Active Learning Study Group #4 This video is posted online with the following chapter markers: Chapter 1. Introduction - Chapter 2. Active Learning Materials - Chapter 3. SPG Boards - Chapter 4. The Cummerbund - Chapter 5. Bead and Chain Holders - Chapter 6. Bead and Object Kits - Chapter 7. Harp - Chapter 8. Sensitar - Chapter 9. Object Grid - Chapter 10. Tipping Board - Chapter 11. Wall Mounted Object Board - Chapter 12. Little Room - Chapter 13. Support Bench - Chapter 14. Resonance Board - Chapter 15. Essef Board - Chapter 16. HOPSA Dress - Chapter 17. Final Review - Active Learning Study Group #4 Transcript [ Start slide: ] [ Background music ] Narrator: Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Outreach Programs present Active Learning Study Group December 2nd, 2014, presented by Kate Hurst, Statewide Staff Development Coordinator and Matt Schultz, Deafblind Education Consultant, for the Outreach programs. [ End slide: ] Chapter 1. Introduction Kate: Welcome again to all of the fearless, you know, folks who are able to continue on with us on our Active Learning Study Group. I know for me personally and for Matt, I can speak for him as well, as we move through the Christmas holidays it just gets faster and faster. And I really appreciate you guys making time to participate in this study group, because I know it does add to your already full plate. So we will start in on chapter five and I was talking to Matt, we decided that this was sort of the perfect chapter for a very busy short month of December because it really addressed primarily toys and materials that Lilli uses in Active Learning [ Start slide: ] and so what we decided to do today is we are going to spend a little bit of time on toys and materials but then I would like us to step back to some of the information we discussed in chapter 4 last time. It was a lot of very dense material. I have got in your handout on the last pages, there is a document that I sent you in draft form. I want us to take a look at that and talk about that a little bit. And hopefully you got the e‑mail that I sent earlier today and maybe a little more willing or feel a little more prepared to share a little bit about one of your students or some of the equipment that you are creating or whatever. [ End slide: ] So just wanted to mention that right up front because though Matt and I love to talk, and we are both very good about chatting away, this really is better if you guys will also share because we are not the experts. I mean, you probably have like 20 times more handout experience working with children in Active Learning environments than we do because we are here at TSBVI in consulting roles so we don't have a classroom of kids to get our hands on. Matt: And we all learn best through conversation and exchanging and sharing ideas. So that is really the goal. Kate: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So think of this as like your, you know, a book club where we want you to share your experience, your thoughts about this, you know. You may read some of this and go, I just don't buy it or I tried that and it didn't work. Here is a time to talk about it and share. [ Start slide: ] Chapter 2. Active Learning Materials Okay. So I need to say starting right off the bat that all of the materials that Lilli, that are mentioned in this chapter can be purchased for the most part at LilliWorks.com and if you are new to Active Learning and you have not visited LilliWorks, I strongly encourage you to go there. Because you can find out about the items that are available for sale, you can get her order ‑‑ order books there. But there is also just a world of information on LilliWorks.com about Active Learning. And so it is important to know that resource and be able to go in and get what you need from there. Also I wanted to make a point to mention LilliWorks is very generous in letting me use some of their images of materials and equipment that I got from their catalog in our PowerPoint today and I do appreciate that. [ End slide: ] Chapter 3. SPG Boards [ Start slide: ] So let's start looking at the equipment that Lilli talks about. One of the things that she mentions right off the bat are what are now referred to as SPG boards, and SPG stands for stretch position and grasp boards, I believe. No, it is scratch positioning grasp boards. I think that is right. All of a sudden, I am questioning myself. And you can purchase these really beautiful ones that are manufactured and available through LilliWorks and they come with the base board and then you have these little tiles of light blue or green or different colors that you can then put your own symbols on. They do not come with the textures already in place. So it is really just the back board for you to create your own scratch board. [ End slide: ] Now, what I like about the manufactured board and sort of makes me willing to spend the money that it takes to use those, is that you can buy extra tiles and create a whole series of tiles that you can then switch around for various kids, can use it for a multitude of kids or add new things easily for a single kid. Matt: It might be a little more durable than the home‑made variety. I am a huge fan of home‑made stuff. But that is a benefit, you are making an investment, it will last a little longer. Kate: There are some pluses to it. There really are. However, having said that, I have absolutely no problem, especially at this level to promote the use of home‑made scratch boards and position boards because they really work and, you know, if the kid is getting in there and using it a lot, you want them to use it up and go onto something new. Or you want to add something new. And so we made a lot of these. Matt: And Kate, I have teachers and students work