Students with Multiple Impairments Facilitated by Scott Baltisberger, Education Consultant baltisbergers@tsbvi.edu Sara Kitchen, Education Consultant kitchens@tsbvi.edu right-side graphic: TSBVI logo Description End: Scott: Good afternoon, everybody. This is Scott Baltisberger. Sara: And Sara Kitchen. Hi. Scott: And we are Outreach Consultants with the Outreach Department at Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The webinar is Learning Media and Assistive Technology Assessments for Students with Multiple Impairments. [ Slide end: ] We want to look at students with multiple impairments, in addition to visual impairment, because it seems it's a little bit different... when you were doing those assessments with those kiddos. So... we just-- first of all, just looking at, you know, what is-- what does assistive technology and learning media assessment look like for this group of children? [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Today’s Agenda Content: • What is AT/LMA for this group of children? • Global Assessments/ECC Report Description End: Then we were going to look over some of the assessments. And the assessments that we're going to look at today-- we're going to look at three of them-- and they're more global assessments... that look at a lot of areas of the student ,and... they have a lot of information that could go on the Expanded Core Curriculum report. [ Slide end: ] What is the Learning Media? So, so on the learning media, you've usually got, typically, you know, when I was a T-V-I, on the report it asks for, you know, these three areas that you see at the top, visual, auditory and tactile. So, typically, you're expected to assess a child as being the primary learner in one of those areas, and also look at what might be an important secondary learning media, as well. But I guess the thing, you know, the conversation that we've been having, and that is, you know, looking at some of the materials, is that a lot of these kids who may have a severe visual impairment, so they're not visual learners... and they are not really tactile learners in sort of the traditional way... I originally was trained to look at it. [ Slide end: ] You know, because it's sort of along the lines of, well, of course, if you've got a student who is an academic student, and they're a Braille reader, that's a real obvious tactile learner. But a tactile learner... they are those kids who have pretty severe impairments, and they don't necessarily use their tactile sense in-- Sara: The usual way, I suppose. Scott: -- the usual way. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide So, that brings us kind of to the second bullet there, which is-- so you may have kids who don't really extensively engage in tactile-- like using their fingertips, I guess. I think that's what we had talked about. Kids who don't really use their fingertips to sort of extensively explore objects in a systemic way. Sara: Right, they probably-- they may not have had-- either they don't have the motor skills to do that, or they may not have had the experience to have developed a system for exploring... in a tactual way... And they may need to do it in a more gross motor way. [ Slide end: ] For example... finding out about the world through the vestibular sense, or just by kind of, you know, in a bigger sort of way; learning through the bigger system, of the haptic, and the proprioceptive, and vestibular systems. Scott: Mm-hmm, yeah. So, those kids that might be into rocking... for example... You know, if you think about that as a, you know, I mean where would you put that? If that's what they like to do, and that's how they're getting a lot of information of the world, is just by-- through movement... you know through their- their awareness of their body. Or those kids who-- you know, are like scratchers, who may just be using a fingertip or, you know, just part of their hand to sort of explore textures that way. It's really not-- it doesn't-- it may not appear they're getting the amount of information, or getting information the same way that your classic tactile learner is, but that might be the most important thing for them, because-- For a lot of these kids, what I- what I've seen is people sometimes... declare them, or identify them as auditory learners. And... that, I think is problematic, because if you have a severe visual impairment, and you don't have direct experience of the thing that's making the noise, then you're not really... getting much information from it. Sara: If you didn't make the thing happen, and repeat it a number of times, so that you know that when I, you know-- when I move this object, it makes a clanging sound or it makes a thud, you know, or makes this or that kind of sound. Because you can't really-- you can direct your attention, you know, if you know how to, but even-- you can direct your attention with your eyes, even just by opening and closing them. You know, by even like having -- either I'm looking at or I'm not, you know? But you can't do that so well with your ears, especially if you don't have the ability to cover your ears and so... I think that... a lot of times we have kids that... seem to respond-- you know, like they are responding to somebody who comes up and they say, "Oh, you're so cute, you're smiling!" you know? And they... enjoy the social piece of that or they enjoy music. And so they have a response and-- but it's not really super meaningful. It's enjoyable, but not necessarily their mode of learning, and it's because they can't control it. You have to be able to control your mode of learning, I think. Scott: Right, yeah. Sara: So, and I think... Millie Smith has made reference to it in the-- in one of our recent pieces of literature, what is it? The EEC... book? The yellow one, you know the one that I'm talking about? Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: I hope everyone else knows the one I'm talking about, too, because I can't remember the exact title of it. But... she talks about sensory channels and how really auditory cannot be primary. It can either be paired with- with... I don't even think it can be-- can't be a primary way. It has to be tactile or-- Scott: Paired with another media. Sara: Paired with-- tactile paired with visual or just tactile-- for sensory motor learners. So, auditory is out, pretty much for sensory motor learners. We don't choose that, really, kind of like... a new guide. