Overview - Dynamic Learning Circle
Transcript

Patty Obrzut: In the first stage of the Dynamic Learning Circle, a child or a learner becomes aware and interested in something. Typically, they're going to become aware of one of three things.

The first thing they could be aware of is their own sensory or motor activities. It could be they're moving an arm, moving a leg, moving their head. The second thing that they could become aware of is an object in the environment. And the last thing that they could become aware of would be a person or people in the environment. I'd like to give you an example of how a child goes through the dynamic learning circle in Stage 1.

So, for this example, I'd like you to pretend that I'm a child with multiple special needs. I'm going to be someone who is visually impaired as well as a child with cerebral palsy. So, let's say that I have hands that have high muscle tone or spastic cerebral palsy. And I keep my thumb to the palm of my hand, and I keep my fingers over my thumb. And let's say that my arms tend to naturally kind of fall into position to the sides of my body. I'd like to introduce this child to this item, which is a whisk. 

Most people would take the whisk and set it down in front of the child. Let's say I'm in my wheelchair. They might put the whisk down on the table or on the wheelchair tray in front of the child. So, I'm sitting in my chair. I can't see. And my hands are fisted like this. And I would have to ask you, 'Is this child aware of the object that's in front of me?' And I would say the answer is no. If I'm visually impaired and I have cerebral palsy and someone sets a whisk down in front of me, I'm not aware that it exists at all, because I'm not touching the object. I'm not doing anything to the object. I might not even know it's there.

So, let's say now that the person wants to try to make you aware of the object. So, sometimes people might take the object and slam it on the table. So, now am I aware of the object? Well, a child with multiple special needs, especially if they're visually impaired, might hear sounds going around them all the time. So, do they really understand that there was a sound that they can interact with? Or do they just hear that sound as something else in the environment that they should ignore?

So, in Stage 1 of the dynamic learning circle, I have to get that child to be aware of their own activity, their own sensory activities, or objects, or people in the environment. A lot of people will then say, 'OK, I want this child to touch this whisk. I'll take their hands that are up here and I will grab their hand and bring it down to the object.' And I have to tell you, that's the absolute wrong thing to do when you're trying to practice Active Learning techniques. You never take the child and bring the child to the object. You have to do the exact opposite. You need to take the object and bring the object to the child.

So, how do you do that with someone who is in a wheelchair, whose hands are sitting up like this, when they can't touch the table. And the answer is a simple one. You have to pick up the object and bring it to the child's hand. Okay? So, you're going to have an object that you want the child to be introduced to. And someone is going to have to hold that object close to that child, so that it's barely touching their hand, like this. Now a child could be aware of the object, because their hand is actually touching the object. So, let's say, instead of me holding it up like this, I'm just going to hold it in front of me, so that you guys can see it. So, now that the object is in front of a child, like this. They might become aware of their own motor activity, or their own sensory input. Let's say that child doesn't like that toy. Maybe they move their hand away from the object. What's kind of interesting about children, is they tend to have a natural position that they go back to.

So, typically, if you just leave the object where you had it, that child will move their hand back to that object, and they might touch it again. Maybe they move their hand away from it. But eventually that hand might come back, and touch the object again. It's very important in Active Learning that you don't chase the child around with the object. So, if a child moves their hand over here, you don't move the object over here. You leave it where you started, so that that child can decide to come back if they want to to figure out where that object was.

So, in Stage 1, let me just repeat that, the most important part is that a child becomes aware and interested in their own movement activity, an object in the environment, or people in the environment. That's all of Stage 1. If a child is not aware of the object, then they haven't even hit Stage 1 of the Dynamic Learning Circle, and you have to change the environment so that they can be aware of their environment.