together to make some of these boards and it is an interesting opportunity that allows a student to explore the object and gives the teacher some insight on ones that they maybe have a particular preference for. Kate: Absolutely. I think that is a great, great way to go, you know, is if you have got a student and you can sit down with them, it is a wonderful interaction to do our phase one of just offering a variety of textures to the child and seeing which ones they respond to, then you can take samples of that material or a whole piece of material and put on it a scratch board and use it with your student and it is ‑‑ a collaborative process. Matt: Something valuable about the student being present for that creation step. It changes what happens after that as opposed to just having the materials show up one day and be there. Kate: Exactly. Exactly. Matt: The student has an immediate familiarity when they created it that makes a difference. Kate: And it is kind of like an experience book which in a way is part of what a story is about is this sharing of an experience and if they have held pick it and on the this board and you can go through and they make a motion on it and you imitate that motion with them, then you are reading the book together and that is literacy and I know that for our kids, we struggle with, how do we work on all those TEKS type of goals, how do we focus on the Core Curriculum things, and Expanded Core Curriculum and that is one of them. We got a comment here from Hillary. She says "I am new to this. Would it work to themed boards to support different subject areas to assist with access to the general curriculum?" Well I think for sure it could work. I have seen a couple of teachers do this and I think it is really great. The one thing you have to be mindful of, especially at the early levels, is what are the child preferences. Say you are doing something on, for example, Christmas is coming up. We are talking about Christmas trees and presents and snow and ribbons. To put those sort of things on the board would be great. Now, if the child has particular problems with those types of materials, I don't know that you wouldn't want to keep them from experiencing it, but you have to sort of keep in mind what you are wanting. If you want to get some of that hand movement going, you may not want to put that particular object on the board, or make it a small piece on the board so they don't have to spend the whole time doing it if they are not interested. What do you think, Matt? Matt: I think that was well said. I think theme boards to support instruction on all ‑‑ across all levels are wonderful. Materials to use. But in this context, you know, these boards are focused to help support the student learn movement. And concepts attached to those movements. So I think that's an important thing to remember. Kate: One thing I will say that when you put materials that maybe the kiddo isn't immediately drawn to and would I say in limited number. Sometimes what the issue is that child has experienced that material in a way where somebody was holding his hands or making him touch or whatever. But, if that child could have that material there, and choose to touch it or not touch it when and as long as he or she might want to, sometimes it is a good thing because they really kind of learn new things and new textures and find an interest in things that they wouldn't have before. So I think that is a great question. It is good to work on things and expose kids to concepts that, you know, like in science, I mean, I could think of a million ways depending on what you are working with in science which you could include things, thematic stuff from a science class or a unit that you are working on. I am curious if any of the others of you out there who have done a lot more working on Active Learning, I am checking to see who is here. If you have done any of these things of using materials around a unit and some of your Active Learning environments, you can press star six if you want to speak and not type. This is Renee. Kate: Hi, Renee. I have not done a scene board, but I thought it would be fun to do that, but when crunch time comes, it always takes a lot of time to put it together for a thing that I use a lot of the textures go along with, like right now we are doing through the unique learning system, we are doing December holidays. So we just started Hanukkah today and I am bringing in a lot of textures and things that they talk about, in the stories, but I had not thought about doing a themed board for that but that would be fun. Kate: Well, I could see it that you could do it as a little activity as you go through and explore or talk about the holidays. For example if you are thinking of Hanukkah, there are draddles, that is a neat wooden object, that is something that would be cool to put on a position board for the child to tug on or if they have got more control to really explore, you know, boxes are a part of holidays because we are always opening boxes with things inside. So if the kid has moved on to a place where they have got some of those skills, having a box with lids that they can, you know, look at opening and that could you put interesting things inside that have different textures or smells could be a really fun activity. Matt: You can use the themes or holidays or things that inspire the themes as prompts for us to remember to bring in new objects and new textures knowing how important it is to maintaining the student's interest, and motivativation and that is the key for the further exploration that we are trying to facilitate with these objects. So for that reason alone, I think thinking about objects in the category of themes and holidays would be something that is helpful. Kate: Yeah, absolutely. So when we are talking about the SPG boards, there are three levels and the first is the scratch level. We are trying to get them to get their fingers moving and get going that way. Then the next level is the grab and release board [ Start slide: ] and what makes it different from the grab and explore board, which is the third level, the elastics are shorter on the grab and release board. Because what you are working on there is just for the kid to be able to grab ahold of an object and let go of it. But they need to go back to the exact same place and find it easily and readily. So you keep those cords a little shorter for that purpose. When you are trying to get them able to get both hands on it or a hand on it and bring it up to their mouth, they are trying to do that, then you go to the grab and explore board with a longer cord. For that purpose. [ End slide: ] When I initially started in learning about Active Learning and making position boards and SPG boards, I didn't know that was any difference between these or the reason why. That was a real ah‑ha moment for me when I got that and then helped me rethink, you know, how I was making some of my boards that I was making. Matt: To add to that, the grab and release, when the student grabs, and it is on that short string, there is that muscle tension that occurs when the slack is taken up and we know from previous chapters when they talk about fetal development and muscle tension that occurs, the infant is pushing on the uterus, that that tension, and that repeated tension is the kid building their muscles up which is what they need to do before they are going to, you know, pick up the object and bring it in line. Suddenly the design makes sense when you understand the concepts behind it. Kate: I think that is one of the biggest things with all Active Learning equipment. When I heard Lilli all the many times I heard Lilli through the years, she was really insistent that you use the official equipment for everything. She said because it had been researched and designed a specific way and I kind of bought it but you know, it is like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But honestly, when you get to reading her book and what it is you are trying to achieve with the child, the research behind the design is critical. It really is. And I wasn't aware of that. Do I think I do damage because of my strings were too short, I don't know that I did. But when you know why it is ‑‑ what you are trying to achieve in terms of movement with the child based on where the child is, knowing which length to make your cords. You get better results. It's just simple. Matt: That is my favorite thing about the book so far. It gives us as the reader that insight to the design. Because I keep thinking about when my first exposure to Active Learning classrooms and, yes, not having a real understanding of how important those little details were, in selecting the right materials and putting the right materials together and understanding why you want the longer string as opposed to the shorter string. Nice to get that information. Chapter 4. The Cummerbund Kate: Now, the cummerbund is something that Lilli talked about in her training and what I realized is that a lot of what we are reading in this book, she went onto design some other things since then that aren't necessarily mentioned in this book. So I threw this in. [ Start slide: ] This is simply a little cummerbund that you make and you put the fuzzy side of Velcro strips on the cummerbund itself and then put the sticky part of Velcro on the objects you want to attach to it. And these are really nice, especially for those kids whose hands are ‑‑ who have cerebral palsy or different things where they have got a lot of contractures with their hands. Very close to their body all the time and they have a hard time moving them out. [ End slide: ] That gets those objects up close to them and if they scratch on them, they can actually make them come loose after a time. They might not go rolling on the floor but roll on the cummerbund. They can perhaps take them off when they get bigger, and get more strength and more control. [ Start slide: ] On this one, you will see one of balls, one on the bottom left as you look at it has got holes in it and also the one in the top right. This is for working on kids who were that the place where they are learning to isolate fingers [ End slide: ] and stick them into holes. So it was designed for a specific reason is to work on that skill for that child. So just wanted to point that out. But these are easy to make on your own. You can also use the cummerbund and just clip other things on short strings if they don't want the Velcro very well and still allows the child to get at that material a little bit. [ Start slide: ] Chapter 5. Bead and Chain Holders This is something that you can get from LilliWorks. We bought one. They are pretty cool. They have a variety of different chains and weights of chains and this device clips onto things which is very nice. It is very sturdy, very heavy. I don't think you could wear this thing out very easily and I have never seen a kid who didn't like these. [ End slide: ] Chapter 6. Bead and Object Kits [ Start slide: ] This is one that was brand new to me that was on LilliWorks. It was not mentioned in the early learning step by step in this chapter. But I included this because it kind of struck me as funny. These kits you can buy them for a price but really all that they are, are a ball, and a nut can that they have just put different things on. [ End slide: ] So I thought, okay, this is something I probably am not going to spend the bucks for. I will probably save up all the nut cups from Christmas holiday and get some