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Scott: The third bullet to address here, just talking about what learning media is-- and this is something that we've‑ we've kind of started talking about more and more, the idea of the social/emotional needs of the child as being a learning media. And so I know this may be a little odd for some of you guys out there, but just bear with us a minute. And think about... those students who are at very, very early developmental stages and compare that to an infant. I'm talking about kids who are like, you know, under six months developmentally. [ Slide end: ] And... those of you who've had children or, you know, have been around very young children, think about what the types of interactions are going on with kids of that age. And... mostly what's going on is the caregiver is bonding with the child. Um ... there's not a lot of teaching. There's not a whole lot of learning about things in the world other than that caregiver. And learning to have... trust, and confidence, and security. And so for some of these kids-- Sara: Like the basic-- it's like the base upon which all learning... exists. Scott: If you don't have that, it's going to be very difficult to‑ to reach out into the world. You need that level of security. Sara: It kind of gives you that solid feeling of yourself as, you know, of somebody who- who matters and who, you know-- you can't really act on the world until you have a secure, you know, bond and also a feeling of self. Scott: It's difficult to do effectively, if you don't feel that way. And I think... we'll talk about this maybe a little bit more... later on in the show, but, you know, some kids don't get that part and they may develop skills in other areas, but they're still very-- you see a lot of that sort of social development holding them back. Sara: Hey, Kathy has a question. How do you address a child with-- Sara & Scott: cochlear implants. Sara: Hmmm. Well, in that case... a child would still need to be learning about their environment, and what kinds of-- I mean, you know, it depends on where the child is developmentally, of course, but when... you're integrating your senses, if you have a new way of gathering information, it's the same kind of thing, I think, you really have to make the sound and with your own body to know that it's, you know, it's something that you did and your brain takes that information in. I mean... if-- and then starts to integrate it with the other senses, the same kind of-- but you have to be the one making... making things happen for you to know that-- Because then your attention is on it and you can repeat it until it makes sense to you. Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: So I would think it would be the same for cochlear implants, but I'm not a -- I'm not a -- as knowledgeable about auditory impairments, and how to start somebody to connect the information that they receive through cochlear implants. I would assume that would be the same way, because the brain is gathering information from the senses. And this is just another way that hearing is working. Scott: Right. Well, Kathy says, talks about her student who has huge vestibular tactile issues, seems to use his CIs very effectively. So she doesn't see pairing it with another sense, only processes one sense at a time. And... yeah, I think that- I think that's a good point, you know, when we talk about multi‑sensory approaches, it's not necessarily throwing everything at the student at once. You know, you don't necessarily want to give them a lot of information... But I think-- I agree with what Sara was just saying, if you want to make auditory make sense to a student, especially a student who has a real significant visual impairment, they've got to- they've got to make the connection between that tactile sense and the auditory, you know, to understand that that-- what the process is that's creating that auditory feedback for them. Sara: Who knows, somebody who has cochlear implants and uses them very well, that's great. And maybe the child has, you know, in some ways has moved beyond the sensory motor stage. I mean, I don't know where that child is developmentally. I was really only talking about the kids who are zero to, what is it, 24 months? Zero to two? Zero to three? Kind of in that very early phase... of development. Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: So that's- that's the guide is for the students who are in that very early... phase. Scott: Yeah, once you have a little more awareness, or a little more understanding of the different schema in the world, your auditory can work-- can function a lot more-- Sara: You are able to discriminate to some degree. If you can't really discriminate, yet, then you're not really using the sense so well. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: What is assistive technology? Content: • Any implement that supports or enhances educational activities. • Makes learning accessible. • Child can detect information and make sense of it. • Tickle Me Elmo vs. Measuring Spoons Description End: Scott: Now we would like to talk a little bit about what is assistive technology. Sara: Yeah, what do you guys think of when you think of assistive technology? I mean, what-- Scott: The Braille Note? Sara: Yeah. Maybe a Braille Note or a computer of some sort. Scott: Braille display? Sara: Maybe something... a CCTV maybe? Scott: Could be a CCTV. Sara: I'm hearing low‑tech items, too. Like what? Scott: What would be a low‑tech item that could be assistive technology? Like a Perkins Brailler? Or a slate and stylus. Sara: 20/20 pen. Scott: Isabel says assistive tech, switches, pencil grips, adaptive utensils, slant board. [ Slide end: ] Sara: A slant board. Uh‑huh. Uh‑huh. Yeah... and... you know, there are all kinds of things that bring information, make it more accessible, organize it, that you don't plug in. And... that- that just make information accessible to the learner and so, you know, there are a lot of things for kids-- Scott: Technology is any tool or anything that helps that child learn. Sara: Uh‑huh. Scott: And make sense out of the world. Sara: And... you know, we- we thought about, we were thinking about various things, you know. The Tickle Me Elmo could be one, you know. You squeeze it and it... it makes the noise. If you squeeze it enough, or poke at it, or whatever, it eventually begins to vibrate and make a high‑pitched sound. And, you know, so it's pretty intense. It can be a pretty intense thing. If... and it's a good one. I mean, it's very visually stimulating and you can also, you know, bend its legs and arms, and see that its eyes are, you know, I think has a plastic eye. So that's a different kind of texture that you could check out. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide But there's also things that, you know, you could- you could look at, like- like what we have on here as measuring spoons. You could activate measuring spoons, and get a lot more information from them, even if you didn't have very much movement. [ Slide end: ] Like, even if you just, you know, moved the back of your hand or your cheek, if the measuring spoons were next to you, you might get a lot more input. They might make a little bit of noise. Eventually you might, you know, check them out with your mouth, if you were somebody who could use your mouth that way, and realize that there's more than one, so you could start learning about number, you could start learning about weight. And... and then you also might get a little bit of information about something you might actually use in your life. I don't know how many people, you know, who grew up with Tickle Me Elmo, still use Tickle Me Elmo on a regular basis. [ Laughter ] But I... but I think most of us probably use measuring spoons, to some degree. So, that's a general-- a broad generalization, I know. Scott: We have moved off from Tickle Me Elmo for the most part. Sara: You also have to have certain skills to activate Elmo, you have to really be able to use your hands, and squeeze him, pretty hard, to get the maximum results from him. Scott: Yeah. You know, you're always going to get the same result from Elmo. And I think... when I think of... you know, in the past when I thought of assistive technology, I did think of its being electronic-- technology to me meant something with batteries or a switch. And... you know, what I have found is that a switch is very limited in what it can do. And, again, I think it kind of goes back to what we are saying about... the learning media. You know, if your system is more intact, or you've been able to develop skills and a switch makes perfect-- and a switch makes sense for you. You know, to hit a switch, and you get a certain response for that. But for very early, you know, early learners... the switch is pretty limited. And there may not be a direct connection between what that switch does-- what is activated about I that switch and what is meaningful to you. Sara: And it might not express something that you would necessarily want to express. Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: So, that's another difficult thing about the switch is that you can't make-- it's hard to - if you have a-- somebody who has difficulty with communication, it's hard to know what it is exactly that they would want to say with a switch. Scott: Uh‑huh, that's true. Sara: So, really it needs to be what they would say. You know, if they could. Scott: Right. Yeah. So technology-- assistive technology could be, you know, measuring spoons, it could be-- Sara: A rolling pin. Scott: A rolling pin. Sara: All kinds of kitchen implements. Scott: Who knows? Marbles? Sara: Oh, yeah, marbles are great. Scott: A tray of marbles... anything helping them to develop... integrate their sensory system; and use it more effectively. Chapter 2. Basic Skills Assessment [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Global/Overall Assessments Content: • Basic Skills/Functional Skills (TSBVI) • Child-Guided Strategies: the Van Dijk Approach • Functional Scheme Assessment (Lilli Nielsen) Description End: Let's go ahead and maybe look at the assessments, then. So, we have three that we're going to talk about; and these are the global/overall assessments. First of all is the Basic Skills/Functional Skills Assessment that's put out by, here at Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. And next we're going to look at child‑guided strategies, the Van Dijk approach, by our old buddy Jan Van Dijk. And finally, we'll look at Functional Scheme Assessment by-- Sara: Our other old buddy. Scott: Our other old buddy, Lilli Neilsen. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Content: center photo: Photo of a grey book cover with title “Basic Skills for CommunityLiving” and other information in black cursive script. Description End: Sara: Here is a picture of the Basic Skills for Community Living Curriculum. And the... first assessment that we stated that-- the Infused Skills Assessments is contained within this curriculum and it's... paired with that. It's also in the Evals Kit, but the curriculum isn't in the Evals Kit. So, you need... to know what the Infused Skills Assessment is talking about, you need the curriculum that goes with it. And it's a pretty good... overview of... a student's skills. Scott: Uh-huh. It's fairly comprehensive. Hits a lot of different areas. Sara: Yeah. Scott: It's a very routine based. So, it was developed here. [ Slide end: ] Sara: The curriculum is routine based and also the assessment itself is, you know, it will ask, you know, can they do it in this many routines, or that many routines, so you have to have routines in order to do the assessment. Scott: Yeah, like which part of the routine are they doing? Are they doing it consistently? [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Basic Skills/Infused Skills Assessment Content: • Contained within “Basic Skills for Community Living” • Gives overall idea of the student’s level of functioning in ECC areas. • Very routine-based • Created by a speech-language pathologist • The corresponding curriculum can result in learners who are not flexible. May be hard to generalize skills Description End: It was developed here by a speech‑language pathologist. Sara: The assessment was. Scott: Uh-huh. Right. Who happened to be Linda Haygood. Sara: Yea, Linda Haygood! Scott: The one thing that we were thinking about it, was that the corresponding curriculum, since it's so routine based, it can result in learners who are not very flexible. And it may be hard for them to generalize the skills that they've learned in those routines to other situations. [ Slide end: ] Sara: Right. It's very structured. It provides a lot of structure for students, a lot of that kind of support. The kind of support that is-is... less there, is the emotional-- we'll go into that in a little bit. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Vincent at Breadfast Content: center photo: Elementary student seated at table with bowl & spoon. In front of him is a wooden calendar box with instant grits and a measuring cup of water. Description End: Looks like we're going to see a video of a student who is being... taught using that curriculum in a functional routine. It's very functional based as well. Scott: We'll look at Vincent. Sara: A short part of his routine. [ Video start: ] [Background noises] Vincent carries a bottle of juice to the table. Teacher holding camera looks down at Vincent seated at table. Teacher: Vincent do you want juice? [Student vocalizing loudly in background] Teacher pours juice and Vincent begins drinking. Teacher stands behind Vincent and assists him, hand-under-hand. Vincent grabs two packages of instant grits. Teacher helps him open the packages. He mouths the packages and teacher prompts him to pour them into the bowl. Teacher: Pour them in. Vincent mouths the empty packages briefly and then drops them in the waste basket. Vincent grabs the handle of the measuring cup with water. The teacher assists with keeping the cup level so it will not spill and assists him with pouring the water into the bowl. Vincent picks up his spoon and begins to stir the grits. [ Video end: ] Sara: The measuring cup could be adapted a little bit better I suppose so he somehow would not be needing help pouring like that without spilling. Or... you know, if it were- if it were not this curriculum, probably... you would just let him spill it. Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: It might be a good learning opportunity for him. Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: You know, if he's not used to that, and it might make him really irritated at first, but it also might be-- it's not really something that's explored, that I think of as emphasized in this- in this curriculum. Scott: Right, because that kind of gets to that social/emotional, you know, dealing with adversity; dealing with situations that might arise-- [Multiple voices] Sara: Trouble with it sometimes, I'm sure. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Basic Skills/Infused Skills Assessment Worksheet Content: “Basic Skills Infused Skills Worksheet” Sheet of white paper. A grid of black lines, creating a pattern of cells arranged in rows and columns. Individual cells have information written in black letters. Some cells have handwritten information in red. Description End: Scott: Okay. Let's look at the score sheet for that; just kind of talk about how that- how that works. Sara: You record all of your data on this one... score sheet that has tiny little boxes on it. If you use a magnifying glass, you can see things on it. There is able... that's one box... filled in. There is C for competency, that is two boxes filled in. And three is proficient, and an X through all of the boxes is... that means generalized. Scott: General mastery. Sara: So, you can see, that, you know, for able, they do it in one routine... with a familiar person, and there's a certain percentage. So it's a fairly... good, you know, has a little... a little key at the top to help you score it. Scott: Uh‑huh, right. Right. Yeah, it's- it's... when I first looked at this, it seemed a little complicated to me, because there's boxes and Xs and things, but really it's pretty-- you know, it goes from one box, two box, three box, X. Sara: Yeah. You can see that on one side, there's social competence, and that's more of the social/emotional part. And then on the other side, which is a bit larger, there's organization. And that's more of the basic concepts and more-- a little more academic style stuff. And... you can see for him, for Vincent, he definitely has a lot more of... he's a lot more weighted on the organization side. So this- this is a pretty good... tool for getting a baseline... and if-- I found that if your student has a lot of needs in the Level 1, which you see a Level 1, the first row is Level 1, the second like - it's kind of divided into sections. There's three boxes that go all the way across. Scott: Three rows. Sara: And... then there's a one, and four of Level 2, and like five or six of Level 3. So if you find he's all-- your student is all in phase -- Level 1, then... you might need to look at another kind of assessment that breaks things down a little bit more. Scott: Yeah, because he's really-- in this area, the social communicative, emotional development-- Sara: He doesn't have as many skills in the social, and could he really use a lot of support in that way, a lot more play, you know. That isn't really emphasized in this curriculum. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Basic Skills Infused Skills Activity Routines Worksheet Content: Sheet of white paper labeled “Activity Routine.” Additional information (including “Domestic,” “Food Preparation” and “Breakfast-Cold Cereal”) is also at the top. There are rows and columns. The first column has information entered. Description End: There's one more form to look at. And that's the... the routine... the routines book accompanies this, and it shows-- this is just an outline of one of the routines that is given... so you can use this for a template and then build your routines from this-- from these routines that are in the routines book. Of course you are going to adapt them for your own student. Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: and this is-- this might have been the beginning of this routine that he used making the grits. But it was adapted to, you know, meet his needs. Scott: Yeah. Sara: Based on with that infused skills led the teacher to have him work on. Scott: Right. It's nice that you have these routines paired with it. Sara: It really gives you a lot of guidance. It's- it's a good tool. [ Slide end: ] Scott: It- it is. It just may lead to a little bit of rigidity in the learner, because it doesn't focus so much on relationships. The social-- Sara: Yeah, that thing that we were talking about at the very beginning, how that's the basis for all real learning, you know, and any sort of responsibility that you take for your learning is- is basically the-- I know I'm a person and I'm building my skills, and I own these skills. If you are just doing them in a routine, you may not-- you may continue to need as much structure, and if that structure goes away, the routine is lost, because the skills haven't been generalized. They haven't been owned by the child. Scott: Right, yeah, yeah. And it's sort of like they, you know, you can get really good in a routine and you don't really need-- you feel you don't really need other people. And so, I know as a teacher sometimes, I was guilty of thinking, "Oh, if my kids would perform their routines independently, I thought that I was doing a great job," you know. Sara: You were successful. Scott: The less they needed me, you know, the better. But invariably, you know... life throws you a curve [ Laughter ] and, you know, whether you're-- whether you're applying for, you know, college or you're making grits, you know, something will come up, and you really do need to sort of be able to interact with people, or go to people for assistance, and kind of be a little more flexible, and understand that that's-- that things don't always go according to plan. Sara: Yeah. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Where to order... Content: • www.tsbvi.edu/tsb vi-p ublications • Basic Skills for Community Living • Basic Skills Activity Routines Description End: Scott: Here's where you get this. If you want to go get the Basic Skills for Community Living and Basic Skills Activity Routines, you can order them from TSBVI publications. The assessment is in the evals kit, but like Sara said earlier, it's a good idea to have the routines, as well. Sara: The routines book and the curriculum. Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: The basic skills for community living curriculum. It will explain what-- everything that's in that assessment. [ Slide end: ] Chapter 3. Child-Guided Strategies Scott: Uh‑huh. So Kathy says it looks like a variant of the Van Dijk calendar protocol. Sara: Well, let's talk about Van Dijk. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Content: center photo: Photo of a yellow book cover covered with multi-colored oval shapes and black letters. Description End: Scott: Yeah. Sara: Van Dijk actually-- it seems like he came to Texas, and he was doing certain interactions with people, and he used, this is just an example, he used a bench, and he and another student were using the bench to kind of move along, and imitate-- Scott: Play a game. [ Slide end: ] Sara: And co‑actively interact. And... and from that, people looked at the bench, and they thought, "I need that bench." And they made a bunch of these benches, and they called them the Van Dijk Bench. Scott: They did. Sara: And then, he came back, and he's like, "Oh, you have all of these benches. Why?" And he's like, "That's interesting." And they were like, "Well, yeah, becasue we need those in order to do this." And he was like, "Arggh!" [ Laughter ] And- and, you know, so... but a lot of the tools that he- that- that arose from, you know, some of the things that kids with visual impairment do need, are in-- are part of the routines, you know, like having things arranged left to right. But they're not necessarily... the thing. Scott: Yeah, Van Dijk-- he was-- I remember seeing those old videos of him when he came, and he did the bench thing. And, you know, his, Van Dijk is-- Sara: It was about the interaction. Scott: So focused on the interaction, and he's so focused on... he- he refers to routines, but the routine is the interaction, and the interaction is driven by the child's interest. So that particular case-- the bench, you know, that's what it- it grew into. You know, he was sitting by the child on a bench, and it grew into that. But... it's- it's very personal for each child. It's very different for each child. So, this- this-- Sara: Not every child needs a bench. Scott: Right. And also, it's very focused on the interaction. So... his assessment looks at that. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Sara: Yeah. And we thought that it was a really good... sort of... pairing, to have the Van Dijk Child Guided Strategies, it would be the piece that the... Infused Skills... Assessment and the curriculum goes with it is missing. [ Slide end: ] Maybe it's not missing, but just not very well spelled out. So... this one is really, really very interaction based. Scott: Seems like it would be complimentary, because the... the... the Basic Skills Assessment looks at, you know, that real functional routines, and doing a job, and this one looks more at developing relationships. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Child-Guided Strategies Content: • “Routines” are based on the child’s interest and are co-created with the child • Uses play to assess what child needs socially and emotionally • Looks at sensory modalities/learning channels • Language used is a bit technical but the technique is very warm and interactive Description End: Sara: Uh‑huh. It really assesses what the child needs socially and emotionally. Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: And that's- that's what we would like to focus on, you know, with the other side- the other side of the coin. One really cool thing about it, is that it does look at sensory modalities, and the learning channel. So, it gives you another way to start thinking about what- what learning channels are they using to access people. Scott: Uh‑huh. Scott: Which is basically that thing that we were talking about at the beginning, the bonding. How were they accessing people? So, of course, you know, bonding might be the tool that you use to access your environment or access information, but you're also using your senses, of course. Scott: Yeah. Sara: To respond to people, and how- how are you responding? So that's- that's-- Scott: And he- and he specifically mentions like vestibular and proprioceptive, you know. So, you think about a lot of interactions-- games that you play with young kids, you know, it's that type of, you know, rocking, swinging, moving together. Sara: Yeah. [ Slide end: ] Scott: And, you know, the language-- when we were looking at it, you know, his language-- you guys, you know-- a lot of you guys have probably met Van Dijk, or seen Van Dijk, you know. and his-- Sara: Scientist. Scott: [ Laughter ] He's a real scientist, but he's also a lot of fun, you know. He's a fun guy. [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide And so the language, when you start to look-- when you read the manual, it's very, very scientific and technical, which kind of contrasts with the technique that he uses, which is very... warm and caring and interactive. [ Slide end: ] You know, I know- I know Van Dijk's technique-- and people talk a lot about that, you know. Van Dijk is... has this amazing technique. And people think that-- and we'll watch him in a second here-- but people think they need to... be Van Dijk or they say, you know, "I can't beee Van Dijk, I don't know how to be Van Dijk." And that's not, you know... we all have our own way. You have to kind of find your own way... your own relationship with the child. Because Van Dijk's relationship with a child will look different than yours, will look different than mine. There may-- there'll probably be a lot of commonalities, but... we don't necessarily have to do... try to re‑ replicate Jan Van Dijk within [ Laughter ] within ourselves. Sara: It's not-- it wouldn't be authentic to us, and what we are trying to do is have an authentic interaction with the child. Scott: Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: So we have to be-- we have to be us! Scott: Yeah. I've got to be me. Sara: That's right. Scott: You've got to be you. Sara: Let's look at Jan Van Dijk being Jan Van Dijk for a moment. [ Video start: ] Description Start Jan Van Dijk is seated in an open room along side a mother with her 4-5 year old child seated on her lap. Jan Van Dijk: Start talking, very gently, just calling out her name. [Singsong rhythm] Hannah, Hannah [Laughter] Don't distract. [Singsong rhythm] Hannah, Hannah Which is typical. Turning away the head. [indiscernible]. [Singsong] Hannah, Hannah... Hannah turns quickly and looks at Van Dijk. Fade to black [Singsong & clapping hand together] Hannah, Hannah Hannah