beads and stuff and make my own. Matt: Because everything but the nut can you can get at the dollar store. Kate: Or my junk drawer. Chapter 7. Harp [ Start slide: ] These are what are they call harps and these also can be made with cheese slicers or egg slicers. One of these, I think is a home‑made version that we made, and you can also buy them from LilliWorks. And she likes to use these to encourage children who are really passive or have some spasticity to start doing scratching movements and do more active exploration. [ End slide: ] And it is kind of when I first saw these, I didn't think that a kid will get into it too much. But you would be amazed how much kids do like this. They really, really do. Matt: That reminded me of seeing the ball and the holes because I have a friend that has a six month old and I was watching him play with the ball and you see his little fingers go to that hole and immediately the finger becomes isolated and starts exploring that space which I think was what happens when students explore the harp too. It is amazing that ‑‑ or makes me think about how Lilli talks about how we are programmed to be like this, little fingers find these interesting things to explore after kind of maybe being in isolation for a time and they find something to explore and it is like magic happens. Kate: It is. Matt: It is cool to see. Kate: Well, and you know when you said, that what also made me think of, how this is different from like a piece of fabric or something that would you scratch on. You get a real neat auditory quality about it. And it has got a neat vibratory quality on your fingers. Your fingers will be able to poke in between the strings which is also a beginning of that ability to isolate a finger, you know. So that is a pretty cool thing. Chapter 8. Sensitar [ Start slide: ] The Sensitar, this is‑this one is a home‑made one that we made. I think you can buy them on LilliWorks or buy directions to make one. And I have seen them two different ways. This one is done with just rubber bands hooked between the tea cup hooks but I have seen her use light weight springs that you stretch between these things. That works as well. Matt: What is the gold material? Kate: Well, she talks about the gold material as being attractive to kids who have some vision. [ End slide: ] Which I thought was interesting because she doesn't use it on other things and I haven't‑‑ I didn't see a great explanation for why it is on the Sensitar and not necessarily on anything else. Do any of you have any notion of why that is? We'll go on. Matt: Renee is typing. Kate: Renee doesn't either, and I know you have been using this stuff for a long, long time. [ Start slide: ] Chapter 9. Object Grid This is a brand new item I had never seen it before until I recently got onto LilliWorks. It is an grid and she suggests using to it hang light objects over a learner. But said not to use in it place of a little room. [ End slide: ] What I thought was interesting when we got our first little rooms and we were making the ones where you have ‑‑ have it low and have a long extension for the legs, we wanted to hang more things over the legs and so we made a similar device for the little room out of belting like for seat belts or, you know, the belts ‑‑ the nylon belts that you can get that are just the strap. We crisscrossed those and connected them with a rivet and then we put Velcro on the ends and you could wrap them around the bottom end of a little room and hang all sorts of objects off of them. So it made me think, you could do the same thing by taking part of a PVC frame and making that nylon grid and hang light weight stuff off of that. I will throw that out as a possibility and I couldn't find the one today to get a picture of the one that we made out of the belt but I will try to get that and put it out for y'all to see next time. [ Start slide: ] Chapter 10. Tipping Board Okay. The tipping board we have one of these. I have not used it a whole lot because I don't have the opportunity to really be with kids long enough to get them into, you know, to use it. But if a kiddo can be seated or sometimes even if they are perhaps on the support bench, the tipping board is really just a way to put ‑‑ to position a position board, the SPG board in a different way. That is all that is for. [ End slide: ] Chapter 11. Wall Mounted Object Board [ Start slide: ] This was a new object for me. I kind of think maybe I have seen her talk about this a little bit but I had never used it and what it is, it is just a unit that mounts on the wall and it has got arms that foldout and you can put different objects on it and if the child pulls on it too hard it will do a breakaway so something can happen to it, if they are pulling too, too hard she said each arm has a breakaway joint if the learner excerpts too much pull. [ End slide: ] So I am thinking you are using these with kids who are doing grasping, maybe grasping and let go or grasping and explore. But once they are really manipulating objects very, very well you probably wouldn't want to use these anymore. Chapter 12. Little Room [ Start slide: ] This is a picture of a little room and I included this one from LilliWorks because I wanted you to notice the way they have this positioned. Instead of having the room lying down flat and the child laying down underneath it, or sitting on it, they have literally put it on up ‑‑ I would think sort of up right in the position that you might normally have it in before you lay it on the child. And the open part is down here on the resonance board and they put things all over it and the child is just kneeling and playing in the little room and I have never used one that way before. [ End slide: ] But I thought, you know, for a kiddo that has learned to kneel and has got upper support, they are not crazy about going into a little room. That might be a way to utilize the little room and get more play time in it. Matt: Getting a whole other opportunity to work different muscles by exploring from the kneeling position. Kate: Exactly. [ Start slide: ] Chapter 13. Support Bench Okay. And then this is a support bench. I don't know how many of you have used this. If any of you are using this with a kiddo, I would love to connect with you to get in and get some video footage, because most of the kiddo that is are here at the School for the Blind are past the point where they are using support benches and I don't have any good video to share. If you are working with a kiddo that is using a support bench and you are open to us maybe getting some video of the student, let me know. Send me an e‑mail or just put your name in the chat over here and I will connect with you. She talks about this being for kids who have not achieved the ability to sit unsupported by the age of one or two years. [ End slide: ] And that was kind of a new piece of information for me because I don't guess I have thought about, you know, I wouldn't want to start it with a baby who chronologically is not quite at two years old. So that was just a good point for me to think about. What these are so good for is, one, it works on head control. [ Start slide: ] And this little kiddo has the head support on this particular support bench but Lilli really encouraged folks not to use that head support anymore than they had to. [ End slide: ] She says that just being on that support bench, even if their head is all drooped over and the video she had to show, they really did work on getting that head up. So limited use, I guess, of the head support, I don't know. But it is great for getting kids into prone which most of our visually impaired kids don't go to prone well and don't like prone. So they need opportunities to do that. And the way it is set up and you adjust the height of this, you want it so they are not necessarily bearing a lot of weight on their ‑‑ now, this one looks like his knees are touching, but you might not want the knees to touch. You don't want them exactly bearing weight on it but you do want their legs and their arms to be able to move. And one of the things that this came to me as I was going to, I will show you when we get to the next part is when you are doing this, what you are working towards is crawling, which that crawling and that coordination of arm and leg movements together is important as you move towards walking. So ‑‑ Matt: Kate, Renee mentioned she has three students using the support bench and after they gets permission, she will share them. Kate: Thank you, Renee. They come with a set of wheels and when the student has good control of arm and leg movements and they are really attempting to crawl you can put the wheels on them and let them go. Now, again, I have never seen that ‑‑ Matt: I want to see that, yeah. Kate: But she did say if you are concerned about the child falling off or whatever, that you can use a belt to sort of belt them to that support bench frame where their body lays off so they won't slip off or fall. We get a lot of questions from people about kiddos who are tube fed. What do we do about that? Lilli says just put them on it. It is not going to bother the tube. If you are concerned, you can get some really hard styrofoam and cut out a space to just kind of a little doughnut hole for where the tube feeding attachment needs to go and that won't put any pressure on it. Okay. Moving right along. The resonance board ‑‑ Renee: The other thing I was going to say on the support bench is if you get some of that, you know, nonskid shelf liner, that helps too because sometimes they are wearing slick clothes like the parachute stuff, and I am always afraid they will slide off. So I always lay a width of that nonskid shelf liner. I have not had anybody roll off yet. Kate: That is great. Renee: And most of my kids have feed tubes and it is not an issue to them. If they have the long G tube that comes out, I tuck it in their pants. And those with the Mickey buttons, the they just fit right up to their stomachs. It doesn't seem to bother them at all. Kate: Do you feel like you get a good result? Renee: This year I have. I have all of a sudden that have kids that were ready for it. Started over using that and right now most of them are kind of at the‑they are still making random movements but they are aware that there are things down there for them to touch or push with their feet and so they are exploring and I'm kind of watching but it is kind of fun and neat watching what they do. Kate: That is what is cool about Active Learning. You are doing something right. The Resonance Board, I just want to reiterate that this is on our website, on the Active Learning page, you can actually download the plans for how to build this. And we have made tons of these. There is the Lilli Association, where if parents are wanting one for their home, a lot of times we can get them for school but not necessarily for home. They can request one from the LilliWorks Foundation and that is on the Active Learning page if you want the learn more about that. Matt: I've worked with a few districts in the past that have been reluctant to purchase some of the equipment but when you have the plans, you can share them with the shop guys and a lot of times they are more than willing to have that be a project, there is also a connection that occurs, when people learn about a student's program that looks different and those can be wonderful connections. Kate: I know we have had Lion's Clubs make them for schools and families and we have had Boy Scout troops make them and there