is looking at Van Dijk with her hands together, almost clapping. When Van Dijk stops, Hannah smiles and shakes her body. [Singsong & clapping] Hannah, Hannah Again, hen Van Dijk stops, Hannah smiles and shakes her body. [Singsong & clapping] Hannah, Hannah Hannah verbalizes, holds her hands together and shakes them up and down. Van Dijk shakes his hands up and down as if conducting music. [Louder, singsong rhythm] Hannah, Hannah... Hannah shrugs her shoulders. Van Dijk imitates her. The do it again, but more exaggerated. Hannah: [Giggling] Van Dijk: [Giggling] Hannah: [Giggling] Van Dijk: [Giggling] Fade to black. Hannah is looking at Van Dijk. Van Dijk: [Singsong & clapping hands on legs] Hannah, Hannah... na-na-na-na. Hannah begins rocking gently. Van Dijk imitate her and sings at pace of the rocking. [Singsong] Ya-ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya. Ya... Hannah: [Verbalizing] Hannah tries to clap her hands together. Van Dijk: [Singsong and clapping gently] Ya-ya-ya-ya, ya-ya-ya. Hannah looks at Van DIjk and shakes her body. [Singsong] Ya-ya-ya-ya. Hannah shakes again. [Singsong] Ya-ya-ya-ya, Hannah: [Verbalizing] Hannah shakes more exaggerated. Van Dijk: [Louder, singsong] Ya-ya-ya-ya, [Singsong ooooh, ooooh]. Van Dijk leans toward Hannah. Hannah reaches and touches the side of his face. Hannah: [Verbalizing] Hannah sits up straight and crosses her legs. Van Dijk: She touches me, huh? [Singsong ooooh, ooooh]. Hannah reaches and touches the side of his face, again. Fade to black. [ Video end: ] Scott: Kathy made the comment, I love this assessment because it emphasized what the child can do, and not what they can't do. Sara: Right. Scott: And it's fun to do! Sara: Yeah, who doesn't like playing? [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Forms Content: • Observation Score Sheet • Observation Summary Description End: He has a couple of forms that you can use to record the information on your interaction. You can video yourself, too, if you want. The Observation Score Sheet and the Observation Summary. We have... that one on Scott's computer here. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Orienting Response Observation Worksheet Content: center graphic: Copy of the worksheet with some responses to questions. Description End: Scott: So here's the Observation worksheet... and... you know, so it looks at-- you know, it's a narrative. So, you know, you are looking at the factors of eliciting an orienting response. How do they exhibit that orienting response? What kind of information elicits that from the child. And what senses does the child use when orienting? So, you know, we were looking at this one with Hannah. You know, so, she likes-- she hears her name, or the type of voice, you know, Van Dijk's nice resonating voice, and the gross body movements, facial-- she responded to all of those things. You know, her own orienting response was to turn and smile and laugh. So you look at, you know, the types of sensory information that's doing that. Primary, auditory and visual, but she did use some touch there, at the end. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Learning Channel Observation Worksheet Content: center graphic: Copy of the worksheet with some responses to questions. Description End: Again, looking at the specific learning channels, auditory, visual, vestibular, proprioceptive, kinesthetic. How they react to sound? How they react to visual stimuli? How do they react to being touched? And whether they use more than one sense at a time. So I think that's all really good information for the LMA. Sara: Yeah. Scott: That's really good. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Appendix C: Summary Form Content: center graphic: Copy of the appendix with some data. Description End: And then you come to the summary form and you mention their strengths. So you have the observation area and you look at their strengths. You think about what they're ready for, and what suggestions, what accommodations, what things you might do for them. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Appendix C: Summary Form - continued Content: center graphic: Copy of the appendix with some data. Description End: So, you know, if orienting response, [indiscernible] and visual, she uses her vision and hearing to orient. Doesn't seem to be a problem for her. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide And we speculated that a quiet environment would be necessary for her to be orienting. We noticed that she stayed in her mother's lap, so she may need... that safety. Sara: Uh‑huh. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Repeat previous slide Scott: And then, you know, look at the learning channels. We thought that she was probably ready for more tactile information. And might be able to start moving away from that place of safety. And that-- the suggestions are, she really seems to like that sort of animated exaggerated Van Dijk style. Sara: A lot of people, a lot of kids seem to like that exaggerated... silly... stuff. Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: And also love to be imitated. Scott: Uh‑huh, yeah. Sara: Really responded to that. Scott: Scott: Uh‑huh, yeah. Yeah. [ Slide end: ] He was- he was... showing that he was attending to her, you know, she understands that. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Where to order... Content: • American Printing House for the Blind • Shop • Search for “Van Dijk” • Perkins School for the Blind, eLearning • Videos on Child-Guided Assessment Description End: Sara: Next slide is where to order, I think. You can get it from American Printing House for the Blind, and... if you go to the shopping section, you can search for Van Dijk. There's also a lot of Van Dijk... in- on the Perkins e-learning. There's videos on the child-- on this particular assessment. Scott: Uh‑huh, a nice series of it. Sara: Yeah, and they do move things around so you have to kind of go search for it. Scott: Uh‑huh. Sara: Because they're always getting some cool, new stuff. [ Slide end: ] Chapter 4. Functional Scheme [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Functional Scheme Content: center graphic: Photo of a white book cover with black and blue writing. “Functional Scheme” is written at the top. Description End: This is the last thing that we're going to look at is Lilli Neilsen's Functional Scheme, and her Functional Skills Assessment that pairs with the FIELA curriculum. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Functional Scheme Content: • Assesses where child is currently. • All areas of ECC and prerequisite academics covered. • Approach is guided by 5 Phases and FIELA. • Interactions are not identified in detail in FIELA, need to use “5 Phases”. • How does child interact with objects? How does child interact with people? • People sometimes place emphasis primarily on equipment rather than on interpersonal relations. Description End: The functional scheme is really great because it's... it breaks things down into very small steps; and assesses where the child is. It's more of an assessment of what teaching is needed, than this pigeonholing the child. It- it- it can really help figure out... if a child has gaps in their development, and that's holding them back. This is areas of the EEC and a lot of, you know, all of the prerequisites, academics are covered. It's very inclusive. It's Van Dijk approach is kind of... the Five Phases of Educational Treatment. That's the emotional and social piece. And that is- that is in the book, "Are You Blind?" And it's also-- there's a nice synopsis of it, written by Kate Hurst, that... one of our colleagues. The FIELA will give you-- the FIELA is the curriculum that goes with it, and it gives you ideas for all kinds of activities that you can do with someone who is at a particular developmental level. Scott: Yeah, it's very extensive. That's what I like about it. And it goes into-- I mean, there's how many... how many fields? How many are there? [ Slide end: ] I mean there's like... 20... or 30 of those. Sara: Yeah, and it looks-- you know, and it definitely emphasizes-- if you know the philosophy that any area can hold back... other areas, because the child is, you know, not a set of all of these different things; that they're all interconnected. So... if somebody learns a little bit more about spatial relations, they might... become a little bit more emotionally independent... you know. It can-- it's pretty interesting to see in action... Scott: Yeah, so it's got both-- I mean it's both-- kind of those... you know, functional... you know, how well can you perform certain actions... but then it also has that emotional interactive component to it. So it's kind of a nice-- it covers both areas. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Functional Scheme Content: Interactions are not identified in detail in FIELA, need to use "5 Phases." Description End: Sara: So, the FIELA is a lot of the activities, and then the five phases of-- that are in "Are You Blind?" are the- are a lot of the strategies to use, if you're interacting. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Functional Scheme Content: • How does child interact with objects? How does child interact with people? • People sometimes place emphasis on equipment, rather than on interpersonal relations. Description End: So. there's two really main parts that we look at with the- with this assessment; how does- how does a child interact with objects and how do they interact with people? And this is on their own. How do they do this without prompting? If they have access to the opportunity to do it, how do they do it? And... a lot of people think about Active Learning as the Little Room, or as the Resonance Board. But it's a whole system. It is-- it is not-- it's not-- it's not like the Van Dijk bench isn't Van Dijk, it's the Little Room is not Active Learning. Scott: Right. Right. Yeah, it's-- Sara: It's a tool, it's the AT that goes along with it. [ Slide end: ] Scott: So, yeah, people put a lot of emphasis on that sometimes, and say we can't really do Active Learning unless we've got these expensive-- Sara: Expensive tools. Scott: Tools to use. But really, a lot of it is built around those interactions, and attending to the child. Sara: We have a video of... Lilli Neilsen kind of doing some diagnostic teaching. But you'll see her sitting on a resonance board just playing with stuff. And what she's doing is offering all kinds of things to this child, to see what his developmental level is. And it's not completely successful at all moments. She doesn't know at first. She's just seeing what he likes and what he doesn't like. So-- Scott: Takes her a while. Takes her a while to figure it out. Sara: And she doesn't really have anything super fancy in this. Just a resonance board, that they are sitting on, and a bunch of things to play with. She has a ton of things around her so she can offer him all kinds of stuff. So, there- and there is a narrative that goes along with that. So, let's just listen to it. [ Video start: ] Description Start Narrator: Along the rear and to the left and right side of the resonance board, I arrange a variety of materials so that they are within easy reach. I sit on the resonance board leaving space for the learner to sit between my legs. We both face in the same direction. This position makes it easy for me to reach any materials I may require, and so provide the learner with the option to actively participate. I say, hello, to the learner. I take time to observe his response. And slowly, I start to play with a few of the things that I've prepared. [Baby crying]. Narrator: My first objective is to raise his interest in the game or in some of the objects. So I give him one. By observing what he does with it, I can see where his developmental level is. From his reaction, I also learn about his communication skills and whether his ability to mimic or vocalize indicates aversion, lack of interest or excitement. I respond accordingly. If he refuses to take the object I offer him, I give him something else. An object that is different from the first one. If he refuses everything, I stop offering. Instead, I start to play various kinds of games. I never force a learner to do anything at all. I find that he benefits from experimenting himself. As the one who can choose actively to concentrate on a constructive game instead of being forced to do so. When the learner shows an interest in my game, I continue to play. I am careful not to talk. A learner should be able to concentrate completely on the object, activity or game he has become interested in. Any conversation would be a distraction. Since as a rule, communication always starts with the child giving a meaningful response to his signals, careful observations of such signals provides the basis for our communication. I also use my observations to build a climate of trust. Confidence, both in me and in the environment helps the learner to relax. Michael refuses to touch any of the objects I give him. He claps his hands as if to tell me that the game is over. Michael-- I give him a scratch board. It has various kinds of surface for him to scratch, examine and compare. [ Video end: ] Sara: Then he gets-- it was so much just assessing where he was at, you know, she didn't know, she's offering him all of these things. Hopefully, he can stay, you know, together and with her, long enough to-- for her to find the right, you know, at least something that will help guide her towards more appropriate things, and that... scratching noise he was interested in. Scott: Yeah. So then-- that entire video is- is longer than the one that we just showed. So she really spends a lot of time, very- very patiently and very quietly... just attending to what, you know, how he's demonstrating his interest. Sara: Yeah. Yeah. And she doesn't give up, even though he's not-- she's not having success. She just keeps trying different things, and eventually she does have success. He- he's able to stick with her long enough so that... you know-- Scott: Yeah. Yeah. Sara: He's able to experience some success, too. Scott: Yeah. So, it's- it's a pretty extensive... assessment. It's got a lot of information in it. It's not something that you are going to sit down and do in an afternoon, or even over several afternoons. Sara: Maybe Lilli could. Scott: Well [ Laughter ] there's a lot of information, because you are looking at a lot of different areas. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Forms Content: • Milestones • Functions • Assessment of levels of function Description End: You know, you start off, you do the milestones. You know, there's three different components to it. You know, first you get kind of a baseline of where to start with the milestones, and that tells you where to look within specific functions-- Sara: The milestones are paired with each field, right. The fields are like fine motor, gross motor. Scott: Mouth motor. Sara: Spacial perception-- stuff like that. Scott: Uh-huh. And then... within those fields you look at the functions, which are more the individual skills. And then you do the assessment levels of function. So, why don't we look at those. Why don't we start off looking at the milestones. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Fine Movements Content: center graphic: Copy of the Fine Movements Milestones worksheet with some data. Description End: So, yeah, here's an example of fine movements, the function. So we are looking at, I believe his name is Michael. So you just check Yes and No whether they can do it. So he doesn't grasp reflexively or use the ulnar grip. He did put his hands together, he clapped, right. I didn't see him grasp any objects. I didn't see him pick things up. I didn't see him really explore-- toward the end he was starting to- to explore that scratch board, but not... in a very- very limited, very specific way. So that's where we found him as far as the milestones go. Sara: But that will give you an idea of where the student is... where the child is, where do you go within the big part of the assessment where the skills are broken down. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Fine Movements Content: center graphic: Copy of 0-3 months assessment for Fine Movements with some data. Description End: So for this student, it seems like, since he had so many Nos at the very beginning, and he continued to have a lot of Nos, you just start at the very beginning. Scott: Uh-huh. Which we did. So, here's the... here's- here's the field, with the individual function. And so, you see the-- you know, the functions are these individual skills within five movements-- Sara: And they have a date and initial-- if you want to, look at the Active Learning webinars, from last year, and they go into detail about how to fill out the Functional Scheme. Scott: Yeah. Sara: And that'll give you examples, and... it's very good information. Scott: Yeah. And there's a lot of information on here. I know... Patty Obrzut, from Penrickton, you know, she gives more information about, kind of specifically what you really do need, and what to focus on. But in this first session, we just looked at, you know, Yes, No or Don't Know, and the date that we scored it. Sara: Right. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Assessmemt of the levels of function Content: Copy of summary form, Assessmemt of the levels of function with some data. Description End: Scott: And then you take that information and you- you find where they're at, developmentally in that level of function. So for fine movement, we found him at the zero to three level. Sara: Yeah, and that's the only one that we did. Scott: We just did that one, and-- but there are all of these, so it's a lot of information. So again, it will take you a while to do. [ Slide end: ] Sara: And if you were going to just do one, we would-- might recommend looking at the emotional development. Scott: Now, we had a couple of questions. Isabel wanted to know if there's a link of that video we showed of Lilli? [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: More information on Active Learning Content: • Lilliworks • Active Learning Space • Webinar series on how to fill out the Functional Scheme Description End: Sara: You can get it on LilliWorks. And it is... called... something like-- do you remember the name? How, why and where, active learning, something like that. There's a lot of question marks. And it's... two videos, paired together. Scott: Kathy wants to know where- where we can find the webinars for the... Active Learning webinars? Sara: If you go to Active Learning Space dot-- is it org or net? If you go to our website and look up Active Learning, you are sure to find an address, you are sure to find this information. Something that will guide you to Active Learning Space, which I think that you have on your... handout is the Active Learning Space, there's a link to that. Scott: There is. Sara: And... so, if you can go to that, you'll- you'll find-- and search through it, you'll find Active Learning webinars from 20-- fiscal year... 2015‑2016, and the whole thing is on the Functional Scheme. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Next Meeting Content: • January 23rd, 2017 • 3:00-4:00 • Thanks for joining us! Description End: Scott: Thanks everybody for joining us. And we hope to see you next time. I think we're doing another one of these in-- Sara: January. Scott: January, okay. Sara: And... we're also going to be looking at assessments, and maybe not-- we're going to be looking at assessments that go more into a particular area, in detail, maybe communications... and- and instead of a global overall one. [ Slide end: ] [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired Content: Learning Media and Assistive Technology Assessments for Students with Multiple Impairments Facilitated by Scott Baltisberger, Education Consultant baltisbergers@tsbvi.edu Sara Kitchen, Education Consultant kitchens@tsbvi.edu right-side graphic: TSBVI logo Description End: Scott: Thanks, Kathy for attending, thanks everybody else for attending. Enjoyed spending time with you guys. [Silence] Fade up from black. Animation: Text for TSBVI transform into braille cells for TSBVI. Fade to black.