was somebody, I think DARS sponsored a workshop and brought dads and grand dads together and spent the weekend or a day, a morning or something building Active Learning toys and resonance boards. The only hitch I will say on the resonance board is you have to be careful with your builders because sometimes they want to overbuild them. They want to go Tim the tool maker. And like these have a specific design. You want to follow the directions on this one. You really do. Matt: There are some eagle scouts that I know that have adopted this project. So sometimes just sharing this information and I think the information in her book gives us good direction in that regard to the right people, you know. Not everyone can go home and pop out a resonance board. [ Start slide: ] Chapter 14. Resonance Board Kate: I will say this, if you can't get any other piece of equipment, just getting a resonance board and some objects is a darn good place to start with a kiddo, and you can do your interactive stuff on it. You can have a kid on it doing independent exploration. Everything gets more "oomph", when it goes a resonance board. [ End slide: ] Chapter 15. Essef Board [ Start slide: ] This is an Essef board and I have never seen one. These are cool to get kids kicking and putting pressure and they work really well if you can put the Essef board against the wall and get the kid in a net swing. [ End slide: ] Where they can just swing up and press against the Essef board and they love doing that. But sometimes it is hard to hook the Essef board to the wall. So this is the perfect thing, you know. And I know one school I went to, their adapted PE coach had set up an area in their gym where he had some Essef boards up against the wall on the permanently placed, in net swings there, I think he also like a HOPSA dress not on a track but like on a lift, what do you call the lift? Oh, I can't think of them. But you know, where you can put a single kiddo in the sling and raise them up and move them like in a wheelchair. Well, voyeur lift, any way, he used that and locked the wheels and it won't move. They put an Essef board underneath it that wouldn't slide around and the kiddo would just go up in the HOPSA and bounce and play on the Essef board with that. [ Start slide: ] And then this is the Essef board down here on the bottom for those that aren't familiar with it. And they come with either ‑‑ you can use four springs or six springs, and the six springs are much more stable than the four springs. The four springs are just scary. And in this one, this was HOPSA on a track and Essef board was just one possible thing he could explore with his feet. [ End slide: ] But it was terrific to watch him work on his balance because when he actually got up and stood up, most ‑‑ well, the HOPSA dress was not supporting his weight. It was his feet. With him, I want to you look at both of his feet because he had one foot and I believe it was his right foot that he could not, he did not typically straighten out. He would be on his toes the entire time. But in this HOPSA dress, playing on the Essef board and some other things he would go to a position of his own accord and stand there for a long time with it flat against that Essef board and I never saw him do that anywhere else. He also had paralysis on his right arm and when he would get the HOPSA dress he would do more with that arm. But it is really ‑‑ it was really amazing to me to see that foot come down so well. Now I know they did a lot of physical therapy and were working on it but I didn't see him do it of his open volition. I was when the therapist positioned it, they could achieve it. But only in this did I see him go to that position. Chapter 16. HOPSA Dress [ Start slide: ] And those that haven't used the HOPSA dress, I find them amazing and it is great to have a kid in them. Not every kid necessarily likes them. Especially the first time out of the shoot are a little frightened by them because they are not used to being in an up right position where they can move on their own. [ End slide: ] But once they get used to them, it is like watching a kid in a tree house. They are just having fun, moving, touching, and practicing balance and position for all you O&Ms and you get them on a track and different objects under foot, you are really can help the kid and you can see them working on orienting themselves as to where they are in space by what is underneath their feet and moving themselves purposely to positions based on what they find under their feet. I think it is a great, great tool. They don't come cheap. They are very expensive. I know ways people have gotten these at schools, they have talked to Lion's Club who has done fundraisers to buy them and buy the traction for them. They have gotten Girl Scout troops and Boy Scout troops to take on it a fundraising project. But they are really worth getting if you can and especially if you have a number of children that can use it. It is worth the cost to get one. They really are. How about you guys, have you had any experience using those? Matt: For networking to purchase them? Brenda: I am sorry, I must have hit the wrong number. I have the HOPSA dress and I love it. I have all three different sizes for the sling to go with the kids as they grow. And I have been very successful with some kids more than others. You know how that is. Kate: Yeah. Brenda: I am use it to work on with the head control more so than the walking and the weight bearing but we are getting both at the same time. Kate: Things she talks about so much with the HOPSA dress is that you really aren't putting any substantial weight at all on the those feet when you get them up. In fact probably a lot less than more is the way to go. But you want them to be in that up right position she says it is good to increase blood flow and getting those legs more and it does help with that, I think. But having the ability to be in that and just propel themselves along by push of the foot or pulling themselves with their hands along things is neat and motivating for their exploration. When they are on the track, it doesn't take much to move you a long way down the track. You can get a lot of mobility with very little effort. I love this, Brenda says, Renee do you offer tours? That would be fun if we could all sort of take opportunity to go on each other's classrooms and see what we are doing and brainstorm together on stuff. That would be fun. Matt: Renee says perhaps she does, with her bosses' permission. Chapter 17. Final Review Kate: Cool. I don't know whether Brenda and Renee you have each other's e‑mail address but feel free to share it. Even some videos and I will post the videos. I meant to have them up but I haven't had time. I have got this wonderful video of Vincent that I will have posted on the Active Learning page soon hopefully, you know, maybe you can share that with your administrators to plead your case for funding. Okay. We have just got just a few minutes left and I wanted to sort of point this out to you guys. It occurred to me as we were going through the last chapter where Lilli was talking about specific types of growth and fine motor movement, primarily growth motor but fine motor gets in there a little bit too. That it would be neat for me, here is how I like to think about things. Okay. I am working on this and I don't want to have to go pull out my functional skills assessment to look at all the skills and sort of the progression of skills that go with it. So if I am working on midline organization of hands then, you know, it would be neat I could have all those skills kind of in one spot and then I thought, well, it also would be good to think about what equipment do I use to achieve these skills, can I kind of go down and see if I have got it together. And then I thought, well, you know, then this piece if you go to the curriculum but that is a big mammoth thing and looking through all of that, and I don't mean this to replace it but I thought for a quick reference tool that something like this might be handy and I don't know whether it is. But I thought I would put it out to you guys and ask you if you could to kind of take sometime between now [ Start slide: ] and our January meeting to think about some of this, think about would ‑‑ is something like this of any use and if it is not, cool. I have no problem with it. I am not deeply attached to it. But maybe it is sort of okay but you have got a much better idea about how would it really be useful to you guys. [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] In which case, if you could suggest some of those things, maybe that something that we could work on. I think if I am trying to talk to a parent or a PT or an OT, you know, [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] if I could sit down with one thing and just say, you know, here is where our kiddo is. He is ‑‑ I am seeing this kiddo grasp a lot but there doesn't seem to be any awareness. Although that is good, what other things are we seeing? It is a way to have a discussion about skills that you are seeing. [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] And then talking about, well, here is what we want them to move towards and want to start seeing more of these behaviors and here are some of the things that we can use to do that and some ideas right on hand that might work towards that. [ End slide: ] [ Start slide: ] So, I know that we don't have a lot of time today to really work on this. But if I could ask you guys to take a look at this and just give me feedback, if we ‑‑ if there are ways we can go forward with it, maybe add other activities or things that we have come up with our own. [ End slide: ] If we think this would be useful then I can put some more time in it and we can maybe flesh this out a little bit. And just to let you know, these examples of observed behavior, I actually took the skills from the functional scheme assessment in gross motor and in fine motor up to the place where they are, for example, on this one they have ‑‑ demonstrating midline organization of hands. So this is not the entire gross motor but just the ones that take to it midline organization of hands and then the same thing on head control. I took it from zero months up towards the time when they achieve head control, which is it sort of tops out about nine or 12 months in the functional scheme assessment. And then also on the learning to sit unsupported and learning to stand and walk independently, it was really hard to sort out motor skills that you are seeing because that is very intertwined. A lot of it has to do with trunk strength and core strength. And these are a little bit mixed together. I tried to start out first with things related to sitting unsupported and going to stand and walking. And as you will see, it is a progression. But those ‑‑ that is one of has to are mixed together. They are hard to pull apart. So any way, take a look that the and then maybe, you know, if you have some thoughts, you can e‑mail me in between these. I think you all have my e‑mail but I will put it again at the end. If you don't, it is in the handout. Take a look at it. Tell me what you think about it. Tell me what if we want to go further with it, what might we want to include and we can carve out sometime or I can carve out sometime to work on it. Happy holidays everybody! Matt: Yes, happy holidays. Kate: Get some rest. Matt: See you in the New Year. Kate: And save all that ribbon and stuff for your SPG boards. [ Laughter ]